Disclaimer season 1 episode 6 ending explained: Why does Catherine break into Stephen’s house?

Episode 6 of Disclaimer season 1 was released on Apple TV+ on November 1, 2024. The latest episode answers one question that fans of the show may have been pondering since its premiere: How could Nancy, the author of The Perfect Stranger, factually recreate Jonathan’s entire experience in Italy when she was in London all the while?

Early in episode 6 of Disclaimer season 6, Stephen concedes that Nancy took some creative liberties while writing the book. In other words, she used fiction to fill in the gaps created by the absence of facts. This revelation, of course, complicates the viewers’ perception of Stephen’s intense mission of vendetta.

Episode 6 takes the plot forward by bringing Stephen face-to-face with Catherine, resulting in an explosive interaction. By the end of the episode, Catherine breaks into his home and states that she wants to present her version of what really happened between her and Jonathan in Italy.

Disclaimer season 1 episode 6 ending: Catherine wants her voice to be heard

The latest episode of the series continues the events of the previous one. Nicholas is dropped at the hospital, where the doctors state that he has had a stroke due to an overdose of drugs. Catherine and Robert are informed of the same and they rush to see their son.

Their relationship is still estranged, with Robert feeling fresh pangs of guilt over the fact that he was not there to protect his son a second time (the first time being the near-drowning accident in Italy). However, he calls up Stephen and the latter expresses his desire to visit Nicholas.

Stephen goes to the hospital, equipped with a syringe containing deadly chemicals. By this point in Disclaimer season 1, he has turned into a ruthless agent of retribution, and he only cares for the ends now, not the means. As he clarifies through a voiceover, he is now least bothered about consequences.

However, before he can push the syringe into the tube that is connected to Nicholas, he is apprehended by Catherine who attacks him. He quickly manages to hide the syringe. Later on, Robert visits him and apologizes for his wife’s misconduct.

Stephen decides that he will visit Nicholas again sometime in the future. He knows very well that the boy has a slim chance of surviving or making it out without any permanent disabilities even if he does survive. Yet, Stephen does not want to take any chances. He wants to show Catherine what the loss of one’s child means.

As the episode nears its end, a sleeping Stephen is woken up by a disturbance from downstairs. It seems that someone has broken into his house. It is Catherine. She tells him:

“It is truly remarkable how your wife was able to write so convincingly about so many things without having been there when they happened.”

After slapping Stephen, she starts her version of the story before the camera cuts to the credits. However, the old man has already diluted several sedatives in her tea.

What is Catherine’s version?

Following the storytelling technique employed in the previous episodes, episode 6 of Disclaimer season 1 also moves forward through a narrative fusion of the past and the present. There are several flashbacks strewn throughout the episode that give the viewers glimpses into Catherine’s retelling of what really transpired in Italy.

Catherine’s account contradicts Nancy’s plot as depicted in The Perfect Stranger. The flashbacks show a young Catherine with a 4-year-old Nicholas spending her days in boredom in Italy after Robert had to come back for some business.

She did come across Jonathan on the beach but never started flirting with him right away, as Nancy claims she did. While she was flattered by the attention she got from a young man on the beach, she never made the first move.

In fact, as per Catherine’s version, she was rather nervous about it all, not wanting to make things complicated since she was a married woman with a child. The flashbacks end with a hesitant Catherine trying to decide if she should join Jonathan at the bar.

What else did Nancy make up?

As the episode progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that Nancy’s fictional reconstruction of Jonathan’s time in Italy was heavily steered by a mother’s bias. She filtered out the unpleasant bits about her son, positioning him as the grand and sole victim of a mammoth conspiracy.

For instance, in the Disclaimer season 1 premiere, the viewers were shown through a flashback sequence that Sasha, Jonathan’s girlfriend, abandoned the Italy trip midway because some relative had died. However, in the latest episode, Stephen concedes that she did so because of a fight she had with Jonathan.

Stephen does not mind these inconsistencies and falsehoods, arguing that good authors often take liberty with facts. However, as Disclaimer season 1 makes clear, this can have serious repercussions.