Harlan Coben’s Shelter Season 1 Episode 8 Review: Found

What a way to leave us hanging!

The series understood the art of a cliffhanger with Harlan Coben’s Shelter Season 1 Episode 8, and now we’re left reeling over the confirmation that Brad Bolitar is alive.

But what does that mean for the future? And we’re not just talking about the future for all these respective characters and the storytelling, but the future of the series in general.

We got those suspenseful moments of Mickey, with the support of his friends, coming face to face with his father, who isn’t dead after all, just as Shira stared down an empty coffin.

We fade to black before we can have the satisfying moments of Mickey running to his father for a hug or them having anything that resembles a real conversation.

And with Bat Lady in the wind, Luther, and whomever he’s working alongside serving as a looming threat, and the uncertainty surrounding Abeona and everything it represents, we’re left with far more questions in this finale than we are answers.

And yet, the finale still managed to be quite satisfying, given how little we know about everything the season was building toward.

Spending a large chunk of the finale devoted to a high school basketball game was a bold choice.

We spent an incomprehensible amount of time watching damn near a full game before our eyes while drama in all forms permeated through.

We also got a complete homage to Gwen Stefani’s Hollaback Girl.

I wanted to hate that, not because this girl can’t appreciate a good sports game within a work of fiction or can’t appreciate an earworm from my youth, but because this is Harlan Coben’s Shelter, and we had so many things to figure out and delve into and not enough time to cover it all.

Yet, the basketball game worked, and it was fun. It grounded the characters back to their real lives when they weren’t going off on covert quests to save children and teens, solve mysteries, and otherwise endanger their lives.

It was a reminder that, at the end of the day, these are still high school teens with lives tied to their experiences, dealing with personal and familial issues, social drama, and much more.

And the series was aware of all of that, thanks to the expert use of Spoon, throwing in one-liners during his commentary that acknowledged how utterly ridiculous it all was, not to mention had me howling in laughter. Oh, Spoon Spindell, my beloved, I will miss you!

It’s the self-awareness that works. And they used this game to bring so much drama building among characters to a climax.

Spoon dragging the hell out of his own team while having full-blown existential crises and trauma dumping through dark humor via his commentary was easily the highlight of the hour and so amusing it was hard not to chuckle throughout the entirety of the game.

He made the scenes worthwhile and worth watching, and of the many things worth commending throughout the series, I cannot applaud Adrian Greensmith enough for his exceptional work as Spoon Spindell.

He captures every single nuance of the character so well; he brings the complexities and depth of this character to life so well that you get lost in his performance.

After the events of Harlan Coben’s Shelter Season 1 Episode 7, there was so much to unpack with Spoon processing the loss of Candy.

Spoon: Why did we save Ashley but not Candy?
Rachel: I’m sorry.
Spoon: No, no, it’s okay, I’m just asking.

He watched a girl his age, who had undergone so much trauma and pain via human trafficking, get shot trying to protect him and die in his arms.

People don’t just see and experience those things every day. It requires some time to process, and it certainly isn’t something you can just gloss over.

The series doesn’t do that even when the pacing and plot call for it. It’s what Greensmith does in every scene, as we can see the weight of trauma Spoon carries that makes his experience hyperpresent even as other plots move around him.

We’ve never heard Spoon sound so flat in tone. We’ve never seen him so dejected or express such hopelessness. And it’s still off that Mickey, particularly, and the other characters are moving on in a way while he’s struggling to work through what he experienced.

However, they gave us these tiny moments: Mickey patting Spoon’s shoulder as he exits the room, the trio snuggling together as they attempt to figure out, “What next?”

Rachel and Ema’s concerned looks and inquiries serve their purpose, especially Ema checking in with Spoon and then giving him the space to air his thoughts properly.

Spoon’s monologue about Candy is heartbreaking. The Survivor’s Guilt is real as he grapples with his gratitude and relief that he isn’t dead and how that conflicts with his hurt and sadness that Candy didn’t make it.

He ponders why and how they devoted time to rescuing Ashley but couldn’t seem to save Candy. These are questions he asks, not to assign blame or beat up on himself or the others, but they’re the type of reflective questions one asks knowing they don’t have an answer.

Ema: Spoon, how are you doing with the Candy thing?
Spoon: Um, I don’t know. She was really sweet, and she was really kind. She had a mom, and I can’t even tell her mom what happened. Like, I can’t tell anyone what happened. Nobody knows, and nobody cares, and nothing has changed. I don’t; how can nothing have changed? But she saved my life, and she deserved her own, and she doesn’t even get it, and I don’t even know what happened to her body. What if I left her too early, and the tide took her away? What if she’s floating, and she’s lonely, and she saved my life, and I’m happy it wasn’t me? I’m happy I didn’t die. I am. I’m fucking happy.

The events with Candy could have set Spoon up to want out of everything they’ve been doing. However, nestled in all of his processing, it’s evident that Spoon is more resolved to help than ever.

It’s an unspoken acceptance that he’s part of this unforeseen operation of saving children in hopes that he can save the other Candys.

He’s the one who doesn’t hesitate to break open the tunnel and climb in, uninterested in all the discussion and back-and-forth. There is a renewed investment in the work they’ve fallen into.

Candy’s death took something from him. He’s not the same boy; you feel that throughout the hour. It’s painful to see that there’s an edge and darkness to him because of that loss and that he had to lose something at all to evolve.

But the hour teases the work these teens can do in the future, how they’re involved in Abeona now, somehow initiated into this organization without even realizing it.

And the hour also subtly implies differences in how each teen approaches that. Ema seems the most wary. After everything they endured, she wanted the butterfly off her and didn’t want any part of it.

She’s still disturbed by Abeona and unsure of whether they’re a force of good or evil. The grey area of this organization gives her pause.

Whereas, regarding Abeona and the cause, Rachel Caldwell has emerged as a True Believer. She’s thoroughly, deeply invested, and devoted to this now, finding a sense of purpose that she maybe didn’t realize she was missing and a set of friends she didn’t realize she needed in the main trio.

Ema: So I guess we all just go home now.
Spoon: Yeah. Home.

Bat Lady implies that she’ll pass the torch, which very well could be to Mickey himself. He’s the leader of the bunch thus far, but she references the plural when she speaks of passing the torch, which means it’s not solidified that it has to be Mickey.

And it also acknowledges that Mickey’s friends, Spoon, Ema, and Rachel, are all part of this. They’re his team. They’ve all been accepted as Abeona in some way.

Which brings us back to Spoon. He questions what they did, and the outcome wonders how it kept them from saving Candy, but he’s resolute in protecting others in his own way.

He emerges from the opposing sides of Ema and Rachel regarding Abeona as someone who has his eyes wide open about the pitfalls and flaws but doesn’t write off the good work.

Mickey may be the most obvious choice of running lead in Abeona, as is his legacy, but Spoon Spindell feels like the most unexpected but well-rounded choice for working deeply within this organization.

It may even go back to Spoon’s presence on that board as one of the children saved. We don’t get any answers on that whatsoever, but the subtle bits about Spoon along the way could easily serve as breadcrumbs to hook us for more.

It was something about how he said “home” when Mickey and Ema spoke of getting back to their lives that set off the alarms again that there is far more to Spoon Spindell than we know.

Could he have been placed in his current home, hiding in plain sight as Ashley was, or is there something else?

More than anything, I walked away from this finale and this season, craving more Spoon Spindell content.

They set things up nicely for more to come; the problem is that with the strikes and the limited promotion of this series, one has to wonder if Shelter will become a casualty.

It has felt like this slow burn regarding buzz, slipping under far too many people’s radar, and there’s so much uncertainty that there’s a legitimate fear that there won’t be a renewal.

But we’re not going to speak that into existence. The finale sets up an even better sophomore season, and dammit, Amazon has to give it to us!

The series’ strength routinely lies in its characters and the dynamics among them. And the main trio was already as top-tier as it gets, winning our hearts from Harlan Coben’s Shelter Season 1 Episode 1 onward.

Adding Rachel Caldwell into the mix only makes them stronger. They’re a precious, untouchable, endearing quartet like no other that works, and it’s impressive how effortlessly the cheerleader slots into place among them.

It’s also adorable to think of this Gen-Z version of The Breakfast Club, a jock, popular girl, nerd, and emo actually speaking to each other, hanging out, and saving the world together and openly.

One of the other promising components of the finale is the special bond that emerges between Ema Winslow and Rachel. Seriously, is anyone else shipping the hell out of them?

It’s okay to care we don’t save lives so they can’t be enjoyed fully. You need joy too, Mickey.

Dylan

Whitney is a hot mess, and frankly, she’s not better than her brother. Her drunken behavior at the party indicated that she was still a bit lost about herself and prone to impulsive and poor decisions.

Whitney and Troy hooking up mere minutes after he drunkenly broke up with Rachel wasn’t even a surprise. Troy Taylor is hurt and makes terrible choices when he spirals out.

While Whitney may get some credit for confessing to her buying followers, thus freeing herself from Buck’s blackmail, and she lowkey threw Troy Taylor under the bus, admitting to their hookup to apologize to Ema, Rachel is right. Ema deserves better than Whitney and what she has to offer.

And that better could very well be Rachel. Rachel seemed irked more than genuinely hurt about Troy breaking up with her and hooking up with Whitney.

And then, she proceeded to throw herself into helping her new best friends and spending time with them. Rachel has found her people.

She could very well be forging a strong friendship with Ema, and there’s nothing like a great female friendship.

But there feels like the potential for something more, which Shelter is incredibly good at doing with all of its characters, and there could be a potential reality to those two pretending to be girlfriends on a mission.

The finale brought together a lot more of the three, well, four, which was better than Mickey running off by himself.

Although, he did his fair share of that.

The opener was a nail-biter as he proved that he truly has the heart of a hero by saving Bat Lady from the fire as best as he could. It was nerve-wracking when that beam fell near him, with flames everywhere.

Mickey Bolitar’s reward for that was Bat Lady being more informative and less cryptic, letting him know about what really happened with Luther and Brad after the foursome found that bit of film that implied nefarious things.

But then she was confusing in going back on what she said about Brad being alive, leaving Mickey gutted and mourning his father all over again until that faithful moment of hearing Shira sing “Hollaback Girl” through the drain sparked an epiphany.

Unfortunately, one can understand why Luther harbors such resentment toward Brad and has a vendetta. The people who were supposedly saving him and his brother from a horrible, abusive situation caused his face to get scarred up and accidentally led to his brother’s death.

It brings up the issue of Bat Lady using teenagers to do all of her bidding and this work in the first place. Brad was too young to be attempting to put together and execute a mission like that.

It had too many flaws, and through those issues, he hurt a kid, and the panic room situation they used for security purposes prompted a child to die.

Obviously, young, abused kids will panic when you toss them in a freaking dungeon in the basement where no one can hear their screams and don’t tell them what’s happening along the way.

Mickey: You’re alive.
Bat Lady: It takes a lot to kill me; they should’ve figured that out by now.

It certainly makes Luther a sympathetic villain, even though it’s still ridiculous to actively work towards killing people over something he knows was an accident.

But with Abeona having so much darkness around it, with rogue agents, murders, and Bat Lady’s shadiness, there is enough to support someone like Luther wanting to dismantle it regardless of all the good work they’re doing.

My heart soared when Mickey went from banging on that door, having a meltdown as his friends watched, concerned and helpless from the side to them all working together to open up when they heard Brad’s muffled noises.

And Mickey got to come face to face with his father for the first time in months, and while he doesn’t have all the answers, at least he has his father now.

Mickey: Dad!
Brad: Mickey.

I only wish we could’ve gotten a hug between them. Brad must’ve sustained himself on all the rations left in that shelter. And he hoped that one day, someone would be able to find him.

Imagine his surprise when that person was his son! There are so many things to explore with Brad and Mickey now. For months, Mickey has immersed himself even further into an organization his father was a part of but was also trying to escape.

We have barely scratched the surface of Abeona, what it does, and the good and bad among it, and Brad is the key to unraveling all the mysteries about it.

It’ll also be interesting to see if he reads Shira in on much of this. She’s trusted Mickey and his gut about things, had her own instincts regarding her brother, and she’s the person who got to see an empty casket.

Shira Bolitar is such a fun character with so much more to give to this series, and I would love to see what the future holds for her as part of the Bolitar family.

Of course, there’s a lot of drama to unpack with her character regarding the Taylor family, too.

As much of an ass as Troy Taylor was to Rachel and all the blunders he made, one can’t help but feel bad for him. He had to piece things together about his mother on his own, and then this news just messed with his head, causing him to drink, behave impulsively, and blow a game.

And when he confronts Hannah about it, her first instinct is still to lie to him. Nothing is worse than when you know something is true and finally give someone the chance to be honest, and they still lie.

Troy: I know.
Hannah: What are you talking about?
Troy: I know about you and Bolitar’s aunt. We don’t lie in this family? I saw you two. At Shira’s house. How could you?

Troy is old enough to be impacted by everything his parents do truly, and it’s terrible that both of them suck so bad at communicating with him and take for granted that his feelings somehow don’t matter because he’s “just a teenager.”

He couldn’t help seeing the tension between things. His father and mother were on opposite bleachers, and his mother spent time making eyes at Shira from across the room.

We’re left hanging in an unsatisfying manner regarding this pretty significant B-Plot.

Troy confronting his mother gives a bit of drama, but then we cut away before Hannah tells Ken the truth, which essentially robs us of the tension the series has built up all season.

Rachel: Your mom keeps texting me; she’s really worried about you.
Troy: Fuck that ho.
Rachel: What’s wrong with you?

And it’s never referenced again. We whisk away from The Taylors. Hannah is merely there to call Shira about the exhumation, but they never unpack what’s happening between them.

Hannah has finally shared the truth, consequences be damned, and we don’t see her discussing it with Shira. We also don’t get them addressing the fact that Shira hasn’t said the “I love yous” or shown that she’s ready and willing to take that leap of faith with Hannah for the sake of their relationship.

It leaves them in an unsatisfying limbo as a pairing, and the fallout from everything feels postponed and muted when there was ample time to dive into that all season.

Everything is up in the air with them, but it’s undoubtedly a hook all on its own to leave one craving another season. I don’t want this to be the last of Shira and Hannah’s story; if anything, this should be the beginning.

Harlan Coben’s Shelter has so much story left to tell and so many directions to go in after this strong finale. We need a second season! I’m not ready to let go of these characters when they’ve worked themselves into my heart.

The finale perfectly set up a second season and was more than enough to leave us dying for more. Petition for a second season NOW!

 It’s been a pleasure covering this series for those of you out there keeping up with it and these reviews. Now, over to you, Shelter Fanatics.

Are you satisfied with the finale? Were you shocked that Brad was still alive and Mickey found him?

Are you shipping Ema and Rachel? What are you looking forward to most in a second season? Hit those comments below!

You can stream the entire first season of Harlan Coben’s Shelter on Prime Video. And check out our Shelter Reviews.

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