‘Harlan Coben’s Shelter’ Episode 2 Recap: “Catch Me If U Can”

For Mickey, the most prescient mystery in town isn’t the Hobart Avenue home or uncovering secrets from his father’s past—though those become more of a focus as they come to light—but rather the disappearance of his friend-for-a-few-hours Ashley who has vanished overnight. 

In “Catch Me If U Can” (Harlan Coben’s Shelter Episode 2) Mickey’s search for answers takes him, Spoon, and Ema back to the hospital where Dr. Kent is being treated for his injuries. Mrs. Kent is reluctant to speak to them initially but gives them one last bit of information in exchange for their promise to stay away: the man who attacked her husband had a tattoo of an octopus on his face (OctoFace, as Spoon names him). Later when Mickey is reminiscing about his burgeoning friendship with Ashley, a selfie of the two of them on his phone makes him sit up straight: Ashley’s face looks like she’s seen a ghost.

Luckily in the background of the photo they notice a classmate taking her own selfie for the new social platform uDOu (which Ema aptly describes as “like Instagram but dumber”). They go to her page—a girl who complimented Ema’s artwork in class earlier, which will definitely be a plot point down the line—and find the photo in question, and when they zoom in they see OctoFace staring back at them through the school doors. 

On a mission to find out who OctoFace is, Ema takes the gang to her local tattoo shop to try to find out who might have tattooed the guy. Her tattoo artist friend Agent claims to have never seen the guy before, but as soon as they leave the store he finds the photo in his lookbook and burns it. Shady! Even more shady is when he admits to Ema that he tattooed the butterfly on her with “longer-lasting ink” compared to the others she was able to scrub off, and that he chose that specific butterfly design because it represents the goddess of protecting children. The Abeona Tisiphone butterfly is the one we’ve seen in other instances, so Agent didn’t choose it by accident, and he hints that Ema is the protector rather than the one who needs protection.

Mickey’s teacher Mrs. Freedman also seems to know more than she lets on—abeona comes up again when she tries to break into Mr. V’s computer (the teacher assassinated at the end of the pilot) after his resignation from school. She’s unsuccessful with that password guess and as she’s rummaging around in his desk for other clues, she finds polaroids of an imprisoned Ashley tucked away in a secret compartment. Mrs. Freedman goes to Bat Lady’s home and yells, “is this where you buried him?” at the dark home as the Bat Lady watches from inside and closes the curtain on her.

Mickey gets a small respite from his search for Ashley when his mom is released from the facility that she’s staying in and they get to spend a day together. The night before, he tells Ema more about his family—his mom was a tennis prodigy who struggles with depression—but the conversation is cut short when they notice the uniformed man is following them. Mickey chases him and jumps on top of his car, forcing the man to speak. He tells him that Bat Lady shouldn’t have said that his dad is alive, and that if he tells anyone they talked, he’ll kill Ema. 

It’s not the last time we see the man in the uniform snooping around Mickey’s life; while the house is empty, he sneaks into their home and downloads unspecified files from Mickey’s computer. He’s almost caught when Spoon stopped by unannounced with a pie, but manages to hide in the closet and escape with whatever information he downloaded from the computer.

When Mickey’s mom is finally released, they make plans for a grasp at normalcy but Kitty also seems to want some alone time to “run errands”—an odd choice after not having seen her son for so long. Mickey grants her wish, but when he comes home for the dinner they planned to make together, she’s no where to be found. With the help of Shira and GPS tracking technology, they find her near Paterson Falls. Initially thinking she jumped, they eventually find Kitty crying on the ground. She admits that she’s not better and the family readmits her to the hospital with little to no visitation as she heals. 

While Mickey was preoccupied with his mom, Shira’s alone time took her back down memory lane. We get confirmation that she and Ken used to date, and also that Hannah, his wife, was her best friend. The extra layer of backstory helps understand the tension between the three—something that even Troy picked up on and confirmed for himself when he searches his dad’s browser history and see that Ken has been spending a lot of time on Shira’s Facebook page. Shira also starts doling out more information about Brad including the fact that Dylan Shakes, the boy who went missing, was his best friend and Little League teammate—a fact that disturbs Mickey moreso because his father never mentioned it rather than as a connection to the strange goings on in Kasselton.

Cheerleader Rachel is a wildcard in the series thus far—until now, she hasn’t been characterized as much more than being Troy’s girlfriend and Mickey’s new history project partner—but she has a pivotal moment at the end of the episode. Clearly connected to Ashley in some way, she goes to a lockbox where she finds a duffel bag filled with different IDs with Ashley’s face and a wad of cash. She seems incredulous at what she’s finding but doesn’t have much time to react—OctoFace arrives and menacingly tells her that the contents of the bag don’t belong to her. 

Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a TV-obsessed writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Vulture, Teen Vogue, Paste Magazine, and more. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.