We're in the latter half of the season for Harlan Coben's Shelter, and the mystery is slowly coming together: we're starting to understand Ashley's disappearance, Mickey's dad's death and how this is all tied to Nazi concentration camps.
Episode 5, entitled "See Me Feel Me Touch Me Heal Me" (presumably a The Who reference), focuses on the secrets of one particular character: Ema (Abby Corrigan), who's been the dark horse of our trio of mystery-hunters so far.
Shelter is the newest crime thriller on Prime Video at the moment, and is the latest in a long line of shows adapted from the works of Harlan Coben; here's how to watch Harlan Coben's Shelter if you're not up to date with the show.
In this Harlan Coben's Shelter episode 5 recap, we're going to presume that you've seen the show though, because spoilers ensue. We've re-ordered events to put it in a less dramatic but easier-to-follow order.
So let's dive into what happened in the latest offering.
Mrs. Friedman has yet another link to crimes
We pick up immediately after the commotion at the end of episode 4 — Mickey Bolitar (Jaden Michael) chases the octopus-faced man and they get into a fistfight, which ends when Rachel (Sage Linder) shoots him. He runs off, but at some point while this is happening, Ashley runs away. Mickey is still no closer to finding the missing girl.
The next morning Ema and Arthur (Adrian Greensmith) visit him and they exchange details. They also notice that in the Little League picture of Mickey's dad and Dylan Shakes, the coach is now their English teacher, Mrs. Friedman.
Arthur quizzes the woman, who knew Dylan was being abused but wasn't the one who took him to the hospital just before he disappeared. The mystery gets deeper.
Much later in the episode, Mrs. Friedman is putting up posters for a memorial event for Dylan. She gets a flashback to 27 years ago, when his dad knows she contacted social services and is refusing to give her back. Following Friedman (in the present) is an elderly man, who is implied to be Dylan's dad. He has his own flashback, of a screaming Dylan.
Ema's big and little secrets
During preparation for the school musical, Ema is having her make-up done by former bully Whitney, and they're clearly feeling a romance blossom. Later at basketball tryouts Mickey and Troy Taylor (Brian Altemus) get into a fight, which also draws in Arthur. Ema steps in while taking off her jacket, and Arthur sees her butterfly tattoo.
When Arthur wants to discuss the fact that Doctor Kent finally awoke from his coma, Arthur is too preoccupied with the idea that Ema is lying to them, so they follow her home from school... Only to find that she lives in a giant mansion, not a drug dealing den as schools rumors said. Ema spots them following her.
It turns out that Ema's mother is a famous actress, who's also putting on the school musical, much to the shock of Arthur. Ema never told anyone because she didn't want to be judged for the famousness of her mother, and she also tells Arthur and Mickey about her being tattooed with a butterfly against her wishes. (We also find out that the species of butterfly is the same as the name of the charity that Mickey's parents worked for).
Pursuing the tattoo clue, Mickey and Arthur break into the tattoo shop Ema goes. In the files, there's one picture that has Mickey's dad in the background, sitting on a car and talking with the octopus-faced man! They get the number from the plate, and ask Rachel to ask Troy to use his dad's police computer to find where the vehicle is registered to.
At the same time, Ema texts Whitney and arranges to hang out with her. Ema tells her new "friend" the identity of her mother, and eventually, they kiss. However later, Whitney tells her brother the bully, betraying Ema's trust.
The fractured Taylor family
When Shira (Constance Zimmer) is asking Mickey about his actions on the night of the octopus-man fight, Hannah Taylor (Missi Pyle), Troy's mother and Shira's lover, texts her asking her to meet up. Later, Shira does so and goes to a restaurant that Hannah has decided to buy on a whim.
Hannah explains that she's sick of the life she lives, and cooks Shira an impressive meal. It's interrupted when they have to go to school because of the boys' fight, and Hannah sticks up for Shira in the meeting.
Later, Hannah cooks for her husband and Troy, but they're not complimentary of the dish, and her husband isn't happy that she didn't stick up for Troy in the meeting. Angry, Hannah tells her husband that she bought the restaurant before she storms off.
That's when Rachel visits Troy, to ask him to run the license plates. He agrees once Rachel tells him the truth of her mission, although we also hear his theory that his dad is sleeping with Shira, which is definitely not right!
While Ema and Arthur visit Doctor Kent to speak to him, only arriving in time to see him kidnapped, Rachel and Mickey stake out the house linked to the license plates. They follow the OctoFace man as he drives to a sketchy bar, where they also see the duo who grabbed Ashley. Rachel has a gun but Mickey implores her to keep it together.
