Stuck in the Present, the Fifth Episode of 'Disclaimer' Falters

The fifth episode of AppleTV+’s Disclaimer was a tough one. It was the first one that didn’t bounce back and forth between the past and the present, and it really brought the drudgery of the present-day storyline to light. After Robert kicks her out of the house, Catherine goes to stay with her dementia-stricken mother. “You’re overwhelmed with the sadness of things lost,” the narrator intones. When her mother falls asleep, Catherine confesses all to her. But we, the audience, do not hear it. Whatever she is saying, her version of events remains a mystery to the viewer.

Stephen goes to see Catherine’s assistant, Jisoo. Jisoo recognizes his name right away. Catherine asked her a few episodes ago to track Stephen down. “Ambition has a stench that’s impossible to hide, and Jisoo Kim reeked of it,” Stephen narrates. He tells Jisoo that Catherine has been harassing him, and he is afraid of her. “She keeps on threatening me . .  because of what I wrote,” he tells her. “I had to tell the world the truth... the world needs to know who Catherine Ravenscroft really is... She was involved with someone, and when it became inconvenient, she let him die.” Stephen leaves Jisoo with many copies of A Perfect Stranger.

Jisoo is on Stephen’s side very quickly (some might argue too quickly). When Catherine comes into the office, everyone is reading the book, and Catherine’s boss, Simon, who insists on calling her “Cathy,” immediately accuses her of being inappropriate. Jisoo told him that Catherine had asked her to stop looking into Stephen. Simon wonders why Catherine was so quick to kill the story off. 

Catherine reaches her breaking point. “Don’t you dare ask me to stay calm,” she tells Simon before slapping him. “You are so canceled, Catherine,” Jisoo responds. (Honestly, who talks like that?) The video of Catherine slapping someone goes viral, and the HR department tries to reach her. However, the only thing that matters to Catherine is “to protect Nicholas, to keep him out of this situation.” Most unfortunately, it is far too late for that. Catherine calls Nicholas and asks him if he remembers going on a trip to Italy. Nicholas, who is 25 and should not be acting like a sullen teenager, is awful to his mother. He barks one-word answers at her and even places her on hold as he pours himself cereal. He is horrid.

Robert and Stephen meet for dinner, and Robert throws his wife under the bus. “I want to make it clear that the way my wife behaved was pitiful. Absolutely pitiful,” he tells Stephen, adding that what his wife did was “absolutely unforgivable.” It makes sense that Robert is deeply hurt, but it doesn’t make sense that he won’t even listen to the woman he’s been married to for over two decades and hear her side of the story. Stephen tells him that all his wife Nancy wanted was to meet Nicholas and to know that their son’s losing his life was “for something,” but Catherine wouldn’t allow it.

Catherine goes to see Stephen, but he won’t open the door. “My husband’s left me, and I’m probably going to be fired from my job. You’ve won. Do you hear me? You’ve won!” she tells him through his mail slot. “The least you can do is look me in the eye and listen to what I have to say.” She implores him to call her because she wants to talk about Jonathan. Stephen has no desire to speak to her but instead wants to continue with his diabolical plan. “It was time for the final thrust,” he says. 

It appears Stephen plans for Nicholas to commit suicide so Catherine will suffer as he and Nancy suffered. With the help of Tommy, a former student of Stephen’s friend Justin, Stephen brings “Jonathan back to life.” Stephen uses “the Instagram” to set up “Jonathan’s” account. His son, who died 20 years ago, is now “forever, young, forever on his gap year about to start at university.” “Now our son has a future,” he says, his grief still palatable. Tommy advises: No one that age is on Facebook; don’t use punctuation or capital letters. Don’t post about books. Tommy even has a glossary of abbreviations. “I never understood the new generation's obsession with reducing words to initials,” he says.  

In another willing suspension of disbelief moment, Stephen gets Nicholas to respond to “Jonathan” on “the Instagram,” spending the whole day chatting before Stephen goes in for the kill. He tells Nicholas that he’s the little boy in the book who was saved from drowning, his mother who abandoned him to have sex with a teenager. Stephen doesn’t mince words. “That woman, the whore, is your mother. Jonathan is dead because he tried to save you. Clearly, your mummy never loved you,” he tells Nicholas. 

Stephen sends the provocative photos of Young Catherine. “No child should have to see their mother like that, but it had to be done,” he says. Since the premiere, Stephen has had a bug trapped in a glass. In a very on-the-nose imagery, the cockroach dies as Stephen’s plan reaches its culmination. All of this is more than Jonathan can bear. He calls his mother but is incoherent. At the top of the episode, we learn that Nicholas is a recreational drug user. But now he goes back to the drug den and gets more drugs than anyone should. “This is where he knows he can be his best self,” the narrator says as Nicholas passes into oblivion.

Disclaimer continues with weekly episodes every Friday on Apple TV+ through November 2024.