Spoiler Alert: There are some major spoilers for the Disclaimer ending below. If you’ve yet to watch the Cate Blanchett series, please come back after doing so.
I finally got around to the Disclaimer ending, and I’m so glad, because this was one of the most intense and incredible experiences on the 2024 TV schedule. The Apple TV+ original series starring Cate Blanchett as a woman forced to revisit and reconcile with one of her most traumatic memories after discovering she’s a major character in a book about an affair and drowning death is fascinating from start to finish, but it really excels in the seventh and final episode.
Since finishing Alfonso Cuarón’s adaptation of Renée Knight’s novel of the same name with my Apple TV+ subscription, I haven't been able to stop thinking about a brief yet powerful scene in the final minutes of the limited series that surprised me in the best way.
What Happens In The Disclaimer Ending?
Throughout Disclaimer, Catherine Ravenscroft (Cate Blanchett) is tormented by Stephen Brigstocke (Kevin Kline), a retired school teacher who self-publishes a book written by his late wife (played by Lesley Manville) blaming the documentarian for their son’s death 20 years earlier. As the story plays out, Stephen leads Catherine’s husband, Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen), and son, Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee), into believing that she had a torrid affair with his son the day before he drowned saving her child.
But as it turns out, the events in the book are a fabrication by the Brigstocke family, and in reality, their son viciously assaulted Catherine while also forcing her to take lewd photographs (the photos that were sent to Robert and Nicholas earlier in the story). Later on, when Stephen attempts to kill Nicholas after trying to make the now 25-year-old commit suicide, he has a change of heart after the boy cries out for his mom upon waking from a coma.
After the ordeal, Robert attempts to apologize to his wife for not believing her or even listening to her upon learning of the reported affair, but she wants nothing of it and says she can’t forgive him. In the final scene, Catherine, now seemingly divorced from Robert, has a tender moment with Nicholas.
Why I Thought Catherine Not Forgiving Robert Was Such A Powerful And Surprising Moment
Up until the final moments of the Disclaimer ending, I was afraid Catherine was going to let bygones be bygones and forgive her husband for not standing beside her in what was the second most traumatic event of her life. But that doesn’t happen. Instead, Cuarón gives us this powerful moment in which a calm and reserved (yet strong) Catherine tells Robert that she can’t forgive him because she feels like he is dealing far more easily with the idea of someone violating her than the idea of someone bringing her pleasure, and she can’t help but think that he is relieved that she was raped instead of having cheated on him.
This powerful and surprising moment gave me an even greater sense of appreciation for the series and Catherine’s story, as for the first time in her life, she was honest with herself and those she loves, even if it meant divorcing her husband of 25-plus years. He had every chance to make things right, to listen to her, and his lack of faith in his wife was something she could no longer tolerate.
What Cate Blanchett Has Said About Catherine's Decision To Not Reconcile With Robert
The way in which the Disclaimer ending messes with your emotions and leads you to believe that Catherine is going to forgive Robert is masterful. I mean, go back and look at Catherine’s body language throughout the scene. She doesn’t get angry, never raises her voice, and seems to be comforting her husband through it all. And, that seems to have been a goal of Cate Blanchett’s with the scene, as she told Variety:
I was hoping that at the beginning of that scene, you’d think, ‘Oh, this is going to be the reconciliation scene.’ And, through the course of it, she realizes, ‘I don’t think I can reconcile with you.’ But I didn’t want it to be that she gets vengeance on this man who didn’t believe her. Women aren’t seeking vengeance when they describe what they have felt. They are seeking clarity and understanding, often with themselves.
Earlier in the interview, Blanchett said the scene did have a reconciliation for Catherine “with herself and with that past,” which makes the whole final chapter of the series even more powerful.
Though Disclaimer, with its powerful and surprising ending, is finished, there are still plenty of promising upcoming Apple TV+ shows to look forward to on the 2025 TV schedule.
