Catch Me If U Can – The episode opens with Mickey Bolitar (Jade Michael) saying Lawrence Kent was on the gurney, not Ashley Kent (Samantha Bugliaro). Arthur Spoon Spindell (Adrian Greensmith) suggests Ashley’s father, Lawrence was a physician. Mickey says it can’t be her dad. A flashback shows Ashley Kent (Samantha Bugliaro) claiming her dad died years ago. Mickey and Arthur discuss the fact that Mrs. Kent (Jen Jacob) claimed she didn’t have a daughter. Arthur says they’d have to accept that the wrong Dr. Kent got beat up on the same night Ashley went missing. Mickey is convinced there must be a connection.

Arthur worries that his father will kill him when he arrives. Mickey apologizes for getting him arrested. From now on, he is going solo because he can’t let Arthur and Ema (Abby Corringa) get into trouble. Arthur is adamant that he wants to help because Ashley needs them. Ema tries to scrub a tattoo from her back. Shira Bolitar (Constance Zimmer) speaks to Chief Taylor (Lee Aaron Rosen) about her nephew being arrested. She wonders if he is doing this to get her attention, but Chief Ken Taylor says he stopped thinking about her a long time ago.

Arthur Spindell Sr. (Dustin Charles) arrives to take his son home. As Shira leaves with Mickey, she runs into Hannah (Missi Pyle) who learns her husband arrested Mickey again. Hannah says she is sorry about Brad. Shira explains she came back there because she is taking care of Brad’s son Mickey. Hannah questions what happens after that before quickly changing the subject. Outside, Shira tells Mickey that Hannah was her best friend in high school. Mickey claims he thought it was a friend’s house, but it was the wrong address. Shira urges him to be more careful because getting arrested biweekly is not sustainable.

She can’t have him in jail when his mom comes home. She’ll be out the day after tomorrow although she’ll still have outpatient therapy. Troy Taylor (Brian Altemus) speaks to Rachel Caldwell (Sage Linder) who has a handgun. Rachel becomes concerned when she hears something outside. She ends the call with Troy and looks outside. Troy sends her a message asking why she is being so weird. He asks his mom, Hannah, if she is crying because of dad. When Ken comes in, he tells Hannah that Shira was at the station picking up her nephew. Ema tells Mickey and Arthur that they have to assume whoever attacked Dr. Kent is connected to Ashley’s disappearance.

Arthur says they’d have to believe that the Kents were Ashley’s parents too. They suggest going to the hospital to speak to Dr. Kent after school. They see a picture of Dylan Shakes who disappeared after his baseball game. Mickey approaches Mrs. Friedman (Didi Conn) to see if she has seen Ashley Kent. Mrs. Friedman reveals that she withdrew from the school this morning. Mickey admits Ashley didn’t tell him and he hasn’t been able to get in touch with her. Mrs. Friedman suggests it is a private matter then. When no one is looking, Mrs. Friedman checks her email and finds out that Barry Vollmer has submitted his resignation.

During art class, Ema receives texts from Mickey and Arthur about Ashley’s withdrawal. Whitney is impressed by Ema’s sketch. Troy messages Rachel to see if she wants to get a burger later. Buckley (Antonio Cipriano) asks Rachel if she wants to team up with him, but she doesn’t because he’d tank her GPA. Instead, she teams up with Mickey and invites him over to her house to work on the project. When he asks her about Ashley, Rachel jokes they might’ve scared her off or something. Buckley catches up with Troy and warns him to keep an eye on his girl. Rachel interrupts to tell Buckley she can’t get a burger with him because she has too much homework.

Mickey, Arthur, and Ema go to the hospital where they see Dr. Kent who is badly injured. Mrs. Kent threatens to call security. Mickey begins telling her about Ashley and how they think the attacker kidnapped her. Mrs. Kent insists she has never seen that girl before. They keep pushing her until Mrs. Kent recommends going to the police. She offers to tell them what she told the police, but she wants them gone after that. The man who attacked her husband had a tattoo of an octopus on his face. Mr. V (Geoffrey Cantor) is shown in a body bag. The man in the sunglasses deals with the body outside of the mysterious house.

At home, Mickey notices he has a New Jersey Dragons hat which is the same one Dylan Shakes was wearing. Shira looks at her old yearbook and sees that she won best couple with Ken Taylor. She was also best friends with Hannah Smith. Mickey interrupts to ask why his dad has the same hat as Dylan Shakes. Shira claims they were on the same little league team before showing him a picture of them together. They were best friends so Mickey’s dead was devastated when Dylan vanished. A few weeks later, the kids bullied him into bat lady’s house. Seconds later, Ema lures Mickey outside. She checks to see if his mom is okay. Mickey says she is in a behavioral center to treat her depression.

It started when she was a teen tennis pro. Mickey reveals that his mom went by the name Kitty Hammer. Ema can’t believe that because everyone has heard of Kitty Hammer. Mickey says she retired early because she fell in love with his dad too. When asked about her mom, Ema says she is fine. She wants to tell him something, but can’t because he sees the guy with sunglasses nearby. Although Ema doesn’t think it is a good idea, Mickey chases after the guy. He jumps on the hood of the vehicle but gets thrown off moments later. The man rolls down his window to tell Mickey that was really stupid.

When Mickey asks why he is following him and why he was at that bat lady’s house, the man says he isn’t ready for those answers. Sunglasses man warns him he’ll kill his friend if he tells anyone they spoke. Mickey says the bat lady said his dad is still alive. Sunglasses man admits she shouldn’t have said that before speeding away. Mickey and Ema speak about what bat lady said at his house. Mickey doesn’t believe her because he watched his dad die. He felt like she knew the truth somehow though and he doesn’t understand why that guy is watching them. Ema urges him not to torture himself.

Mickey asks what he wanted to tell her, but Ema claims she forgot. The following day, Mickey and Shira prepare to meet Kitty. Dr. Shippee (Robin S. Walker) tells them that she should check back in at 2:30 PM. Kitty (Narci Regina) comes out seconds later. Shira lets Kitty use her car since she checked into Westminster for a couple of nights. When they’re alone, Mickey tells Kitty that he made plans for today. Kitty says she has some errands to run. She needs to start feeling like his mom again. Mickey wants to come and says he can do his homework in the car. Mrs. Friedman tries to access some secure files only to find that her access is denied.

She finds an envelope with pictures of Ashley in the desk drawer. Mickey and Kitty talk about missing his father. Kitty insists this is the price you pay when you love someone. Mickey admits he blames himself although Kitty doesn’t think he should. As Mickey walks through the school, he notices that Ashley seems scared in one of the pictures on his phone. He shows it to Ema and Arthur. They see a girl in the distance who took a photo at the same time. They believe they might be able to see who freaked out Ashley by looking at that girl’s photo. Arthur says she is Whitney Renna. They check Whitney’s uDOu page to see if she has posted the picture.

Once they find it, they notice that a man with a facial tattoo is standing in front of Ashley. Ema says she knows a tattoo artist who might be able to help them find the guy in question. They speak to Agent (Brandon Curry) who suspects Mickey is a protector. He can’t help them find tattoo man though. When they’re alone, Ema asks Agent why the tattoo on her back won’t come off. Agent explains it isn’t permanent although it is a longer-lasting ink he has been experimenting with. He tells her that the butterfly is an abeona tisiphone. Abeona is the goddess of protecting children. Agent thinks she knows why she needs protection.

He wonders if she is the goddess instead. When Mickey gets home, he finds a voicemail message from Dr. Shippee who says Kitty didn’t show up for her check-in. He calls Shira to say he needs help because he doesn’t know where his mom is. They track the car and follow it when it begins moving. Shira believes she is heading to Paterson Falls. They go there and start looking for her. Ken Taylor tells Taylor that he is becoming more like his mother every day. Taylor sees Shira’s profile on the computer in front of him. Agent has a picture of the tattoo man, but he makes sure to burn it. Sunglasses man breaks into Mickey’s house and copies the files from his laptop.

When Arthur or Spoon arrives, he realizes that he needs to flee. By the time Arthur checks the bedroom, the man has copied the files and is hiding in the closet with a gun. Mickey finds Kitty who is crying and claiming she cannot do this. Kitty thought she was better. Bat lady watches her camera feed as Mrs. Friedman approaches her home. Mrs. Friedman finds a grave and questions whether it is where he was buried. Rachel goes to the train station where she opens a locker and retrieves a bag of money. There are also several passports and IDs. Octoface (Manuel Uriza) shows up and tells her that stuff doesn’t belong to her.

Harlan Coben’s Shelter Review

The second episode of Harlan Coben’s Shelter is okay although the series is already starting to show deeper cracks. It is odd that they’ve decided to use much older actors to portray high school kids and it is clearly evident. Then again, the characters are doing things that an average high school kid wouldn’t be able to do such as roaming around freely without any supervision.

The show feels very low budget considering the scenes in town and at the falls are barren without any people. The pace could slow a little and focus on the things that will really matter. The performances are okay although there is one character that is pretty much annoying in every scene. That adds to the overall cheesiness of the series making it difficult for this to be a gritty story about disappearances and murders.

Even though this is for the young adult market, it doesn’t need to be so cheesy. The timeline is way off given the fact that Ashley only disappeared yesterday. With everything going on in the episode, it feels like it could’ve been months. Hopefully, something will come of this in the next few episodes but it is hard to be hooked right now.

The episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Harlan Coben’s Shelter can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.