‘Harlan Coben’s Shelter’ Episode 7 Recap: “Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This”

There’s only two episodes left of Harlan Coben’s Shelter, and the series is crashing towards its conclusion with some convoluted resolutions. “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This” (Season 1, Episode 7) gives us some, but not all, of the long-awaited answers—especially around Ashley’s disappearance, OctoFace’s role, and whether Brad was as altruistic as Mickey remembers him to be. 

The majority of the episode takes place at the strip club that Mickey infiltrated last episode. Following the attempted murder on his life, Mickey is found ashore in Pennsylvania by Spoon and Ema who tracked his phone location and he’s quickly admitted into the hospital. On a mission to finish what he started, Spoon and Ema team up with Rachel to sneak into the strip club themselves. 

Spoon is the first one in via the building’s air ducts, and it’s a miracle he isn’t immediately grabbed when he drops down from the ceiling into the middle of the club. Candy—the girl working at the club who helped Mickey last week—quickly takes him under his wing and susses out his connection to Mickey, giving directions to where Ashley is hidden. Just as he lets Rachel and Ema in through the side door, he’s finally captured by the big bad’s that we’ve never seen before: a man named Buddy and his henchmen. 

Spoon is the first one in via the building’s air ducts, and it’s a miracle he isn’t immediately grabbed when he drops down from the ceiling into the middle of the club. Candy—the girl working at the club who helped Mickey last week—quickly takes him under his wing and susses out his connection to Mickey, giving directions to where Ashley is hidden. Just as he lets Rachel and Ema in through the side door, he’s finally captured by the big bad’s that we’ve never seen before: a man named Buddy and his henchmen. 

Candy, who still feels guilty about her role in Ashley’s capture, tells the girls that the only way to save Ashley is to get the code from Buddy’s phone—and he’s hard to reach in the VIP section. But Ema charms the guards by announcing that her mom is Angelica Wyatt, finally using her long-held secret to her advantage, and Buddy, apparently a superfan, overhears this and lets them in. He later approaches Ema to tell her about how he used to have semi-nude photos of her mom on his wall growing up. As you can tell, he’s really chill. 

Seizing the moment, Rachel offers to take photos of him with Ema on his phone, faking different angles while she searches for the dungeon code in his apps. The girls disappear quickly once they have it but he catches up to them almost immediately and a fight breaks out. Both Rachel and Ema punch in portions of the code before suffering blows to their body but eventually the door is unlocked and Ashley comes to their rescue just as Buddy is choking Ema, and knocks him out cold. 

While all of this is happening, Spoon has been stuffed into the back of a van and taken out to the same shoreline as Mickey was with the same intention of killing him. But Candy sneaks into the back of the truck in an effort to try to help, and she and Spoon recognize each other from summers that they used to spend at Asbury Park. It’s not really clear what help she thought she could offer other than taking the bullet for Spoon, which is exactly what she does. She manages to kill the bad guy in the process, and his phone is suspiciously ringing in his pocket as his body lies cold. Who’s on the caller ID, you ask? None other than Mickey.

While all of this is happening, Spoon has been stuffed into the back of a van and taken out to the same shoreline as Mickey was with the same intention of killing him. But Candy sneaks into the back of the truck in an effort to try to help, and she and Spoon recognize each other from summers that they used to spend at Asbury Park. It’s not really clear what help she thought she could offer other than taking the bullet for Spoon, which is exactly what she does. She manages to kill the bad guy in the process, and his phone is suspiciously ringing in his pocket as his body lies cold. Who’s on the caller ID, you ask? None other than Mickey.

The two stories converge as Ema, Rachel, and Ashley have escaped the club and are almost out scot free, but are captured last minute by the same woman who two-timed Mickey last episode. She gets a lot of screen time for someone whose name we don’t even know, and forces an ultimatum on Rachel: either save Ema, who has a gun to her head, or save Ashley from getting into the car of another “client” and likely never seeing her again. It’s an impossible choice and one that she thankfully doesn’t have to make because Mickey and Spoon come to save the day. I didn’t exactly buy this whole sequence, as Ema makes a move on the villain at the exact right moment so that Mickey can drive the car straight into her, but it gets the job done and allows the gang—Ashley included—to escape. 

OctoFace also arrives and is quickly revealed as a trustworthy person by Ashley; his tattoos are also fake, courtesy of Agent, to help commit to the role of a “psycho killer.” He reluctantly breaks up the long-awaited reunion between Ashley and Mickey so that he can send her to a new life via witness protection. The two high schoolers who literally met for half a day of school say their teary goodbyes and lament about what could have been. Ah, young love. As Mickey watches Ashley drive away, OctoFace hands him a letter from Brad that he says is “all about Mickey.” Mickey waits to read it until he’s at home and is immediately incensed by what he sees and takes off running towards Bat Lady’s home. 

OctoFace also arrives and is quickly revealed as a trustworthy person by Ashley; his tattoos are also fake, courtesy of Agent, to help commit to the role of a “psycho killer.” He reluctantly breaks up the long-awaited reunion between Ashley and Mickey so that he can send her to a new life via witness protection. The two high schoolers who literally met for half a day of school say their teary goodbyes and lament about what could have been. Ah, young love. As Mickey watches Ashley drive away, OctoFace hands him a letter from Brad that he says is “all about Mickey.” Mickey waits to read it until he’s at home and is immediately incensed by what he sees and takes off running towards Bat Lady’s home. 

When he gets there, he accuses Bat Lady of killing his dad for the cause—Brad’s letter revealed that he and Kitty had wanted to leave Abeona. She claims that she didn’t have anything to do with their death, standing in a room that is decked out with pictures of all of the kids she and the Abeona organization has “saved,” including Dylan, Ashley, and the scarred face of the blonde Butcher. “Your legacy is the people you save,” she tells Mickey, effectively passing the torch or at least indoctrinating him into the organization that his parents were trying to leave. 

Mickey doesn’t get all of his answers, though, because the butcher arrives and wordlessly kills Bat Lady, and then traps Mickey in the room while he lights the surrounding rooms on fire. Smoke begins to fill the attic room and the doorknob is too hot to touch. The pictures begin to burn and as they curl, we have an alarming realization: Spoon was also one of the trafficked children.

Mickey doesn’t get all of his answers, though, because the butcher arrives and wordlessly kills Bat Lady, and then traps Mickey in the room while he lights the surrounding rooms on fire. Smoke begins to fill the attic room and the doorknob is too hot to touch. The pictures begin to burn and as they curl, we have an alarming realization: Spoon was also one of the trafficked children.

In the somewhat irrelevant storylines outside of this human trafficking plot, Shira grapples with her affair with Hannah by Googling “am I a homewrecker?” while still continuing to see her in a romantic capacity. Troy begins to piece together what is driving his family apart; after telling Shira to stay away from his father, he goes to her house and witnesses Shira and his mom having a tender moment. 

Next week is the season finale — no word yet about a second season — and I hope the finale will add more color around the villains who are trafficking children as well as the kids who have been through the system. There’s also the Holocaust thread that didn’t exactly feel necessary amidst the larger story, but did give us closure on the grave in Bat Lady’s yard (it represents the death of her childhood, with her internment camp ID etched into the stone). 

Next week is the season finale (no word yet about a second season) and I hope the finale will add more color around the villains who are trafficking children as well as the kids who have been through the system. There’s also the Holocaust thread that didn’t exactly feel necessary amidst the larger story, but did give us closure on the grave in Bat Lady’s yard (it represents the death of her childhood, with her internment camp ID etched into the stone). 

With one of the final images in “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This” being Spoon’s face among the many taped to the burning wall in Bat Lady’s home indicating he’s been a victim as well, maybe we’ll get more answers before the season ends. But until then, we’ll wait to see how Mickey gets himself out of yet another life-or-death situation. 

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.