Harlan Coben’s ‘Run Away’ Episode 2 Recap – I Don’t Trust Anybody

After the premiere of Harlan Coben’s Run Away introduced a bunch of seemingly unrelated characters and subplots, it’s only right that Episode 2, “Tattoos While U Wait”, continues to knit them together into an increasingly demented narrative tapestry. There are plenty of additional clues here, a couple of red herrings, and plenty more lingering mysteries to try and piece together, so let’s just get on with that and stop beating around the bush.

As before, everything’s grouped together for convenience, which means some of the reveals are out of chronological order, so make sure you’re paying attention! Run Away has a habit of dumping tons of twists into the final cliffhanger montage of each episode, but I’ve slipped most of them into their relevant sections instead of bunching them all up at the end. Convenient!

The Aftermath

You’ll recall that Ingrid just got shot. The other gunshot we heard didn’t hit Simon, as the editing implied, but instead Luther, the gunman. Who shot him is left mysterious for now, as Ingrid is rushed to the hospital, followed closely by Simon. She’s successfully operated on and left in an induced coma, to be carefully tended to by her colleague and “friend”, Jay Stanfield.

Isaac and Ruby, meanwhile, investigate the crime scene. The former is adamant that Simon is guilty to an extent that borders on being suspicious, but it’s hard to deny that he keeps finding himself in increasingly troublesome places for a humble financier. He’s the prime suspect in a murder, and now his wife has just been shot by a drug dealer’s assistant. There are no such things as coincidences in Harlan Coben’s shows.

Ash and Dee Dee’s Next Victim

The titular “Tattoos While U Wait” is the venue for Ash and Dee Dee’s next murder, this one disguised as a simple robbery. The victim’s name is Damien. Ash shoots him while he’s getting into his car and liberates him of a few personal effects, creating the right impression, but Dee Dee arrives on the scene and argues that this shooting is too similar to the previous shooting. While they’re bickering, a witness steps out of the tattoo parlour and sees Dee Dee’s face.

Ash gives Chase and eventually corners the bystander, executing him. The body count is already rising at an alarming clip, even by the usual standards, and these two still have plenty more targets to get to. However, what might be more important is the targets they have already visited. Someone we know, perhaps?

Towards the very end of Run Away Episode 2, we see that a picture of Aaron and Paige is among Ash and Dee Dee’s hit list, implying that they were the ones who killed Aaron. But what did they do with Paige? A question for another time.

Elena Finds Her Way to Simon

Thanks to Lou’s technical legwork, Elena has a new lead to follow in Henry’s disappearance. She goes to Sebastian and asks her about Paige Greene, whom he recalls as a girl that Henry was chatting with, though he was also suspiciously defensive about when pressed. Sebastian also gives Elena something suspicious he found in Henry’s room — a flyer for Tattoos While You Wait, containing a mobile number.

Armed with her next port of call, Elena also gets word from Lou — whom she’s being secretive with regarding her “new case” stalking a vegan woman — that Paige’s father, Simon, was recently a viral sensation for beating up a drug addict, and also reveals that Paige recently sent Henry an email. If nothing else, the two were definitely in semi-regular contact.

But why would Henry be so defensive about that? Don’t worry, we’ll get there. At the end of the episode, Simon and his new pal Cornelius rush back to Aaron’s flat, since apparently there’s a woman in there, and that woman turns out to be Elena. Roads are about to converge.

That Can’t Be Standard Police Procedure

Before this, though, Simon is approached by Ruby and Isaac in the hospital, since they’re understandably keen to learn what happened in the basement. Through flashback, we know it was Cornelius who shot Luther, but Simon doesn’t mention this. Luther is alive anyway, since the bullet only clipped him in the shoulder — as a matter of fact, he’s down the hall, and Isaac wants Simon to make a formal ID. I’m pretty sure it isn’t the done thing for a police officer to walk a suspect right into his potential victim’s hospital room — Isaac still thinks Simon might have shot Luther — but let’s not quibble over details.

Isaac remains weirdly obsessed with Simon being guilty — he thinks that Luther being scared of Simon further incriminates him. He also clearly recognises Cornelius when he’s brought up, but he doesn’t say anything about that relationship (for now). He has other avenues to pursue, such as Jay. Ruby notices that he seems unwilling to leave Ingrid’s side, in a way that probably constitutes a little more than a doctor’s reassuring bedside manner. Friends with benefits, maybe?

This becomes more important as we progress, since witnesses suggest Jay was arguing with Ingrid on the night of Aaron’s murder. That evening — Isaac and Ruby are in a relationship, by the way — CCTV footage reveals that Ingrid left the hospital on the night of Aaron’s murder, despite Jay having said that she was working the same shift with him all night. He’s covering for her. But why?

Money Talks

Money becomes a pressing concern in two subplots in Run Away Episode 2. The first involves Rocco. Cornelius agrees to help Simon track him down, which isn’t especially complicated since he’s staying with his mother, Maisie, whom Cornelius knows personally. But Rocco isn’t the altruistic type. He doesn’t know where Paige is; the last time he saw her, he denied her a fix on account of her having no money to pay for it, and sent her on her way. But he could probably find her — Simon incentivises him with the offer of fifty grand in cash if he finds out where she is.

And this brings us to Sam. “Tattoos While U Wait” doesn’t reveal why he’s in possession of Paige’s guitar, but it does reveal what he intends to do with it — sell it. He does so to an awful guy named Paul, who immediately smashes the instrument up for no reason at all after buying it. Sam tenderly scoops up the pieces and carries them out, implying that he wasn’t exactly relishing the sale of the guitar; he just needed the cash.

This is confirmed later, after Sam is summoned to his mother’s bedside by Yvonne. He makes a bank transfer to the tune of £8K, and Yvonne reassures him that “it’s done”. But what’s done? We’ll have to wait and see.

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• Harlan Coben’s Run Away Review
• Harlan Coben’s Run Away Episode 3 Recap