#charlie strand

The Disappearance of Coralee Strand
Updated: 8/16/16

SPOILERS THROUGH 2x12


1. Richard Strand’s wife, Coralee, disappeared under suspicious circumstances in 1997. (1x02)

2. The couple was on the way to Big Sur, and had stopped at a gas station. (1x02)

3. It was later revealed that Coralee disappeared after an argument. (1x11)

4. Strand went missing for five days after her disappearance. (1x03)  

5. Strand was the main suspect for a time, but was eventually cleared. In addition, Strand assaulted a psychic who was hired to look into Coralee’s disappearance. (1x03)

6. She was certainly hiding something big from Strand before her disappearance– he describes it as “systematic. Hotels, motels, secret meetings.” (1x11)

7. Coralee’s father believe Strand murdered Coralee. Her mother does not, and believes her daughter to be alive due to a postcard she received. (1x03)

8. Coralee had actually been featured on PNWS through found tape collected around the time of her disappearance, in a segment entitled, “Love on Tape: Sound Audio on the Topic of Love.” The tape was found in 1997 by triathlete Carl Harrison, but not sent to PNWS until 15 years later. At the end of the segment, she asks, “Warren?”(1x05) This may be a reference to Warren Beauchamp, a locksmith (1x09), or perhaps Thomas Warren, who Strand believes “had something on Coralee.” (2x03)

9. There is mounting evidence to show that Coralee is indeed alive: a postcard to her parents (“Thinking of you,” 1x04), a cryptic, computerized voice message to the station (“Richard Strand. Please don’t worry. It’s Taddycoram Dickens. I left you something beside the white chickens.” 2x05), and a book cipher message left on the back of a painting in their honeymoon suite (“Leave me. Find Advocate. Simon Reese.” 2x07/2x08).

10. Tina Stevenson of Lake Tahoe has confirmed that the woman she knows of as Lisa Graves is in fact Coralee Strand (1x10), and was verifiably alive as of 1x12. Lisa Graves is the name of Coralee’s college roommate. (1x11)

11. In 2x05, Coralee’s birth name was revealed to have been Harriet. Strand knew that the “Taddycoram Dickens” message was from Coralee because Taddycoram’s real name was Harriet. Coralee changed her name in high school.

12. Coralee may also have been involved in the cult of Tiamat, as she wore a ring with a sigil that had the power to either call or bind a figure of the Pilori. Strand first noticed the ring when Coralee was admitted for an emergency appendectomy in Prague. She was angry that it had been removed. (2x09)  For more on the sigil, see The Cult of Tiamat.

13. When Richard Strand disappeared for five days, his daughter, Charlie, was with him for four of them as he searched for her. (1x09) Though Charlie regards Coralee as her mother, she was not Charlie’s birth mother, who was Canadian (104). After her return, Charlie had little to do with her father, telling Coralee’s parents that she no longer had a father. (1x04) At one time, she petitioned for emancipation, and is not currently in contact with her father. She does say that Coralee’s parents, the Jacobsons, are not the most reliable character witnesses regarding her father. (1x08) Although Charlie was located in Italy in 1x08, she may have returned, per her conversation with Alex in 1x09 (”How was Italy?”). Her current whereabouts are unknown. When questioned about what caused her estrangement from her father, she is repeatedly evasive, telling Alex to ask Strand instead. Strand’s response is that he told Charlie that Coralee had been having an affair, and she had reacted “badly.” (1x10)

14.  In 2x11, Thomas Warren attempted to set a meeting with Nic and Alex. After some clarification, Strand is allowed to come to the meeting, but no recording devices are allowed. As they are about to go in, they see a big security team heading their way, armed with guns. Just before the security team closes on them, Coralee shows up and (ostensibly) rescues them. She says, “get into the van if you want to live.” Richard does not respond with surprise, leading the listener to believe that he’d known about Coralee’s survival for some time, and that she may have in fact been the female “friend” he referenced working with in 2x08. How long Richard has been in contact with Coralee is currently unknown. 

15. The finale of season 2 (2x12) is dense with more information regarding Coralee’s disappearance. Coralee and two of her associates, a man and a woman, take Alex and Strand to a safehouse that Alex thinks is an AirBnB. She and Strand have a conversation in the bedroom, then Coralee leaves.

In information relayed by Richard after her departure, we find that during their marriage, she had been working or “some kind of shadow corporation” led by the Advocate, who she never met, only speaking with Thomas Warren. Her job entailed being a “watcher,” reporting Strand’s whereabouts, and, most importantly, keeping him safe. Coralee admits that she fell in love with Richard, prompting her to protect him from her own organization, as well as another entity. [Ed note: she specifically says “both sides” but does not specify who those sides are.] At that point, her organization kidnapped her, and it seems she escaped and has been on the run from her handlers since. 

Coralee has long been watching Richard, protecting him. Richard had been receiving some messages from Coralee for some time prior to the reveal that she was alive, but does not seem to have actually been in contact with her face to face.

Alex asks Richard an open-ended question about his marriage (”So, did she… was your marriage…?”) to which he replies, “No, it wasn’t.” Whether she was asking if his marriage had begun organically through a love match, or if Coralee had been tasked with marrying him and fell in love later is unclear. Still, Alex thinks that Coralee still loves Richard, and he responds that it is “not a consolation,” and that he doesn’t think he’ll see her again. 

Here is a transcript of the conversation that concerns her disappearance.

Strand: I haven’t fully processed it all. Not yet.

Alex: Of course. Maybe you’ll see her again. One day. Maybe?

Strand: I don’t think so. At least… I’m not going to pin any hopes on that.

Alex: Well, if it’s any consolation, I could tell she still loves you.

Strand: It’s not. 

Alex: Right. Of course not. 

Strand: But thank you.

Alex (in narration): I wanted to debrief Strand, to ask him what Coralee told him. What happened to her? What was going on? But that could wait. The man had just lost his wife… again. We started driving. We drove through the city for a long time. I think he just didn’t want to be alone that night. A little while later, we ended up back at his place.

Alex: I know it’s been a long night for you, but do you mind if I ask you a few more questions? It can wait if you’re tired.

Strand: Can I offer you a drink?

Alex: Sure, thank you. Thanks. (sighs) So…

Strand: She was a watcher.

Alex: Your wife was a watcher? 

Strand: That’s what she told me.

Alex: And you believe her?

Strand: Yes.

Alex: Okay, so, what does that mean, a watcher?

Strand: She was tasked with reporting my whereabouts, and most importantly, keeping me safe.

Alex: What for? I don’t… I don’t understand. 

Strand: She was some kind of an agent for a shadow organization led by the Advocate. 

Alex: The Advocate? So… do we know who he is?

Strand: She told me that she never met him, or her. She spoke only with Thomas Warren.

Alex: Okay. So, did she… was your marriage…?

Strand: No, it wasn’t.

Alex: Oh.

Strand: She told me that she fell in love with me, and she continued to protect me because of that love. She indicated that she began protecting me from both sides at that point. That’s when they took her. That’s when she disappeared, when she turned on her own organization. She was on the run from her handlers. That’s when she was sending me messages. She told me the podcast was making it harder and harder for her to communicate.

Alex: They were monitoring the show? 

Strand: Yes, they were looking for Coralee.

Alex: Okay, well, that sounds… good, doesn’t it?

Strand: What do you mean?

Alex: Well, not that they took her, or that she ended up running from her own organization, but… she really fell in love.

Strand: She warned me… that the Advocate had been watching me for a long time, and he or her or they are preparing something… big.

Alex: Like what?

Strand: She wasn’t sure.

Alex: Why was she watching you?

Strand: My family.

Alex: What about your family?

Strand: For some insane reason, these people believe my family holds a kind of genetic key to whatever… nonsense they’re preparing.

Alex: What do you mean?

Strand: Coralee believes that Thomas Warren himself is the Advocate, and that he’s been working with the Order of the Cenophus to bring about some kind of… something.

Alex: Did she have any evidence, or connections I could confirm?

Strand: She warned me to stay away from Daiva Corporation. She told me that they believed there was something in my family’s genetic makeup that when the time was right, they could manipulate to achieve some ridiculous end.

Alex: Well, it’s a pretty huge company. 

Strand: Yes, that’s concerning. 

Alex: I’ll say.

16. It is revealed in 2x12 that during the first five days of Coralee’s disappearance in 2017, strand went out into the woods and tried to “rekindle” his psychic ability in order to find her. He then denies he had any psychic ability at all, but was simply distraught beyond reason. He calls this attempt a “momentary lapse of judgement.” (2x12)