With two episodes left, Disclaimer had the option to go ballistic with the penultimate one and use the final one to provide some kind of closure to the audience. That has been a common TV trope now, often used quite effectively. But Alfonso Cuaron is not a fan of TV, so he played this one in a rather convincing manner – giving us all the tease for a big, possibly shocking finale next week. With at least two nail-biting, tension-filled moments, this week’s episode does the perfect job setting up the finale next week. Not to mention, the cliffhanger by the end of it was a chef’s kiss.
Spoilers Ahead
What happens to Nicholas?
It’s only natural to check on Nicholas Ravenscroft first, right? He went through hell in last week’s episode and he’s not doing any better. Following him learning the shocking truth about his mother, Nick expectedly goes on a bender at the drug-house. He ends up having a stroke, and his friends drop him off at the hospital. It takes a while for Catherine and Robert to find out what happened to their dear son. In fact, had Catherine not rushed back home thanks to Nick’s phone call, Robert would have remained oblivious about his son’s situation for a longer period of time. He still can’t stand Catherine, but has no choice but to have her around with what’s going on with Nick. At this point, Catherine also doesn’t seem to care about her relationship with Robert anymore. All she wants is for her son to be safe. She is also not bothered by what happened at her job. In a fantastically filmed scene, we see Catherine receiving a call from the HR department of her office (thanks to the alteration with Simon), and she seems to be more focused on a sudden chaotic incident at the hospital than the telephonic conversation. It indicates that she has accepted the fact that her career is in ruins already. But this also makes her sort of free, probably for the first time in the story. Catherine Ravenscroft doesn’t have to protect the secret anymore. But what secret exactly was she protecting?
What is Stephen’s plan?
Would it be wrong if I said the man is now improvising? He has done the damage already—letting the world know Catherine’s truth, effectively ruining her life. Now, he will play the game according to the situation. With Nick done and dusted, his need for the fake Instagram account has also ended. Quite naturally, Stephen summons the guy (who helped create it) to delete it permanently. He does feel sad letting Jonathan go, but he also realizes that it is what needed to be done – he has no choice but to wipe out the digital footprint in order not to be traced. But the next moment, when Robert calls and lets him know about Nick being in hospital, he immediately shifts into ‘son for a son’ mode. He now plans to kill Nick and make Catherine suffer before killing her. And Stephen Brigstocke doesn’t care about the consequences anymore.
So he goes to the hospital, with a syringe filled with drain cleaner hidden inside his coat. It is a mere coincidence that when he arrives, Catherine is outside the hospital, wrapped inside her thoughts. Thanks to Robert being an intolerable idiot, who has already told the hospital that Nick’s gonna have a visitor late evening, the old man has no problem reaching Nicholas. He is obviously unconscious, lying in his hospital bed, at the mercy of both science and fate. Since Stephen hasn’t come prepared, he hesitates for a bit before touching the syringe. Thankfully, Catherine arrives in time to save her son. Her first interaction with Stephen soon takes an ugly turn, where Stephen plays the victim and Catherine is misunderstood. I thought the hospital nurses thinking of Stephen as Nick’s grandfather was morbidly funny. Anyway, Stephen doesn’t succeed for the time being, although he can pay Nicholas a visit again, especially after Robert apologizes for his wife’s erratic behavior. That also means Catherine is not gonna be there if there’s a next time.
What Really Happened In Italy?
This is where things get dicey. One thing we must remember is that the past we have seen so far is what is written in Nancy’s book. We still haven’t heard Catherine’s account of the events yet. She tried once before, but Stephen refused to sit face to face with her. There is no doubt about the fact that Johnathan did die, and he did save Nicholas, but this episode does entertain the possibility of things perhaps not happening the way Nancy narrated. Sure, Catherine admitted that she wanted Johnathan to die but did she really not try to help Johnathan when he was drowning, like what the book says? We can’t say for sure, especially after what we see in this episode.
The past we see in this episode should be considered the absolute truth, given it is narrated by Catherine herself (and not Indira Verma’s ‘narrator’). Throughout the episode, you keep wondering who is the person she is telling all this to, but by the end of the episode, it becomes very clear that it is Stephen Brigstocke after all. She is finally getting the opportunity to make him hear her side. She had to break into his house and weave a knife in his face to get to this point. But old Stephen is also not going to lose that easily. He is obviously going to take the chance to spike Catherine’s tea with crushed sleeping pills. She clearly doesn’t notice that, as we see her putting sugar in it and taking a sip. Does that mean Catherine has reached her end? We are going to find that out next week, but before closing down, let us take a look at the past.
Catherine was indeed feeling lonely after Robert left. But eventually she did end up having a good time at the beach, with Nicholas playing around. The meet cute at the beach between Catherine and Johnathan didn’t quite happen, actually. It was just this young stranger lustfully staring at her from afar. Catherine came back to the hotel alone, and after tucking in Nick for the night, she was happily looking forward to having some alone time with wine. Downstairs, she met the stranger from the beach again, who still seems to be smitten by her. She didn’t think much of it yet, other than enjoying the attention and maybe fantasizing a bit. That was all harmless until Jonathan hinted at having a word. That’s all we get for the week, and it does seem very different from what Nancy Brigstocke imagined in her book.
Some Notes:
# Nancy not only took a lot of artistic liberty regarding Catherine and Johnathan in her book, she also knowingly changed one other important detail. Turns out, Sasha returned from Italy not because of her aunt’s death, but due to her having a falling out with Jonathan. In fact, we even see her mother complaining to Nancy about it over the phone. Of course, upon returning from Italy, Sasha is the first person Nancy called. She felt his son’s ex deserved to know. But she only spoke to Sasha’s mother, as she was out, and it is unclear if Sasha ever knew.
# I guess we should completely drop the ‘X’ mark. A lot of this show is not actually real, so we shouldn’t read into it too much.
# Stephen did all this only after getting fired from his job. Can we say the old man lost it and that prompted him to fulfill his wife’s revenge plan?
# Don’t you think Nancy’s description of her son getting physical with Catherine is a bit too much? I mean, it can’t be easy for her to imagine her dead son doing all that. Or should we just address the very obvious (and extremely creepy) Oedipus angle here?
