Today's your day, thriller fans! The first Harlan Coben Netflix series of the year has finally been released, and boy, has it been a long wait. All eight episodes of Run Away are now available to watch on Netflix, and it’s the kind of binge-worthy drop that clears your schedule without asking permission.
The show’s plot revolves around a devoted father named Simon Greene, whose life is thrown into chaos when his eldest daughter runs away, forcing him into a desperate, all-consuming search to bring her home. In this article, we've decided to break down everything that happens in episode 1. Follow along with our extensive recap below!
Spoilers are ahead from Run Away episode 1.
Simon finds Paige
The first episode opens with a young woman rushing through a college campus before stopping at her dorm room. Inside, she discovers a masked man dressed in black standing silently and staring at her. The scene abruptly cuts to disturbing flashbacks of the same man brutally attacking another man, before the episode transitions into the title sequence.
Once the opening wraps up, the story jumps forward one year. We’re introduced to the protagonist, Simon Greene, his wife Ingrid, and their youngest daughter, Anya. Their son, Sam, is away at university and appears briefly via FaceTime as the family goes through their early-morning routine, getting ready for work and school. While searching upstairs for his keys, Simon receives a cryptic text from a contact named “Dave Divine,” who demands money in exchange for information about someone’s whereabouts.
That person is Paige, Simon and Ingrid’s missing daughter, and the same young woman from the episode’s opening scene. Simon rushes to the location Dave sends him, which turns out to be a park. Sitting on a bench, he watches old videos of Paige on his phone, growing increasingly emotional, until he suddenly hears a familiar voice nearby. It's Paige, and she's busking at the park. She has bruises on her face and hands, and she doesn't look well.
Simon approaches her, but she instantly runs away. He chases after her and tries to get her to come home, but she just runs away again. Suddenly, a man jumps in front of Simon and they get into a physical altercation. People nearby watch and record on their phones. As Paige continues to run away, two men tackle Simon to the ground before the police take him in.
At the police station, Simon meets his lawyer, Jessica Kinberg. During this scene, we find out that the young man Simon attacked in the park is Paige's boyfriend. Jessica shows Simon a video of his fight in the park that's going viral before asking him questions. Simon shares with her that the last time he saw Paige was six months prior, when she came back home. However, she was acting erratically and they had to let her go. Still, Simon made it his mission to find her and bring her back home.
After returning home, Simon checks his phone and sees multiple messages coming through. They're all about the viral video. Ingrid is informed about the situation at her job, and Anya learns about it at school while scrolling through social media. They confront Simon later that night at home.
PI Elena Ravenscroft takes on a case of her own
When we’re first introduced to private investigator Elena Ravenscroft, she’s in the middle of abducting a dog from a mother and daughter. Moments later, she contacts the mother, revealing that she has the dog and arranges a meeting to return it. She arrives at the woman's vegan restaurant, and everything seems to be going well. But for some reason, Elena is suspicious of the woman. Elena then receives a phone call from a man named Sebastian Thorpe, who asks for her assistance in finding his missing son.
She arrives at his house, and they discuss the case. The missing boy’s name is Henry, and he’s 21 years old. According to Sebastian, Henry has been missing for six days. On the day he disappeared, he sent Sebastian a text claiming he’d be gone for two weeks with a few friends. Sebastian also tells Elena that Henry has a history of run-ins with the law due to drug possession. On top of that, their relationship had become strained, largely because Henry disapproved of his father being married to a younger woman.
While Henry has disappeared for days at a time before, this is the first time he’s ever sent a message explaining where he was going. That sudden change in behavior is exactly what makes Sebastian suspicious that something is seriously wrong. Elena then vows to help find him.
Later, Elena goes back to the vegan restaurant. She calls up her tech expert, Lou, and shares what she found on Henry's social media page. Apparently, someone commented on his last post that they couldn't wait to see him. However, the user's profile is private. Elena asks Lou if she can dig a little deeper and see if there’s any way to uncover who the mysterious commenter is before ending the call. We then see Elena taking pictures of the restaurant's owner, aka the woman whose dog she kidnapped and then returned. Seriously, what's her problem with this woman?
Aaron ends up dead
Later on in the episode, we're taken to Paige's boyfriend's house. We find out his name is Aaron Corval, and he's been brutally murdered inside his home. Detectives Isaac Fagbenle and Ruby Todd are on the case, and they think Aaron knew his killer. Since Paige was the last person seen with him, she's their main suspect at the moment.
However, the detectives eventually get a hold of Simon's viral video. Now, he's become a potential suspect in the case. The two detectives arrive at Anya's school on parents' evening to confront Simon about his whereabouts at a certain time the previous night. Simon is confused about why they're questioning him, so the detectives are then forced to inform him of Aaron's death.
At the police station, Fagbenle and Todd take Simon in for questioning. They grill him hard about his whereabouts the night of Aaron's murder. But despite their intense interrogation, they’re unable to find any concrete evidence tying Simon to the crime. In this scene, we also learn that Paige is a drug user.
As they leave the police station, Jessica warns Simon that he needs to carefully account for his movements on the night of Aaron’s murder. Since the police aren’t letting any detail go unchecked, any misstep could make him a person of interest in the case.
Elsewhere, we see a man and a woman sitting in a car. They're watching a house across the street. A car pulls up to the house, and a man gets out. As he's messing around in the garage, the man who was in the car across the street approaches him and fatally shoots him. Who are the man and woman, and why did they just kill a seemingly innocent man?
Simon and Ingrid search for Paige together
After returning home from the police station, Simon calls Sam to fill him in on everything that’s happening. While Sam panics over the situation, Simon does his best to calm him down before they end the call. Later, Simon and Ingrid go for a walk outside, where he shares with her what he’s learned about Aaron’s murder from his lawyer. Apparently, Aaron was mutilated. Whoever killed him cut off three of his fingers as well. Now there's a belief that maybe it was a gang-related murder, but there's no proof.
This horrifying detail only strengthens Simon and Ingrid’s resolve to find Paige and bring her home safely. What's their first plan of action? They decide to sneak into Aaron's house at night to see if they can find any clues to where Paige could've gone. While there, they meet an old friend of Paige's named Cornelius.
He tells them that two nights before Aaron’s death, he had run into Paige on the stairs. She had blood on her face and was desperate for a drug fix, so she headed to a nearby dealer named Rocco. He runs his operation out of the basement in the building next door to Aaron’s house. Aaron used to work for him. Cornelius tells Simon and Ingrid that that was the last time he saw Paige.
He then shares where Rocco's spot is. Simon and Ingrid arrive at Rocco's place and ask him about Paige's whereabouts. However, Rocco is evasive and uncooperative. Simon then tells him that he'll give him a large sum of money in exchange for information, but their conversation is interrupted by a man who enters the room with a gun. His name is Luther.
Elsewhere, the mysterious man and woman who killed the guy in his garage earlier in the episode set their car on fire. Perhaps to destroy evidence and cover their tracks? Meanwhile, Elena receives a text from Lou about the person who left a comment on Henry's Instagram page. The person is revealed to be Paige. What?! The episode then cuts to Sam in his university dorm. He has Paige's guitar. That's weird. Could she be secretly staying with him?
The episode then cuts back to Rocco's place. Luther shoots Ingrid, and Simon rushes to her side. As he puts pressure on her wound, the gun goes off again, and the episode ends here.
You can stream Run Away on Netflix right now.