Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Apple TV+’s ‘Disclaimer’.After reaching the fifth segment of Apple TV+’s wild psychological miniseries Disclaimer, I am still hanging on the edge of my seat to hear just how Catherine (Cate Blanchett) intends to explain herself. I mean, she messed up irreversibly badly. Her dark secret is spreading, and her closest relationships have been destroyed. Now all she can do is beg for the time to explain herself. But even if she manages to appeal for a fair hearing, it’s going to be impossible for her to come back an inch from her terrible mistake.
What Did Catherine Do in ‘Disclaimer’?
When her son was four years old, a young Catherine Ravenscroft (Leila George) went on a trip to Italy. On this escapade, she met Jonathan (Louis Partridge), a young man who had been taking a gap year in the country. Catherine ravenously seduced and slept with Jonathan (which is putting it very lightly), all the while fully aware that she was a married woman and the mother of a boy who was always dangerously close to the action. Jonathan, likely stricken with the most lust he’d ever felt, took photos of Catherine as she provocatively paraded her body devoid of a sense of discretion. Jonathan began to confess deeper feelings and eagerly announced that he had bought a ticket back to London so that they could be together. Catherine shut him down and refused him to follow her back home, but he was not to be moved on the matter.
Catherine awoke from a nap on the beach to find that her son, whom she effectively instructed to stay put, had been pulled out into the ocean in a raft. She watched Jonathan spring into action to save him, and a team of lifeguards followed suit. The rescue team safely returned Catherine’s son to her arms, but they hadn’t noticed Jonathan struggling to make his way back to shore. Weighing the possibility that Jonathan could continue to pester her when he returned, she kept silent as he cried for help in the distance, neglecting to notify the rescue team that there was still someone out there. When they finally spotted him, they managed to retrieve him from the water, but they were about a minute too late. Jonathan drowned, and Catherine let it happen.
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‘Disclaimer’s Dual Narrators Have a Deeper Meaning
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Everybody Hates Catherine in ‘Disclaimer’
As any sensible person can imagine, Catherine’s acts were not victimless crimes. When Jonathan’s parents, Stephen (Kevin Kline) and Nancy Brigstocke (Lesley Manville) learned of the news, Nancy was overcome with grief and became a recluse obsessed with understanding how her son could possibly have drowned when he was an excellent swimmer. Nine years after she died from cancer, Stephen happened upon a manuscript written by Nancy that told the story of Jonathan and Catherine, along with Jonathan’s intimate photos of Catherine which she had kept a secret from him. Stephen learned that Catherine had been responsible for their son’s death, so he set in motion a plan to return their unbearable turmoil to Catherine. He published Nancy’s manuscript, titled The Perfect Stranger, under a pseudonym, and hand-delivered the book to Catherine and everyone she was close to. As the book grew popular with the public, Catherine was made to bear the exposure of her darkest secret, as all who read the book continued to vocalize that her character deserved what she had coming to her at the end.
At first, Catherine tried to snuff out her shame by setting her copy of the book on fire before anyone else found out about her past. She claimed to her husband, Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen), that she was being punished, so he tried to calm her down by assuring her that anything she had to tell him would go free of judgment by him. But when Stephen Brigstocke threw another one of his “grenades” and delivered the book and photos to Robert, his entire world plummeted underwater.
Now that Stephen Brigstocke has let all the cats out of the bag, everyone — except for her mother, perhaps — hates Catherine. Robert has been on the wildest emotional roller coaster imaginable but has somehow managed to make a handful of choices that he should be proud of from the moment his wife first tried to burn the book. But this also meant he had enough sense to immediately separate himself from Catherine. Robert and Stephen are the only two people Catherine wants to explain herself to, but neither one is interested in hearing her out, and it’s starting to drive me up a wall. Stephen, Robert, her coworkers, and now her son (Kodi Smit-McPhee), whom she wanted most to protect (well, kind of), are in agreement that there is nothing she could say or do to amend her outright destructive behavior, and so am I — but I still want to see her try.
Catherine Will Never Be Able To Redeem Herself in ‘Disclaimer’
In Episode 5, she travels to Stephen Brigstocke’s home to properly talk to him about the book, but he refuses to answer the door. As Catherine pleads and knocks and rings his phone, I actually found myself rooting for her to get a response, but not because I think she still deserves a right to be heard. Rather, because I seriously don’t believe anything she has prepared to defend herself will be enough to redeem her, and I can’t wait to see her fail at providing a reasonable explanation.
Catherine can’t say that she was only thinking of her son; if she had been thinking of him at all she wouldn’t have entertained Jonathan in the first place. She can’t say that she wanted to save Jonathan; she was too determined to keep their affair under wraps. What she can say is that her actions were inexcusable, which would prove my point, but it certainly wouldn’t make for the biggest reveal. So as much as she earnestly begs and pleads to merely talk to Robert or Jonathan’s father, she even knows that she lost such a standard right ages ago.
Disclaimer is available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S.
Disclaimer is a 2024 psychological thriller miniseries following Catherine Ravenscroft, an acclaimed journalist known for exposing the misdeeds of others. Her life takes a shocking turn when she receives a novel from an unknown author that reveals her darkest secrets, forcing her to confront her past.
- Release Date
- October 10, 2024
- Main Genre
- Drama
- Seasons
- 1
