'Before We Die' Recap: Episode 4

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.

Christian is having a panic attack in the wake of Stefan’s killing. He won’t answer Hannah’s worried calls, until he storms into the safe house where Billy has called Hannah to tell her about Stefan’s death—his body was found in the woods by a dog walker. Christian attacks Billy, accusing him of causing Stefan’s death. I was trying to protect you, Billy responds. Hannah finally ends the conflict and sends Billy away.

Hannah tries to comfort her traumatized son, and to learn what happened. When he won’t answer and cries, she realizes that he’s the one who shot Stefan. She defends his action as self-defense, and wants him to leave the Mimicas even if it means having to go into hiding. But once again he refuses; he can’t just disappear, and the police still need him to take down the Mimicas.

Hannah promises not to tell Tina anything about Christian’s involvement with Stefan. She and Billy argue for more time with Tina, who is once again ready to pull the plug but is eventually convinced that the police could catch the Mimicas in the act of smuggling cocaine into Britain. They can have just a little more time.

Christian finally returns to the restaurant, where Bianca tells him that Stefan is in Croatia—Davor told her he went there to disappear, and won’t be coming back. Christian goes to speak to Davor, who is upset that Christian disappeared for a day after Stefan’s death. You need to show character, he tells Christian, because Operation Krajina starts today.

Christian hides a recording device under his collar and heads to a meeting alongside Davor—without updating Hannah and Billy, worrying them once again. They track the location of the meeting via Christian’s phone—which nearly gets him into trouble with the men Davor is meeting, who insist that no phones be present. Christian shakes as he pours drinks for everyone, and the men tell him to leave. Hannah, listening outside the meeting place with Billy via the bug, goes in.

She hears glass shatter in the kitchen and finds Christian having a panic attack in a closet. He rips off the recording device, but then Zvonomir calls for him, so Hannah hides and Christian composes himself, telling Zvonomir he felt ill. Zvonomir insists he return to the meeting, which is wrapping up. After the other men leave, Davor tells Christian that they all had a similar difficult experience when they killed for the first time.

Billy is able to snap photos of the two men with whom Davor met, although he, Hannah, and Christian don’t know details of the meeting since Christian missed part of it. Tina gives them more time based off the pending start of Operation Krajina and also asks them to show their faces at police headquarters—their colleagues are becoming suspicious.

When Hannah arrives at headquarters, everyone is in a contentious meeting. The police have connected the murders of Sean and Stefan, since both were shot with distinctive homemade bullets. They are frustrated with the investigations, feeling that they are being obstructed and don’t have enough information. Billy appears and tries to cast doubt on the connection between Sean and Stefan, saying that Stefan was one of his contacts and that the Mimicas are small fries. He asks for just a little bit more time.

In the parking garage, Hannah and Billy call each other from separate cars to debrief. Hannah praises Billy’s quick thinking—it will misdirect the Mimicas when their police source tells them about the meeting. Someone possibly notices Hannah and Billy talking.

The Mimicas have realized the connection of the homemade bullets and decide to give the police what they’re looking for: they plant a gun in the garage of a fellow drug dealer, and then Dubravka changes the SIM card on her phone and calls the police with an anonymous tip about Sean’s killer. Andri, the Mimica associate that the police arrest, says the gun was planted but won’t say anything else.

Bianca also knows to change her SIM card when making dangerous calls. She goes to the police after hearing a report that a body was found and suspecting it is Stefan. Giving a false identity, she is shown a photo of one of Stefan’s tattoos and lies and says he’s not the man she was looking for. She later calls the police on a new SIM card to tip them off that the body is Stefan, and throws away the SIM card.

Christian finds her crying in the kitchen of the Mimicas’ restaurant, and she tells him that Stefan is dead, asking if he knew. He says no. She fears for Christian’s life too, but then Dubravka appears and forestalls any further conversation.

Later at Christian’s apartment, she asks him not to go with Davor and Zvonomir on the boat they rented to begin Operation Krajina. She offers to make him a fake ID; they could disappear together. He tells her he’s not who she thinks he is.

This is confirmed for her when she overhears two younger members of the Mimica family quietly discussing Stefan’s killing—and mentioning that Christian shot him.

Christian is away on the boat, however. It docks somewhere near Antwerp—Hannah and Billy are tracking it via a bug on the boat. The two men the Mimicas met earlier are there, displaying an arsenal of guns. Billy has met with a contact and learned the men’s identities: they’re ex-Belgian Special Forces who now operate as arms dealers and mercenaries. They’re the kind of people you call to start a war, the contact warns Billy.

When Christian hesitates after being shown the arsenal of guns, Davor tells him that this is where Krajina begins. Christian notices a small submarine and snaps a photo of it. It’s Russian-made, capable of operating in shallow water and carrying enough cocaine to start a turf war in England. It requires a mother ship, and a decommissioned Russian navy vessel operating out of Antwerp fits the bill. Something big is coming.