The Truth Begins to Come Out in the Penultimate Episode of 'Disclaimer'

Moments into the penultimate episode of Disclaimer, we get hints that many things are not as we, the viewers, have been told.

For starters, Stephen confesses that Nancy “played around with some facts” in her narrative of the story. This has long been my theory since we know Nancy wasn’t there to witness what actually happened between her son and Catherine. But now we learn that Nancy wasn’t even truthful about what she did know, starting with Jonathan’s girlfriend Sasha, who didn’t suddenly leave their European trip because her aunt died. 

In flashback, Nancy gets a call from Sasha’s mother, Emma. We don’t hear her side of the conversation over what transpired between her daughter and Jonathan that forced Sasha’s early departure. But whatever it is, it’s very upsetting because Nancy slams the phone down with such force she breaks the phone. “That girl’s a mess,” Stephen tells his wife. When they get back from identifying Jonathan’s body in Italy, Nancy calls Emma to tell her Jonathan has died, and Stephen says that’s the last they ever talk to Emma or to Sasha. 

Stephen says, “The book was a work of fiction, but it released the truth from its ballast, allowing it to float up to the surface.” But we are learning that what we have been told is merely Nancy’s version of the truth.

The other significant shift in this episode is that Catherine is now narrating her story of how the events unfolded in Italy, not Indira Varma. (Varma still narrates Catherine and Stephen’s story in the present day). The provocative pictures Nancy found? That was Jonathan with a long lens camera taking photos of Catherine brushing sand away from her bathing suit. “Did I do something that he might have misconstrued as a signal? I don’t think that I did,” Catherine says. 

Jonathan’s face, once so wide-eyed and innocent, now has a more sinister, lascivious appearance. It’s a credit to actor Louis Partridge that Jonathan’s entire demeanor is so different that it crossed my mind that perhaps a different actor was playing Jonathan. Disclaimer has had the warning at the top of every episode that the series contains “depictions of sexual, physical and emotional violence,” and, for the first time, we are beginning to see why. 

Catherine goes to see Robert because she knows Nicholas is in trouble—something that Robert simply doesn’t believe. “Don’t you get it? Our son is in danger, Robert. I’ve never heard him like that. I’m scared,” she says to her husband. You’re scared of looking bad, aren’t you?” Robert replies. Catherine goes through Nicholas’ room and discovers that he’s smoking again and that he lost his job. 

Nicholas, who has severely overdosed, is dropped off at the hospital by a car that screeches away. He’s had a stroke and is unconscious. The doctors tell Catherine and Robert it’s too early to know the extent of neurological damage Nicholas might have suffered. Catherine and Robert take turns at Nicholas’ bedside since Robert won’t allow Catherine to be near him. Even though Robert fears for his son’s life, he’s still fixated on the man who he thinks had an affair with Catherine and then saved Nicholas’s life. He refers to Jonathan as “the martyr who had emasculated him forever.”

Stephen deletes the faux Instagram account he created for Jonathan. Robert calls Stephen and invites him to see Nicholas in the hospital. Stephen is delighted by this news. The pieces of his diabolical plan have so quickly fallen into place. Nicholas is a “junkie,” and Robert is “an irrelevant dimwit.” “He had just served me a meal on a platter. All I had to do was feast on it,” Stephen says.

Robert tells the hospital Stephen is Nicholas’ grandfather and they should be expecting him. This part of the story requires way too much willing suspension of disbelief. Robert can be furious with Catherine but will let a stranger visit his son when his life hangs in the balance. Stephen, dressed in his late wife’s ratty pink cardigan and wearing his late son’s deodorant, gets close enough to Jonathan almost to inject him with a syringe of something. “I was about to take everything away from Catherine Ravenscroft . . . And Nicholas was more than halfway gone already. I took him there without laying a finger on him.” 

We don’t know what is in the syringe, but it’s clear Stephen’s ultimate goal is to kill Nicholas so that Catherine loses her son like he lost his.

Catherine gets to the hospital bed just in time to knock Stephen away and save her son’s life. But, in another rather unbelievable moment, everyone at the hospital feels bad for Stephen, and they forcibly remove Catherine from her son’s bedside. He is treated at the hospital for the gash on his head. The hospital gives Stephen something for the pain and something to help him sleep.  Robert effusively apologizes for his wife’s behavior and invites Stephen to come back another time to see his son. “His father, such a feeble creature, had handed me the golden keys. All I had to do was pay poor Nicholas another visit,” Stephen says. 

Catherine breaks into Stephen’s home and waits for him in the backyard. They go inside the house, and Stephen makes tea, crushing one of the pills the hospital gave him into Catherine’s tea cup. Catherine notes that  it is remarkable how much Nancy “was able to reconstruct based on a handful of pictures.” Catherine slaps Stephen, takes a sip of the drug-laced tea, and says, “It’s time for my voice to be heard.” 

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