Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Harlan Coben’s Shelter.
The Big Picture
- The reveal that Brad is alive in the season finale of Harlan Coben’s Shelter calls into question the entire premise of the show and threatens to change its core elements.
- Brad’s survival removes the potential for Mickey and his friends to avenge his death and learn on their own, as they now have a mentor in their father.
- Shira’s role in the show becomes negligible with Brad’s return, as her relationship with Mickey and her importance in his life is overshadowed.
In Harlan Coben’s Shelter on Prime Video, Mickey Bolitar (Jaden Michael) is sent to live with his aunt Shira (Constance Zimmer) in Kasselton, after the death of his father Brad (Kristoffer Polaha). Although he and his mother survived the car accident, the loss leaves his mother seeking in-patient help for existing, and now worsening, mental health issues. Searching for answers about what happened to Ashley (Samantha Bugliaro), which seems connected to a strange disappearance from his father’s past, Mickey becomes involved with the mysterious Bat Lady (Tovah Feldshuh) and her secret organization Abeona, which helps children escape from abusive environments and being trafficked — an organization that his father was involved with since he was a teenager. However, the surprise twist at the end of the season finale, revealing that Brad is actually alive, leaves the entire story up in the air and threatens to change or take away much of what we loved about the show throughout this first season.
How Brad Survived the Car Accident in ‘Harlan Coben’s Shelter’
Image via Prime Video
Throughout the season finale, there are clues building until Mickey realizes Brad is actually alive. First, the story of Brad’s encounter with Luther (Luke Marinkovich), which subsequently set Luther on his path for revenge; as a teenager, Brad and Abeona’s nearly-botched rescue attempt of a group of boys, including Luther, resulted in locking the boys in a soundproof shelter where Luther’s brother Ricky had an asthma attack and died because Brad, on the other side of the door, couldn’t hear a thing. Then, Bat Lady’s confession she told Mickey that Brad was still alive because she was hearing his voice at night — haunted unlike she had ever been before, despite losing a vast amount of people — led to Mickey’s realization that Bat Lady had been hearing Brad through the pipes. Because, as Bat Lady herself tells him, Luther wanted Brad to suffer Ricky’s pain, so taking him out in the manufactured car accident wasn’t enough. So, Mickey, Spoon (Adrian Greensmith), Ema (Abby Corrigan), and Rachel (Sage Linder) rush to the tunnels, break open the new welding on the soundproof shelter where Ricky died, and find Brad inside before the finale cuts to black.
Brad’s Survival in ‘Harlan Coben’s Shelter’ Calls Everything Into Question
Considering the entirety of the series has been built upon Brad’s death, it feels like a strange choice to reveal Brad is alive — and, more than likely, a major mistake to do so this early on. Brad’s death is what led Mickey to become involved with Bat Lady and Abeona, putting him on a path to join this secret organization and follow in his father’s footsteps. Without his parents’ guidance, though learning pieces about them along the way, Mickey and his friends becoming entangled in Abeona meant they had to learn everything, including the darker realities of this mission, on their own. They didn’t have a guide through this life, which is what made their daring rescue of Ashely so important because they did it almost all on their own, using their own skills and intelligence. (Granted, they had to be saved at the end by Abeona members, but considering it was their first rescue, that’s saying something.)
As Mickey learned in the finale, Brad was planning to leave Abeona before his so-called death, to live a nice, normal life with his family. Now that he’s alive again, this can only really mean he’ll try to block Mickey and his friends from doing anything related to Abeona again, due to the dangers it poses to get involved. Plus, it removes the fun, excitement, and anticipation of Mickey and his friends trying to avenge his death and learn on their own. At the very least, if he allows Mickey to remain tied to Abeona, he’ll be a mentor for them, which kind of defeats the purpose of the first season and how hard the teens had to work to figure things out on their own. Inevitably, his survival will change this core part of the show, meaning a potential second season will look much different. So, even though it’s nice for Mickey to have his father back, it feels like this twist could have waited another season. And, the fight against Luther loses some of its weight because Luther didn’t actually take anything from Mickey.
What’s Left for Shira to Do?
Another major aspect of the first season is Mickey and Shira’s relationship. As they both struggle with Brad’s death, they have been forced to create some kind of new normal with Shira being his guardian. Brad’s survival makes Shira negligible in Harlan Coben’s Shelter. The series was already pushing it with this relationship due to Mickey’s mother still being alive, but the only reason she’s not in the picture is because she needs psychiatric care to cope with Brad’s death. Now, they’re both alive, leaving Shira on the outskirts with little reason to continue being on the show.
Shira and Mickey shared too few scenes together with everything else going on, leaving us with little of their bonding and coping with Brad’s death together. But, what we did see of this throughout the season was fantastic and some of the show’s best material. Shira was trying so hard to be everything that Mickey needed without compromising herself in the process, and it was really admirable to see her step up. There was so much potential for this relationship between Shira and Mickey, which now feels like it’s all wiped away because of Brad’s return. Even if things play out where Mickey stays with Shira long-term, it will never be as important for them to develop a lasting bond.
All in all, it feels like a major mistake to bring Brad back, especially to bring him back so soon. It has only been eight episodes; we’ve barely seen the characters coping with his death, as Mickey didn’t even accept it until the season finale, moments before he learned the truth. Brad’s survival throws everything up in the air moving forward; realistically, he’ll prevent Mickey from getting involved with Abeona and move him away from Kasselton, effectively taking away the entire premise of the show. That shouldn’t happen, obviously, but whatever’s next won’t make much sense in comparison. The only other option would be to kill Brad shortly after his return, but nobody wants that and it would be wholly unnecessary. As of now, it’s nearly impossible to see this twist leading to anything satisfactory in a second season.
Every episode of Harlan Coben’s Shelter is now streaming.
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