Major spoilers ahead for Run Away. If you haven't finished the series, stop here.
The Truth About Paige
Run Away's finale delivers the answer Simon has been desperately seeking, but it's not the answer anyone expected. Paige didn't run away from her family—she ran away from something else entirely.
The viral video that started Simon's obsession? It wasn't a cry for help. It was a warning. And by the time Simon understood that, he'd already stumbled into something far more dangerous than a missing persons case.
Harlan Coben's signature style shines through: the truth was hiding in plain sight from episode one, we just didn't know what we were looking at.
Who Is Ash Really?
The show slowly peels back Ash's layers until we see the monster beneath. But here's what makes Run Away compelling: Ash didn't create Paige's problems. He exploited them.
The drugs, the manipulation, the isolation—Ash perfected techniques for controlling vulnerable people. Paige was smart, educated, loved. And still she fell into his orbit. The show refuses to let us dismiss this as something that only happens to "other" people's children.
Simon's desperate hunt to "save" Paige misses the point. By the time he found her, saving her meant something completely different than he imagined.
The Feeney Family Secrets
The ending reveals that the Feeney family's secrets didn't start with Paige's disappearance—they just accelerated it. The adoption papers. The real father. The lies told "for her own good."
Run Away suggests that Paige ran because she discovered her entire identity was built on deception. Ash offered her a different kind of lie—one where she could be someone new. It was still a prison, but at least it was one she chose.
The finale forces Simon to reckon with this: was he searching for Paige, or for the daughter he thought he knew?
What the Ending Means
Run Away ends ambiguously, but not cruelly. There's hope in the final scene—fragile, conditional hope. Paige isn't "saved" in the Hollywood sense. But she's not lost either.
The show's message is uncomfortable: sometimes the people we love make choices we can't understand, and our desperate attempts to "rescue" them can make things worse. Sometimes loving someone means accepting that they need to find their own way back—if they come back at all.