Harlan Coben’s Run Away Recap ‘It Stays With Us’: The Sins of Silence

Run Away Episode 8 (Finale)

Did a mostly talk-y finale stick the landing for Run Away? I would say, yes, and it was mostly because of how it ended. No more secrets, Simon and his wife Ingrid agreed, but he needed to keep a major one from her. Perhaps Simon would have been able to carry the knowledge that Ingrid unknowingly killed her own son. But how long would he be able to bear the thought that his own daughter, the child he loved and wished only to save, drove her mother into killing her brother? Paige went to Ingrid multiple times during her troubles. Not once did it ever occur to her that it might have been important to let her mother know the boy she was always with was not her boyfriend but her half brother whom she found via a genealogy site. This is not to erase Aaron’s culpability in dragging Paige down with him, keeping her addicted to drugs, and later beating her up, becoming the abuser she had so wanted to feel safe from. Don’t tell Dad, Paige told her mother when she went to her for help. Don’t tell Mum, Paige told her father when he figured things out and she had no choice but to confess. If Netflix announced that we’re getting another show, this time focused solely on Paige as a chaos agent, intentional or unintentional, I’d be all over it. 

Paige finally showed up in the finale; she has been in rehab this whole time. I don’t mind it. Paige breaking down, her voice cracking with fear and grief, as she told her father she needed to get back to rehab because even these few hours that she left, she was already feeling the pull of her addiction, was heartbreaking. She was just a kid. She wanted to get better. She was making an effort to get better. She also made some truly poor choices and, as she told Simon, she would have to live with it. Even for someone who did not have to struggle with addiction, the load Paige carried was heavy. 

Since Paige lied to Simon multiple times, let’s try to untangle what happened, as much as we can, and I can’t be 100% certain this is the proper timeline because Paige’s story was not very clear. 

Aaron had a rough childhood. He was abused by Wiley, the man who adopted him. Perhaps it was what drove him to look into his origins, to look for the parents he thought abandoned him. At the same time, Paige, who was looking to switch to medicine and became part of Professor van de Beek’s Family Tree Club, joined a genealogy site. It was through here that Paige and Aaron met and realised they had the same mother. The professor alluded to trouble at home; Simon assumed he was the trouble, since he and Paige had argued, but what weighed in Paige’s mind was likely what she assumed was her mother’s secret.

Paige was raped by Doug Mulzer. Instead of going to her parents, she went to her half-brother. This was probably the January 13th trip, when she borrowed Katie’s car and drove up to Aaron’s parents’ inn. Aaron was furious and attacked Doug. As he beat him, he kept yelling, ‘No one hurts my sister!’ Aaron also got Paige hooked into drugs. Eventually, Paige dropped out of the university. 

What drove Paige to eventually confront Ingrid about having another child, it was not clear. Ingrid did not deny it, but she claimed the baby was stillborn. Paige, who was in the grip of her addiction, did not believe Ingrid. They had a fight and she left the house after stealing some of Ingrid’s jewellery. This was the breaking point for Ingrid, when she told her husband not to look for Paige. This was roughly six months before Aaron Corvall’s death. 

At some point in those intervening months, Paige found the strength to want to go into recovery, and she went to Ingrid. Ingrid took her to the same rehab that Ingrid went to when she was young, before she met Simon. Paige asked her mother not to tell her father because she was frightened of not being able to take the look of disappointment on his face. 

Aaron tracked Paige down, broke into the rehab, and injected drugs into Paige whilst she slept. The next day, Paige left rehab and rejoined Aaron. When Simon saw her at the park, she was in between rehab stays.

They found another half-sibling of Aaron via the genealogy site, Henry Thorpe, and arranged to meet up with them. However, Aaron got jealous and they decided to cancel the meet. This was when Aaron got violent with Paige and beat her up. She ran to Ingrid, who advised her to go to rehab again. Intending to go to rehab, she returned to the flat the next day, and found Aaron dead. Frightened that the police would suspect her, she hid in Aaron’s caravan, where she got high and slept for days. When she woke up, she realised that her mother killed Aaron. She headed to the same rehab centre she has gone to before, and has remained there through most of the story. 

From Ingrid’s point of view, there was just this boy who would not leave her baby girl alone. She went to Jay and asked him to cover for her. He got worried, however, and followed her to the restaurant. This was why Ingrid asked to use the back door of the restaurant, so she could lose Jay. She had heard about a gang killing where three fingers were removed, and she copied that with Aaron. She wore gloves, which was why she had no problem leaving the knife she used. Luther saw her as she left the flat. This was why Luther insisted that shooting her was in self-defence; he was worried she had returned to kill the rest of the Marinduque Estate drug crew. It was notable that Luther did not tell anyone about what he saw, though he must have figured out early on that it was Paige’s mother. Remember that Luther disliked Aaron for how he treated Paige. He had nothing against Paige and might have wanted, as much as possible, to keep what he knew about her mother to himself. That he later participated in shaking down Simon for money, well, that was just business, and Simon did offer money in exchange for Paige’s location. 

It was always curious to me — Why hire Minnie Driver, then keep her character in a coma for most of the season? Outside of budget concerns, story-wise, that only made sense if her being able to participate in the story would give the game away too soon. 

Ingrid’s story about modelling abroad when she was young was a lie. Simon found an old photo of a pregnant Ingrid with the symbol of the Shining Truth behind her. She slept with Casper Vartage. She gave birth to his son, though she was told the baby was stillborn. This baby was Aaron, and Ingrid never found out her son by the cult leader lived. The rehab she sent Paige to was the same rehab she went to after she escaped from Shining Truth.

Though Paige tried to claim to Simon that she killed Aaron, Simon did not buy it, and got the truth out of her. Paige of course did not want Ingrid to know that they knew, but Simon could not help it, he told Ingrid that he knew she killed Aaron. It was a mother’s decision, only, she thought it was just Paige who was her blood in that cycle of violence and despair. When Simon finally figured out the back half of the secret Paige kept, that Aaron was Ingrid’s son, well, it was near the end, and we never got to know if Simon chose to carry that secret or not. He wanted to tell Ingrid, but Paige begged him not to. How would that conversation even go? By the way, our daughter did not tell you that her boyfriend was not a boyfriend, he was your son, and you killed him and cut off three of his fingers? How would Ingrid process that? Simon already struggled with the fact that his gentle physician wife, a paediatrician, calmly planned and executed a murder, and justified that as protection for their daughter. 

It was a belated look into the darkness within the most normal of people, and though I wish we had more of these in the earlier episodes, I would happily take what we got. 

Mother Adiona and the Shining Truth

The cult angle was the driving force of the narrative, and I wish we got to explore more of it. When Casper Vartage was cornered by DS Fagbenle in the wine cellar, he had in his hand a suicide pill, and tried to talk the detective out of arresting him. He said he has lived like a king, he should not die like a pauper. Who was this man who founded a cult and got multiple women — beautiful, educated women — to follow him? What was that ceremony that Dee Dee participated in? Why was Mother Adiona determined to continue Shining Truth, though she was well aware of its excesses and did her best to stop the killings? One of the Shining Truth heirs, either The Visitor or The Volunteer, was her son. How did she feel about his arrest? We had eight episodes, that was enough to create an atmospheric, gripping mystery that addressed all this. 

It was nice to see the Shining Haven get raided by the police, and yes, I listened to the charges DS Fagbenle enumerated. The thing is, I’m not sure he had enough at the time to get a judge to sign off on a warrant. Could someone familiar with UK law clarify, please? Yes, it’s just a tv show, but it’s fun to think and talk about these things. 

Elena Ravenscroft

The incident at the Marinduque Estate was wrapped up quickly. The police, who were already convinced Aaron was amongst Ash and Dee’s victims, thought they were just returning to the scene of the crime. In the middle of the day? The police also bought that Dee fell to her death, since Simon kept Mother Adiona’s direct involvement in saving his life and killing her from the police. It’s things like this that make me think Elena had to be killed off because she would have figured all this out. Somehow, she would have known the full truth, and as a former police officer, she might have felt compelled to share her knowledge with them. 

Elena’s body was eventually found, and it was heartbreaking to see Lou lose her son and daughter in law in a space of a few months. Her one comfort was that she had Maria and her daughter in her life now. She would not be alone. It was nice to see Simon and Cornelius attend Elena’s funeral, along with DS Fagbenle and DC Todd. 

The questions that linger

I saw some comments about how we never found out what caused Anya to be in a wheelchair, and why she did not seem to need it all the time. My best guess is that she suffers from chronic pain, perhaps from her back; she could stand and walk but because of the pain, it was simply more humane for her to use a chair. 

What happened to Henry? Dee answered that when she enumerated what they had done to the half-brothers, they made it look like Henry had run away. Henry is dead, they killed him and disappeared his body. 

I started Run Away expecting a solid B mystery, and that’s what we got. I grumbled on certain parts of these recaps, but I was not disappointed since I knew what to expect. I appreciate that we consistently get these Harlan Coben mysteries, that they are reliable entertainment, that we could just chill and watch them whilst taking a break from the world. Run Away ended on a dramatic high point. Whilst a bit bumpy at times, and it could definitely have used more time to cook in the writers’ room, Run Away is a success. Here’s to patiently waiting for the next one! 

Rating: A-

Episode Title: It Stays With Us

Episode Writer: Danny Brocklehurst

Episode Director: Nimer Rashed

Original Release Date: January 1, 2026

You can view Recap Lab’s full coverage of Harlan Coben’s Run Away via this link.