Servant, M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller, is entering its fourth and final season, and there are still many unanswered issues. In fact, almost all of the major ones remain unanswered. The premise of the Apple TV Plus series is that a young couple loses their child, only to have it magically returned to them not long after their new nanny arrives. Nevertheless, after three seasons, the riddles have just piled more. Apart from the main family mysteries, there’s a crumbling mansion that feels cursed, competing religious groups, weird magical powers, and maybe angels.
It’s a lot, and early in season 4, the show doesn’t seem interested in wrapping up all of the loose ends: it’s more concerned with cranking up the tension and making you feel as uneasy as ever.
Please keep in mind that this review is based on the first three episodes of Servant Season 4. It contains minor spoilers for those episodes as well as some major spoilers from the previous three seasons.
However, before we get there, a quick recap of where we left off after Season 3’s cliffhanger. Dorothy Turner (Lauren Ambrose) chose to sneak her infant, Jericho, out of the house because she was worried about his safety. Then, while arguing with her husband Sean (Toby Kebbell), brother Julian (Rupert Grint), and the nanny she despises, Leanne (Nell Tiger Free), Dorothy falls many storyes due to a termite-infested fence.
The last season begins with Leanne, seemingly ignorant of Dorothy’s feelings for her, preparing the house for her return. She cleans and decorates before beginning to bake Dorothy’s favorite cake. The close-up images and the persistent sensation that something horrible is going to happen to make everyday domesticity frightening. Then, predictably, a member of the cult arrives, determined to draw Leanne back into their fold, and all hell breaks out.
Servant’s obvious Alfred Hitchcock influence is one of its distinguishing characteristics. The majority of the program takes place in a single Philadelphia townhouse, and despite the odd baby dolls and magic, it has a grounded core that harkens back to Rear Window, as if you’re spying on the Turner family through the windows. Yet, the early minutes of Season 4 emulates a different Hitchcock classic with a montage directly from The Birds. It’s complete anarchy. Leanne is being pursued by cult members, and it appears that everyone on the street — runners, hot dog sellers, letter carriers — is in on it.
Servant has never been so close to the action, with the street outside the Turner house transformed into a battle zone as Leanne begins to fight back. She just manages to flee with the assistance of an avian.
The episode then returns to its usual tone, which is creeping dread and startling revelations. Dorothy comes home, but she is confined to her bed as a result of the accident, and her suspicion of Leanne has evolved into full-fledged hatred. Dorothy refuses to have anything to do with her child’s carer, finally hiring a pair of charming though nosy live-in nurses named Bev and Bobby (Denny Dillon and Barbara Kingsley, respectively) to fulfill those chores.
Meanwhile, the Turner house continues to actually disintegrate, as it has for the past few seasons. Early on, the entire neighborhood is forced to deal with a sudden and strong outbreak of bed bugs, which is especially amusing for Dorothy, who is bedridden. Following the street attack, Leanne becomes increasingly anxious about the cult that is attempting to kidnap her, further organizing her own followers for protection. There are hazmat suits, secret chambers, and a terrifying episode of leg shaving. There’s even a seance at one point.
One of the things that makes Servant so enjoyable to play is that it doesn’t waste your time. The episodes are just about 30 minutes long, but they are filled with so many interesting strands and bizarre situations that it may be difficult to wait to see what unexpected development comes next. The brief episodes also allow you to recover your breath after being hit with a high dosage of scary. Even with so many needles to thread, that framework remains at the start of season 4.
But, with Bev and Bobby, this season at least introduces personalities to assist temporarily alleviate the tension. The couple infiltrates everyone’s life quickly and forcibly. While it’s evident that they’re more than their cheerful personalities, it’s nevertheless entertaining to see them giving Julian, a recovered alcoholic, a Marie Kondo book to assist him to clean up his life or give Leanne a self-help handbook for problematic kids. They offer the type of outside viewpoint that the family sorely requires.
Also, Read A Girl And An Astronaut: A Monotonous Drama With A Bland Romantic Triangle
The first few episodes don’t answer the series’ most important question: whether it will be able to stick the landing. There has been difficulty for this type of puzzle box mystery ever since Jack elected to stay on the Lost Island. I’m still not sure what Leanne is or how Turner’s child can go from a reborn doll to a real human infant and back again. And I’m still waiting for someone — anybody — in Dorothy’s life to eventually tell her what she did to set off this bizarre chain of events.
So, yeah, it may all be for naught. There’s a lot that might go unsolved by the conclusion, and the answers we do get may not satisfy those who have been following along for the previous five years. Yet the start of Servant’s last season moves with the type of assurance that at the very least assures I’ll be enjoying the journey to wherever it takes me — and the one thing I know for certain is that I have no clue where that may be.
Servant’s fourth season is now available to watch on Apple TV Plus.
