Why nothing was what it seemed in Alfonso Cuaron’s Disclaimer

The ending of Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer reframes everything that came before in the Apple TV drama.

Disclaimer is a seven-part series, written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Renée Knight.

The new TV show plays out in two timelines, the past, where Catherine Ravenscroft has a brief affair with a young man called Jonathan while on holiday, whom the next day dies while saving her son Nicholas’s life.

And the present, where a a new novel appears to depict those events, and Catherine’s life falls apart when the truth emerges.

Cate Blanchett plays present-day Catherine, while Kevin Kline is Jonathan’s father Stephen, with the final episode featuring the pair of them face-to-face in his kitchen, with Catherine finally telling her truth, little realising the tea she’s drinking is filled with drugs that could kill her.

Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD, while some may find the following content distressing.

Disclaimer ending explained

The story that Catherine tells isn’t one of a steamy sexual encounter, but rather of violent sexual assault, with Jonathan breaking into her hotel room, and raping her in a three-hour ordeal.

This tale is told without the evasive narration that marred previous episodes. Catherine explains that Jonathan did indeed save her son the next day, but that she doesn’t then alert authorities to him struggling in the water due to what happened the night before.

Stephen doesn’t believe her, and leaves Catherine to die passed out on his kitchen floor, while he heads to the hospital to kill Nicholas. As Stephen takes a taxi there, Catherine awakens and manages to recover enough to also race to the hospital.

When Stephen arrives, he bypasses the lax security – who don’t seem to have been told that he isn’t Nicholas’s grandfather – and approaches his bed to poison him. But Nicholas is awake, asks for his Mum, and something stops Stephen in his tracks.

“I wanna go, please,” says Nicholas, while holding his hand, and Stephen sees the error of his ways, finally believes Catherine, and breaks down.

Catherine arrives and reconnects with husband Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen), whom Stephen has apparently already told the truth. He apologizes and forgives Catherine, but later we see that it’s too late to save their marriage, with Catherine upset that he’s handling her rape better than he handled her alleged affair.

In the final scenes, Stephen burns the explicit photos that kicked this all off, but not before seeing young Nicholas’s reflection in one of them, meaning the boy witnessed the assault.

The narration is back, saying “nothing can purify you, nothing can absolve you, ahead of you there’s nothing,” as he stares at the picture.

Disclaimer then ends with Catherine and Robert divorced, and Catherine reconnecting with her son. The pointless voiceover states “Catherine is overcome with gratitude for the chance her son is giving her to fully embrace his love,” as we see that Catherine is thankful, as she and Nicholas tell each other “I love you,” and the binge-worthy TV show ends.

All seven episodes of Disclaimer are now streaming, while you can head here for our list of the best shows on Apple TV+.