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Servant’s second season mines darkly absurdist humor from its outsized story
For a show that never met a single food item or piece of architecture it couldn’t turn into an ominous portent, the opening moments of Servant’s second season are perhaps emblematic in a way the show didn’t intend. As Leanne (Nell Tiger Free) reads aloud her job application letter she sent to become Jericho’s nanny, the camera fixes upon the bizarre mural occupying the entire back wall of the Turners’ guest room—the one that viewers of the first season saw and likely wondered, “What the hell is the story behind a bonkers mural like that being painted on the wall of a bedroom?!” We slowly zoom in on the woman being tormented in the painting, and it looks as though we’re going to get some explanation for what, exactly, led to the creation of this Hieronymus Bosch-like nightmare. Instead, the camera cuts away, and the mystery is never addressed. It’s left unsaid, and that rug pull is just the first of many in a season full of them, each revealing little more than another rug. Thankfully, those rugs are a lot of fun to watch.
The first season of Servant largely worked as a self-contained installment, explaining little but creating a satisfying narrative arc in its 10 episodes. Selfish and often unlikable couple Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) and Sean (Toby Kebbell) suffer the horrific tragedy of the death of their infant son, Jericho, sending Dorothy into catatonia. She is relieved of her depression with the introduction of a therapeutic doll she treats as if it were Jericho and he was still alive. But when nanny Leanne arrives, the big twist occurs: The doll inexplicably gets replaced with a living, breathing child, which Dorothy accepts without question, given her blinkered state of mind. Did Leanne smuggle in this new baby without the couple’s knowledge (is it hers?), or did something supernatural occur? Sean has only Dorothy’s supercilious brother, Julian (Rupert Grint), to confide in about these shocking and potentially legally disastrous circumstances. Gradually, all four come to care for the new child. Naturally, that’s when the other shoe drops: Leanne’s unsettling family—members of a cult thought to be dismantled years prior—appears and demands she quit her post, spiriting her away as the season ends with Dorothy’s horrific discovery that her lovely child has once more been replaced by the lifeless doll.
That chickens-home-to-roost narrative picks up right where it left off with this new batch of episodes, as Dorothy goes into crisis mode, assuming Leanne and her family made off with Jericho and launching a single-minded hunt to recover what she believes to be her child. Sean and Julian, meanwhile, are left scrambling to keep secrets on both sides—continuing to let the police and others who knew about Jericho’s death think Dorothy is still just talking about a therapy doll when she rants about her missing baby, while simultaneously keeping up the façade that the infant is safe and happy when confronted with those in the dark about the whole mess, like Sean’s chef-in-training assistant, Tobe (Tony Revolori). The season follows the three as they search for Leanne and the “new” Jericho, with Julian simply wanting his sister happy and Sean committed to finding the baby he’s grown to care for as if it were his own.
