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 2.01 “Doll”

Episode 2.01 “Doll”: Jericho and Leanne are missing. Dorothy devises a 72-hour game plan, while Sean and Julian continue hiding the truth.

JOE

After nearly a year off, Terry, we are back on the Servant beat! It feels like all throughout season one, we were two of the few folks actively championing this series. Well, it definitely feels like that tide has turned and while the show could still use more eyeballs, Servant has definitely gained a cult following over the last year. (Heh heh)

We should also note that one of the main criticisms of the first season - the lack of resolution and clarity in that cliffhanger finale - likely won’t be as pervasive this season since Apple TV has already greenlit a third season of the M. Night Shyamalan-produced series. Even if S2 remains an open-ended mystery, at least we’ll know that we won’t be suddenly left high and dry.

But let’s cut to the chase because I’m eager to dive back in.

“Doll” is a very traditional opening episode for a sophomore season. There isn’t a big reveal or even a truly buzzy moment; this plays like a solid re-introduction into the world of the rich and traumatized Turners, who at the end of last season were in the midst of realizing their nanny Leanne (Nell Tiger Free) had abducted their son Jericho and burning their hand on the stove, alternately.

The action starts up immediately after that cliffhanger and chronicles those crucial 72 hours after someone goes missing. Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose), predictably, goes into high-strung bossy mode: calling the police, demanding husband Sean (Toby Kebell) canvas the neighbourhood with flyers and generally falling down conspiracy theory rabbit holes about the whereabouts of Leanne and cult leader “Aunt May” (Alison Elliott).

Sean, meanwhile, recruits the help of Dorothy’s brother Julian (Rupert Grint), who brings along his girlfriend - and Dorothy’s friend - Natalie (Jerrika Hinton). While both Julian and Natalie believe the baby’s disappearance is a good thing, it’s clear that Sean isn’t as sure. This makes sense considering that Sean has witnessed some pretty fantastical things during Leanne’s tenure; it’s important to note that Sean has also undergone some pretty extreme sense-based deprivation and is suffering from extreme exhaustion along with Dorothy.

In fact, in an episode light on intrigue and heavy on catch-up, Sean’s handling of his hand injury easily ranks as the most...memorable moment. That ellipsis is necessary because watching him leech the liquid out of those incredibly large, angry red blisters on his hand is completely horrifying. Credit Raw director Julia Ducournau for leaving us with that haunting imagery.

But Terry, I’m intrigued what caught your eye in this first episode back? I had to look up the details of the camera in the wall that Dorothy discovers (Sean put it there in order to spy on Leanne way back in episode four “Bear”), and I’m wondering what other details we may have forgotten in the interceding year? How do you read Sean’s late-episode decision to reclaim the Jericho doll from the garbage truck and wash it?

TERRY

Right at the start of the episode, as the creepy childlike Servant melody picks up and the camera ascends a staircase to the new intro image for season two, I thought...we’re back, Joe! And in a lot of ways “Doll” feels like a homecoming.

It allows us time to get reacclimated into the Turner’s ominous residence, but it also moves surprisingly fast for an episode that doesn’t have too much new plot pushing us forward. It feels like a bridge episode...but at the same time it doesn’t pause to readdress mysteries or plot points from season one.

As a result, I found myself going back over our recaps a bit, particularly the finale, to refresh my memory. I had planned to watch the season over again in December but...well, we’ve been busy, Joe, what with our weekly The Stand recaps and coverage of Search Party.

But now, finally, we can put all our attention on Servant, which is vital because this a show that demands attention to detail as it quietly and slowly lays out its narrative.

I think it’s fair to say that season one never portrayed Sean as the most sympathetic character, so one thing I noted immediately is that “Doll” puts the focus on Sean’s plight a lot more. For better or worse, a lot of what Sean did, both in the events after the baby’s tragic death and throughout season one, was out of love for his wife. So, while Dorothy is running around trying to drum up support to locate Jericho, he’s in an uncomfortable and unenviable position of trying to continue to protect his family’s fragile innocence while struggling with the next move.

He’s come to believe that Jericho was someone else’s baby and yet he feels very paternal feelings towards it...but then he sees a video of the cult that Dorothy filmed. She interviewed some people who gathered at the farm and one of them mentions that the cult revived his daughter after she was hit by a car.

And that gets the wheels turning even more. Everything he does in “Doll,” he does to protect his wife from The Truth, but also to avoid bringing outside attention to the matter. Because, let’s face it, it sounds bananas.

One thing I appreciate about this show is the minimalistic and subtle way it answers questions the audience might have. For example, when the police show up, Dorothy is seen raving about the “dead” cult woman who has stolen their baby. This is interjected with Officer Stephanie Reyes (Victoria Cartagena) talking to Sean and a brief flashback that shows she was there when Jericho’s body was found. These two brief sequences show just how bonkers their situation is from the outside. You can almost hear the cops saying, “Let me get this straight...a dead cult woman has absconded with your baby...the baby that we already know is dead?”

In a way, for as much as this episode is about Dorothy and the importance of the 48 hours after a person goes missing, it’s also all about Sean finally coming to terms with the reality of his situation. His discovery of Leanne’s Bible, where she’s written his name on the pages about The Test of Leprosy. His lack of sensation (speaking of things we’ve forgotten from the previous season...I screamed “why are you scissoring your blackened hand while smiling about it!!” only to be reminded by you afterwards of this season one development). Dorothy’s news segment about the cult and its potential powers to bring back the dead. All of it leads to his decision to rescue the doll from the garbage truck and wash it, as if it's a living, breathing baby. He knows there’s more at work here and the doll might still be important.

But I think we’re dancing around the most gasp-inducing scene in “Doll.” More cringe-worthy than the pus-filled sac on Sean’s hand...at least for me.

Joe, I want to know your thoughts on Dorothy’s Hereditary-level comment to Sean: “I thought you’d be a better father than this.” It stunned me with its vitriol and I’m curious if I’m alone. With that, I’m also curious if you’re like me and found him more sympathetic this episode? What do you make of the video of the kid dumping a milkshake on one of the cult members...and was that Aunt May looking younger? Finally, while Sean runs around, trying to pick up the broken pieces of the family...we have Julian, hilariously dressed in an eye mask and callously trying to put an end to the situation. What are your thoughts about his actions this episode, particularly at the end?

JOE

Oh Terry, I gasped aloud when Dorothy said that. You’re absolutely right that if the blisters are the shocking physical stand-out moment of the episode, Dorothy and Sean’s exhausted, emotionally wrought attack on each other is the emotional knife to the heart.

Dorothy begins with that, then follows it up with “I thought you would finally grow the fuck up.” It harkens back to the early episodes of last season when Dorothy would bait Sean with comments about Leanne’s sexual appeal, as though Sean was a teen boy who couldn’t keep his dick in his pants (and really, that’s Julian isn’t it?).

Of course Dorothy isn’t alone in saying something in anger and exhaustion that she’ll regret later. Sean counters with “I thought you’d protect him”, which is almost more hurtful considering Dorothy still doesn’t fully remember what she did. It’s the kind of comment that may sting now, but if/when she recovers her memory, that’s going to scar.

It’s also so fucking human. It’s hard not to continue to praise Ambrose and Kebbell for their acting without sounding like a broken record. It’s also hard not to champion writing that sounds so raw and authentic. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had these kinds of arguments with loved ones in the past: where you’re so desperate to be right that you just hurl the worst thing you can think of without considering the ramifications.

That’s what this is. And you can’t take comments like these back. Once they’re said aloud, they have a life of their own. And if they’re said to you, you never forget them either.

Oof, Terry.

Onto lighter issues: yes, the milkshake woman is 100% a younger Aunt May. Having snuck a peek at episode two, I can say that the videotaped footage of Dorothy’s impeccable research skills will become incredibly important as our understanding of who the Church of the Lesser Saints were (is?) and what they were (are?) doing.

While this initial glimpse doesn’t offer much insight, there’s something incredibly unnerving about the calm, deliberate look that young Aunt May gives those teenage boys after they publicly humiliate her. It’s so much scarier than if she had of reacted violently.

Speaking of reactions, we have Julian. You hit the nail on the head that this opening episode is dedicated to Sean and his attempt to balance his support of Dorothy while still protecting her from the truth. Julian’s response to all of this turmoil is far more confounding. His disposal of the doll and the flyers suggests that he’s over the ruse...but then he concocts an elaborate kidnapping plan using the stolen baby bootie, which he then drops off anonymously for Dorothy to find.

Considering how much of a fuck-up Julian is, this behaviour is totally in keeping with what we know of him...but this always feels like an incredibly dangerous move. It’s one thing to (literally) keep the whole affair hidden behind the walls of the Brownstone. It’s quite another to play with fire by bringing in a ransom.

I’m nervous, Terry. This latest plan seems very misguided. What do you think of Julian’s plan? Do you find it uncomfortable that Natalie drugs Dorothy without her consent so that they can quietly usher Officer Reyes away? Considering we only hear Leanne reading her application in voice over, but she doesn’t actually appear in the episode, did you miss the mysterious nanny? And what do you predict will happen in episode two?

TERRY

You really hit the nail on the head, Joe. Beyond all of the twists and turns, mysteries and suspense, it’s the human moments that really cement Servant as a much-watch genre show. In a single 30 minute episode, we’ve had a man deliriously cutting into his pus-filled hand (I can’t shake this image, so thank you very much Julia Ducournau), more cult speculation, a frantic search for a missing child, duplicitous family members...and yet it still finds time to slow things down to emotions and altercations that are achingly human.

Sean and Dorothy’s exchange is so raw and human that it breaks the magical spell Servant weaves to punch you in the gut. That their argument is interrupted by the alarm indicating 48 hours has passed was just icing on the cake. A realization that while they are both wounded, their (hypothetical) child is missing and they collapse on each other in a moment of pure, shared grief. It’s a balancing act but one that both writer/show creator Tony Basgallop and director Ducournau execute perfectly.

As for Julian and his girlfriend, Natalie...they felt like the interlopers and antagonists of the episode. On a purely narrative level, I understood Natalie’s decision to drug Dorothy so she wouldn’t get them in more trouble. But that decision is one in a long line of dubious decisions made by Dorothy’s family without her consent.

That said, when Sean asks Dorothy what she’d do if Jericho were actually dead and Dorothy responds that she’d kill herself by the crib...well, Servant really laid out the stakes in their relationship. It’s a savvy, if devastatingly painful, move that fully explains why Sean would continue to go through all of these hoops to keep her blind to the fact she accidentally killed her baby.

Of course it’s also in moments like this that Servant’s incredibly dark sense of humor creeps in. It’s not just that Dorothy would kill herself...she’d do it with a Hermès belt. It’s a detail I had to Google and, as expected, it’s an incredibly expensive (think $1,000) belt. Even when discussing death, Dorothy is focused on materialistic things and wealth.

Another subtler comedic moment is when Dorothy is panickedly running around and tells Sean, “people are less inclined to help strangers who radiate desperation” when her desperation couldn’t radiate harder. A final moment is how she tells Sean, “you don’t have reassuring eyes,” while later telling her duplicitous brother that he does.

Which brings us finally to Julian. I think his decision to send the letter with the boot is one of preservation: if Dorothy thinks that she can’t go to the police because the life of her kid is at stake, she’ll be more manageable. Just like Natalie and the drugs, it’s another form of controlling the “hysterical woman.” This will obviously backfire and I’m curious to see the fallout from it in the next few episodes.

One final note before we bring this first episode to a close. Season one of Servant was incredibly food-focused (my joke about Bon Appétit hasn’t aged well...thanks, 2020) and it continues into season two in a lesser way so far. At one point to try and quell Dorothy’s raging desperation, Sean makes her her “favorite” meal: Seared scallop, sweet potato, pesto, Parmesan crisp.” It’s a meal that she summarily rejects, going so far to say it’s not her favorite meal. I’m curious to see if food continues to be an important part of season two or if, as Dorothy scoffs, it’s become less important in light of cults and kidnapping and secrets.

We’ll see next week as we go to Queer.Horror.Movies for episode two, “Spaceman.”