'Before We Die' Recap: Episode 2

Before We Die airs Sundays at 9:00 pm and is available to stream. WTTW Passport members can stream the whole show now. Recap the previous and following episodes.

Sean’s murder has turned the investigation into his disappearance into a police priority, but Hannah, Billy, and Tina still fear a leak. Tina feels she must tell her boss about Sean’s inside source Issy, but Hannah and Billy convince her to wait and let them continue their own investigation separately, so that it is not compromised by the leak in the police. Billy gets a safe house for them to meet in—a step up from the police station parking garage.

Using photos from Sean’s laptop, Billy and Hannah brief Tina on the Mimicas, the Croatian family that Sean was surveilling when he was killed. Most of their family and neighbors were killed during the Bosnian War; the survivors are the matriarch Dubravka and her brother-in-law Zvonomir; Dubravka’s daughter Bianca, who is dating the recently released from jail Stefan; and Davor, the head of crime for the family. Sean has photos of Davor with a man suggesting that Davor is gay, but the rest of the family seems to be unaware.

Davor orders Stefan to collect a shipment and then to meet with an “Andri” on his behalf—and to take Hannah’s son Christian, who works at the Mimica family restaurant, with him. Christian tries to learn more about the Mimicas’ operations from Stefan, to continue to feed information to the police as Issy. Andri is an Albanian who offers a way into the cocaine trade in England—and through him, the Mimicas have a way to “krajina.” Stefan won’t elaborate on what krajina is, other than that is a grand scheme of Davor’s, and “our past and our future.”

The shipment Davor needs collected is cannabis, and it’s hidden in a shipment of fish, to Stefan’s disgust. He refuses to do the work of gathering it, so Christian does instead, earning the gift of an expensive watch from Davor.

Christian texts Hannah as Issy about the coming meeting with Andri at a bowling alley, and she decides to sit outside lest her source need protection. She tries to make contact—and discovers to her horror that Issy is her son. Police sirens go off and Stefan rushes Christian away, but the sirens had nothing to do with them.

Hannah goes to the police station, gasps to Billy that Issy is Christian, and collapses from a panic attack.

At the safe house, Billy updates Tina, who decides to pull the plug on the operation. But Hannah has been unable to reach Christian to tell him to remove himself to safety.

He is close to danger. He and Bianca are growing close and nearly kiss, but he pulls back, knocking his jacket to the ground in the process and revealing his two phones (one is his “Issy” burner phone). Bianca asks about the two phones, but then Zvonomir enters and Christian quickly picks them up and rushes to leave the restaurant.

When Christian next comes in to the restaurant, the Mimicas are celebrating: Dubravka has given her blessing to Bianca and Stefan to marry. But Davor is missing, and they realize that no one has seen him for a while. Bianca has a phone number that might be a lead, and Christian offers to follow it. Zvonomir gives him a car—and a gun.

The number is for a man with whom Davor has hooked up. He went to a gay club with Davor the previous night, but Davor got into a fight with a drug dealer after criticizing the ketamine he was selling as poor quality and overpriced. (Davor’s lover neglects to mention that he spiked Davor’s drink with said ketamine.) Davor disappeared after that.

Christian gets a name and description of the dealer, and recognizes him, perhaps from his former life dealing drugs. He goes to a sort of trailer park brothel and sneaks through it to find a drugged Davor being taken advantage of. Brandishing his gun, Christian spirits him away, shooting a pursuer’s foot in the process.

Davor gives Christian money to buy himself a suit. You work for me now, he says. He asks where Christian learned to handle a gun, and Christian claims it’s just from playing video games. Christian also finally decides that he’s ready to talk to his mother.

Hannah fears for Christian’s safety and doesn’t want him to continue informing on the Mimicas, but Billy tells her that she might not be able to stop him. Billy suggests that he take over Christian as a contact, leaving Hannah involved unofficially; if anything gets out, Billy can claim that Hannah didn’t know about Christian.

Meeting Christian in a remote area, Hannah warns her son about the danger he faces, but he wants to continue on behalf of Sean. He has even bought a recording device hidden in a pen, to use when he drives Davor to a meeting with Andri that evening.

Hannah and Billy wait outside the meeting. Davor tells Christian to stay in the car, but he doesn’t take the coat into which Christian has slipped his recording device, so Christian follows him inside. He gets a recording of the meeting, during which Davor and Andri outline a plan to flood the market in southeastern England with cocaine.

It’s strong evidence, and Billy tells Christian to extricate himself from the Mimicas: the police can take it from here. But Christian refuses, telling Billy and Hannah to give the recording to Tina in order to convince her that he is a valuable source and that she shouldn’t end the operation. He’ll have more evidence soon, he promises.

As he leaves the safe house, followed by Hannah, Stefan watches from a car.