‘Harlan Coben’s Shelter’ Episode 6 Recap: “Candy’s Room”

With only three episodes remaining, Harlan Coben’s Shelter is finally giving us some much-needed answers about the central mystery of disappearing children in the Kasselton community. The first answer in “Candy’s Room” (Season 1, episode 6) is about the fate of Dylan Shakes, the young kid who disappeared two decades ago and seems to be the inciting incident for a lot of the strange goings on around town. At the memorial constructed by Mrs. Friedman, Mickey realizes that the man with sunglasses that appears to work for Bat Lady is in fact Dylan (he lives!). His eye is permanently deformed after his father crushed a lit cigarette in it when he was a child, hence the sunglasses. 

It turns out, Bat Lady is actually an altruistic force who took him in after this last straw of his father’s abuse, though it’s unclear why he ran to her house instead of Mrs. Friedman, who seems like a reliable guardian as his former Little League coach. Mrs. Friedman and Dylan’s father had a tense relationship, and she even confronts him when he shows up to the memorial. He admits to being a bad father but also reveals that he wasn’t the one to take him to the doctor the night he disappeared. Dr. Kent’s involvement is still a wildcard in the grand scheme of the mysteries, and even his appearance at the memorial doesn’t tell us what exactly he knows.

The other wild card? The blonde “butcher” with the scar on his face who seems to be the key to the puzzle. He witnesses Dylan and Mrs. Friedman’s reunion at Bat Lady’s house from outside, and adult Dylan even defends Bat Lady’s photoshop job to Mickey by telling him that “we all have our own butchers” aka demons that we have to eradicate. He almost seems to be like a mirage for Mickey — a sinister image that haunts him at every corner. 

The revelation about Dylan, Bat Lady, and the butcher comes on the heels of Mickey voicing his doubts about his father’s death, including the fact that he doesn’t believe his body is in the grave. When he tells Shira, she’s not surprised: she’s also been feeling like something is off with her brother’s death — especially when she remembers the odd voicemail she received hours before his death — and she asks Hannah for help. To add fuel to the fire, adult Dylan tells Mickey that he’ll find “the truth” when he digs up his father’s grave.

Shira also comes clean to Mickey about why Brad went into Bat Lady’s house in the first place all those years ago: she was the bully that forced him to go in and he was never the same afterwards, and she clearly harbors a lot of guilt about that. Hannah agrees to help access the grave and also confesses that she loves Shira, essentially asking for a do-over on their relationship. Ken later tells Shira that Hannah asked him for a divorce — a surprise to Shira, who declines his request to get involved in patching up their marriage but isn’t exactly jumping at the opportunity to date her former best friend.

Mickey’s hero complex kicks into high gear again at the end of the episode following his revelation about Dylan’s fate. After adult Dylan basically claims that Ashley is Mickey’s project and it’s his duty to protect her, he goes back to the shady warehouse that he and Rachel tracked OctoFace to in the previous episode. It’s a strip club and he’s 14, so he immediately draws attention but is whisked away by a girl named Candy who tells him that they’re hiding Ashley in the “dungeon.” Candy seems to be genuinely upset about the fate of her friend and even says that she feels like her predicament is her fault, and warns Mickey about the danger of following Ashley’s tracks, but nonetheless gives Mickey directions to the dungeon. 

But before he’s able to rescue Ashley, he’s met by a team of baddies that capture him. There’s a slightly confusing sequence in which the lead woman of the group briefly earns his trust by acting like a double agent that knew his father and used to help save kids from being trafficked, but she quickly leads him into another trap and shows her true colors. Mickey is stuffed into the back of a van and driven to the shoreline, where he is to be executed. Somehow, he escapes their gunshots by diving into the water — but at some point he’ll have to come back up for air, and who knows what awaits him then.

But before he’s able to rescue Ashley, he’s met by a team of baddies that capture him. There’s a slightly confusing sequence in which the lead woman of the group briefly earns his trust by acting like a double agent that knew his father and used to help save kids from being trafficked, but she quickly leads him into another trap and shows her true colors. Mickey is stuffed into the back of a van and driven to the shoreline, where he is to be executed. Somehow, he escapes their gunshots by diving into the water — but at some point he’ll have to come back up for air, and who knows what awaits him then.

Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a TV-obsessed writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Paste Magazine, Teen Vogue, Vulture 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.