Spoilers for Before episode 3 are ahead!Apple TV+'s Before episode 3 continues exploring the relationship between Noah and Eli, revealing many interesting details that push the story forward. The psychological thriller Before releases weekly on Apple TV+, following a semi-retired child psychologist named Eli who reluctantly takes on a troubled young boy named Noah as a client. While previous social workers and psychologists thought him to be incorrigible, defiant, and aggressive. However, Eli takes the time to observe and understand the young child in a way few others do, allowing Noah to open up.
Though Before gave Billy Crystal his worst Rotten Tomatoes score in over a decade, the thriller has a lot of exciting elements to offer. The story has a slow-burn pacing, but that doesn’t make the mystery any less compelling. Before’s main characters are easy to emotionally invest in because of the actors’ fantastic performances. Each episode also offers new reveals that continue to build on one another, providing a clearer picture of Noah and Eli’s connection and background.
Noah Nearly Drowns After Remembering His Oldest Memory
The Nurse Unexpectedly Finds Water In Noah's Lungs
In Before episodes 1 and 2, Noah experiences terrifying visions of water seeping down the walls and slowly approaching him. The third episode expands upon this experience. Rather than seeing dark water, Noah starts seeing visions of frozen water after Eli gets him to visualize his oldest memory. It starts on the window, expands to the ceiling, and even freezes the glass of water. The ice is crackling rather than being frozen solid. Noah’s lips turn blue, and his breath becomes visible. Rather than being a one-off vision, he continues to hallucinate the frozen water.
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The horrifying moment where Before blurs the line between real and supernatural is when nurses find Noah with water in his lungs, nearly drowning. The only water in the area was the small glass that froze earlier in the episode. Unfortunately, because they don’t believe anything paranormal is occurring, they place Noah on suicide watch, thinking he’s trying to end his life. Before never shows this happening onscreen, making it seem like something different has happened. Future episodes will need to clarify what actually happened while the nurse was gone and how water got into Noah’s lungs.
Eli And Noah Begin Experiencing Transference And Countertransference
Eli And Noah's Therapeutic Relationship Could Negatively Impact The Child's Treatment
After the incident where Noah tells Eli, “You know what you did,” the child psychologist starts to realize that Noah is experiencing transference – a psychological concept where a client projects their feelings about someone in their life onto their mental health professional. The young boy blames Eli for the bad things that happened in the past, transferring his anger onto the therapist. At least, that’s the way the situation seems if everything occurring is psychological and has no supernatural element. However, there’s also a possibility that he’s experiencing a paranormal element that Eli just isn’t aware of yet.
However, the projection isn’t one-sided. Eli starts experiencing countertransference, or a mental health provider emotionally identifying with a client and their experiences. Eli has a more profound connection with Noah because of the loss of his wife. Transference and countertransference can be used as tools in therapy. While it’s not the first step, the ethical choice is to refer the client to a new mental health provider when transference and countertransference reach such a high level that it prevents the client from progressing in therapy. Despite his own therapist pointing this out, Eli ignores his ethical duty in this situation.
Eli Visits Barbara And Sophie’s House For Dinner
Eli Follows Through On His Promise To Have Dinner With His Family
Following up on his promise during episode 2 of Apple TV+’s Before, Eli goes over to Barbara’s house for dinner. The scene is relatively mundane to start with. However, he soon begins avoiding the topic of his deceased wife, Lynn. Barbara brings up the fact that the realtor reached out to her to sell his and Lynn’s house, but he doesn’t seem open to the idea despite his previous comments on the matter. The entire interaction between the family members in Before episode 3 shows just how dysfunctional they have become since the tragic incident.
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In addition to further solidifying the family dynamic, the dinner with Eli, Barbara, and Sophie helps push forward the storyline for Eli and Noah. When coming over, Eli brought the client file for Noah with all his notes and Noah’s drawings. After dropping the file, Sophie sees the dark drawing made by Noah when Eli asked him to draw his oldest memory.
Looking at it closer, the child therapist sees a tentacle around the victim’s neck, which mirrors the pencil incident with Noah and his classmate.
Though Eli initially thought the picture was Noah hurting another child, Sophie sees a detail that others missed. She tells Eli that the individual is killing the bad thing around the boy’s neck. Looking at it closer, the child therapist sees a tentacle around the victim’s neck, which mirrors the pencil incident with Noah and his classmate. Eli runs out of the house, leaving for the hospital, upon realizing that someone or something hurt his client.
Eli Writes Down A Preliminary Diagnosis Of Dissociative Identity Disorder
Eli Maps Out Parts Of Noah's Psychological Profile
As Noah’s mental health professional, Eli needs to figure out what exactly is occurring psychologically for his young client so that he can provide effective treatment. However, Eli’s symptoms don’t fit exclusively into one box regarding diagnoses. When trying to map out Noah’s psychological profile, he jots down these words and phrases:
- “Transference”
- “Compartmentalized mimicry,” or the imitation of another person but not constantly
- “Selective mutism,” or an anxiety disorder that prevents a person from speaking in certain situations
- “Episodes of aggression with situational amnesia,” aggressive outbursts without any memory of the incident
- “Unexplained second language acquisition”
- “PTSD”
All of these descriptors fit Noah’s characterization in the first few episodes of Before. Combining these symptoms, Eli writes that his preliminary diagnosis for Noah is Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). This mental health disorder, previously called multiple personality disorder, is a complex condition where childhood trauma prevents the brain from forming one complete consciousness. This leads to two or more separate alters (alternate states of identity) which experience gaps in memory. Alters can have different names, histories, mannerisms, genders, and abilities – such as Eli's ability to speak 17th-century Dutch in Before.
Dissociative Identity Disorder is a frequently misrepresented condition that’s demonized in horror movies and thrillers like the controversial movie Split. Hopefully, the creative team on Before will tread carefully if they continue with the DID storyline, using psychological resources to properly represent the stigmatized diagnosis.
Noah Says That Eli Hurt Him
Noah Doesn't Provide Any Details About How Eli Hurt Him
After Sophie points out the details in the drawing, Eli goes to the hospital to speak with Noah. He gets confirmation from Noah that somebody hurt him, but the child is hesitant to identify the individual involved. After Eli promises he won’t get mad, Noah says that Eli hurt him. Though Noah is extremely confident with his statement, there’s a lot of ambiguity about why the child is identifying Eli as the individual who hurt him. He’s already implied this once before, but the child hasn’t explained anything further about his statement.
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It’s possible Noah is transferring his feelings and memories onto Eli, as he mentioned before. Alternatively, the two both have a connection to a mysterious farmhouse, so they might have met before, not realizing it. Eli has been shown to act aggressively, out of control, and not have a full memory of the incident. This would give a more tangible explanation for the accusation. Alternatively, the statement could be connected to a supernatural entity if there’s an upcoming twist to explain other strange occurrences in Apple TV+’s Before.
The Therapist Finally Gets Eli To Talk About The Day Of His Wife’s Death
Eli Makes A Therapeutic Breakthrough By Talking About Lynn's Death
Before episode 3 continues to expand upon the death of Lynn when Billy Crystal’s Eli finally opens up to his therapist about that day. Lynn was living with cancer, but she decided to continue fighting it with the support of Eli. Since she was having a good day with her symptoms and mood, he decided to go out to the pool, bringing home Chinese food afterward. Returning a few hours later, Eli found Lynn dead in the bathtub.
These details bring up as many questions as they answer. The context helps the audience understand why Eli feels guilty since he left her for a period of time and why he’s having nightmares about a swimming pool. However, it gives us no insight into Lynn’s side of the story. This could be positive, though, because detailing suicidal ideation could trigger audience members.
Suicide is never the answer. If you or someone you love is experiencing suicidal ideation, please call 988 or visit
988Lifeline.org
(US) or
FindAHelpline.com
(international).
Before Episode 3 Hints Eli Might Have Killed His Wife
The Final Moments Of The Episode Show Eli Suffocating Lynn
The last moments of Before episode 3 are as shocking as they are confusing. The Apple TV+ original show includes either a flashback or a vision from Eli’s visual perspective of Lynn’s eyes shooting back open, him wrapping his hands around her neck, and her getting suffocated. The real, present-day version of Eli is panicking and looking emotionally distressed. This is probably made worse by the hallucination of Lynn, who told Eli he was a liar when he couldn’t do anything about her death.
Because Before blurs the lines between what’s real and fake, it’s unclear whether this is a fear of his, something that happened, or a vision. No matter what, Eli seems petrified of himself and his own abilities. Future episodes of Before will need to clarify further the day of Lynn’s death and what role Eli played.
Cast Billy Crystal , Judith Light , Rosie Perez , Jacobi Jupe , Maria Dizzia , Ava Lalezarzadeh
Character(s) Dr. Eli Adler , Lynn , Denise , Noah , Barbara , Cleo
Release Date October 24, 2024
Seasons 1
Creator(s) Sarah Thorp
English (US) ·