'The Shards' Episode 2 Recap & Ending Explained: Is Matt Dead Or Alive?

Episode 2 of The Shards opens with Susan, Bret, and Thom, and Debbie partaking in a double-date-at-home. Bret is disturbed by the deaths and the home invasions that he doesn’t even wanna party in the backyard; he wants everyone to stay inside the house and keep the lights on because he really thinks that that’s gonna stop the miscreants from committing crimes. As if Bret’s paranoia isn’t high enough, Debbie reveals that people have been going missing. Susan puts an end to that discussion and gets everyone to focus on the welcome party she wants to throw for Robert. Thom and Debbie are on board but Bret thinks that that’s unnecessary because he dislikes Robert (but is also attracted to him). That’s when Susan makes it clear that this isn’t actually her personal plan; it’s something that she has been directed to do by Principal Croft. Apparently, Robert was institutionalized, and since there’s a stigma around mental health issues, he might feel isolated and alienated. In addition to that, Robert is dealing with his parents’ divorce and his mother’s death. Hence, Croft thinks that it’s important that he feels that this school is his home and his classmates are his family. Bret thinks he is lying about all that because if a guy can lie about not going to the theater to watch The Shining, they can lie about anything and everything. And Bret believes that if Robert gets a party completely dedicated to him, he’s gonna feel all the more emboldened to create this sympathetic persona. Thom gets Bret to chill out, and yet, Bret brings up the whole car chase thing with Robert, which backfires on Bret because he was the one who was chasing Robert. That gets Bret to finally give up and enjoy the double date. The following day, Debbie informs Bret that Matt called to tell him to stop calling him. Bret doesn’t understand what that means, but does he find out what Matt meant by that? Let’s see.

Spoiler Alert

Bret Is Paranoid

Bret talks about the existence of a cult whose habit was similar to The Trawler, thereby leading the police to believe that they were the ones behind the most recent string of murders. The name of this cult was the Riders of the Afterlife. The members were mostly low-intelligence hippies and their leader was called Bruce, who used to be a high school English teacher until he was fired due to his inappropriate relationships with his female students. These Riders were known to do drugs, acid, and tranquilizers, and with every passing month, the severity of their crimes increased. Initially, they used to just break into houses, paint the satanic symbol, and that was it. Then they began tying up the residents and tortured them. And then they started murdering people. So, yeah, the authorities couldn’t really tell the difference between which party was behind which murder, and that was obviously hindering their investigation. On a personal level, Bret always finds himself on the edge. He tries to keep his mind straight by writing but even that feels difficult because he thinks he is constantly being stalked inside his own home. It’s unclear if his suspicions are based on facts or if he is just losing his mind because of the ongoing criminal cases in his city.

Debbie Has A Fight With Liz

Debbie gets into a tiff with Liz over their make-up products, but that’s not actually the real reason behind their fight. Liz knows that Debbie is following in her footsteps and she really wants her to realize that so that she doesn’t make the same mistakes that Liz did. But Debbie is so confident that she is very different from Liz that she doesn’t see that she and her mom are incredibly similar. I mean, at some point in her life, Liz must’ve been proud of her romantic relationship with Terry, and then she found out that Terry actually likes young boys. Similarly, Debbie always boasts about her passionate dynamic with Bret, but little does she know that he actually likes dudes. I think she understands what Liz means by that critique but she wants to stay in denial by clubbing around with Bret. The club that Bret and Debbie go to feels less like a club and more like an installation to usher in the music video era of entertainment. Once they are in there, Debbie goes off to meet the owner of the club while Bret roams around the place, looking at all the artwork. That’s when he bumps into Robert again who brings up the topic of Matt and Bret’s falling out. Bret tries to brush that off as a non-issue but Robert keeps insinuating that Bret and Matt were more than just friends. That rubs Bret the wrong way and Robert really gets a kick out of seeing Bret irritated. Robert then starts talking about Susan and how much he wants to get into her pants, which prompts Bret to walk away from him.

Matt And Bret Have Another Falling Out

Bret pays Matt a visit to understand why he called him earlier to tell him to stop calling on his phone and why he has allegedly been talking to Robert about his “break up” with Bret. The first thing that he notices after entering Matt’s house is that the water in his aquarium is almost gone and Matt hasn’t bothered to do anything about it and he doesn’t seem to be worried about how his fishes and cat are still missing. Why? Because, apparently, every waking moment of his life has been taken up by this mystery-caller who keeps disturbing him. Bret clarifies that, contrary to Matt’s opinion, he isn’t the one who is doing that because he isn’t that psychotic. That doesn’t stop Matt from accusing Bret of breaking into his house to drain his aquarium and drawing the Satanic symbol (it’s the same one that the Riders draw on the houses that they attack) on his Foreigner poster. Bret denies having a hand in any of that but Matt remains unconvinced. Bret changes the topic and asks Matt about his conversation with Robert; Matt says that Robert just introduced himself to Matt and told him that his dad knew Brett’s aunt. Matt suspects that Bret has told Robert something about their romantic affair; Bret rejects that allegation too. He says that Matt is always high out of his mind. He lives in the guest house instead of the main house with his parents, which is probably affecting him mentally. And maybe that’s why he is thinking that Matt is his enemy instead of his former friend/lover. Moreover, he accuses Matt of draining his own aquarium, imagining the phone calls, drawing the Satanic sign himself, and confessing to Robert about his relationship with Bret (and then assuming that it’s Bret who has outed them to Robert). Mind you, earlier in the episode, Bret associated his paranoia with his sense of isolation and fear; so, maybe he isn’t actually criticizing Matt; he’s criticizing himself. Bret advises Matt to stay away from Robert and then he tries to comfort him too, but Matt rejects all that and orders Bret to leave his house; which Bret does.

Bret Meets Terry

Bret arrives at the Le Dome for his scheduled meeting with Terry. As he is waiting for Terry to arrive, Steven shows up to address the events of the night of the party for Terry’s movie (especially the part where Liz went on an alcoholic rant) and also advises him to make sure that his agenda matches with whatever Terry wants from him. Once Terry enters the club, Steven vanishes like he wasn’t even there. Terry invites Bret over to the table that’s reserved for them and then he starts stuffing Bret with food like he is readying a lamb for slaughter. Eventually, they start talking about movies, but that conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Allan Carr (that’s the fictional version of the real-life producer of Grease and ). Allan claims that he produced Saturday Night Fever but, based on my cursory internet research, Allan only did the ad campaign for that movie and the actual producer was Robert Stigwood; so, I don’t know if this is a false claim from Ryan Murphy and Bret Easton Ellis to ruffle up some feathers (they are infamous for doing that) or if they really don’t have their facts straight. Terry and Allan talk about the latter making Grease 2, which is true. After that, Allan leaves; right when Allan is out of earshot, Terry starts bad-mouthing him and advises Bret to stay away from him.

Terry Asks Bret Some Suggestive Questions 

Terry asks Bret about his novel and he says that it is autobiographical (a very tired meta reference because The Shards is based on Bret’s novel of the same name) and is inspired by the work of Joan Didion. Terry says that, once Bret is done writing, he’ll option for a feature film adaptation; and Bret is really excited about that prospect. Terry then asks Bret about his relationship with Debbie because he wants to make sure that Bret is serious about his daughter. As soon as Bret says that he is doing everything to make sure that Debbie is happy, Terry inquires if Bret is into guys. Bret neither confirms nor denies that he is bisexual. Terry wonders if Thom “swings the other way,” and Bret says something vague, which prompts Terry to yap about how much he likes Thom. When Terry’s yappathon veers into speculation about Bret’s alleged sexual affairs with Thom and Ryan, Bret gets angry and asks him what Liz thinks about Terry’s sexual proclivities. Terry doesn’t give a direct answer but he tries to win over Bret by highlighting the exclusivity of their relationship, which Bret would ruin if he discloses it to Liz or Debbie. To further butter-up Bret, Terry says that he’s gonna tell Steven to stay in touch with him so that he and Terry can collaborate on a movie very soon. Bret thanks Terry for the lunch and it seems like he’s gonna be tight-lipped about this whole matter because he’s desperate for his big break; meanwhile, Terry is aware of Bret’s desperation and he clearly can’t wait to take advantage of it.

Matt Has Been Abducted

Bret meets up with Debbie, Robert, and Thom. Robert starts antagonizing Bret about his lack of enthusiasm regarding his welcoming party and when Bret bites back, both Debbie and Thom are taken aback by Bret’s haughtiness. Susan arrives and immediately drops the bomb that Matt has gone missing. Actually, he has been missing for the past five days. As mentioned before, Matt didn’t exactly live with his parents; he lived in the guest house. That said, Matt had a routine, which was something that his parents (John and Sheila) were aware of, and sometime after he veered off that routine, John found out that Matt was gone. Debbie makes some kinda  odd comment about how irresponsible Matt’s parents are (as if her parents are made of gold), which prompts Robert to say that he hasn’t met his father in the last six months and Bret’s parents have essentially abandoned him and gone on a Europe trip (so nobody there has the right to judge each other’s parents, I guess). Susan addresses the school and tells them about the Matt situation, which probably doesn’t disturb anyone because so many kids have died or disappeared; Matt is another number in that statistic. Later on, Ryan talks to Bret about Matt’s disappearance and he wonders if the cult has a hand in this. Bret says that this could be the work of The Trawler. Susan interrupts their conversation to let Bret know that Matt’s bloodied backpack has been discovered, and Bret probably assumes that that means Matt is still alive.

Matt Is Probably Still Alive

In the ending of The Shards episode 2, when Bret returns home, he finds a cassette in the mailbox with the word “bret” written on it. Bret plays it and hears Matt’s abductor telling Matt to eat the raw fish before him. We get glimpses of a battered Matt pleading with the abductor to let him go as they sit in front of a bonfire that looks like the one that the Riders were dancing in front of. These visuals are probably Bret’s imagination and not an accurate representation of how injured Matt actually is. I mean, yeah, Bret hears the abductor tell Matt to sing the song Year of the Cat while eating the fish and also forces him to answer if he is into men. But there’s no way to say that Matt was drugged with LSD and forced to eat fishes, or that the abductor looks like The Trawler? That has to be something that Bret is imagining, right? Anyway, that audio and the images in his head causes Bret to puke. Why? Because he feels that The Trawler is closing in on him. So far, the murders and abductions were happening way outside Bret’s circle. Matt was loosely acquainted with Bret; hence, regardless of whether he is dead or alive, the threat of The Trawler (or the Riders) feels imminent. Moreover, Bret is probably afraid that this abductor is Robert because Matt disappeared right after he was seen talking to Robert about his relationship with Matt. So, if Robert feels bold enough to abduct and hurt/kill someone so close to Bret, anyone can be next; and eventually, he’ll get to Bret. Are Bret’s assumptions about Robert accurate or absolute nonsense? Let me know in the comments below.

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