Okay, Quibi. I stand corrected. You did not totally disappoint me because I was fooled into thinking The Stranger was all but over after seven measly episodes, when in fact there were another six that aired! That’s right. Thirteen total episodes to tell the story. Where did we leave off?
Ah, yes. Claire and JJ have just jumped off a train in order to escape the sociopathic Orbit customer, Carl, who’s been tracking and chasing them all evening with incredible success. Sure, they keep escaping, but narrowly, and slightly more defeated each time. Carl is crafty, and I sort of admire him for that.
Claire and JJ get a little reprieve in the subway tunnels, which somehow lead them to a club? Not entirely sure how that worked out, and how her dog, Pebbles, didn’t totally freak out in there. They just barely escape Carl again, and JJ leads them to a somewhat seedy hotel to clean up and re-group. All’s dandy for about an hour until the criminal defense lawyer coughs up that Claire’s made stalking claims before and drops them. JJ drops Claire, too. I don’t blame him for that.
Carl is ruthless though, and is still tormenting Claire via text and calls. She just wants to understand why he’s doing this to her. Carl ultimately blames her sad social media life is the reason he picks people to murder…alright. She finally gives herself up to the police, who have since concluded that she couldn’t have killed that cop. In an failed attempt to track Carl down, they ultimately end up accidentally killing JJ instead. Seriously, how is Carl this damn crafty?!
Convinced her life is over, she leaves Pebbles at a shelter and we see her standing on a bridge in what I assumed was going to be a suicide until Carl contacts her one last time. Turns out Pebbles is both to blame for Claire’s problems for the evening, and also the hero of her story. I won’t ruin the end for you, but it is satisfying.
Again, I think this could have been a movie rather than thirteen insanely short clips, but upon thinking back to each chapter, it would have made more of a Lifetime quality movie. So maybe the short clips were a blessing in disguise. Of the whole thing, Dane DeHaan was still my favorite character because of how he played his cunning and unhinged stalker. I imagine he had a blast filming this actually. Ultimately, Quibi didn’t let me down with this series, but I’ll report back with other shows I give a chance (and you’ve still got one more day to sign up for a 90 day free trial!).