Each week Terry and Joe review the latest episode of Apple TV’s Servant S3, alternating between our respective sites.

Spoilers follow for Episode 3.05 “Tiger.”

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Episode 3.05 “Tiger”:

TERRY

“Tiger” was the last season three episode Apple initially gave to critics to review before the show started and holy cow, Joe, I now know why. The early part of this season has been so focused on reestablishing the character dynamics and resetting the arcs in some ways. Like a good jump scare, season three brought the tension back down in “Donkey” and for three episodes the anxiety and paranoia bubbled just under the surface. In hindsight, the first three episodes feel as if it’s setting up an explosive penultimate season while setting up narrative threads that will come together in the eventual fourth and final season.

After the relatively tame first third, last week’s episode amped up the tension and caused us to question what was happening. “Tiger” brings together a lot of disparate moments and plot points to create an iconic episode filled both with character moments, plot points and immense stakes. After watching “Tiger”, I desperately wanted to just go right to the next one because this is how you end an episode and kick off the back half of a season.

The opening seems completely at odds with the ending of “Ring.” The sounds of commotion and life lilt into Leanne (Nell Tiger Free)’s room, waking her up. After awkwardly jumping over a child stair barrier, she runs into an absolutely peppy Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) who is elated to see that Leanne is wearing Dorothy’s old overalls and that she is going to attend the block party.

And what a block party it is, with bounce houses, face painting, folk dancing, ax throwing, BBQ (all the way over from Bucks county!) and Sean (Toby Kebbell)’s liquid nitrogen-chilled ice cream to round everything off. Season three has taken tentative first steps outside of the Turner house and “Tiger” completely commits to it, with most of the episode taking place outside.

What’s interesting about this episode is the way it manages to bring character beats together in fulfilling, natural and exciting ways. Dorothy stalks through the party, pointing out all of the attractions to Leanne until a news crew pops up with Isabelle (Molly Griggs) in front, holding a mic. “Those bastards,” Leanne says, her peppy attitude vanishing in a second. “They sent her?”

Turns out she had pitched this block party to the network weeks ago and instead of relying on Dorothy, who seems right for this job, they sent her rival. This is a natural progression for Dorothy’s season three storyline. We’ve discussed how minimized Dorothy feels right now, as if her only reason to exist is Jericho while, at the same time, dealing with a career that seems to be passing her up for the younger model. This comes to a head here as Dorothy says, “fuck ‘em,” marches over, grabs the mic and gives Jericho his big network debut.

Meanwhile, as Sean works his “End Homeless Hunger” tent, Nancy (Carmen Herlihy) stops by and drops a bombshell on the audience. Turns out Sean has been sneaking out of the house (I’m honestly curious how, though) to take Jericho to Liberty Unitarian, a church group that Nancy ministers to.

This sparks a bit of debate with Sean and Julian (Rupert Grint) where the two lash out at each other. “I liked you better when you were godless,” Julian sneers. “I liked you better when you were a drunk,” Sean bites back. And that last part hurts as the camera pauses on Julian’s face. A very mean exchange. But it’s bringing back the idea of religion into the Turner house, a subject that’s floated around since the beginning which neither of the Turners have fully committed to it…until now.

Elsewhere, as Leanne spots a woman whose face is painted like a tiger, she turns and goes to follow, barely missing Roscoe (Phillip James Brannon) who enters the frame, staring at Leanne as she walks away before turning to face the other direction.

What is he doing here, Joe?? Is he still indebted to the cult??

The culty goodness continues as a woman begins to paint Leanne’s face as a tiger. She gets halfway done when a phone call quietly pulls her away and her slender fingers are replaced by dirty, older and gnarled and wet-looking fingers that paint some kind of invisible design on Leanne’s forehead. The nanny’s eyes are closed throughout all of this but Leanne realizes something very wrong is going on when the artist returns and she flees, face half-painted.

But then she discovers one of the Society Hill Mommies chatting it up with Isabelle and this conversation can lead nowhere good, Joe. Leanne overhears the Mommy telling Isabelle that there was an ambulance outside of the Turner house once and police cars twice…”you do the math.” That’s bad, but what follows is worse as Isabelle googles “Leanne Grayson” and comes up with a missing poster and a phone number. I can only imagine what’s going through Isabelle’s head. She’s fighting for her job. The Mommy not so subtly implied that abuse or worse is happening at the Turners. And now there’s the potential for kidnapping?

Now that’s a story for the news that Isabelle could use to ice out Dorothy from the network.

This is only skimming the surface, Joe, because there’s a lot that happens this episode. So I turn it over to you with some simmering questions. Can we call Leanne’s time with Tobe (Tony Revolori) an actual date and did you like the quiet charisma they had together? Veera (Sunita Mani) Watch: she’s noticeably gone this episode with a random reason, but did you clock Julian’s potential jealousy seeing Tobe and Leanne? Were you a little annoyed that Sylvia’s violent finale of “Ring” was casually swept away? And, finally and most importantly, we have to discuss the return of the cult.

JOE

I love that you wrote nearly two pages and there’s still so much to discuss, Terry.

This may be one of the most jam packed episodes of the series because it feels like every moment is significant. We’re finally seeing Leanne outside and she’s throwing caution to the wind on what looks like a highly enjoyable date with Tobe. Bouncy castle? Check. Folk dancing? Check. Winning a stuffed llama for really aggressively playing bean bag toss? Check. All signs of a surefire date (and yes, Julian was absolutely snarfing down a funnel cake out of jealousy as a result).

It’s all fun and games and, for the first time (ever?), we actually get to see Leanne smile. When she finally lets go and just decides to have a nice day of easy chemistry with Tobe, it’s so nice to witness.

Of course, this is Servant so we’ve already had ominous shots of Sean’s liquid nitrogen tank and Julian’s comment that it sounds ominous. Plus: we’re coming directly out of “Ring” which played the same hand in teasing dread by focusing on an object of doom. I was fully prepared for some child to lose a hand in a liquid nitrogen accident!

What I was not expecting was a full-on chase scene with two members of the cult who were manning one of the food tents. Leanne bizarrely choses the most isolated, dark and abandoned station she can find and saunters in looking for food, only to discover a man and a woman heating Aunt Josephine’s stolen dagger on the open grill. What follows is possibly the most extended, harrowing scene that the show has ever done as Leanne is chased back to the block parade, through the Turner house, out the back and into the park where she is apprehended…maybe?

This sequence is chef’s kiss masterful, Terry. From the gliding tension as Leanne backtracks through the narrow street lined with tents and stations, to the classic slasher trope as she struggles with the locked front door, to the 360 roll of the camera as the assailants force her backwards and she strikes her head on the ground. Then the frenzies rush through the house to the park where the group of homeless kids has amassed in larger numbers (teased earlier by Julian and already visually cued when Leanne asked a bitchy organizer to get them to leave).

What happens next, however, is a mystery. The decision to cut to black as the pair of cultists run at her in the park legitimately elicited a howl of protest from me because I thought the episode was over.

But no, we’re merely back in the Turner house as Leanne observes that she has blood on the dungarees (whose blood? From what wound?) She frantically washes them, then returns upstairs when Dorothy and Sean return home. It’s so dispiriting to hear the hard edge back in Nell Tiger Free’s voice as Leanne coolly answers Dorothy’s eager questions about her day, then the nanny feigns exhaustion and retires to her room where she paints her face for the second time that day…with the blood from her own head wound.

Intercut with this discomforting scene are flashes of Leanne being held down on her knees by the two cultists. Only then do we cut to credits, as Servant masterfully leaves us in a lurch as to what exactly happened and how Leanne escaped.

While this is certainly tantalizing, the answer seems a little obvious given the speculative branches we’ve gone out on the last few weeks, Terry. It seems clear that Leanne was rescued by the homeless teens, who fought off her attackers and, in the melee, Leanne got splashed with some of their blood.

Of course this doesn’t answer *any* of the other million questions we have about why they were there or why now (did Isabelle call the number and inadvertently tip them off?). Likewise, what were they planning to do with the knife? And what will happen next?

I’ll turn it back to you, Terry: I know you were paying attention to the score and the sound design this whole episode, so tell me your highlights. After we spent so much time zeroing in on a dangerous object in last week’s episode, did you expect a Sylvia-esque incident with the liquid nitrogen? (For the record, I don’t think she’s gone, but I did appreciate Tobe acknowledging that the relationship was toxic). Did you like the snarky, but real conversation between the Turners about the appeals of going to church? And is Leanne’s incomplete tiger emblematic of her half successful efforts to get out of the house or is it just a funny nod to the actress’ name?

TERRY

Before I answer your questions, Joe, I have to double down on your 360 camera degree shoutout. The cinematography in Servant has always been spectacular–I’m thinking about Julian’s overdose moment in “Josephine” for example–but season three has been filled with these moments. And that shot is so good and captures the confusion and disorientation of the action impeccably well.

Back to your questions, I was so glad Servant addressed the religious elephant in the room because without context, Dorothy does come across as a little hypocritical. I loved that she acknowledges the baptism was purely for show. It feels very character-specific. Dorothy has always come across as someone who wants the outside world to see a picture perfect family.

It’s also something that the show does incredibly well in the visual department. The outside of the Turner household seems strong, rich and perfect, while inside the place is becoming completely unsanitary. We have bodies in the wall, black goo bubbling in the basement, bees and other insects thriving…and now we have termites living in the foundation. Their household feels like a towering game of Jenga: one wrong move from toppling over. And season three has played with that external foundation a little bit, as well, with the piece of the roof falling and almost hitting Julian in episode one.

So the fact that Dorothy’s show of religion was purely to keep up with the Joneses is pretty much perfect. It also puts her in Julian’s corner, interestingly enough. With a show drenched in religious symbolism and metaphor and with Dorothy’s insistence on a baptism in season one, I had always kind of assumed that the Turners were religious in some way. Now, however, it seems as though Dorothy is progressing further into agnosticism or atheism while Sean is embracing spirituality is a potentially fascinating development. But you know what their discussion really means, Joe?

There’s probably another awkward dinner in our future.

I did wonder if we would have a Sylvia-level accident with the nitrogen and I loved Julian’s assessment of it when he enters and knocks it over: “a dangerous chemical in the kitchen…my apologies.” Then it gets knocked over again when the cultists pursue Leanne and I expected, again, something to happen. It’s a playful turn of events for Servant, setting up an anti-Chekov’s nitrogen moment that doesn’t have much of a payoff (except making presumably delicious ice cream).

As for the score, it’s another masterful stroke from Trevor Gureckis that sort of seeps into the background, only to burst forth when needed. I’ve been incredibly impressed with his compositions and while I didn’t focus on it a whole lot–it bled so well into the sound design and the action–I did love the way it brought back the Servant theme at the end.

“Tiger” ends with Leanne looking at herself in the mirror, feeling a presumed wound on the back of her head, and examining the blood. She looks shell-shocked and horrified. But then she streaks the blood down her face as a kind of warpaint as determination and anger fills her eyes. In the background, the theme song begins to build and whenever Gureckis uses the song in the episode, you know it’s a defining moment for Leanne.

As for the half tiger, I think it’s another playful moment for Servant (the homage to her name made me chuckle, too). While the tiger is never completed, the blood she smears on her face indicates she’s ready to become that same tiger.

With this episode, we’re officially at the halfway point of season three, Joe. With the sudden reappearance of the ceremonial dagger, do you think all of the events played off as paranoia are actually the cult? What do you make of Sean’s response to the invitation for a rebooted Gourmet Gauntlet, especially when contrasted with Dorothy’s newfound career interest? And where does Servant go in the back half??

JOE

It’s hard not to overhype just how exciting this episode is, Terry. While I would never complain that Servant is boring, it has had fewer big “showy” moments this season…until now. “Tiger” is one of the most tense, thrilling episodes the show has ever delivered.

As you hinted at, all of that paranoia we wallowed in with Leanne for the last four episodes has paid off in one fell swoop: we not only have confirmation that the cult is back, but that they are back with a vengeance. Now we’re left wondering exactly how Leanne got out of her situation, as well as if she had help and what the cult’s actual plan for her was.

It’s gripping stuff, so much so that it’s painful not to just immediately press on! Wait a week? Are you bananas, Servant?!

Circling back to Sean: I, too, was taken aback by his curt response to Gourmet Gauntlet. It’s been fun to speculate in these reviews and then get confirmation the next episode that we’re tuned into the show’s wavelength. Last week we debated about Sean’s star eclipsing Dorothy’s and in the very next episode he’s offered an opportunity to do so on a silver platter. Plus: the opportunity was on the East Coast, too, which hypothetically would have allowed him to stay at home while the show was taping!

The fact that Sean doesn’t even hear the offer through is extremely telling. Unlike Dorothy, who is still struggling to remember/process what happened “last summer”, or Julian, who can’t forget, Sean appears to have internalized his guilt over Jericho’s death. Surely the fact that this comes in the same episode as we get a stealth acknowledgement that he’s been going to Church isn’t a coincidence? I actually thought (misheard?) that he was going to Nancy for grief counseling, which would tie-in even better.

All this to say that if we are in for another awkward dinner that clarifies some of this interpersonal Dorothy/Sean stuff, I’m here for it.

My question is whether Leanne will confide in anyone about her traumatic run-in? Or does she know that she played the girl who cried wolf too often in the first half of the season (even if she was right) and that no one will believe her now? Despite all of the groundwork laid about how tight and close-knit a family they are, the reality is that Leanne is alone in this battle…at least for now.

But how long can she survive on her own considering what we’ve seen of the cult? I don’t think it’ll happen in the short term, but eventually Sean, Dorothy and maybe even Julian will get pulled into this battle, Terry.

We’ll see what happens when we hop back over to QueerHorrorMovies next week for episode six, “Fish.”