Harlan Coben's Shelter episode 3 ends on major Ashley cliffhanger

The series follows teenager Mickey Bolitar (Jaden Michael), who is faced with a new life in suburban Kasselton, New Jersey after the sudden death of his father. As a new guy at school, his surroundings are slightly tricky to navigate, as the first three episodes in the series show.

But his school experience is soon improved in a major way with the arrival of another student: Ashley Kent (Samantha Bugliaro). The pair hit it off instantly, becoming a rock for one another in their new classes and are clearly in the early stages of a cute romantic storyline.

As is the way of any Harlan Coben thriller, though, it's a short-lived relationship as Ashley soon disappears, prompting Mickey and his newfound friends to go looking for her and any clues as to where she could have gone.

Aside from the trio's amateur sleuthing slowly unfolding in the series' initial three episode premiere, viewers were also shocked by the cliffhanger at the end of episode 3 prompting us to truly consider who Ashley really is. Does she have a connection to Mickey that we (and he) don't know about?

And more importantly, does Ashley have a connection to the enigmatic Bat Lady (Tovah Feldshuh)?

Well, in the episode's final moments we were thrown plenty a revelation. Not only do we find out that the mysterious stranger breaking into Ashley's school locker is popular cheerleader Rachel Caldwell (Sage Linder), but we also find out that Bat Lady is not such a stranger after all.

Remember the heroic child who we learn about via Mickey's history class? The same one who rescued children from Nazi concentration camps? Well, her name was Lizzie Sobek and it turns out that Bat Lady seems to be her. When Mickey confronts Bat Lady about what she knows about Ashley and his father, Bat Lady recalls her own past.

We soon see a black-and-white flashback of her life and see butterflies etched into trees, the clear signs the children followed in order to try and get to safety. But most, as Bat Lady explains, weren't as lucky and we see a troop of Nazi soldiers capture some of the children. When we hear a shot ring out, one of the children in the group screams out but her mouth is quickly covered by an older child.

That older girl has a prisoner number on her arm and when we pan out and back to the present-day, we realise Bat Lady is the girl all grown up and still has the prisoner number on her arm.

Bat Lady then tells Mickey that they share something in common and through a quick series of flashbacks, we see that the paramedic who tended to Mickey's father Brad (Kristoffer Polaha) after his fatal car crash turns out to be the same person as the Nazi soldier who ordered the children's killings in Bat Lady's past.

Could it be that they could be relatives, therefore being people in the same bloodline that are responsible for major deaths in both Bat Lady and Mickey's lives? That's the only thing that could be relatively possible as it doesn't look as though the character has aged from the 1940s to now.

Well, while that is certainly a cliffhanger and a half, the episode didn't end there. We then see Ashley tearfully looking down at her phone and looking at the picture of her and Mickey.

The other glaring surprise is the fact that, much like the butterflies we've seen in Bat Lady's flashbacks, Ashley has a butterfly tattoo on her left shoulder. But again, the revelations don't stop there, as we get yet another flashback centred on Ashley and we see her walking slowly through the woods.

She doesn't have the tattoo in the flashback but it's clearly her - and as she walks further into the woods, we hear Mickey's father Brad speaking. We've seen this scene before from Mickey's perspective, when he and his father were camping and Mickey was surprised to see Brad washing blood off his hands.

"Your mum and I, we do important work. We help people who cannot help themselves. But even if you do the right thing, it doesn't make you immune to the bad that's in this world," Brad says.

He continues: "It's always there – my job is to watch for it," he tells Mickey, but at that same point, we see Ashley grabbed from behind with a hand covering her mouth.

So, it looks as though Ashley most certainly knew who Mickey's father was - but did she actually know who Mickey was all along? There's a high possibility, but seeing as it was night time and dark in the woods, there's also a chance that she couldn't have seen the pair properly.

Even so, it's obvious that Ashley was perhaps looking for help or running away from someone in the hopes of being helped by Brad, who is known to help out in that field of work.

We can clearly see that Ashley has been tattooed with this mysterious butterfly on her shoulder, despite not having it before. But we also now know that Ashley is somewhat safe and has access to her phone – but where exactly has she disappeared to? We'll just have to stay tuned and see.

The first three episodes of Harlan Coben's Shelter are available to watch on Prime Video, with new episodes being released weekly every Friday.

If you're looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide or visit our Drama hub for more news and features.

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