The Stolen Girl episode 3 recap: The truth about Rebecca is revealed, but is she Lucia's biological mother?

The Stolen Girl is a psychological thriller that follows the harrowing story of a couple, Fred and Elisa, whose 9-year-old daughter, Lucia, is kidnapped during a sleepover with her new best friend.

The five-part series, which is based on the bestselling novel Playdate by Alex Dahl, then sees horror unfold for Fred and Elisa as secrets and lies are revealed in the days that follow Lucia's disappearance.

Soon, the twists and turns keep coming as the police try and work out how Lucia was taken, and why...

Here is everything that happens in The Stolen Girl episode 3...

The third episode opens with a flashback to nine months before Lucia was kidnapped. Rebecca is shopping in a French town when someone called Delphine recognises her, but calls her Nina. She asks after Rebecca's husband Nicholas, but she says that he died in an accident four years ago, and Delphine seems genuinely upset by the news. She asks after the 'girls,' and Rebecca says they are doing fine and are nine years old now and go to boarding school. Delphine asks if she is back in France for long, and Rebecca says she bought Nicholas's parents' farmhouse and lives there now. Delphine says she is a teacher at the local school and that Rebecca should send the girls to her, but Rebecca makes excuses and a hasty exit.

Time jumps to seven months before Lucia was kidnapped and we see Rebecca arriving at the old farmhouse, opening all the shutters, and it looks like it has been closed up for years.

Time then jumps to four months before Lucia was kidnapped, and Rebecca is in town asking a woman working in a cafe if her name is Laure Claes. Laure confirms that it is and Rebecca says she has been told that Laure can introduce her to a man called Milan Matkovic. Laure instantly says no, but it is clear she knows who Rebecca is talking about. Rebecca claims that her daughter was taken from her and she has done everything that the authorities told her to do, but they still won't give her back. She tells Laure that her husband is dead and she needs their help, but Laure says that no amount of money would be enough to go back to their old life. Rebecca begs, telling Laure that her daughter is growing up without her and she has tried everything to get her back, and now this is the only way. She shows Laure a photo of her daughter, and it is Lucia.

Time flashes to three weeks before Lucia was kidnapped and we see Rebecca arriving at the rental house and getting the keys from a key safe. It then flashes to the moment she met Elisa at the school when she was late to pick up Lucia.

In the present day we see Lucia at the farmhouse in France, but she has had a bad dream and Rebecca finds her sleeping on the floor next to her bed. She tells Lucia that she is her mummy and that the other family were only meant to look after her for a bit while she was sick, but then they wouldn't give her back. She says she has missed her so much and gives her a toy bunny that she used to carry around when she was little. Lucia asks to call her mummy, and Rebecca tells her they can't because they don't have a phone or mobile signal, and anyway, she is her mummy and she is home now.

Back in the UK Fred walks into a police station and tells her woman on the desk that they are probably looking for him. He is battered and bruised and soon has his photo taken and his fingerprints and swabs are done. He asks after Lucia, and the officer tells him that they have arrested the hoaxer for the ransom letter, and this is news to Fred, but they won't tell him any more.

Sinclair calls Elisa to say Fred has handed himself in for assault and Elisa is fuming that he has made such a mess when they are meant to be looking for their daughter.

At work, Selma gets praise from Cale,b who says the editors were thrilled with her hoax ransom letter and that traffic on the site is up. He says the story is hers now and that he glossed over how she got the doorbell footage. At her desk, she looks up Elisa on the electoral register and searches for her birth certificate and it turns out she was born in a religious commune in Eyton, so Selma heads there to see if she can find her family.

Once she gets there, everyone in the community is wearing red and one woman knows Elisa and says they grew up together. She knows that she is there about Lucia as the police have already been to speak to Elisa's mother. Selma finds Deborah Stanton, who is weaving wool by hand, and tells her that she hasn't seen Lucia for five years. She tells Selma that she and Elisa don't see eye to eye, mainly becasue of the commune that Deborah lives in. She says her daughter wanted to see the world and have a normal life and so she left and now Deborah finds it easier to tell herself that she no longer has a daughter.

Back at the police station, Elisa is there to get Fred and Sinclair finds them and tells them she has news. She reveals they have named the man with Lucia in the CCTV as Milan Matkovic and that he is known by French police for people trafficking. Neither Fred or Elisa recognise images of Milan or Laure Claes and Sinclair also asks Fred if Laure Claes could be Sarah that he had the fling with, but he says no. They ask about the money from the loan that he got from the bank without Elisa knowing and ask what the money was used for. He is adamant it has nothing to do with Lucia going missing and the money went on school fees, new windows for the kitchen, flight upgrades and holidays. The list goes on and on, and Fred says they spent it all and Elisa is stunned.

Back at the commune, Selma walks around and finds Elisa's old friend in a clothing shop where everything is red. The friend says they trade things there and that she likes Selma's shoes, so Selma agrees to swap them in exchange for some information about Elisa. She asks when she left the commune and the friend says she was 16 becasue she never fitted in and that Deborah punished her quite badly for it. She says that she last came back when her dad died, and before she goes, the friend makes Selma swap shoes.

In France, Rebecca/Nina is making breakfast for the girls when Josie tells Lucia that she has photos of them when they were little. We can see that it is definitely Lucia in the pictures when she was a baby, as the girl in the picture has the same distinctive birthmark on her shoulder. Lucia asks who the man is in the photo and Rebecca says it is her father, but that he died in an accident five years ago.

Later Rebecca/Nina is in a cafe where she swaps the sim card on her phone, when she gets the new one in, she looks at Elisa's social meida and is shocked that Elisa has posted images of Milan Matkovic asking if anyone knows him, and also the CCTV footgae of him chasing Lucia through the service station. She calls Milan and is furious, but he tells her he took every precaution and that he has dumped the car in the place they agreed, and that she isn't to call him again. She goes to the place he dumped the car, picks up some smashed mirror, and drives off.

At the office Selma is telling Caleb about the commune and says she has an idea for a piece on Elisa's background, saying that becasaue they all look after one another's kids in the commune, that is probably why she thought it was okay to leave her daughter with someone she had only known for a few hours. She says Elisa has reinvented herself, but this proves you can run from the past but you can never truly escape it - Caleb loves it and tells her to get it to him in an hour.

Elisa reads Selma's story online and is shocked, telling Fred that Selma is implying that it is her fault that Lucia has been kidnapped.

In the prison, the inmate who wrote the letter to Elisa posts it, and gets threatened by another prisoner when he finds the stashed images of Lucia he has torn from the papers, but it still isn't revealed how he knows the family.

In France, Rebecca/Nina is shocked when a man arrives unannounced at the farmhouse, he says he is a neighbour and has come to introduce himself. He gives her some wine and says that if she ever needs anything then to just call him, but she is a bit rude and says she doesn't think she will need his help. He seems a bit put out and leaves, but the whole time she is worrying that the girls might come out and blow their cover.

At dinner, Josie asks who the man was and Rebecca/Nina explains, telling her that he was just a neighbour but they shouldn't tell people too much about their family becasue Lucia was taken from the once and they can't let it happen again. That night, Lucia has another nightmare about and Rebecca/Nina comforts her, telling her she started having nightmares after her daddy's accident and that is probably what they are about.

Felix from the French branch of Selma's news website calls to say they police in France have been searching a house where they think Lucia was being held and that they have found her blood - she says there isn't enough blood to be conclusive and so it could have been a 'clean up'. Caleb says he is going to write it up - but Selma wants to do it. However, Caleb says IPSO is still investigating the Blix's complaint about her piece on Elisa and so it isn't a good idea.

Sinclair goes to tell Fred and Elisa about the blood found at the apartment where Milan was holding Lucia and Elisa is devastated, convinced this means the worst for her daughter.

Meanwhile, we flick to Lucia on the beach in France with Josie and Rebecca/Nina, and she is laughing and seems happy. As the girls are playing, Rebecca/Nina sees a man nearby on the beach reading a newspaper and on the front is a picture of Lucia with a news report about her kidnapping. She is about to gather the girls and leave when Delphine arrives with her daughter, Sophie and talks to the girls, but Rebecca/Nina freezes, not knowing if Lucia speaks French - but to her relief, she replies in French that she is called Lulu Rose when Delphine asks her name.

Later, at home, Rebecca/Nina finds a key hidden in a wardrobe and uses it to open a trunk with a hidden laptop in there. She is looking for more photos of when the girls were little becasue Lucia has asked to see them. She gets the laptop and opens an image of two babies together, but we then see her photoshopping a birthmark onto one of the girl's shoulders, and it seems Lucia isn't her daughter, after all.

The five-part thriller The Stolen Girl is available in the UK on Disney Plus as a box set now. In the US, Freeform will roll out episodes weekly at 10pm ET beginning 16 April 2025, and episodes will be available to stream the next day April 17 2025 on Hulu.