This article mentions sexual abuse and contains SPOILERS for
Disclaimer
episode 8.

The ending of Apple’s Disclaimer reveals what actually happened between Catherine and Jonathan in Italy and finally reveals Catherine’s account of the story. Cate Blanchett leads a talented ensemble cast of Disclaimer as Catherine Ravenscroft, a hard-working and acclaimed television documentary journalist out of London, England. Catherine’s world unravels once a mysterious novel titled The Perfect Stranger arrives at her doorstep, bringing up memories of one of her deepest and darkest secrets. Disclaimer is based on the 2015 book of the same name written by Renée Knight.

The majority of Disclaimer’s episodes cast Catherine as a villain responsible for the death of a vacationing American twenty-something named Jonathan. Disclaimer is primarily told through the fictional lens of Catherine and Jonathan’s experience in Italy through the imagination of Jonathan’s grieving mother, Nancy. The Perfect Stranger novel is a culmination of Nancy’s mourning and denial of a painful truth she has learned about Jonathan through his girlfriend Sasha’s mother. Stephen discovers The Perfect Stranger and interprets it as truth, which sparks his revenge tour against Catherine. In the end, however, Stephen could not have been more wrong about his son.

Catherine Was Sexually Assaulted By Jonathan In Italy

The photographs that Jonathan took of Catherine were not consensual

The shocking twist in the Disclaimer finale is that Jonathan brutally sexually assaulted Catherine against her will. This is essentially the complete opposite of how Nancy had framed the experience in The Perfect Stranger with Jonathan as the helpless victim caught in Catherine’s provocative grasp. Catherine reveals to Stephen that Jonathan snuck into her bedroom uninvited and held her at knifepoint. He proceeded to threaten both Catherine and Nicholas and raped her for three and a half hours. The photographs that Jonathan took of Catherine were not consensual whatsoever. He despicably forced Catherine to pose and smile for the camera or else he would hurt her and Jonathan.

Nancy was revealed to be an unreliable and biased author

There are several hints that allude to the shocking twists in Disclaimer’s finale that are much clearer in retrospect. For one, the series opens each episode with a content warning about sexual violence, which hadn’t been displayed in the series until the final episode. Catherine’s trauma-like response to seeing the photographs in the present-day timeline after Robert had confronted her with them also suggested that something much worse had occurred than an affair.

Since The Perfect Stranger novel was written from Nancy’s limited POV, it had always been more than likely that she had altered the truth, or had never known it in the first place. Most importantly, the depiction of Catherine in the novel doesn’t align with the accomplished and respected present-day version of Catherine at all. Once glimpses of Catherine’s story and the truth about Sasha appeared in episode 6, the book quickly began to lose all credibility as a factual account.

Why Stephen Didn’t Kill Nicholas & What Made Him Accept The Truth

He was no longer blinded by the fabricated image of Jonathan that Nancy had created

Denial plays a key role in understanding both Nancy and Stephen’s actions in response to the troubling news about Jonathan. It could have been Nancy’s primary motivation in writing the book in the first place. For Stephen, it was arguably an even harder truth to accept knowing the pain that he had inflicted on Catherine and her family was unforgivable. After learning that his once heroic son was actually a twisted and detestable predator, Stephen could not lean further into the lie as Nancy had done when she wrote the book.

Denial is what propelled Stephen to go back to the hospital and try again to end Nicholas’ life, even after hearing Catherine’s story. Stephen was driven by so much hatred and vindictiveness that it had consumed him and nearly prevented him from accessing the truth in Catherine’s words. He ultimately makes the right decision after hearing Nicholas call out for his mother. This partly seems to be reminding him of the Jonathan he knew and loved while also forcing him to confront the dark side of his son he was terrified to accept.

Why Didn’t Robert Ever Question The Truth About Catherine & Jonathan?

Robert was driven by an egotistical rage after seeing the photographs

Stephen makes an excellent point to Robert on his way out of the hospital that offers some redeeming value to his terribly misguided character. Robert asks Stephen why the thought had never occurred to him that The Perfect Stranger novel was a work of fiction. In response, Stephen asks him the same question, which leaves Robert hopeless and perplexed. It highlights the glaring truth that Robert did not hesitate to believe Stephen and Nancy’s account of Catherine’s adultery once he had seen the photographs.

Given that the photographs were quite telling at face value, Robert chose to attack Catherine with them rather than approach her with sensitivity and due respect. It ultimately says more about Robert than anything else and makes him one of the worst people in the series, especially as Catherine confirms she could not forgive him in the show’s final moments. Catherine sensed that Robert was more relieved about her being raped as opposed to him being cheated on.

Why Jonathan’s Mother, Nancy, Made Up The Perfect Stranger

She wrote to heal and preserve her idealized vision of Jonathan

Grief can be one of the most powerful and mysterious forces that a person can experience and can inspire all sorts of actions and behaviors. For Nancy, The Perfect Stranger was the best way to preserve the memory of her son as she recalled it, despite the troubling news that Sasha’s mother had shared with her about Jonathan. It’s also quite common for a parent to write about the life of a lost child, as writing has many benefits that can aid in the grieving process. It can provide a sense of closeness to the person and can be used as a method of visitation upon completion. Most notably, Nancy could not accept that her dead son was a monster capable of such heinous violence against women.

Why Stephen Burns His Wedding Ring & Nancy’s Cardigan

Stephen tries to erase Jonathan from his life completely

The narration over the scene in which Stephen burns Jonathan’s photographs, the Perfect Stranger novels, Nancy’s cardigan, and even his wedding ring, mentions the idea that Stephen is beyond the point of regaining purity. The series concludes that Stephen has lived a wasted life which is entirely irredeemable and tragic. Stephen’s shame at being so entirely wrong about Jonathan leads him to destroy all evidence of this terrible circumstance.

The fire represents Stephen shedding the massive lie he has lived in since Nancy’s death and doing what little he can to make things right with himself after nearly killing Nicholas and destroying Catherine’s life. There is certainly some contempt towards Nancy for writing The Perfect Stranger in the first place, which he believed to be fact. In her defense, she had hidden it in a locked desk and hadn’t asked Stephen to publish it and start a revenge tour.

What The Photo Stephen Pulls Out Of The Fire Means

Nicholas had seen what Jonathan had done to his mom

The final reveal in Disclaimer‘s finale answers the question of whether Nicholas was affected by Jonathan’s horrific abuse of Catherine. As Stephen burns all of Jonathan’s photographs in a fire in his backyard, he quickly pulls one out after spotting something he apparently hadn’t noticed before. In the reflection of a large mirror in the corner of the room, a young Nicholas stares at the frightening scene between Jonathan and Catherine. Catherine had never mentioned she saw him watching her, which means she either didn’t notice or couldn’t remember. It also reveals that Nicholas had likely blocked all of it from memory since he couldn’t even recall the trip to Italy earlier in the series, harboring deeply internalized trauma for most of his life.

Stephen dies by suicide and leaves his estate to Catherine in the book

The ending of the Disclaimer novel by Renée Knight is nearly identical to that of the Apple series. Catherine is finally able to reveal the truth about Jonathan to Stephen, who finally stops wreaking havoc on Catherine and her family as a result. It’s worth noting that the book features Catherine and Nicholas vacationing in Spain while the series takes place in Italy. One important omission left out of the series is the fact that Stephen dies by suicide and gives his house to Catherine and her family as a token of his guilt. Catherine and her family move into Stephen’s house in the book, which clearly isn’t necessarily judging by their beautiful home in the series. Catherine also definitively leaves Robert at the end of the Disclaimer novel, whereas it’s left with more ambiguity in the series.

Catherine endures various forms of abuse by selfish men

The ending of Disclaimer makes a cautionary point about perception, belief, and the power of a good story. Despite The Perfect Stranger being almost entirely a work of fiction, both Stephen and Robert interpreted it as fact with the supporting evidence of Jonathan’s photos of Catherine. Of course, neither Stephen nor Robert were objective parties in this scenario and both men felt deeply wronged by Catherine. They chose to run with the supposed evidence, and even team up, rather than approach Catherine with the benefit of the doubt. Neither offered her a fair chance at clearing the air, only focusing on their pain without the possibility of others’.

Disclaimer smartly tricks its audience into believing that Catherine is the despicable one meant to be exposed when in reality she was the victim of a horrendous crime. The finale sends a crucial message about how fragile the concept of truth can be in an age that hardly adheres to due diligence. The series also demonstrates various forms of violence used against women by men, particularly pertaining to sexuality as forms of both empowerment and devaluation for women, depending on the context. It also explores the complex and often silent process of coping with such horrific physical violence with the possibility of enduring further emotional abuse by speaking of it.

In the end, Catherine discovers that Robert’s notion of love for her can be reduced to mere possession, as his ego is more devastated by the news of her potential adultery than her sexual abuse. Stephen, too, takes a few grasped straws and runs with them through his private form of misguided treachery, even going so far as to accuse Catherine of lying after speaking the truth. Worst of all is Jonathan, who will likely never be known as the criminal predator he is due to the privileges and plausible deniability he inherits from his protective and irresponsible mother in Disclaimer.