‘Harlan Coben’s Shelter’ Episode 4 Recap: “Phantom Threads”

“Phantom Threads” (Harlan Coben’s Shelter Episode 4) spends most of its time diving into the mystery around the Butcher of Lodz, whom the Bat Lady pinpointed as the murderer responsible for both hers and Mickey’s dad’s deaths at the end of Episode 3. But it turns out the Bat Lady isn’t to be trusted; Mickey takes the photograph to Mrs. Friedman under the guise of trying to learn more for his history project, and she promptly shows him the face of a different man attached to that name in the history textbook. Mrs. Friedman knows more than she lets on though, recognizing that this is the work of the Bat Lady.

Knowing that the Bat Lady has been feeding Mickey the wrong information and is also behind the disappearance of Mr. V, Mrs. Friedman takes it upon herself to get her under police scrutiny. Ken shows up at the Hobart house, poking around about a dead body on the property. There is a fresh grave in the backyard that the Bat Lady claims is a deer, but Ken digs it up anyway. It is, of course, a deer because the Bat Lady isn’t an idiot about disposing of the bodies in her wake, and she’s certain that Mrs. Friedman is behind this unannounced visit from the police. 

The two former friends meet on an empty road, where the Bat Lady and Mrs. Friedman threaten each other. Mrs. Friedman pleads with the Bat Lady to stop feeding Mickey the wrong information and accuses her of killing Mr. V (and she also names the man in the photo as “Luther”), while the Bat Lady justifies her actions by saying that Mr. V trafficked kids (including Ashley) and she did the world a favor. She goes on to accuse Mrs. Friedman of not doing enough for Dylan Shakes and warning her not to “fuck with her.”

The two former friends meet on an empty road, where the Bat Lady and Mrs. Friedman threaten each other. Mrs. Friedman pleads with the Bat Lady to stop feeding Mickey the wrong information and accuses her of killing Mr. V (and she also names the man in the photo as “Luther”), while the Bat Lady justifies her actions by saying that Mr. V trafficked kids (including Ashley) and she did the world a favor. She goes on to accuse Mrs. Friedman of not doing enough for Dylan Shakes and warning her not to “fuck with her.”

Meanwhile, armed with the truth, Mickey and Ema look into the circumstances around Brad’s death and Ema soon discovers that the man in the photo doesn’t match the images of any of the paramedics working that night. Even more, the ambulance logo itself doesn’t match photos from that night. From memory, Mickey draws the logo he saw on the ambulance that night for Ema, who is able to reverse Google image search and track down the company. When she calls them, they confirm that not only did they not respond to the scene of that accident but an ambulance was stolen from them the prior day. 

GIF 37:50 – Spoon and Ema look at Dylan’s medical files

Separated from the gang, Spoon overhears a police dispatch about Mrs. Kent, whose car was recently found abandoned. The kids somehow pinpoint her husband’s medical office as a place for potential clues, breaking in after hours via Spoon’s janitorial connections. They’re looking for Ashley’s medical files but come across something more sinister: Dylan Shakes’s files, in which a history of domestic abuse by his father has been documented. The kids also notice that Dr. Kent saw Dylan on the day he disappeared, but no notes were entered into his file that day.

“Phantom Threads” is also setting up two lesbian romances: one between Ema and Whitney, the other a rekindled love between Shira and her former best friend and lover Hannah. After Ema accidentally auditions for the musical last week, she’s cast as the Phantom and Whitney is ecstatic because she’s in charge of makeup. Though Ema says she’s not going to do it, it’s clear that she will in order to spend more time with Whitney. 

Shira drags Mickey to the annual basketball pancake breakfast and Hannah forces her to make an impromptu speech about their time together on the Kasselton High basketball team, and the speech that she gives is very coded about their past. Being put on the spot forces Shira to remember the early days of hers and Hannah’s relationship, which began to blossom during their senior year Prom. 

GIF 12:18 – young Shira and Hannah almost kiss

But Hannah doesn’t seem to know what she wants—after making the moves on Shira in episode 3, she proclaims that she “got it out of her system, it was one and one,” breaking Shira’s heart in the process. Hannah asks her to get ice cream later as a fresh start for them, and when Shira reluctantly shows up it provides a space for them to talk about their past for the first time. Hannah thought Shira left town because of their relationship, but she actually left because her feelings for her best friend were too big. With all of the rehashing of the past, something tells me this won’t just be a one and done. 

Mickey, still looking for answers about Ashley, confronts the last source he has: Rachel. He forces Rachel to give the backstory behind the security footage they saw last week, and she reveals that her entanglement in this mystery was purely from her duties as cheer captain. When she saw that a group of girls on the squad were making fun of Ashley’s more risque dance moves, she chased after Ashley and witnessed her almost get abducted by two men (one of which looked eerily similar to Mr. V). After saving her, Rachel offered her shelter in her pool house because Ashley didn’t want to go to the police, stating that “they’re in on it.”

GIF 43:44 – OctoFace arrives

Mickey is elated when he realizes that Ashley is on the same property as him, but he’s quickly brought back down to earth when the security alarm goes off and both of their phones and the landline have lost service. On the security camera, Rachel and Mickey see someone hop the fence, headed toward the pool house. It’s OctoFace.

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.