TERRY

Here we are, Joe, with another mostly solo episode centered in the increasingly poorly lit Turner House. “Boba,” named after the tea Sean (Toby Kebbell) is teaching Tobe (Tony Revolori) to create from, well, leftover breast milk, is a fun inverse and callback to Episode 5 “Cricket.” In that episode, Leanne (Nell Tiger Free) was left to her own devices in the house and was toyed with by Julian (Rupert Grint) and Roscoe (Phillip James Brannon). In “Boba,” Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) and Sean are off to the Annual Television Journalism Awards (she has to point out that Sean’s her plus one, natch) while Leanne gets a night off and night out with Tobe. He’s taking her bowling. So romantic.

Which leaves Julian home alone with the baby.

So Julian wanders the dark and oppressively lit house, drinking wine, siccing Roscoe to spy on Leanne and Tobe, stowing away more money and picking at a piece of poultry until he gets bored. The baby hasn’t made a peep so he goes upstairs and does that thing people do to “accidentally” wake up someone...except that I don’t think calling the baby a “little fuck” is exactly appropriate. Dude gets aggressive and shakes the crib before realizing that Jericho is back to being that creepy ass doll.

He tears through the house trying to find Jericho, getting increasingly more panicked and angry until the doorbell rings and we meet Frank Pearce (Todd Waring), Dorothy and Julian’s father. Frank is gruff and reminds me of a typical rich, WASPy dad who has odd pet names for his kids (i.e., Dotty and...Juju?). We see where Julian gets his overbearing, vaguely sexist way of “protecting” his sister you brought up in our first recap.

After dismissing Dorothy’s trip to the awards ceremony (“So she’s well enough to swill free champagne”), he turns his attention to the baptism: “I’ve ridden out some pretty embarrassing moments in this family’s history, but she will not be parading that sack of cloth in a church.” He then practically calls Dorothy a hysterical woman by saying that Julian was always the strong one. And thank god they were able to “give her a brother” to watch over poor, defenseless Dorothy. It reminds me of the dismissive attitude Julian has had about the whole affair from the beginning.

Apparently, the Juju doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Frank’s appearance is mainly to tell Julian that he has a plan. The plan’s name is Anders, a Swedish baby who looks enough like Jericho that the photo of him on Frank’s phone makes Julian cringe. He’s a few steps behind Julian and Sean’s plans, but it presents a perfect opportunity for normalcy. The father’s onboard for this bit of obfuscation and Julian files that away for later.

But man, Joe. What a dense episode with a whole lot of exposition. I didn’t even mention the framing work at the beginning where we’re starting to see what Julian discovered in the Turner House after The Incident. And judging from the rotting chunk of...ham, I think?...on the table, circled by flies, it wasn’t pretty. But I’ll shoot it over to you. What is going on with Jericho? Do you think Leanne was just toying with Julian this episode? And what does the flip-flopping between doll and human mean for the future? Finally, can you tell me if my breath smells, Joe? I need to know why that boy won’t kiss me.

JOE

I’m sorry, Terry, but I don’t really *like* you that way, but I encourage you to find a mirror to kiss as an alternative.

But seriously, let me tackle your question about Jericho and Leanne first because I think it’s the clearest for me. The events of ‘Boba’ suggest that whatever powers Leanne has, they’re either tied to her physical proximity, or to her being in the house. When she’s away from the baby and the Turner home for too long, the baby reverts back to a doll. And, of course, because the creative team behind Servant has been agonizingly careful never to show us Jericho outside (I feel like the closest we’ve seen has been Leanne pushing him in the stroller in “Cricket”), we don’t know whether it is her or her and the house that casts the spell. For now it’s just curious, but if Dorothy does plan to go ahead with the baby’s baptism, the details will become extremely important.

Regardless of what’s required, I quite enjoyed Julian’s no good, very bad babysitting adventure. I’ll confess that initially I blanked a bit on the framing device (I thought maybe Julian had spent the night in his car watching the house), but when he couldn’t get into the house and we saw that giant ham *shudder*, I realized that we’re inching one step closer to uncovering the truth behind The Incident.

Now last week we thought we cracked the code on what happened: Dorothy took a drunken fall down the stairs with the baby. It’s unclear exactly when the flashback takes place, but I wonder if this is actually after the fact and Julian discovers that a distraught Dorothy tried to commit suicide by plunging out of the open window. That would explain why Frank, Julian and Sean agreed to that damn doll in the first place.

Let’s talk a bit more about Frank, shall we? You’re 100% right (and 100% funny) when you say that the Juju doesn’t fall far from the tree. I’m the kind of idiot gay critic that focuses on the semiotics of two things in particular: character hairstyles/clothes and their parents. Both tend to offer a lot of insight into our main characters’ personalities (a change in hair suggests change, or - as is the case here - a necklace becomes a symbol of upper class superiority).

Parents are often reflective of how our characters came to be who they are (that’s why therapists always want to know about them in film and TV). “Juju” is very obviously a younger version of his controlling father, but you can also see a lot of Dorothy in the civilized veneer that cracks when they don’t get what they want. It’s no accident that the episode ends with that last scene between Dorothy and Leanne, when Leanne can’t unclasp the pearls. It’s the perfect encapsulation of how alike Dorothy is to her father: Dorothy’s calm enquiry about Leanne’s date quickly morphs into a mean-spirited jabe at the young woman’s bitten nails, and then demands for servitude when the pearls spill everywhere. It’s especially ironic considering Sean just told Julian how well Dorothy took the slight of being invited to sit at the guest table at the awards.

But I’ll turn it back to you, Terry, for commentary on two significant moments. The first is how did you react to the jaw-dropper when Julian hanged the doll over the bannister and eventually dropped it? The second (smaller) moment is more of a throwaway, but do you think it’s another clue that Julian briefly watches a news report about a family that went missing with nary a note. This is the first time we’ve seen a non-Dorothy news report, but I’m still stuck on the idea that considering her profession and the number of stories we’ve seen on TVs throughout the series, these have got to be clues, right?

TERRY

I’m glad you brought up the proximity angle, Joe, because I did consider that. But I also was reminded of what started the show, with Leanne gone from the house (and baby) and Sean being the one to find Jericho alive and, well, not a “sack of cloth.” Maybe it’s as you say and there’s a timing part of it. When Jericho is reborn, Leanne is out of the house but comes back soonish, whereas in this episode she’s gone for a night of bowling (first clue, by the way, that he’s just not that into you). But that’s what initially perplexed me and why I lingered on the idea that she was fucking with Julian.

Speaking of fucking with Julian, when he held that plastic doll over the bannister, I tensed up. And when he made to drop it, I audibly gasped. We’ve been so conditioned to think of the doll as alive, in a weird way, and I had this immediate and visceral flash through my head that we were about to have a second dead baby. Ugh. Grim thoughts.

Another grim thought I had was when we immediately switch to Tobe, walking home in the night. We’ve learned that Leanne can be spiteful (the splinters, Dorothy’s cold sore, etc.) and I honestly expected something to happen to Tobe. In a way, something did happen, though. He runs into Wanda (S.J. Son), who looks back at him as she walks away. It’s an odd moment. A throwaway moment...but it makes me wonder if there’s something else there.

Of course, by this point, creator Tony Basgallop could just be fucking with me.

That TV report, though. Ever since you mentioned you were paying attention to them, I started to as well. And I immediately wrote, “hmmmmm…” Considering it’s the first news report, as you mentioned, not to feature Dorothy I was kind of wondering if it was foreshadowing. That by the end of the season, part or all of the family would be missing (which, honestly, would set up a very different season two…).

I don’t know, Joe. Next episode is called “Jericho” and I feel like the ending of “Boba” sets us up to get answers very soon. But what do you think? Does Leanne plan some more spellcasting with the pearl she stole from the broken necklace? And, in another throwaway line (there were so many throwaway moments this episode), what did you make of Julian’s comment, “I was the first one here”?

JOE

We really are teasing each other down the rabbit hole, aren’t we? I feel like it’s a sign of how great this series is that we continue to have as many wild speculative theories as we have concrete answers.

I’ve always gotten a weird sibling rivalry vibe between Dorothy and Julian (do we even know what he does for a living?!) - I’m not surprised that she lords her high profile job over his head, but this interaction with their father suggests that Julian is daddy’s little boy (is it telling, too, that Frank doesn’t even bother to wait for Dorothy? We never see them interact). Julian has always seemed very protective of Dorothy’s mental health, but not always for her own sake. It may simply be that he, Sean and Frank are on the hook for some kind of criminal cover-up and Julian is trying to cover his own ass, but - like most of Servant - there’s something more here than meets the eye.

More obvious: that damn pearl is going to cause problems. Tobe may be safe for now (I missed his run-in with Wanda, so that’s crazy!), but I worry for Dorothy. It’s telling that Leanne didn’t just take the pearl, she ate it. Unless she’s just keeping it in her mouth for safekeeping, who knows what happens when the magic lady eats an object belonging to someone?

So.Many.Questions! And you’re right - “Jericho” suggests that answers may finally be coming. We’re only two episodes away from the end of S1 and we still don’t even know if we’re dealing with an anthology or a serialized series!

Terry...I’m overwhelmed, but excited. Who knows what the future may hold when we duck back to Queer.Horror.Movies for the penultimate episode?!

Terry and Joe here. Because we’re bonkers, not only are we covering Apple TV’s Servant but as we finish up our coverage, we’re also starting to review and recap HBO’s Stephen King adaptation The Outsider. Look for our review/recap of the first two episodes on Joe’s site Queer.Horror.Movies on January 12th!