‘Servant’ Recap: ‘Espresso’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 206 of ‘Servant’.
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Over the course of its past two seasons, the AppleTV+ series, Servant, has defied all kinds of storytelling conventions. For not only is it able to shift between genres on a consistent basis, something that is considered a no-no for horror/thriller tales, it’s also made a grand effort to not answer any questions regarding its greatest mysteries. For we simply have not learned what Leanne Grayson and her creepy cohorts stand for, how on earth she brought Jericho Turner back from the dead… or what her endgame is in the slightest and that’s an impressive feat to say the least. Because if this were any other series, fans would be furious over a lack of answers, and be ready to walk away.

But this show’s compelling characters and fascinating plot and plot twists, have managed to keep fans engaged and engrossed week in and week out, as we all collectively work to figure out the mystery of Leanne Grayson on our own. If anything, all of this is relevant to our discussion of the show today, simply because this week’s episode used the show's long standing mysteries, to surprise all of us in the most epic way imaginable. Because after spending two years keeping truth from the audience, the show shifted gears and placed answers in front of us during this particular tale, the kind that genuinely gave us some guidance and direction as to what is going on and well, we may not be viewing some of the characters the same after this one… now that we know what they are. A feat that this story managed to accomplish, by once again lulling us into a false sense of security.

Because the fire and brimstone that we expected Uncle George to rain down upon the Turner household, simply didn’t happen. No instead, ol’ Georgie boy demanded and pleaded with Sean and Dorothy to let Leanne go, due to the fact that it would cause all kinds of trouble, and his relaxed nature to this whole mess, in turn relaxed us and allowed for Sean to swoop in and try to resolve this. For he is now quite the good listener, and his skills as such, motivated him to try and genuinely hear what George was trying to get at. All by having a calm discussion with him for a change and well, what this mysterious man had to say, is what brought about the answers in question… and they were downright chilling and unsettling for certain.

For in essence, Sean asked what the purpose of The Church of Lesser Saints was exactly, and according to George; it is a place for second chances. Where people that once embraced the silence of death have returned to this world to offer second chances to those who deserve it. Which implied heavily that George and Leanne had indeed returned from death’s clutches and that would answer a great deal about what Julian discovered about her burned out husk of a home, and it also explains how Jericho returned from the void, since Leanne summoned him as her soul was once summoned. But while that alone would have been enough to carry this episode, its ending, made a point to bring George's warnings from earlier around full circle. Since the family's problems with the basement… and the horrific incident at the home Leanne was kidnapped from, relate to his words. In that defying God’s will and not letting a servant of this church complete their work, will bring forth horrific wrath and well, that doesn’t bode well for the Turner family in the slightest.

In the end however, this really was quite the fascinating tale when all is said and done. For at long last, we have some answers, and the truth took us by surprise since everyone was expecting this episode to be some kind of organic extension of last week’s bleak masterpiece and well, what matters most is that this episode changes everything. Because now we finally have an idea of what we are dealing with, and the kind of power that Leanne yields and it will be quite interesting to see where this revelation takes us in the weeks to come, especially now that we know that Dorothy’s decision to bury Leanne out of fury, might bring down some kind of additional wrath upon the Turner household. Leaving all of us to wonder, what it will take for this this family to make amends with the deity they’ve angered and that mystery, along with the truth we uncovered here… will make the wait for next week’s episode, a difficult one indeed. Until next time.
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‘Servant’ is available to stream right now on AppleTV+.

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