'Before We Die' Recap: Episode 3

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.

Stefan follows Hannah home from the safe house where he saw her leave with Christian and gets her last name and first initial from her mailbox. He later takes photos of her going to the police station.

Perhaps he should be more worried about Christian than Hannah: when Christian arrives home, Stefan’s fiancée Bianca is waiting. She wants to talk, and asks to be invited in. Explaining that she was destined to marry Stefan, having known him since she was 4, she kisses Christian—he’s the one she thinks about. She spends the night.

Bianca is not the only one disappointed with Stefan. Dubravka wanted better for her daughter; she thinks Stefan is a fool. But, she pointedly tells Davor, at least one of my children will be married.

Stefan does tail Christian but doesn’t see him with Bianca. Christian notices and confronts him, but Stefan pretends that he’s just playing around while also prying into Christian’s life. After he leaves, Christian admits to Hannah that he needs a cover story.

This is especially true as Christian grows closer to the Mimica family. Davor invites him to the grand family home, then asks him to rent a fast boat with a 600 mile range. Davor is impressed when Christian doesn’t ask any questions. Billy is upset that Christian didn’t get more details, but Hannah defends her son—he needs to keep his cover.

That’s difficult when the Mimicas have a source inside the police station, who tells them that there was a photo of their restaurant left on the photocopier. While the source doesn’t know of any investigation into the Mimicas, Zvonomir fears there is a secret one.

Billy helps the investigation stay secret by getting the woman who hacked Sean’s laptop for him to heavily encrypt it before he returns it to the police, who then can’t access it.

But Stefan has already uncovered the secret, and reports to the Mimicas that Christian is meeting with a policewoman. The Mimicas don’t necessarily trust Stefan, but hear him out. Davor summons Christian to the house immediately.

Christian calls Bianca to ask if anything weird is going on, but she hasn’t noticed anything. He also warns Billy, who tells him not to panic.

Christian is patted down at the house and shown Stefan’s photos of Hannah. He admits that he knows “Helen” Laing—she’s his mother. She’s an accountant, not a police officer, and was at the station because she has a friend, Marianne, who works as a receptionist there. Davor checks Christian’s phone and finds nothing suspicious—Christian doesn’t have his burner phone on him. A webpage for “Helen” and her firm is found, and a receptionist named Marianne picks up the phone at the station.

Meanwhile, Dubravka visits “Helen” at her office—the safe house, dressed up. Dubravka explains that she’s Christian’s boss, and eventually invites “Helen” to dinner at the Mimica house before leaving.

Davor sends Stefan away, and Christian tells Davor that Stefan thinks he’s in love with Bianca; that’s probably why he is working against him. Davor then orders Stefan to make up with Christian, and Zvonomir punishes Stefan by slamming his fingers in a door.

After Christian’s narrow escape, Tina wants to shut down the investigation. Christian argues for more time, and gets 72 hours.

Hannah and Christian join the Mimicas for dinner at their house. Stefan is hostile, and asks Hannah why she never visited Christian in jail. She says she was ashamed of him then, but is now proud, making meaningful eye contact with her son.

After the dinner, Davor tells Christian that the Mimicas suspect someone is talking to the police. They need to keep “krajina” secret, so that it can make them all—including Christian—rich. He asks Christian if he has ever killed, and tells him he might surprise himself to learn that he has the ability in him.

Billy plants a listening device on the boat Christian rents for the Mimicas after they scan it for bugs, but Hannah fears that they will scan it again, and removes the device. Good thing: Zvonomir does indeed check the boat again.

To reconcile with Christian, Stefan offers to go into business with him. Stefan has placed an enormous bet on a basketball game that he has rigged by cutting in a player on the profits—and threatening him and his wife if he doesn’t go through with it. Christian asks to think about it, but joins Stefan as he threatens his bought but now recalcitrant player.  

Stefan’s bachelor party takes place in a private box at the basketball game. Stefan begins to fear that his player won’t throw the game, and goes down to the court to try to have a word. To Christian’s surprise, Billy is at the game, and goes over to speak to Stefan about placing a bet—he knows from Christian that Davor doesn’t trust Stefan now, and wants to exacerbate the split.

Zvonomir somehow recognizes Billy as a policeman and decides that Stefan must be the leak in the Mimica family. After the game—Stefan is ecstatic to have won his bet after all—the limo takes everyone to a secluded spot, where Zvonomir promises Stefan that a surprise is waiting. Davor is there; he tells Christian that Stefan is the informer, and hands him a gun to kill Stefan.

Christian refuses, but Stefan, in his terror, realizes that he recognized Billy from watching the safe house. He starts to tell Davor that Christian is lying—and Christian grabs the gun from a shaking, scared cousin of the family to kill Stefan and cut off his speech.