Creator Alfonso Cuaron talked about the finale

Warning: This article contains spoilers for “Disclaimer.”

Apple TV’s “Disclaimer” is a lesson in narratives.

The seven-episode series tells the story of 19-year-old Jonathan (Louis Partridge), who dies after being caught by Catherine (Cate Blanchett), an older married woman, while on holiday in Italy.

Jonathan’s widowed father, Stephen (Kevin Kline), seeks revenge on Catherine for the role she played in his son’s death. Only towards the end of his mission does Stephen realize that he may have had the wrong impression about his son.

In an interview with TODAY.com, “Disclaimer” creator and director Alfonso Cuaron talked about the ending of the series and said that it is important to pay attention to all the clues.

“This is something I worked on very closely with Cate,” Cuaron says. “We always say this show should be watched twice because on the second watch you will see a completely different story.”

“You will see the story of a woman who is trying to speak, and her speech is always interrupted by judgment in many ways, even by the audience. That’s why it was so important to never give false clues because in the end you see how everything comes together and makes sense. “Catherine says it all with her actions,” he adds.

Read on to see how “Disclaimer” ends.

Is the story about Jonathan’s death true?

Not really.

At the beginning of “Disclaimer”, the audience learns about Jonathan’s death from the book “The Perfect Stranger” written by his mother Nancy about his life, but the book does not tell the real story.

In the book, Nancy says Jonathan had an affair with Catherine, an older woman who seduced him during a family holiday to Italy. Their night of rough lovemaking is preserved by explicit photographs Jonathan took of Catherine that night. The next day, Jonathan dies saving Catherine’s 5-year-old son Nicholas from drowning.

According to the book, Jonathan wants to follow Catherine to London and be with her romantically. His girlfriend had gone home early due to an emergency and was fascinated by Catherine. Meanwhile, Catherine becomes less excited and sees the drowning incident as an opportunity to solve her problem.

Although Catherine sees Jonathan struggling in the waves, she decides not to tell any of the bystanders who flock to the beach to save Nicholas. By the time someone notices Jonathan in the water, it’s too late. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Nicholas is brought safely back to shore by two nearby bystanders.

When Nancy hears of Jonathan’s death, she becomes obsessed with finding out how her son really died. Nancy gives up everything that used to bring her joy and spends her time hiding in her late son’s bedroom, where she eventually writes “The Perfect Stranger.”

Did Nancy know about Jonathan’s violent nature?

Considering Nancy died long before the events of “Disclaimer” unfold, it’s hard to know exactly how much she knows about her son.

However, it is clear that Nancy chooses to believe only certain parts of Jonathan’s life. As a mother, she had fallen in love with her son and seemed surprised to learn why Jonathan’s girlfriend, Sasha, had left him alone on holiday in Italy and returned home to London just days before he died.

In “Disclaimer,” Nancy receives a call from Sasha’s mother, Emma, ​​after her daughter returns home sick and ill. During the meeting, he was told that Sasha and Jonathan had some kind of disagreement.

When Emma gives Nancy more details, Nancy seems to lose patience and says, “Well, I think it’s up to them to sort out their differences. Let’s not make a big deal out of it, Emma. “We don’t know what happened there.”

Nancy goes so far as to say that Sasha is “exaggerating” about her and Jonathan’s breakup and that what she told her mother is “crap” that seems “so extreme.”

Although what Emma said on the phone was not shared on the show, it is clear that Nancy knew her son could be dangerous to some degree and chose to ignore the signs.

When Stephen asks Nancy about the phone call, Nancy tells him that Emma said their children had an argument and that’s why they were no longer together. Stephen believes Nancy without question and then calls Sasha a “mess,” which Cuarón says further proves the show’s message that “you have to pay attention to narrative and form.”

Cuaron explains that Stephen is a “very weak person” who was “weakened” by Nancy and Jonathan, which is why he remained “in denial” for so long.

“He is afraid to confront anything and accepts Nancy’s point of view as his own. So he was in denial,” Cuaron explains. “It’s true that we don’t want to think such things about our children, but when it comes to Stephen, he is completely subservient to his wife’s version of reality.”

As for whether Nancy knew about Jonathan’s violent nature? “I’m almost sure of it,” Cuaron says.

“In many ways, Nancy’s impulse to write ‘The Perfect Stranger’ was a way to protect her son and change his son’s narrative,” he explained. “Thanks to the book, he was able to transform his son into this naive, heroic, romantic figure who was very different from who he really was.”

Will Nicholas die?

At the beginning of “Disclaimer,” Stephen makes it clear that he published his wife’s book “The Perfect Stranger” just to torture Catherine. She wants her closest friends and family members to know the role they played in Jonathan’s death.

Stephen creates an intricate cathunt plan to tell Nicholas about his role in the story. Disturbed by the representation of his mother in the novel, Nicholas overdoses and finds himself unconscious in the hospital.

Once at the hospital, Stephen tries to kill Nicholas by injecting him with an unknown substance. But Catherine stops him just in time.

He later tries again after stirring Catherine’s tea, which puts her into a deep sleep. At the hospital, Stephen tries to give Nicholas a lethal injection, but stops when he feels sympathy for a confused Nicholas calling out for his mother.

What does Stephen see in the photo?

After the truth about Jonathan is revealed, Stephen decides to burn all the explicit photos his son took the night he raped Catherine.

As Stephen places the photos on the fire, he sees a small but important detail he missed: Nicholas was in the room when Catherine was attacked.

One photo shows young Nicholas looking at his mother from her reflection in the mirror. That’s when Stephen realizes that his quest for revenge has harmed more people than he thought.

“Revenge and vengeance will end the same way because it’s just like the saying, ‘He who wants revenge must dig two graves,'” Cuaron says.

At the end of the show, Catherine confides in Nicholas about what happened to her in Italy. Nicholas begins to cry and says he doesn’t remember the trip or being raped. Feeling remorseful, she hugs her mother and they both take the opportunity to get to know each other better with a clean slate.

“We often do not remember the traumatic events we witness. However, just because we do not remember them does not mean that they are not hidden within us and emerge through different behaviors. This is seen in Nicholas and his addictive behaviors,” says Cuaron.

The “disclaimer” ends with Catherine reconnecting with her son. After many years of prioritizing her career, she decides to focus on Nicholas and repair their once-strained relationship.

This article was first published on: TODAY.com