This interview contains spoilers from "VII," the finale of "Disclaimer," now streaming on Apple TV+. The final beats of "Disclaimer" utterly upend what had come before. Up to this point, we're given to believe that Stephen (Kevin Kline) is on a misguided but fundamentally fact-based mission to avenge the death of his son,

Throughout the Apple TV+ limited series, one common reaction from everyone who has read The Perfect Stranger is that the character based on Catherine Ravenscroft ( Cate Blanchett) deserved to die at the end of the book. Thankfully, life doesn’t imitate art in the finale.

I'm always conflicted when film and TV use sexual assault as a plot device. Too often, it can feel like hollow shock factor, brutalization for brutalization's sake. That Disclaimer positions Catherine's rape as a twist, especially after six episodes of what feels more like a pulpy thriller, threatens to push the show into shock-factor territory.

The writer-director's seven-part Apple series comes to a close with crystalizing certainty, while still arguing for a world filled with more careful questions and less righteous satisfaction.