Netflix’s new Harlan Coben thriller, Run Away, delivered its most shocking and emotional episode yet with its sixth chapter, “The Man I Knew.” The episode, now available to stream, answered major questions about Paige Greene’s past while eliminating a key character in a brutal twist that changes the entire investigation.
In a dramatic one-two punch, private investigator Elena Ravenscroft met a tragic end just as she was piecing together the deadly conspiracy. Simultaneously, her ally Simon Greene learned the devastating truth about what happened to his daughter Paige at university.
The Truth About Paige’s Trauma at University
The episode provided long-awaited answers about what caused Paige Greene’s downward spiral. Simon Greene, desperate for clues, tracked down Professor van de Beek at Brookebridge University.
Contrary to rumors spread by a jealous student, the professor was not inappropriate with Paige. He was actually helping her with her medical school ambitions. He revealed a horrific incident to Simon: Paige was drugged at a party and sexually assaulted. She woke up with no memory of the night.
“She had no recollection after she woke up in someone’s bed,” Professor van de Beek explained, detailing how Paige came to him distraught but refused to report the crime to authorities.
The professor suspected the attacker was a student named Doug Mulzer. Shortly after the assault, Doug was brutally attacked in the university gym. Professor van de Beek believes Aaron Corval, Paige’s boyfriend, was the masked attacker who sought revenge for her. This revelation recontextualized Aaron’s role in Paige’s life, shifting him from a simple bad influence to a violent protector.
Elena Ravenscroft’s Investigation Comes to a Dead End
While Simon learned about his daughter’s past, Elena Ravenscroft was closing in on the conspiracy linking multiple murders. She confirmed that the murder victims—Kevin Gano, Damien Gorsch, Henry Thorpe, and Aaron Corval—were all half-brothers connected through an ancestry website. They were all adopted through the same agency, and someone was systematically killing them.
Elena also received personal closure. Her tech expert, Lou, revealed that her late husband, Joel, did not have an affair. He had secretly donated sperm to a friend who wanted a child, and he hid this from Elena because she was unable to have children. This news brought Elena peace, but it arrived just as her investigation made her a target.
“I did find it quite scary to shoot,” actress Ruth Jones said about filming her character’s final scene. “I’m facing Dee Dee, and then I have the realization that Ash is there… he’s holding this gun”.
A Fatal Meeting and a Shocking Death
The cult enforcers, Ash and Dee Dee, received a new mission from their handlers at The Shining Truth: eliminate Elena Ravenscroft. Posing as “Stephanie,” the girlfriend of adoption agent Alison Mayflower, Dee Dee lured Elena to a remote cabin.
The scene was tense and deliberate. Elena entered the cabin, noticed a plastic sheet on the floor, and realized her fate. Ash appeared behind her with a gun. The episode ended with the sound of a gunshot from inside the cabin, confirming the death of a central character just two episodes before the series finale.
Series creator Harlan Coben explained the narrative choice, noting that killing off a beloved character raises the emotional stakes for the audience.
New Suspects and a Family Confession
With Elena gone, the suspicion around Aaron’s murder intensified. Cornelius Faber, the Greene family’s neighbor and friend to Paige, visited Simon with a shocking claim. He confessed that he saw Paige on the night of the murder and later found Aaron dead in the flat.
“Cornelius came to see him, and told him that he had hoped the police would simply give up on Aaron’s case… He was certain that Paige killed Aaron, and was trying to protect her”.
Cornelius admitted he disposed of the murder weapon to protect Paige, leaving Simon to grapple with the possibility that his missing daughter might be a killer. This confession, paired with the revelation of Paige’s trauma, painted a complex picture of her potential motives.
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The Larger Consiracy of The Shining Truth
Episode 6 made the broader conspiracy clearer. The murdered men were all illegitimate sons of Casper Vartage, the dying leader of The Beacon of the Shining Truth cult. The cult’s rules stated that his wealth and property must be divided among all his male heirs.
To prevent these unknown sons from claiming their inheritance and undermining the cult’s future, Vartage ordered them killed. Ash and Dee Dee were the hired killers carrying out this mission, which explains why their targets were all connected through DNA and adoption records.
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