Harlan Coben's Shelter ending explained: What happened to Mickey?

After the mysterious disappearance of Ashley, Mickey and co were left intrigued by and suspicious of Ashley's vanishing act, which wasn't helped by the appearance of Bat Lady telling Mickey that, in actual fact, his father Brad was still alive.

We've watched on as each episode has offered up many questions, some answers and some surprising plot lines - including around Mickey's aunt Shira (Constance Zimmer), Rachel (Sage Linder) and the enigmatic 'Sunglasses Man' (Hunter Emery).

In the penultimate episode, the gang tracked down Ashley after she was kidnapped and trafficked. But after being rescued by Octoface (Antoine LeMaire), who works for rescue group Abeona, she was carted off into a new life with a new identity.

But questions still remained about the mystery behind Bat Lady, especially after supposed paramedic Luther tracked down Mickey and stopped him from finding out the truth about his father. So, what exactly happened in the eventful finale?

Read on for a full breakdown of the final episode of Harlan Coben's Shelter.

Harlan Coben's Shelter ending explained: What happened to Mickey?

A whirlwind of a series to say the least, Harlan Coben's Shelter came to a close with episode 8, which was jam-packed full of revelations and picked back up from episode 7's shocking house fire.

Did Mickey make it out alive? Of course he did - but the same couldn't exactly be said of Candy/Bat Lady, who was shockingly stabbed in the back by Luther (Luke Marinkovich).

Knowing that the house is now unoccupied and ready to be fully explored, Mickey and his friends go back to Bat Lady's home to check out the hidden tunnels underneath her garage. Down there, Ema (Abby Corrigan) wonders whether someone could have taken Bat Lady out of the house and that she could be alive after all.

They soon reach a room with clear signs that somebody has been down there recently. In the room, they find a working old projector and lots of other film rolls stacked up. Mickey notices there's film in the projector and reattaches it, but when it plays, it brings up a home video of Bat Lady tending to a boy's bloody face.

The boy is angry and points to a man out of shot, saying that his face is bleeding because of him. We hear police sirens and Bat Lady tells the man that she'll deal with the police and that he must soundproof the room immediately, causing the man to tell the group of boys, who the camera pans to, to hurry.

He pushes them into the very same underground shelter Mickey and his friends are standing in now, but the boys in the video look scared and don't want to go inside. When the camera pans out and focuses on the man's face, Mickey realises that it's actually his father, Brad.

Read more Drama:

• What are the Harlan Coben dramas on Netflix?
• Wilderness writer and director on casting "masterful" Jenna Coleman

In the finale, Rachel and Troy (Brian Altemus) also break up, and Rachel soon learns he had a fling with Whitney (Alexa Mareka), his best friend's sister and Ema's crush. In an act of slight revenge, Rachel choreographs a dance routine that she performs at the big basketball match in order to show she's alright after Troy's actions.

Although Mickey was supposed to play in the match, he doesn't show up, and we see that instead he's accepted a mysterious car ride from 'Sunglasses Man', who we now know is Kasselton's well-known missing boy Dylan, who is leading a life as Bat Lady's right-hand man.

Dropped off at the location, Mickey is met by Bat Lady, who tells him more about his father Brad, who was part of a group who rescued children from trafficking and abuse.

We find out that Mickey did successfully rescue Bat Lady from her burning house and Dylan "did the rest" of ensuring she was alive by getting her out through the tunnels underneath her home.

Bat Lady tells Mickey that Brad rescued a group of young boys from a foster home and was in charge of the operation at the same young age as Mickey. One of the boys that was in the rescue operation was a boy called Luther, who caught his cheek on a stray nail going through the foster home window to escape.

We have, of course, seen the boy on the film that Mickey saw playing in the shelter, but now know why Luther has such a prominent face scar in the flashbacks Mickey has of the night his father got killed.

Candy explains that Luther and his younger brother Ricky were rescued from their abuser along with the rest of the group and Brad locked them in the underground shelter underneath Candy's home, ensuring they had food, water and a safe place to rest.

But Brad didn't know that Ricky was asthmatic, and down in the shelter, Ricky had an asthma attack. Luther banged on the door of the shelter but Candy was upstairs trying to get rid of the police and Luther's shouts went unheard, meaning that, without his inhaler, Ricky died.

Luther blamed Brad and wanted revenge for his brother's death, so he bided his time and waited for Brad to return to the United States. Candy explains that he wanted Brad to suffer in the same way Ricky had. Luther got someone else who hated the child rescue group, Abeona, to drive the truck that crashed into Brad's car and Luther stole an ambulance.

Was Brad still alive?

When Mickey asks Bat Lady why she told him that his father was still alive, she says that, despite losing many people in her life, Brad's voice is the one she can hear calling out to her in the night. When Mickey showed up, she took it as a sign that Brad must be alive.

Returning home, Mickey is left feeling deflated, but Shira quickly puts together a small party with his friends. But in the middle of the party, Mickey looks at the sink drain and gets flashbacks to what Bat Lady told him about hearing his father.

Mickey quickly bolts off and, confused about where he's heading, Spoon, Ema and Rachel run after him. They go underneath Bat Lady's home to the tunnels, and at the same time, Shira gets a call from Hannah saying that the favour she's pulled has worked – she has been able to get Brad's casket dug up.

Down in the tunnels, Mickey tells his friends that even in a soundproof room, there are pipes that can carry sound, much like the pipes in the boiler room of the school where they hang out and can hear the teacher's from the staff room.

They get to the shelter room and see that it's recently been welded, so, working together, they manage to eventually prise the door open.

At the same time, we see that Shira has reached the morgue and looks straight-faced as she exclaims "holy s**t" at the open casket. We then see that inside the shelter as Mickey walks further in, he sees someone walking slowly towards him: his father, Brad.

All episodes of Harlan Coben's Shelter are available to watch on Prime Video.

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.

Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10, PLUS a £10 John Lewis and Partners voucher delivered to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.