I – The Disclaimer premiere begins in a small personal cabin on a commuter train where Jonathan Brigstocke (Louis Partridge) and Sasha’s (Liv Hill) intimate encounter is briefly interrupted by a ticket inspector. After a bit of awkward fumbling and ticket-checking, they will resume where they left off.
Elsewhere, the Royal Television Society honors Catherine Ravenscroft (Cate Blanchett) with the Outstanding Achievement Award while Stephen Brigstocke (Kevin Kline) is called into Headmaster Justin Bank’s (Art Malik) office, regarding an earlier incident with a student named Tristan Pemberton (Oliver Shaw). Very little is revealed about the incident at the moment because while Mrs. Pemberton (Zannah Hodson) drones on, Stephen inwardly reflects on his once-illustrious teaching career.
As Jonathan and Sasha kick off their sightseeing trip across Venice with a gondola ride to Santa Lucia, Robert Ravenscroft (Sacha Baron Cohen) talks Catherine into a brief nightcap after returning home from the ceremony. Although he convinces her to take the evening upstairs, she becomes sidetracked by the mail. One particular package containing a book titled, The Perfect Stranger draws her attention.
Despite Nancy Brigstocke (Lesley Manville) having died nine years ago, Stephen has just now worked up the courage to donate what’s left of her personal belongings. Doing so leads to him knocking loose a panel in the bedroom armoire where Nancy has hidden an entire purse of items. Amongst other things, Stephen discovers a key and what appear to be photos from Jonathan and Sasha’s trip. Once he takes the time to go through the photos, he discovers several provocative shots of a blonde who he claims to have known for a long time. At this point, Catherine is nearly halfway through the Perfect Stranger Book and has such a hard time grasping what she’s reading that she throws up.
The story briefly returns to Jonathan and Sasha’s trip where she has just received news that her Aunt Rosie was hit by a lorry and died. As she makes plans to return home, Stephen realizes that the key he found opens a desk drawer in Nancy’s writing room that was once Jonathan’s bedroom. According to him, Nancy practically turned the room into a shrine after his death. At one point, things got so bad that she only came out to eat and barred him from entering. Despite this, he later admits to himself that he knew about the locked drawer but was afraid of what he might discover so he lied to himself, claiming that opening it was an invasion of privacy. It turns out that he was right to be scared because this is where he discovers the rough copy of The Perfect Stranger.
By this point, the book has Catherine spiraling with such panic that she sets out to burn it. She does a decent job of doing so until Robert interrupts. His attempts to discover what is going on only cause her to spiral further. For the moment, the best she can manage to muter is that someone wrote a book about who she really is and sent it to her as punishment. He refuses to believe that she could do anything so bad and promises to never judge her.
An outing at a local pub reveals that Stephen has not only shared the book with Justin but he’s passed it off as his own work. Much to Stephen’s surprise, Justin is practically beside himself with enthusiasm over the book. He claims that it is so good that he could market it and offers to help. At the moment, Stephen appears to be more concerned with what Justin thinks about the female protagonist and whether or not she got what she deserved. Justin admits that she was a manipulative cow and got exactly what she deserved.
Despite Sasha’s abrupt departure, Jonathan continues traveling across Venice and Florence. As he does, Nicholas Ravenscroft (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is introduced as Robert and Catherine’s son. While they pack up his room, it is revealed that Catherine is forcing him to move out in an attempt to inspire independence. Nick apparently doesn’t see it that way or refuses not to and handles the encounter like a spoiled brat.
Just after Christmas passes, Stephen receives a surprise visit from Justin with the first official copies of The Perfect Stranger. Justin is brimming with enthusiasm and can’t stop raving about future plans for the book, while Stephen reveals in a self-that he’s only interested in reaching one reader. That’s why he’s published the book under the non de plume.
The episode ends in a flashback where Jonathan meets the blonde (Catherine) on the beach while taking photos.
Disclaimer Review
I must admit, I was having a hard time making heads or tails of what was going on here, but once the pieces started falling together, I was pleasantly shocked. The initial confusion only makes the reveal all that more rewarding. If you can stick around to make sense of things, you’ll see that you’ve got yourself a provocative tale of intrigue and lust. It’s hard to not acknowledge the genius behind the way the story is written. Genius might be a bit far, but compared to other so-called psychological thrillers today, this is miles ahead.
If the episode was just a bit shorter and straighter to the point on some things, I’d have given it an easy 6, but for now, it gets a 5.6 out of 10. Get more Disclaimer recaps here. Find out how to support our independent work at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying here.
