Disclaimer Recap: Forever Young

As a seasoned observer of human nature, I find myself utterly appalled by the unfolding drama in this narrative. The actions of these characters, particularly Simon and Stephen, are not merely regrettable but downright reprehensible. It seems that in their desperation to cling to power, control, or perhaps just a sense of relevance, they have lost all semblance of decency and compassion.

This week on Disclaimer, not much unexpected transpires. The fourth episode revolves around pushing Catherine Ravenscroft to the ground, and the fifth focuses on ensuring she remains there. With Robert, Catherine is evicted from their luxurious residence, returning instead to the humble bungalow of her upbringing. Surprisingly effortlessly, Stephen manages to turn Catherine’s entire office against her. Lastly, he targets Nicholas, a character we know to be peculiar and fragile, making it almost too easy, like shooting fish in a barrel.

In a surprising twist, episode five deviates significantly from the familiar narrative structure we’ve seen so far. The usual perspective and timeline switches, as we’re accustomed to, are still present, but they’re now free from the constraints of “The Perfect Stranger” plotline that previously posed as the past. The characters of Jonathan and Catherine, as portrayed by Nancy earlier in the season, are no longer with us. The versions of them we knew—Jonathan and the seductive Catherine crafted from a limited set of boudoir photos—are gone. This departure creates unexpected ripples in this episode.

Initially, Stephen Brigstowe’s intricate schemes have had elements of madness and humor. For instance, his exaggerated miming of throwing a grenade whenever he hands over a copy of “The Perfect Stranger” or his clumsy dialogue with the Notting Hill bookseller are examples. However, it is Nancy’s repeated portrayal of Catherine as an unkind person that makes Stephen seem even more unusual to me. His quirks, initially written off as the eccentricities of a solitary man, now appear sinister. No matter how close his actions align with Nancy’s description, Stephen also exhibits harmful behavior. He is the kind of person who could slowly torment a living being, be it an insect or a stranger, simply for the sake of doing so.

In my cinema enthusiast’s perspective, this new chapter finds me back in Catherine’s car, where Robert left us at the end of the last. It turns out, the Ravenscrofts don’t possess a grand country manor or even a secret hideaway in Cornwall – instead, I find myself standing before my mother’s ailing house. Truth be told, it slipped my mind that Catherine had a mother battling dementia – a poignant detail in a series centered around storytelling. However, Catherine chooses not to unload her current struggles onto her mother. Instead, she lies in her mother’s bed, reflecting on the musty aroma of the room. The underlying message is apparent: Stephen can save his efforts; time will take Catherine’s mother away from her soon enough.

Until that happens, though, she’ll always be Catherine’s mother, a kind lady who leaves headache tablets on the bedside table. Who welcomes her adult daughter into her bed without prying. In the middle of the night, when Catherine finally breaks down and admits what’s brought her home, her mother sleeps through the speech or perhaps politely pretends to. Either way, it’s the first time anyone has let Catherine get a word in edgewise, to tell her side of the story. (The audience, of course, isn’t privy to Catherine’s confession, which gets drowned out by voice-over. So, so much voice-over.)

In episode five, it’s not just Catherine and her mother who are rekindling their relationship; Robert, with his wife away, is also bringing his estranged son Nicholas back home. However, unlike what Robert thinks, their bond isn’t as strong. After dinner, Nicholas appears anxious to escape from his father’s overly cheerful demeanor. Interestingly, he even starts to empathize with his disliked mother. He senses a change between his parents, but chooses not to inquire, assist with the cleaning, or adhere to the no-smoking rule. Despite his pitiful state, Nicholas holds a peculiar power: Robert is hesitant to upset him as much as Catherine has been.

It’s not surprising, though, that Robert has no idea about Nicholas, isn’t he? He never inquires about his friends or his possible new girlfriend. Robert is unaware that after he sends his son off to bed with a “goodnight”, Nick would sneak downstairs and out the front door. He’d head towards his dealer’s place, exchange an extra five pounds for the privilege of injecting drugs on a grubby mattress, all under the glare of passing train lights and through a shattered window.

Similarly, Stephen is reuniting with his son – just like Nancy did previously. Tommy, an ex-pupil of Justin’s, has established an Instagram account for Jonathan Brigstocke, filling it with Jonathan’s images and passions. Notably, Tommy guides Stephen on how to operate the account: showing him how to send messages, how to use abbreviations without appearing too novice, thank you very much. If this were a genuine 19-year-old boy’s account, it would include his preferred music, according to Tommy. Stephen proposes a post about Hesse’s coming-of-age novel Demian, as well. No, not books, Tommy advises him. (Neither Stephen nor Alfonso Cuarón are immune to some playful intergenerational banter.)

So far, Catherine’s career has been hinted at rather than fully explored. We know she’s a highly acclaimed documentary maker, with her latest recognitions earned for a project focusing on private education. There’s a team member named Jisoo, who seems to be a research assistant, and Catherine has spoken of Stephen Brigstocke in relation to her. Recently, their interaction became slightly tense when Jisoo persisted in investigating him at Catherine’s disapproval. Another colleague, Simon, is equally senior and not exactly well-liked due to his envy of Catherine’s impressive filmography and occasional condescension. Catherine isn’t shy about retaliating against him, but the overall image portrayed is that she’s competent at her job and generally well-regarded by others.

As a film enthusiast, I found the events in episode five utterly puzzling. Here comes Stephen to Catherine’s office, handing out copies of “The Perfect Stranger” for Jisoo to share with her colleagues. Now, I have to confess that there’s one aspect of Kevin Kline’s performance that leaves me scratching my head. When Stephen is about to take his revenge, he transforms from a self-assured guy into a rather trollish figure. He slouches over, his voice turns grumbly. To me, it seems like he’s lost his marbles, but Jisoo appears to be blindly trusting his dubious tale. According to Stephen, Catherine Ravenscroft, the highly respected boss and mentor we all admire, has been intimidating this timid man into silence. He alleges that she let a man die, though he provides no concrete evidence. This is certainly hard to swallow.

My second concern arises here: If I were Jisoo, I might find myself perplexed and thinking something along the lines of, “Gosh, what an oddball! I should talk to Catherine about this since we’ve been friends for so long, and these accusations are absurd.” But instead, Jisoo rushes to Simon, who is known to be Catherine’s longtime rival. This action is puzzling, considering that just recently, Jisoo seemed delighted when Simon was teased by Catherine. She then distributes multiple copies of “The Perfect Stranger” throughout the office, acting like a miniature Scholastic Book Fair salesperson. It seems this reaction might stem from Catherine not granting her a story without a polite request. While it may be true that Stephen’s analysis highlights Jisoo’s unchecked ambition, attacking Catherine won’t make her any more successful (it will, however, potentially damage her professional network.)

Regardless, when Catherine shows up, the argument between her, Simon, and Jisoo escalates quickly. Simon is acting arrogantly, repeating Stephen’s accusations in front of everyone and preaching about honesty, all without a hint of embarrassment or even lowering his voice. He doesn’t seem to care about reading the book first either. In response, Catherine correctly tells him to stay out of it since this is a private matter. It doesn’t become a professional issue simply because Stephen searched for their office online. However, it might be improper of Catherine to ask Jisoo to find Stephen’s address for her, which is similar to using the office printer for personal matters like an Amazon return label.

Simon tends to push when he feels overlooked, and on this occasion, he did just that, grabbing Catherine’s shoulder not once, but twice. On the second attempt, as Catherine was preparing to exit the office rather than reveal unshared secrets with these office betrayers, she slapped Simon instead. This action, undeniably, was a significant blunder. A more appropriate response would have been expressing remorse, as opposed to her retort: “You deserved it.” However, I’m still left bewildered by the fact that everyone in the office accepted and seemingly appreciated receiving an unimpressive self-published copy of this JV erotica, rating it with just one out of five stars. If Goodreads allowed a lower rating, I would have given it none. DNF. “You’re completely disgraced!” Jisoo chimes as she departs her boss. (A subtle inter-generational insult.)

It remains uncertain whether Catherine’s career can survive the backlash from her slap, yet she appears unfazed at the moment. Apart from Robert and her profession, there’s only one more thing she stands to lose: Nicholas. She decides to confront Nicholas at Stephen Brigstocke’s residence in an attempt to save him. This is a desperate move to stop the damage. It’s a bid to rescue her son. However, even her entreaties fall on deaf ears as Stephen refuses to answer the door. Her cries for attention, echoing through the letterbox, are just as futile as Robert’s attempt to win Stephen over with an extravagant dinner at Wiltons, complete with a carving trolley. No amount of expensive Bordeaux could sway him, but he does appreciate the opportunity to pat Robert on the hand during a dinner party. It seems that Stephen finds pleasure in being the pity-giver instead of the pitied one.

Regardless of the matter at hand, Stephen’s scheme has been set in motion already. Utilizing an Instagram account he created for Jonathan, he’s spent the entire day exchanging messages with Nicholas, manipulating him and gaining his trust. He amuses himself at how desperate this 25-year-old man is to interact with his supposed 19-year-old son; yet, it never crosses his mind that his actions are not only inappropriate but also extremely disturbing, given he’s an older man pretending to be his deceased son to destroy the life of his deceased son’s former lover’s son. With remarkable ease, he carries out this task. Through Instagram, he openly tells Nicholas that he is the child from The Perfect Stranger, which makes Catherine the “wretched woman” he despises so much. Stephen even sends Nicholas explicit photos of his own mother. Perhaps he convinces himself that this final horrific act serves to prove his authenticity, but he revels in the thrill of potentially pushing this family to the brink.

In simpler terms, Nicholas, who feels his life is a failure and knows his parents share this sentiment, struggles to cope. Overwhelmed, he calls his mother in tears. By the time he reaches his dealer’s hangout, he appears beaten – his dealer even advises him to clean up. However, Nicholas doesn’t want to clean up; instead, he wishes to succumb. He yearns for his parents to stop asking about Italy. Exhausted, he lies back on the filthy mattress and hopes never to leave this place again. The story doesn’t definitively reveal whether Nicholas will get his wish to stay there forever.

In the narrative I’ve crafted for our son Jonathan, I’ve ensured he remains youthful,” I note in the episode’s voice-over. “He’s perpetually on his gap year, on the brink of university life. Yet, it’s impossible to keep someone young by weaving them into a story or preserving a boy who was taken too soon through imagined social media posts.

The reality, of course, is that there’s nothing Stephen can do to give his boy a future. He’s simply willing to steal Catherine’s — to trap her and the people she loves under an upturned glass and see how long they’ll survive it.

2024-10-25 14:54

Disclaimer Recap: Forever Young

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