Each week Terry and Joe review the latest episode of Apple TV’s Servant S2, alternating between our respective sites.

S1 coverage: 1– 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10

S2 coverage: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10
S3 coverage: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10
S4 coverage: 1 / 2 / 3

Spoilers follow for Episode 3.01 “Donkey.”

Episode 3.01 “Donkey”: Three months after the attack, the Turners head down the shore. Left alone, Leanne has a more exciting day than she anticipated.

TERRY

It’s another new season of Servant, Joe. The show that has been one of my absolute favorites to cover and write about. Now that we know the show has been renewed for a fourth and final season, we have a definite end game that’ll end on the showrunner’s terms. Plus: season two ended on such a climactic cliffhanger that involved the power going out, the snow oppressively swirling outside while, inside, the burnt body of Aunt Josephine had been carelessly thrust into the walls of the Turner household. The cold temperature aside, that episode left me with chills as Leanne suggests she’s started a war.

In answer to that, Season 3 feels like a reset in some regards. Instead of following the apocalyptic imagery of the previous season, “Donkey” picks up three months later with the Turner household experiencing something they haven’t felt in a very long time: joy. Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) stomps happily around her kitchen while Sean (Toby Kebbell) and Julian (Rupert Grint) argue about what they should feed Jericho for his first real meal. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Sean says with a glint in his eye as the camera sets us at Jericho’s level. The three of them are perched happily in front of him, Dorothy ready to snap a picture as Jericho laps up the food Sean gives him. “I knew he had an excellent palette!” He says happily, all smiles as Jericho takes a second bite.

They’re also planning to go to the Shore the next day. It’s as if none of the trauma they’ve experienced over the course of two seasons means anything. They’re happy. And content. The way the home is filmed is even warmer, with lights giving everything a warm feeling, even as the mud bubbles in the basement and a piece of the house falls outside, almost striking Julian in the head. After the frigid and dark way Season Two ended, it’s downright cozy.

Then Leanne (Nell Tiger Free) slams the back door, breaking their momentary happiness. While the Turners have been living their best life, Leanne has been waiting. “Donkey” actually opens with her having a cacophonous nightmare of sounds from the previous season. She wakes up, grips the ceremonial knife that featured keenly in the S2 finale, and looks at the dead moths collecting under her window. She tries to bring one back to life and can’t. It eventually joins a myriad of other insects she’s keeping in glasses in her medicine cabinet. The suggestion? That whatever powers Leanne had for two seasons is either waning or gone.

“They can slip into your life without you even noticing,” she warns the Turners. And we get a little pertinent piece of information. The Turners do not know that Aunt Josephine is dead and buried in the walls of their house. “It’s been three months since Aunt Josephine–who you said isn’t coming back,” Dorothy tries to reason with Leanne. But we know the reason she isn’t coming back and the implications that come with it. “You’re safe, Leanne. Because if anyone comes for you, they’ll have to come through us first.”

Another exciting change this season is a new opening credits. After two seasons, it’s obvious that the opening sequence showcases a new location in the house and a new location for the horror. Season Two, for instance, stages the opening credits upstairs in the attic, which not only gave the show a new location but is where Leanne spent most of the season. Season Three switches it up in the most intriguing way: the threats aren’t internal to the house. They’re outside…just outside, as the camera moves from the house through the garden and to the gate, which opens to reveal dark shadows amassing just outside of the Turner household. And Leanne, still holding Jericho.

What does it all mean?

If I had to hazard a guess, Servant is quietly setting the stage for something external to the Turner household. Leanne is seemingly no longer the ominous presence she was in the house, so the attention turns to the outside world, where, as Leanne says, the cult can easily slip into their lives. We see this vigilance and terror immediately in “Donkey,” with Leanne’s fear of open windows and open doors and her inability to leave the sanctity of the Turner home to even go on walks. She’s seeing the cult everywhere and that fear, coupled with her waning powers, unsettles her in ways we haven’t really seen in previous seasons. While Leanne has faltered and has shown fear and uncertainty, she has always seemed unflappable.

But now? She’s absolutely terrified about what’s to come.

Another switch is that Servant allows us, the viewer, to leave the Turner household when Julian is forced to take Leanne and Jericho on a walk to try and get Leanne to reach the park, at least. While it’s not the first time we’ve left the house, it’s a rare respite from the Turner home that even Julian slyly says, “ah, this is good being outside.” It’s a refreshing change of pace because Servant typically keeps us stuck inside, even when we’re watching events unfold outside of the Turner home. Is this another hint that Season Three might let up on keeping the point of view stuck in the Turner home?

Even though I’ve written almost a page and a half, we haven’t even gotten to the meat of the dense first episode, Joe. And I’m curious about your thoughts on “Donkey” as a whole. Is this a welcome return? When you clicked play, did you sigh like me, as if you’re curling back up with a comforting book, a $3,000 bottle of wine and a bowl of Campbell’s Tomato Soup at the ready? Do you have thoughts of the painting of the titular donkey that Leanne meaningfully stares at? With Leanne’s warning about how easily the cult can sneak into their lives, should we be worried about Julian’s new boo Veera (Mr. Robot/GLOW’s Sunita Mani)? Finally, what do you make of the bubbling goop in the basement and Leanne’s apparent new automatic drawing?

JOE

Oh boy, it feels great to be back, Terry! From bubbling goop in the basement (it looks like a tar pit, right?) to charred bodies breeding moths in the walls to the threatening “did I just see that?” image of a man in black rifling through Leanne’s dresser, there’s a lot of moodiness going on in “Donkey.”

I would extend that first and foremost to the titular painting, which depicts a man riding - and whipping - a donkey. Obviously it’s notable that the picture is front for far more horrifying imagery - what with the moths creeping through the cracks above and the body lurking behind the wall. It feels ominous; the kind of thing you wouldn’t have in a room, but Leanne’s whole room has been outfitted this way. There’s a deeply religious-looking mural on her wall and she’s moved the “Aunt Josephine/Dorothy” proxy - the mannequin she kept dressing up last season - down into the corner. Perhaps Leanne needs to cleanse some of this nightmare fuel from her interior decorating skills because there’s plenty of horror in this room alone.

I’ll confess that this first episode is so deliberately paced, it wasn’t until it was over that I realized it’s very low-key. Last year Julia Ducournau gave us a Flanagan-worthy degloving-style scene with Sean, but there’s nothing on the same line here. “Donkey” isn’t just a hard reset or a table-setting episode, Terry; this is a character study of the world’s most unstable nanny. This is a delightful little slice of paranoid thriller worthy of the best from the 70s, where even a step outside of the apartment or an old man fumbling with his keys is cause for alarm.

Basically what I’m saying is: this is the “poor Leanne” show.

It doesn’t hurt having Servant creator M. Night Shyamalan behind the camera because his use of camera framing is a thing of beauty. So much of the ominous dread in this comes from the extremely tight close-ups of Leanne’s face as her eyes sweep around, looking for potential threats. Either that or she’s framed in large, empty, open spaces where a threat could come from any direction: hallways, door frames and, worst of all for her, the outdoors. It may have just been my headphones, but it also seems like the sound design has been cranked up to 11, especially in these street scenes. The result is that every little innocuous (frequently familiar) sound and object could be the source of disaster.

This makes the break-in all the more startling, because we’ve spent so much time thinking Leanne is overreacting. I full-on yelped and then immediately questioned whether I had even seen someone in the corner, which is a delightful rollercoaster of emotions to go through in a short amount of time. And while it’s unclear if Leanne is ever in danger from the intruder (we learn that there have been a series of break-ins around the neighborhood), it’s terrifying enough to have a stranger in the house, much less when you’re expecting the worst.

By this time Leanne has already learned that although she doesn’t have the ability to heal anymore, she can definitely still “read” the signs. This is, of course, evidenced by Julian’s attack-by-flock-of-seagull on the beach, which was foreshadowed in Leanne’s automatic writing. It’s ironic, then, that Dorothy inadvertently sides with Leanne at episode’s end when she explains “There has to be a reason. Things don’t just happen”. So what’s the reason, then?

But let’s circle back to Veera because I’m definitely still processing the season’s only new character of note. We learn that Julian met her in NA (on his third stint) and that she’s apparently less “judgy” than Natalie. They do seem relatively inseparable and happy, but while he and Leanne are out on their walk that the crotch touch in S02E08 “Loveshack” turned into full on fucking. Julian clearly doesn’t want that daillance to come out, or affect his current relationship with Veera, but for now the character is more reflective of Julian’s impulsive, often bad decision making more than a proper three-dimensional character (Sidebar: I love his sudden obsession with nutrition and exercise as a means of maintaining his sobriety; it’s relatable and simultaneously oh so Julian).

So yeah, Terry, I don’t know what to make of Veera. What do you make of her? Were you surprised the burglar stole Aunt Josephine’s ceremonial knife? Is Leanne too paranoid…or just paranoid enough? And why don’t we have a pirate song we sing when we go to the beach?!

TERRY

Considering the way Season Two ended and Leanne’s continued focus on how easy it is for them to slip into someone’s life, Joe, I have to think she’s being paranoid enough. Consider, for instance, how easily she slipped into the Turners’ house. We’re figuratively a long way from her character in Season One, but it’s always good to remember just how quickly she ingratiated herself into the family as a member of the cult.

Which is why I’m immediately suspicious of Veera, who Julian happened to meet in NA. Granted his previous lover also felt like someone who could have been a member of the cult, so it’s quite possible that Veera is a red herring, as well. And you’re absolutely right, she’s barely been in a handful of scenes, the most impactful of which is just her reacting to the…sea shanty…that Dorothy and Julian sing to each other.

If we ever meet up in person and find ourselves heading to the beach, I’m going to insist we do this upon immediately meeting, Joe. Weird looks be damned.

“Donkey” institutes a central mystery, though, about happenstance and looking for patterns. On the surface, Dorothy’s closing monologue about seeing patterns is meant to calm Leanne and show her that Dorothy understands how her mind works. But the statement obliquely addresses the audience, too. We’ve spent how-many-dozens of pages analyzing every little detail and moment in Servant, looking for patterns in color schemes, shots, metaphors, biblical allusions and more to find some kind of answer. Servant, meanwhile, continues to be just as ambiguous, meticulously eschewing traditional answers in favor of deepening the mystery. “Donkey” forces us into Leanne’s shoes this episode, so it’s difficult to avoid seeing the small things that happen as parts of that ambiguous pattern Servant continues to build.

It’s easy to ignore the break-in because it’s been happening a lot in Society Hill (side note: is this the first time they’ve named the neighborhood they live in? And, side note 2: what an ominous name…oh, the patterns, Joe. The patterns!). But considering the individual went through Leanne’s bed, looking under her covers to find the ceremonial knife? That seems rather specific…I’d understand if she kept it in her nightstand, but to go scrounging in her bed suggests to me that he was looking for something specific. Covering the cult’s tracks, maybe. Closing the loop on Josephine’s violent antics, possibly.

Getting the tools to re-do the botched ceremonial sacrifice? Hmmm…

I’m also glad you brought up the framing and the way “Donkey” was shot because it was one of my favorite parts to explore on a rewatch. You mentioned the way the camera tilts to show the man in black rummaging through things in the background. But I loved an earlier example of this when Leanne was looking through her jar of dead bugs before Julian comes in to tell her he’s taking her on a walk. She immediately leaves the bathroom, but the camera stays stationary, focusing on her. Without sound, it’d be easy to think she’s talking to herself because we don’t see Julian chatting with her. It’s such an antithetical staging for television, where dialogue is typically shot from both characters’ perspectives. But it also quietly tells the viewer how alone Leanne is in the house, even before the Turners literally leave her alone.

In a subtle way, Leanne has taken over Dorothy’s place in the house. In the previous two seasons, Julian and Sean had to tiptoe around Dorothy’s fragile mental state, going through a ridiculous hoops to keep her from doing something brash. In “Donkey”, Dorothy is blissfully ignorant of all the potential trauma that could have unfolded and still doesn’t remember her role in Jericho’s death. But Leanne’s paranoia forces the Turners to deal with her with the same kids’ gloves they used with Dorothy. In “Donkey,” they’re constantly trying to soothe her, turn her attention away from the lingering threat of the cult, and keep her copacetic.

It’s an intriguing flip-flop, particularly with how happy the Turners are right now. I can’t imagine that state will last. I also can’t imagine Dorothy will remain unaware of what really happened with Jericho this entire season.

As the episode ends, Dorothy gives us such a tantalizing statement when she says she plans to cover the house in security cameras so I’m turning it over to you, Joe. Servant has played with technology to deliver fantastic sequences of second screen/found footage horror (I’m thinking back to the phenomenal Season Two episode “Pizza”) so I’m curious if you’re as giddy as me at the potential horror an in-house security system can bring? Will we get a Servant-styled Paranormal Activity moment? Do you have any lingering thoughts about “Donkey” and what are you hoping Servant will address in the upcoming episodes?

JOE

Oh yes, I’d nearly forgotten about how delightful “Pizza” was (honestly, its ingenious use of found footage is why it’s one of my favourite episodes of the series). There’s plenty of potential in the introduction of a new surveillance system, though I don’t think being scrutinized 24/7 by cameras will help the nanny feel more comfortable.

From an audience perspective, though, you’re right that the potential of increased surveillance footage is tantalizing. It could be instrumental for visually recontextualizing or revitalizing some of the familiar angles and shots we’ve grown accustomed to around the Brownstone.

One interesting complication to all this harkens back to your dissection of the new opening credits. If the visual and narrative focus of the show is expanding to include more of the outside world, it will be interesting to see how - or if - the show keeps us entrenched in Leanne’s paranoia. After all, we have spent nearly two seasons locked in this house with Leanne and the Turners. If the camera and the action leaves the house more frequently, will Servant begin to lose some of its tension?

Of course, it’s also possible that I’m overreacting and the credits are simply metaphorical, in which case the status quo will remain. It’s Servant: anything and everything could happen.

Which is why it’s so exciting to have our favourite genre TV back on the air, Terry! I legitimately have no idea where the show will go this season, but we were both so impressed with S2’s willingness to take risks that I’m hopeful Tony Basgallop and his crew will continue to push the narrative and stylistic envelope.

As to where we go next? I’m interested in seeing how Leanne’s waning powers will play into everything. Is the house currently defenseless against the cult? And while I appreciated the efficiency of this premiere, I did miss the attention-grabbing violence of S2’s opener, so I’m hoping for something buzzy in next week’s follow-up.

We’ll have to see what lies in wait when we jump over to QueerHorrorMovies for episode 2, “The Hive.”

Servant airs weekly on Fridays on AppleTV.