Harlan Coben’s new Netflix show, Missing You, gets off to a bit of a slow start in the series premiere, “Every Breath You Take.” Kat Donovan (Rosalind Eleazar) finds her ex who has been missing for 11 years on a dating app. When she reaches out, he cuts off contact. Then, she finds out that the man who killed her father, Detective Clint Donovan (Lenny Henry), didn’t actually kill her father. On top of that, her ex, Josh (Ashley Walters), spoke with the killer the day before he walked out of Kat’s life.
I guess it wasn’t a “slow start” at all, actually!
Missing You episode 2, “With or Without You,” opens with a mysterious dog breeder, Titus (Steve Pemberton), revealing that a wife was cheating on a husband during an adoption interview for one of his dogs. After the interview, the man pays a visit to Rishi, the missing man. Oh, so he’s very weird, clearly.
Shortly after, we see Rishi meet with Titus. It appears they are holding him for ransom for some reason. They’re threatening his girlfriend, Vanessa, if she doesn’t cooperate. Titus has Rishi transfer $25,000 into an account.
In a state, Kat confronts Stagger (Richard Armitage), her boss, who wants her to reopen the case after Monte Leburne (Marc Warren) confessed he lied about killing Clint. Stagger is furious that she went behind his back about Monte, but he doesn’t want to reopen the investigation.
After that, Kat calls Aqua, her friend who was also close to Josh, but Aqua (Mary Malone) doesn’t offer up anything new.
At Kat’s office, a young man, Brendan (Oscar Kennedy) shows up and reports his mother, Dana Fells (Lisa Faulkner), missing. She was supposed to go to Costa Rica with her boyfriend a week ago, but now, she’s missing. She hasn’t reached out, and he’s worried about her. It’s unclear if she’s actually missing, but something is definitely wrong.
Later, Kat learns that Monte Leburne, her father’s killer, died in prison before they could reopen the case. Stagger also didn’t go and pay a visit to Leburne in prison, so there’s nothing they can do. It’s clearly still affecting Kat.
When she returns home, her apartment has been broken into by Brendan, the kid who reported this mom missing. Kat chases him through the building and eventually catches him. When she questions him about breaking into the apartment, Brendan reveals that the man his mom was dating is actually Josh, Kat’s ex. Whoa! What a twist! Brendan explains how his mom met Josh on a dating app, and she started acting weird and impulsive. Kat claims that she can’t help him because there’s no evidence of a crime.
One of Clint’s old partners tries to stop Kat from looking into and targeting Calligan (James Nesbitt), a local crime boss who allegedly order the hit on Clint. Calligan is bad news.
Brendan calls again and claims that his mother didn’t go to Costa Rica, and a bank charge proved it. Kat asks her team to pull the CCTV while she interrogates the attendant of the prison holding Monte Leburne. Stagger allegedly visited Monte Leburne in prison. Why would Kat’s boss and Clint’s colleague take Josh to visit his killer in prison?
Kat questions Stagger about taking Josh to see Monte. He reveals that Josh was using it for a scoop as a journalist. It doesn’t make sense, but Stagger flips the script and suspends Kat for her behavior, not listening to his instructions about the case, and sneaking into the prison.
After that confrontation, Stacey (Jessica Plummer) calls Stagger and tells him, “We need to tell her.” Then, we see a flashback of Stagger with literal blood on his hands. Did he kill Clint? I have a feeling it’s not that simple, but there’s something up with these characters.
Back at the dog breeder, Rishi’s accounts are frozen, so Titus asks his minion to dispose of him. Rishi tries to escape before he gets hit over the head with a shovel. Ouch! He throws Rishi’s body into the fire, but that’s not all.
We also see the dress Dana Fells was wearing the night she went missing getting thrown into the fire with Rishi’s body. It’s not good at all!
In the final scene of the episode, Calligan arrives at the grave of Monte Leburne. I think it’s safe to say that Kat isn’t going to give up this investigation.
Missing You episode 2 grade: B+
Missing You episode 2 is definitely an improvement over the series premiere. It’s not quite as good as we’ve seen from some of the Harlan Coben Netflix shows, but the drama and suspense is building. There’s still too much we don’t know or understand yet to give this episode an A, but the twists and reveals start to work really well in this episode as Kat starts to peel back the layers of this mystery.
I don’t know about you, but I’m watching episode 3 right now on Netflix.