People are going about in their lives, happy and peaceful, when someone, a stranger, runs into them deliberately and spills the beans about some secrets of their lives, or worse, secrets kept by their loved ones. More often than not, the stranger asks them for money and blackmails them till they give into her. A very lousy way of living, admittedly.
Inspired by her own life and childhood traumas, this psychological thriller will keep you up at night until you binge watch it till the end. However, not everything will make sense. So, we are going to share ten such things that will only make sense if you have read the book by Harlan Coben.
Why Did Corinne Fake Her Pregnancy?
It is revealed early and admitted too by Corinne herself that she indeed faked her pregnancy. Throughout this Netflix series, the audience, as well as Adam, kept guessing and double guessing as to why she did that.
During a case he took up with a female lawyer, he got a bit too close with her and was on the verge of starting an affair. Corinne got the hold of this somehow, but she never confronted him about it. While speaking to him once, she also told him how her friend Suzanne Hope loved being pregnant and that’s why she used to fake pregnancy with her friends. So, the reason could be either of the two, though that’s never revealed. The end did not wrap that up, either, and we would probably never get to know why this sorry business started.
What Was The Deal With The Llama Murder?
Sorry! The Alpaca Murder! In the first episode, we see an alpaca decapitated, lying on the road stained with blood. It seems to be of major importance, seeing that an injured boy is found within a quarter-mile distance. The detectives soon find out the rest of Louis’s family and the farm. The severed head is shown to be in the custody of three teenagers, one of which is the son of the main protagonist, Adam. This all amounts to nothing though at the end of the series when we find out that the head was lopped off by a teen, Mike, under a drug’s effect, with no correlation whatsoever to the story.
The Extra Subplot
So, the series starts with a cold open, a boy running to the woods apparently being chased by someone. A few hazy glimpses of teenagers drinking and dancing in what appears to be a rave party. Later, the boy is found by DS Johanna Griffin and his subordinate in a severely injured and critical condition. They tell the kids that, if the boy dies, it will soon turn into a murder investigation. However, at the end of the series, neither the boy dies, and the subplot had anything to do with the main storyline, rendering this subplot completely pointless. This was because it didn’t exist in the book and was most likely introduced as a filler.
Where Was The Stranger Getting The Information From?
The series does not give much information as to how the stranger girls manage to get the dirt on these people. The book, however, explained that in much detail. Actually, in the book by Harlan Coben, the stranger is a man and has four accomplices. The man has previously worked with a company that sells fake pregnancy kits, bellies, and pictures. His partners have all been working with companies that deal with personal intimate data. That’s how they find their targets and information.
Why Didn’t Killane Remove The Body?
So, Martin Killane, apparently an ally of Adam, did not want to move from that abandoned building because he had his wife’s body hidden behind the walls. Yet, it was mentioned repeatedly that the case had been going on for quite some time now, with Adam’s dad on one side, and an adamant Killane on the other. Since the latter had been a cop for thirty years, logically he should have removed the body and hidden it somewhere else, way earlier.
Or, he could have just struck a deal with Adam’s dad for taking care of the body in lieu of dropping the case, seeing how desperate Ed was. In the books, Adam’s client is Mike Rinskey and has a completely different story with no great impact on the main plot.
Why Did Katz Kill Heidi?
Shortly after Heidi returns after a visit with Kimberly, she goes to her café first to handle the accounts and probably figure the 10,000 pounds for the ransom. A shady man visits her in the thick of the night to investigate, later revealed to be a policeman, Katz. But, during the interrogation, he kills her when he could have just shown his ID and finished the conversation.
The man is a detective Kuntz in the book, and he didn’t want everyone at the police department to know he was doing extra jobs and investigating some matters under the table. Also, he couldn’t afford his client’s identity to be outted, as he was the man taking care of his son’s insane hospital bills.
How Was Powers Involved?
Powers was a frequent client on Find your sugar baby dot com. He was romantically involved with Heidi’s daughter Kimberly and regularly used to meet her in a café or other places exclusively. He has a wife too who is heavily pregnant and has a happy relationship with her.
The stranger gets hold of this and starts blackmailing him. She also starts blackmailing Heidi which is unknown to Powers. She does so because probably Powers was not willing to pay her the ransom.
Why Did Powers Hire Katz?
Powers has not featured much throughout the eight-episode show. His background story is never explored much, and it is not explained fully how Powers was involved or why he had hired Katz. Actually, Powers was being blackmailed, too, by the stranger and her accomplice. He did not want to deal with them. So, he hired Katz as a private detective to investigate the matter and clean his mess by murdering the stranger and her friend. Why did he ask Katz to kill Heidi? The answer is he didn’t. Katz killed Heidi on his own just because he panicked.
Why Is Katz’s Wife Poisoning Their Daughter?
Katz’s wife does not have a strong presence in the novel, and she certainly is not slow poisoning their daughter—or son, for that matter. Katz has three sons, instead, and one of them has bone cancer, which is why he is taking tons of side jobs. This seems a lot sensible and logical than the series where the illness of his daughter Olivia is brought upon by her mother herself. The whole ordeal could be avoided entirely.
The subplot of the poisoning has also not been delved deeper into, and there is no explanation as to why she did so or what happened after Katz is arrested.
The Messy End
In the books, Price confessed to killing Tripp and turned himself in to the police. The fact that Tripp had stolen from the Football club in a collaboration with Bob and that he had killed Corinne when she confronted him is also let out. In the show, however, Johanna makes it look like Katz killed Corinne and Tripp, too, along with Heidi. Bob is never accused, and the secret about who stole the money never sees the light of the day.
