Warning: spoilers for The Getaway of Harlan Coben upcoming.
For those of us who have decided to sit on the couch all New Year's Eve: Netflix prepared the perfect gift for us. Eight-episode miniseries The Getaway of Harlan Coben is the first original project of 2026 to be released, and since it's Harlan Coben, you know it's going to be exciting.
Where's Paige?
In episode 8 we get a very simple explanation for this. Paige (Ellie de Lange) was in rehab for the entire duration of the show. Simon sees her making noise in the park in episode 1, and Paige explains that she was in rehab before and after he spotted her.
In an attempt to finally break free from boyfriend Aaron's (Thomas Flynn) cycle of drug addiction, Paige turns to her mom Ingrid (Minnie Driver) for help. Without telling Simon (or anyone else for that matter), Ingrid sends Paige to the rehab center she attended as a child.
When Ingrid falls into an induced coma after being shot (more on that later), Paige eventually finds out what happened and heads to the hospital midway through episode 8.
In short, this means Simon is running around desperately trying to find answers for no good reason. But hey, what's the fun in that?
Who killed Aaron?
This is where things get interesting. In the same episode, we learn that Ingrid was actually responsible for Aaron's murder, but she was unable to admit the truth due to the coma she induced.
In earlier episodes, Sergeant Fagbenle (Alfred Enoch) found CCTV footage of Ingrid leaving the hospital, where she also worked before the shooting, on the night of Aaron's murder. She was spotted walking to a nearby restaurant to order the usual takeaway for her shift, but was never seen leaving.
One of Ingrid's colleagues provided her with an alibi which showed that she was alone with him in her apartment later that night. It seemed that Ingrid was having an affair, but this turned out to be a lie.
Instead, Ingrid was able to shake off her colleague after he followed her and headed to Aaron's apartment instead. By this point, she had sent Paige to rehab and knew she would be safe. Ingrid later told Simon that she planned to kill Aaron “the moment I found out he beat her.”
Both Page and neighbor Cornelius (Lucian Msamati) briefly attempted to take the blame for Aaron's murder, with police initially believing it was Simon after a video of him beating Aaron in a park went viral on the internet.
Although they were all innocent, two others did intend to kill Aaron but were too late: Ash (John Poynting) and Dee Dee (Maeve Courtier-Lilly).
Wait… who are Ash and Dee Dee?
As we learn throughout the series, Ash and Dee Dee grew up together in a terrible nursing home under the watchful eye of the genuinely evil Mrs. O'Hara. She would burn any child who misbehaved with an iron, and Ash and Dee Dee's sibling relationship is tied together by the abuse they both suffered.
Years later, Ash and Dee Dee found each other again after getting a job. Task? Kill a list of people given to them without explanation. Ash will do anything as long as he can stick to the plan and get paid, but Dee Dee has a deeper connection to what's going on.
At some point after she left Mrs. O'Hara, Dee Dee joined a cult called Shining Haven, which is revealed to be the force behind the murder list. Dee Dee is confident that what they are doing will contribute to the development of Shining Truth, which she firmly believes in. Ash is incredibly skeptical, but wants to do right by the sister he loves.
Unfortunately, it doesn't end well for them. When the pair eventually show up to kill Aaron and find him already killed, they are confronted by Simon and Cornelius, who are in the same apartment complex to meet drug lord Rocco and his sidekick Luther to get information on Paige's whereabouts.
A large firefight ensues, leaving Simon and Cornelius wounded and Rocco, Luther, and Ash killed. Dee Dee chases Simon, shooting him, but the mysterious Mother Ardonia (Geraldine James) appears, pushing Dee Dee off the balcony to her death.
But who is Mother Ardonia and what does all this have to do with the cult?
What is Shining Harbor and where does Aaron fit into it?
Shining Haven is a cult led by a man named Casper, who is considered by many to be the Chosen One. Not only does he share the wisdom known as the “Shining Truth” (though what that truth actually is is never explained), he has two “divine” sons known as the Visitor and the Volunteer.
Their gated and very secure commune has been around for at least three decades, which means the population (including Dee Dee) has grown.
Here's the big secret: although Casper has two divine sons, he also has 14 not-so-divine sons that he tries to keep secret. All of the birth mothers were told that their babies were stillborn and the boys were illegally transferred to the same adoption agency. They all started a new life without knowing where they came from… well, at least until the DNA sites showed up.
Many boys used websites to find out about their half-brothers, but for Shining Haven it was a huge problem. Not only does this expose their illegal activities, but Casper dies. When he dies, his millions will be divided among all his sons… so fewer living sons, more money for the divine two.
This includes everyone on Ash and Dee Dee's kill list, including Aaron, one of the sons. Others include cases that Fagbangle was already working on and a young boy named Henry that private investigator Elena (Ruth Jones) was hired to find. This is what brings all the storylines together and gets Paige into a much bigger mess than she realizes.
Mother Ardonia reveals herself to Simon only after saving his life. She tells him that her son was one of those on the hit list – a young man named Nathan, about whom we don't know much. Ardonia found out about Casper's plans and set out to stop them, and we are inclined to believe that she succeeded in doing this for Nathan.
She says she plans to return to Haven to “rebuild”, although Fagbenle and his team raided the area and saved as many people as possible.
So who ended up dying in all of this?
It's no surprise that Ash and Dee Dee exclude almost everyone from their list. They don't get to Aaron – because Ingrid got to him first – but all the other half-brothers are taken care of. Along the way, they also eliminate Mrs. O'Hara and several rogue witnesses.
They also kill Elena in episode 6, who is lured under the false pretense of following a tip about an adoption agency. It is unclear how Dee Dee manages to intercept Elena's communication, but she poses as Elena's target's girlfriend before Ash kills her in a remote cabin.
Ash and Dee Dee are then both killed in a shootout at the estate, with Rocco and Luther not far behind. Simon and Cornelius survived their gunshot wounds, and Ingrid eventually emerged from her coma.
Are there still secrets that we don't know about?
Unsurprisingly yes. There are other B-plots in the story, including Simon's other children and Paige's university friends. But there are only two that you really need to know about.
First, there's Elena's backstory. She works on Henry's case before accidentally teaming up with Simon, but she is also pursuing another woman who is not mentioned. Elena's husband had died a few months earlier. Run away begins, and she has since learned about the secret child he had during their marriage. She is arrested for breaking into a woman's home, but the truth finally comes out.
Her late husband actually helped her friend conceive a child, not start an affair, something Elena's mother-in-law, Lou (Annette Badland), also didn't know about. The woman asks Elena to meet to talk, but Elena is killed before she gets the chance.
The second is a much more explosive secret. In the final scene of episode eight, Simon finds a photo of Ingrid before they met and puts two and two together conversations he had at Page University. He reveals that Paige and Aaron were not a couple, but in fact found out that they were half-brother and sister.
That's right… Ingrid was one of the mothers in Haven who was told that her baby was stillborn. That is why she needed rehabilitation in her early years.
Paige and Aaron formed a connection through different DNA websites, with Aaron drugging Paige to keep her close and not lose her family again. Ingrid knew nothing about this, meaning that she actually killed her own son. Bet you didn't see this coming.
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