After its two-episode premiere, Disclaimer on Apple TV Plus continued on Friday, October 18 with its third episode entitled III (that's Roman numerals, in keeping with the rest of the series).
Episode 3 of Disclaimer centers around the mystery of Jonathan's death, which we'd already heard about in the previous seasons. We learn a lot more about it in this episode, as his parents find out about it and travel to identify his body... but there are some suspicious elements of it.
To ensure that you haven't missed any story beats, this Disclaimer episode 3 recap will go through everything that happened, to simplify things. I've largely kept things in the order we see them, but have combined a few elements for brevity.
Of course, spoilers ensue so if you'd like to watch the show first, sign up for Apple TV Plus in order to check it out.
Chasing answers
Episode 3 begins where the second ended, with Catherine (Cate Blanchett) chasing after Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen) who's driving away. He ignores her calls and begins to drink alcohol as he drives.
We flash back to the earlier timeline: Stephen (Kevin Kline) and Nancy (Lesley Manville) are having a barbeque in their back yard. Police arrive to break the news to them that Jonathan drowned in an accident.
Back in the modern day Catherine wakes up in the morning and leaves another message to Robert. The man wakes up in the back of his car with the booze bottle and the scandalous pictures of Catherine, and decides to take the bus to work because he's still drunk. On the bus he examines all the other people travelling, as he's not a frequent public transport taker.
In the past again, a young Catherine (Leila George) bids farewell to Jonathan (Louis Partridge) who she's spent some time with. She's saying her final farewell before Louis leaves for Rome, but she decides to invite him for a drink to thank him for helping her with Nicholas.
Modern Catherine decides to contact modern Stephen to possibly avoid any further scandals. She calls to congratulate him on a great work of fiction, which riles him up as she admits nothing.
The date where it went wrong
Over drinks, Catherine asks Louis about his relationship status, and he tells her about Sasha. Then Catherine asks the boy what he'd do with his celebrity crush, who is Kylie Minogue, and seduces him in this way. Eventually she invites him up to her room.
Some time later (but still in that timeline) Stephen and Nancy travel to Italy to identify Jonathan's body, and then they go to his hotel to collect his belongings. Stephen can't find his camera, and only in his modern-day reflection does he realize that Nancy found it and got the film developed.
In the modern day, Stephen's publisher friend takes him to a bookshop where his book is being displayed in the window. At the same time Robert gets breakfast in a cafe and begins to read the book.
Back to the past, Jonathan goes to Catherine's room. She takes off her clothes and they sleep together.
Stephen and Nancy find out that Jonathan drowned when trying to save a boy, and go to the beach where it happened. The latter is suspicious because Jonathan was a strong swimmer. They learn that the boy belonged to Catherine, and Nancy wants to speak to her, but is enraged to find out that the woman has already returned to England. She walks into the sea, and Stephen follows her.
