New detective drama Before We Die premiered on Channel 4 at the end of May, with Lesley Sharp starring as detective Hannah Laing in this remake of the critically acclaimed Swedish crime noir with the same name.

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The OA's Patrick Gibson and Traces star Vincent Regan round out the rest of the Before We Die cast, telling the story of a Bristol-based detective who discovers that her son has been working as an informant in an investigation against a dangerous crime family.

While many will be tuning in every Wednesday to catch the latest instalment of this tense thriller, the whole boxset landed on All4 shortly after the drama's premiere in May so if you've already binged your way through the six episodes, we've broken down the events of the finale for those still a bit confused.

Warning: if you haven't seen Before We Die, we're going to get in some pretty hefty spoilers from now for the whole series.

Before We Die ending explained

In the last episode of Before We Die, we discover that the Mimica's were aware of Christian's connections to the police all along when Bianca secretly shows Christian a video of Sean being tortured at Dubravka's birthday party. In the clip, we see Sean reveal to Zvonomir that Christian is his source, and as Davor begins heading upstairs to search for him, he steals the laptop and escapes out of a bedroom window.

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Meanwhile, the police – led by Hannah and Billy – are beginning their raid on a cabin thought to be used by the Mimica's to store a large shipment of cocaine, smuggled into the country using a large submarine named Krajina. However, just as the team begin to sense something is seriously wrong, Hannah gets a call from Christian, telling her that they've been set up. Seconds after she raises the alarm, the cabin blows up with few police officers making it out in time.

As Hannah lies injured in the surrounding woods, Fran (Nisha Nayar) – who has been watching from afar the whole time – comes to her aid, calls for back-up and pulls a gun on Zvonomir, just to be shot by one of his henchmen.

before-we-die-ending-explained
Channel 4

As for Christian, he makes off with Davor's laptop on foot while the crime family leader pursues him in his flash Range Rover. He drops the laptop but continues running, jumping on a bus to escape Davor and his team. As Davor catches up to him, somehow managing to track Christian on his phone, he boards the bus to find Christian has escaped and left the watch Davor gifted him at the beginning of the series behind.

The day after the explosion, Superintendent Leonard Kane and his team turn up at the cabin, confirming that Tina Carter is dead while Billy is "in a bad way" and Hannah is just about conscious. We then see Marcus being sick by a tree – is this from the shock of seeing the dead bodies of his colleagues or something more significant?

We don't have to wait long to get our answer as we see Davor pull Marcus into the restaurant's back room to angrily berate him about turning up without scheduling a meeting. They argue over Davor killing more of Marcus's colleagues, with Davor revealing that Hannah was secretly investigating the family without Marcus's knowledge.

Marcus and Davor
Marcus and Davor Channel 4

Meanwhile, Hannah fills Kane in on the details of their investigation, explaining that they didn't tell their colleagues as they knew there was a leak within the unit. While Hannah won't reveal the identity of their source, they establish that they need to get their hands on the footage of Billy's torture if their case is to stand up in court.

At the Mimica's, the police begin their search of the house, led by secret mole Marcus, while Hannah finds Bianca at her university building and asks her to pass on anything she hears about Christian's whereabouts. Bianca then tells her that she'd been working with Fran and giving her information about the family's criminal activities.

Marcus and Kane take Davor in for questioning, confronting him with the weapon used to kill both Sean and Stefan. When he tells them to ask Andri Kabashi, a gangster he set up for Stefan's murder, about the weapon, Kane reveals that Andri is dead, having killed himself whilst in custody after being forced to confess to the murder by Davor.

After failing to find any evidence in the Mimica's house and discovering a block of cocaine in Hannah and Billy's safehouse, presumably placed there by Davor, Kane suspends Hannah. In a surprising move, Hannah turns up at the Mimica's house to ask them about Christian, learning that they don't know where he is but that they plan on killing him. Hannah tells an unconscious Billy that Christian is still alive and that there's only one way to save him, at which point Billy wakes up.

Hannah at the Mimica's
Hannah at the Mimica's Channel 4

Marcus meets up with Davor in an underground car park (classic) and tells him that he's in the clear but should lay low for a while, whilst in a different underground car park, Hannah tells Kane that Fran was following her own leads on the Mimica's and to check her files for evidence.

Hannah then gets a call from Christian, telling her that he's alive and they devise a plan to catch the Mimica's once and for all.

They lure the Mimica's, who are tracking Hannah, to a hidden safe house where Christian is secretly living. Hannah gives Christian a getaway bag, including a wad of cash from his father and then drives off but not before she's removed the tracking device and thrown it into a nearby bush.

Christian and Bianca
Christian and Bianca Channel 4

As Davor and his henchmen turn up, Christian flees via the back door into the neighbouring woods. One of Davor's men shoots him in the back but before they can finish the job, a hidden Billy begins firing at them from a faraway sniper point. He manages to shoot all of them before checking on Christian, who was wearing a bullet proof jacket, however an injured Davor quickly stands up and starts to escape. He's met in the woods by Hannah, however, who kills him in one final stand-off.

Hannah and Christian then hug goodbye before he leaves the country with Bianca, while Hannah meets with Kane who says that he found evidence of Sean's torture in amongst Fran's documents as well as proof that Christian was his contact. He promises to keep Christian's identity a secret and reinstates Hannah, asking her to discover who the Mimica's mole within the force is.

What is Krajina?

We found out in episode five that the Mimica's references to Krajina throughout the series related to a huge submarine that they planned to use to smuggle cocaine into the country.

Operation Krajina was devised by the Mimica's to transport enormous quantities of cocaine into the UK using a former military submarine that would be undetected by police and drug enforcement agencies.

Who was the leak?

Marcus
Marcus Channel 4

We found out there was a leak within South Western Police's Organised Crime Unit in episode one when the Mimica's learned that officer Sean Hardacre was investigating their activities.

In the final episode, Hannah's colleague Marcus was revealed to be the mole in Before We Die, turning up at the Mimica's restaurant to confront Davor following the killing of his colleagues. Since Hannah had only involved Billy and Tina in her secret investigation into the Mimicas, Marcus had been unaware of Christian's involvement and so had not been able to keep the Mimica's updated about how much the police knew.

At the end of the series, Marcus's colleagues are still unaware that he's the officer on the Mimica's payroll, with Kane tasking Hannah with uncovering "the b*****d who betrayed us".

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Before We Die continues on Wednesdays at 9pm on Channel 4, or watch the full boxset on All4 now. If you’re looking for more to watch, take a look at the rest of our Drama coverage, or check out our TV Guide.

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