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Episode 1 of Disclaimer begins with a couple interrupted midway through having sex on a train by the ticket inspector. When he leaves, after a rather embarrassing moment of fumbling with the sheets, the pair get back to business. This is Jonathan and his partner, Sasha, who head off sightseeing in Venice together. Unfortunately, their trip is interrupted by a horrible accident, as Sasha needs to go back home.
Jonathan ends up on his own, and very few people are willing to converse with him. He writes back to his mum, updating her on what’s happening. He heads to the beach alone, where he first locks eyes on Catherine by the water. He snaps photos of her, marvelling at her beauty.
We then cut forward in time to the Royal Television Society. Catherine Ravenscroft has just won a big award for her outstanding work. She eventually heads home with her husband, Robert, whom we learn enjoys the finer things in life, and is somewhat of a wine connoisseur too.
Catherine receives a package, which holds a book inside titled “The Perfect Stranger”. It’s dedicated to “my son, Jonathan” which happens to be the kid we’ve been seeing flashes of throughout the show so far. Furthermore, there’s a disclaimer reading “Any resemblance to persons living or dead is not a coincidence”.
Catherine is spooked by this book, burning it in the morning. Robert rushes out and reassures her, telling her she has nothing to be guilty about. He thinks this is to do with their 25 year old layabout son, Nick, being kicked out the house and no longer being coddled. However, there are darker things hidden under the surface here, which are still unsaid at this time.
Meanwhile, we meet a stuffy teacher called Stephen Brigstocke, who’s not exactly enthused with his work. Oh how the mighty has fallen; he used to be a respectable teacher and even won the Most Popular Teacher award several years running. That’s all changed now and although we don’t see what he’s written for a child’s essay notes, it’s clear it’s not anything good.
Part of this stems from Stephen’s wife, Nancy, passing away. Since then, he’s been struggling and drifting through life. He donates some of her things but can’t bring himself to get rid of her pink cardigan. Which he decides to wear himself instead.
Under the wardrobe, he finds a handbag with more of Nancy’s stuff, including lipstick, a locket and photos from Venice of Jonathan’s trip. Only, it’s not just these photos. There are also others of a blonde naked in bed and in provocative positions too. Apparently, Stephen has known this person for a while but quite how, remains a mystery.
Something happened to Nancy though, and she became obsessed with Jonathan. She has a shrine set up for him in her room and inside her locked drawer, there’s some deodorant, a cigarette… and a manuscript of some sort. This is that Perfect Stranger book we saw earlier on.
Stephen is well aware that the book was written for Catherine, which backs up the earlier scenes with Catherine getting jittery and worried over the book. Stephen is dead-set on making her suffer, “like he and Nancy did”. The book is a way of flushing her out into the open, and he’s not driven by money or the fame either – he simply wants to get his own back on Catherine.
The Episode Review
Apple’s latest psychological thriller is an intriguing one and the first episode certainly sets the scene ready for extra drama to follow. It’s clear that something happened between Jonathan and Catherine that caused years of damage, and it may well be that Catherine was responsible for Jonathan’s death, which caused this ripple of misery that we see here.
However, there’s plenty still to unpack, and the show definitely has an eerie atmosphere about it. The circular black-out edits are a bit annoying after a while, if I’m honest, but it’s at least something unique to this series. Simultaneously, it does help to set the flashbacks apart from the present day content. Either way, everything here is left wide open for where this one may go next.
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Episode Rating
I hate all the narration.