Okay, "Run Away," you've got me. Harlan Coben's episodes often feature a pivotal moment like the one in Episode 6, where the major plot development seems too unbelievable to commit to. It's always a surprise, especially something like this, since it isn't immediately clear how the plot can continue without the presence of certain key figures. Then you remember there are only two episodes left, and someone had to pay the price to raise the stakes. Poor Elena.
On the upside, the more personal focus in "The Man I Knew" leads to an incredibly sad conclusion, making it one of the better episodes. Perhaps the best, actually. And, as I said in the previous episode, we now definitely have enough information to put all the pieces together. Well, almost all of them, anyway.
If you're paying attention, you can see it coming. "The Man I Knew" opens with a cozy flashback between Elena and Joel, which is never a good sign. In the present day, Alison is watching her, and she gets in touch with someone to say they have a problem. Before long, Ash and Dee Dee, who have dug up a treasure trove of firearms that the Shining Truth pointed them towards, have a new mission. It doesn't take Poirot to work out what that mission might be.
But you don't expect them to pull it off. Elena is on the front foot for much of this episode. She threatens Alison's assistant with pressing charges for grabbing her on her way out of the office, and he reveals that Alison has a girlfriend named Stephanie. Elena puts Lou to the task of tracking her down, despite remaining reluctant to address anything personal. Alex also gets back to her with information about Kevin Gano.
Elena visits Kevin's house and speaks to a neighbour, who mentions having seen two kids hanging around. She's getting closer. Too close, as it turns out.
Lou ultimately reached out to Elena to clarify that Joel had not been engaging in an affair. She waited for Elena upon her return, providing her with a comprehensive explanation. Remi, Maria's mother, was Joel's friend. She had requested him to be a donor, and he had agreed without truly considering the potential consequences. As Elena was unable to have children, he kept the entire situation a secret to spare her feelings.
After speaking with Lou, Maria dropped the charges and invited both her and Elena for dinner. This revelation brought comfort to Elena, as she now knew that her husband had never cheated on her. She could begin to mourn the man she knew and not be bitter and resentful about the man she had previously believed he was. It was a heartening development, albeit at the wrong time, as positive developments in this stage of a Harlan Coben show often signal impending doom.
And so it proved to be. Elena received a call from "Stephanie," who asked her to meet. But when Elena arrived, it was Dee Dee who met her. She led her to a cabin in the middle of nowhere and into a room with a suspicious-looking sheet on the ground. Ash then revealed himself behind her, holding a gun. Elena closed her eyes and recalled Joel's face as Ash shot her in the head.
As mentioned at the outset, "Run Away" Episode 6 reveals enough information that you can piece almost everything together. Some things are admittedly clearer than others. For instance, it isn't immediately apparent what Luther is frightened of when Isaac and Ruby interview him, but he's definitely frightened of something. We also don't know what Jay is hiding about Ingrid, as he refuses to tell Simon, even when he approaches him in a calmer manner.
However, it's much more obvious what the Shining Truth has been up to. Before her death, Elena had passed on the information she obtained about Kevin Gano, who was also adopted. When Damien's husband, Neil, returned with login information for the ancestry site, Henry, Kevin, and "AC" - which doesn't take a genius to figure out is Aaron Corval - were all listed as half-siblings for Damien.
So, it appears that all of these illegitimate children were conceived through the cult, all re-homed through the same adoption agency, and had now begun to find each other via ancestry websites. There's your key connection.
"The Man I Knew" also reveals, predominantly, what transpired with Paige at Lanford University. And it emerges from an unexpected source. As it unfolds, Professor van de Beek isn't quite the creep everyone has been portraying him as. Sam and Anya ingeniously lured van de Beek with a fake Instagram profile belonging to "Paige," and through his narrative, they're able to trace his whereabouts. Simon goes to confront him, but van de Beek presents him with a deluge of insane harassing emails from Katie. After he rejected her advances, she went berserk and was envious of his connection with Paige, whom he was assisting in transitioning into medicine, purely platonically.
Van de Beek also divulges that the university has a policy of not informing parents about certain incidents in the interest of safeguarding the students. This backfired rather unfavorably in Paige's case, as she informed van de Beek that she had been drugged at a party and awoke in a boy's bed with no recollection of the previous night. She was raped, but didn't wish to report it to the authorities. When van de Beek was obliged to report it to the university, she ceased communicating with him and completely denied it. Shortly afterward, Doug Mulzer, the boy whom van de Beek believes was responsible, was savagely attacked in the gym.
Naturally, Simon recognizes Doug since he encountered him back at Lanford. The theory is that Doug raped Paige, and Aaron attacked Doug on her behalf. Simon conveys this information to Isaac, who's sympathetic but can't act immediately. In private, however, he muses that this makes Paige an even more suspect individual. She was brutally assaulted by Doug and then turned to Aaron as a knight in shining armor, who then himself was revealed to be an abuser. What might that do to a person?
The climax of Run Away Episode 6 reinforces this theory. Cornelius visits Simon at his home and informs him that he witnessed Paige on the night Aaron was murdered. When he inspected the flat, he discovered the body and disposed of the murder weapon. As far as he's concerned, Paige killed Aaron, and he helped to conceal it. Simon isn't convinced. But don't the pieces fit together?
