Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Disclaimer episode 7.Disclaimer episode 7 finally reveals what really happened between Catherine Ravenscroft and Jonathan Brigstocke, but the truth was hiding in plain sight all along. Disclaimer's ending allows Catherine to tell her version of events about Italy - and there's no mistaking that this is the true version. Jonathan started stalking her on the beach and at the hotel, and then, after she went back to her hotel room, he entered it and sexually assaulted her.
It's a shocking, horrifying twist, but does make sense in the wider context of the show. This was, after all, a story in many ways about how a story is told, who gets to see it, and how people will believe what they want to hear. Disclaimer not only explores Catherine's trauma as a survivor, but how everyone around her - most notably her husband, Robert, as well as Stephen Brigstocke - ignored the signs for a truth more palatable to them, no matter her pain. And those signs of the truth about Catherine and Jonathan in Disclaimer were there from the beginning.
How Disclaimer's Teased Its Twist Before The Show Properly Started
It Was An Important Part Of The Show's Narrative & Storytelling
Every episode of Disclaimer started in the same way: with a content warning advising viewer discretion. And each one was for the same specific reason:
"This series contains strong sexual content and depictions of sexual, physical, and emotional violence."
Of course, Disclaimer did not depict sexual violence until episode 7, and so these content warnings were a clue all along to what had really happened: that all the events Catherine was being forced to relive were something violent and traumatic. But these warnings are a telling part of the show's narrative form, too, about how we can ignore signs that are right there in front of us, and the ways a story is told can make you focus on certain elements over another.
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It's particularly interesting that a show called Disclaimer should use another type of warning in this way, evidencing how creator Alfonso Cuarón was so keen on playing around with storytelling and perception through the series. Early in the show's first episode, Christiane Amanpour (playing herself in Disclaimer's cast), is presenting Catherine with an award. What she says fits very closely with its use of the content warning, and the show's methodology as a whole:
"Beware of narrative and form. Their power can bring us closer to the truth, but they can also be a weapon with a great power to manipulate. In a career that spans nearly 20 years, the recipient of this award tonight has
cut through narratives and form that distract us from hidden truths
to address some of the most difficult contemporary issues, allowing us an unflinching look at her subjects as they really are."
This is exactly what the show does, distracting both characters and viewers from the truth through the power of narrative - in this case, The Perfect Stranger, but also the lack of violence making us forget about the content warning. It is Catherine herself who has to cut through it all, uncovering the truth that was hidden from the beginning, forcing Stephen and Robert to take an unflinching look at Jonathan, Nancy, and most of all, themselves.
Other Clues To Disclaimer's Catherine & Jonathan Twist
There Were A Few Signs Along The Way
Aside from Disclaimer's content warning - and, indeed, the words of Amanpour - there were a few other clues along the way to the show's twist. One of the biggest is when Catherine reads The Perfect Stranger, and realizes what story is being told. She isn't just shocked, sad, or scared that Robert will find out she had an affair. She is sick; her body has a visceral trauma response, which suggests immediately there's something beyond an illicit holiday tryst here.
Similarly, in episode 2, when Robert confronts Catherine with the photographs and begins piecing together what happened, her emotional response is also greater than it likely would be if she had just had an extramarital affair.
Similarly, in episode 2, when Robert confronts Catherine with the photographs and begins piecing together what happened, her emotional response is also greater than it likely would be if she had just had an extramarital affair. The language is quite telling, too, as Robert discusses how they never have sex, with Catherine saying "it's not that I don't want to," further hinting at a deeper-rooted trauma. She tries to tell him it's not what he thinks, and even when he scoffs that she's the victim, she outright says "Well, yes, I am." But he isn't even listening.
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The very existence of The Perfect Stranger itself is also a clue, along with how the show frames it. The past's events are entered and exited through an iris, as if we're seeing a story play out, not flashbacks to a real event. And, well, how could it be anything else? The Perfect Stranger, it is made clear, was written by Jonathan's mother, Nancy, a woman who was grieving the loss of her son, yes, but could not possibly know any details of what had happened. And if that was fiction, then it should've been clear there was a darker fact.
Disclaimer only begins letting Catherine tell her side of the story in episode 6, when she starts talking about what Jonathan was really like, and even then it's only to Nicholas: the one person she can get to listen is her unconscious son. The show purposefully clued us in and offered plenty of signs to the truth, as a means of further highlighting that how a story is told, and what a person is willing to believe, will obfuscate them.
All episodes of Disclaimer are now streaming on Apple TV+.
Told in seven chapters, “Disclaimer” is based on the novel of the same name by Renée Knight. Acclaimed journalist Catherine Ravenscroft (Blanchett) built her reputation revealing the misdeeds and transgressions of others. When she receives a novel from an unknown author, she is horrified to realize she is now the main character in a story that exposes her darkest secrets. As Catherine races to uncover the writer’s true identity, she is forced to confront her past before it destroys both her own life and her relationships with her husband Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen) and their son Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee).
Release Date October 10, 2024
Seasons 1
Streaming Service(s) Apple TV+
Writers Alfonso Cuarón
Directors Alfonso Cuarón
Creator(s) Alfonso Cuarón
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English (US) ·