Run Away Ending Explained: Who Killed Aaron

While Run Away’s ending might be a little complicated, viewers are at least certainly not going to guess the twist of Netflix’s latest Harlan Coben adaptation. Based on the novel of the same name by blockbuster author Harlan Coben, Run Away is Netflix’s latest successful thriller miniseries.

In recent years, Netflix has enjoyed a successful string of book adaptations, and this fast-paced thriller is no exception. Run Away’s cast of characters includes James Nesbitt as Simon Greene, a desperate father searching for his drug-addicted daughter, Ellie de Lange’s Paige.

After a confrontation between Simon and Paige’s abusive boyfriend, Aaron, Aaron shows up dead, and Simon is the number one suspect. When Paige goes missing, Simon is forced to search for his daughter alone since Simon’s wife, Ingrid, has been left in a coma after being attacked while searching a drug den for her daughter.

Run Away’s Ending Revealed Ingrid Killed Aaron

Gradually, Simon uncovers the terrible truth behind his daughter’s disappearance with the help of Cornelius Faber and Ruth Jones’ Elena Ravenscroft. It turns out that Aaron was secretly the son of Casper Vartage, the leader of a cult called the Beacon of the Shining Truth.

Paige and Aaron’s relationship wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed, as he wasn’t her boyfriend but rather a protector of sorts. He and Paige first connected when he brutally beat up a man who had assaulted her, but Aaron’s own interest in Paige soon grew unhealthy. When Simon finally found Paige, she was in rehab and came clean about everything.

Paige admitted in Run Away’s twist ending that she was the one who killed Aaron in self-defense after he brutally beat her. However, Simon soon finds some holes in this story, and the real truth comes to light. It turns out that Ingrid had tracked down her daughter, and she was the one who really killed Aaron.

Ingrid killed him for beating her daughter, then Paige claimed she did it to hide the truth and protect her mother. However, this wasn’t the end of the revelations. Simon, Ingrid, and Paige were easily able to cover up the murder since the contract killers Dee-Dee and Ash were already killing Vantage’s many sons to ensure they didn’t inherit his fortune.

Dee-Dee and Ash Both Died In Run Away’s Ending

Vartage hired Dee-Dee and Ash to kill the fourteen sons he had with different women over the years, since the aging cult leader knew he was dying and that these men would have the right to inherit his fortune. As such, Dee-Dee and Ash were trying to kill Aaron before Run Away’s story even began.

In a tense shootout between the killers and Paige’s father, Simon got shot, but Cornelius shot and killed Ash, while Dee-Dee was thrown off a balcony. With the two contract killers dead, it was easy for Paige, Simon, and Ingrid to agree that they would claim the hitmen were the ones who killed Aaron. Of course, there was another, brutal twist hidden in Coben’s story.

Ingrid Was Secretly Aaron’s Mother But Never Knew It

While looking through old photos of Ingrid, Simon happened upon one that showed her smiling underneath The Beacon of the Shining Truth’s sign. After confronting Paige, he learned the full truth about her link with Aaron. Through a genealogical DNA testing site, Paige and Aaron had learned they were half-siblings.

Ingrid had a son with Vartae before meeting Simon, meaning she was Aaron’s birth mother. Since she was told that this child was stillborn, she never knew Aaron was her child and ended up unknowingly killing her own son to save her daughter from him.

Paige Was Safe In Rehab Throughout Run Away’s Story

Ironically, the title of Run Away turned out to be a total misnomer as the story of the series unfolded. Paige had not really run away, per se, and she was safer than most characters from the Beacon of the Shining Truth and their hitmen, Dee-Dee and Ash, all along.

Paige was back in rehab throughout the show’s story, and she just didn’t have access to a phone or the Internet to contact her parents. She left rehab when she learned her mother was in a coma, but Ingrid eventually awoke, and the family was reunited.

Who Was Blamed For Aaron’s Death In Run Away’s Ending

The deceased contract killers Dee-Dee and Ash were blamed for Aaron’s death in Run Away’s ending, since they killed all the other offspring of the cult leader. This allowed Ingrid to escape suspicion, and Simon and Paige opted never to share the terrible truth of Aaron’s parentage.

The Real Meaning Of Run Away’s Ending

While Run Away’s twist ending was cleverly constructed, it is tough to discern the show's deeper metaphorical implications. In a way, viewers could read Ingrid as the runaway of the title as much as Paige, since she left Vartage and never learned about Aaron’s survival. As such, she never knew that it was her own son she killed years later.

Will Run Away Season 2 Happen?

Like most Harlan Coben adaptations, Run Away has a fairly perfect self-contained storyline that doesn’t invite much in the way of a follow-up. While season 2 could focus on the impact of the traumatic events of season 1, the death of Elena means that another outing of Run Away would be forced to focus on Simon, Paige, and Ingrid all over again.