‘Servant’ Recap: ‘Boba’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 108 of ‘Servant’.
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Sometimes in life, it seems as though the best course of action when we are facing some tough problems and/or dealing with some heavy emotions, is to outright avoid it all. Which is why we bury ourselves into hollow pursuits or fill our hearts with denial, so that we can in fact, forget about our woes and enjoy a sense of normalcy when the going gets rough. But while that does tend to work and allows for us to go about our day, the wonder and the magic of escaping our woes never quite lasts. Because the universe simply finds a way to make us face our troubles whether we like it or not, and at long last, this particularly hard truth finally found its way into the fabric of the AppleTV+ series, Servant.
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Because ‘Boba’ saw Uncle Julian come over to watch the baby for a bit while Sean and Dorothy and Leanne all went out for nights on the town and well, the silence that followed their exit, is what allowed for Julian to begin to face everything he’s been running from. Because quiet time is something that is quite powerful, since it allows for our thoughts on what’s happened to us, to properly take hold and despite Julian’s best efforts to keep them at bay by continuing to spy on Leanne and consume copious amounts of fine wine, eventually that came to fruition. And it was quite powerful to see him to begin to ponder upon the fact that this house had indeed seen some serious emotional horrors and acknowledge the fact that he too, is hurting from Jericho’s passing.

But while that makes it seems as though this entire story was nothing more than a voyage of discovery, one free from supernatural elements and surprises, that simply wasn’t the case. Because once Julian came to discover that his nephew had reverted into the doll that Natalie gave Dorothy in the first place, his internal journey to make peace with his pain, came to a halt. Because Jericho’s transformation more or less put him into an outright panic, and he exhausted every logical line of thinking in regard to the whereabouts of the baby. And that motivated him to finally confront Leanne about everything the instant she returned from her date and that went about as well as one might expect. Simply because she had nothing to say about the baby or her past, instead… she let her strange powers do the talking. 

Because this episode made it crystal clear that Leanne can somehow make the doll alive when Dorothy is near and being faced with that incredible reality, finally allowed for Julian face the pain that he is carrying within his heart and he shockingly opened up to Leanne and told her everything about Jericho and the fateful day that the little one passed away. In part because he was tired of running from his emotions and needed this kind of catharsis, but also because he seems to finally understand that there is something more powerful at work here and hiding from that will do him no good. But while it was nice to see Julian finally be the adult in the room and open up about his pain, his ‘confession’ to Leanne will indeed bring about more harm than good. Because clearly, he had some sour things to say about what happened in this house, and it clearly upset Leanne, judging from her interaction with Dorothy at the end of this tale. 

Which means that Dorothy may have played a part in Jericho’s death, and Sean’s stunned reaction to learning that Julian told the nanny everything, and the ominous nature of Julian’s flashbacks, only seemed to reaffirm that possibility. But truly, the best part of this episode, is that it finally provided the audience with something they’ve been desperately waiting for. For at long last, someone in the family finally owned up to what they’ve been running from and that’s something that has been desperately needed on this series. But while it was nice to see Julian finally man up, his growth is indeed overshadowed by the implication that Jericho’s death was something more than an unexpected surprise, and it likely won’t be long now before we too finally learn the truth about what happened on that fateful day. Until next time.

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