Netflix’s Run Away Makes One Thriller Mistake That Ruins Its 10/10 Potential

While Netflix’s Run Away might be the streaming service’s number one show, this doesn’t change the fact that author Harlan Coben’s latest thriller adaptation needed to make one major change to improve its story. Harlan Coben has reliably provided Netflix with a string of compelling, twisty thrillers over recent years, and 2026 has already proven no exception.

2026’s new thriller series Run Away beat Stranger Things to the streaming service’s top spot, proving that viewers truly can’t resist a new mystery from Coben. Based on the author’s novel of the same name, Run Away follows James Nesbitt’s Simon and Minnie Driver’s Ingrid as they search for their estranged daughter, Paige.

After Simon assaults Paige’s boyfriend, Aaron, and Aaron later shows up dead, Simon soon becomes the chief suspect in his murder. However, Paige is still missing, and the truth about Aaron’s death is hidden with her. Thus, it seems like Ingrid and Simon will need to work together to solve the case and clear Simon’s name.

Ingrid Shouldn’t Be In A Coma For Run Away’s Story

The above paragraph specifies that it "seems" like this because Simon ends up being the only one to investigate Paige’s disappearance and solve Aaron’s murder, since Ingrid spends almost the entirety of Run Away in a coma. This helps hide Run Away’s twist ending, but it is otherwise a clumsy plot device that holds the thriller back from true greatness.

From hereon out, major spoilers are required to discuss the events of the series. In Run Away’s ending, Paige and Simon finally meet by Ingrid’s bedside in the hospital. It turns out that Paige was safe in rehab all along, but didn’t have access to a phone or the Internet.

Alone with her father, Paige admits that she killed Aaron in self-defense. Simon soon pokes holes in this explanation and discovers that, in reality, Ingrid killed Aaron for assaulting Paige and covered up the crime by making it look like a gang-related murder. Fortunately for Simon, Paige, and Ingrid, there were perfect fall guys available.

Two contract killers, Dee-Dee and Ash, had been employed by cult leader Charles Vartage to kill his numerous sons lest they inherit his fortune upon his death. Since Aaron was one of the cult leader’s sons, Simon and Paige convincingly claimed that he was killed by this murderous duo.

Although Vartage, the leader of the Beacon of the Shining Truth cult, was Aaron’s father, it was only in the finale that viewers learned the identity of his mother. Unbeknownst to herself, Ingrid was Aaron’s birth mother, as she had a child with Vartage while involved with the cult before she met Simon.

Since she thought that her child was stillborn, Ingrid had no way of knowing she had killed her own son to protect her daughter. Simon and Paige opted not to tell her, bringing Run Away’s dark story to a close. However, this plot would have been far stronger if Ingrid were the one doing the investigating.

Run Away’s Big Twist Works Better With Ingrid As Its Star

Yes, viewers would likely have found out that Ingrid was the one who killed Aaron sooner if she hadn’t spent most of the series in a coma after getting shot while investigating a drug den. However, the discovery of Aaron’s real parentage would be far sadder if Ingrid weren’t off-screen and unconscious for most of the show.

If Driver’s heroine had been the lead instead of a glorified supporting character, the tragic similarities between her and her daughter would have been more pronounced, and the fate of Aaron would have felt more poignant. Like Paige, Ingrid ran away when she was a young woman, although she joined Vantage’s cult while her daughter struggled with addiction.

These contrasts could have formed the basis of Run Away’s twisty story, as Ingrid searched for her daughter and came to terms with her decision to kill Aaron. Furthermore, the emotional impact of Aaron’s true origins would have been outright devastating if Ingrid had learned the truth after she killed him, instead of her husband finding out what happened.

Run Away Wasted Ingrid To Focus On Paige and Simon

Taking Ingrid out of the coma would have allowed Run Away to focus on Ingrid’s desperate search for her daughter, which would make the revelations about her secret son so much sadder and more shocking. In trying to save her daughter, Ingrid ended up dooming her son, and the show’s protagonist never even found this out in the series.

Since the show is mostly about Simon looking for Paige, the generational cycles of trauma between Ingrid and Paige were largely unexplored for much of its runtime. While Run Away season 2 might happen, the reality is that it is already too late for the show to redeem this mistake.

Viewers now know the truth about Ingrid’s decision to kill Aaron, and her coma meant that she was barely involved in uncovering the dark mystery at the show’s core. In contrast, a version of Run Away wherein Ingrid is the main character would have allowed Driver to shine while also deepening the show’s emotional impact.