Sex & Grief Engulf a Second Double Helping of 'Disclaimer'

AppleTV+’s Disclaimer arrives with two more episodes in its second week, which are all about grief and sex. But mostly grief... and also a lot of sex. We see Stephen and Nancy on the day they learn Jonathan has died. They are going about their casual lives grilling in the backyard when two police officers come to their door and inform them that Jonathan has drowned. “Destiny doesn’t knock on any door,” Stephen narrates. “Destiny doesn’t ask permission. It crashes in without calling.” They have to go to Italy to identify the body. “The sun was shining as if nothing terrible had happened,” Stephen says, truly capturing how surreal it is to go through something like this as the world continues around you.

Nancy wails when she sees her son in the morgue. The police take them to the beach where Jonathan died, where they learn that the lifeguards were attending to a child who had cut his foot, and that is why they weren’t quick to respond. Nancy wants to talk to the woman whose son Jonathan saved, but she learns she has already returned to England. She wonders why her son, who has always put himself first, risked his life for someone he didn’t know. Stephen and Nancy wade into the water almost as if they are looking for their son or think they can perhaps save him. It is devastating.

Back at home, Nancy never truly recovers from the loss. She tries to drown herself in the bathtub, not because she wants to die but because she wants to know what her son feels. The police had told her he most likely passed out before he died and felt no pain. But is that true?