‘Servant’ Recap: ‘Marino’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 207 of ‘Servant’.
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When we last settled in to discuss the wondrous AppleTV+ series, Servant, we talked at length about how the show finally took the time to reward its audience with all kinds of answers regarding what’s going on in this fascinating universe. For now, we know that Uncle George and Leanne and the Church of Lesser Saints are in essence a group of resurrected corpses that do good deeds in the name of the Lord and the Turner family has screwed up their work and potentially brought wrath down upon their homestead by way of their selfish machinations. And that’s important to revisit in our recap of this week’s episode, for several reasons. First and foremost, because it turns out that the series wasn’t quite done with bringing big moments forth for the audience.
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Because ‘Marino’ is a story that features a grand reckoning of sorts, one that has been long overdue. After all, we’ve also talked at length about how Julian and Sean are enablers of Dorothy and refuse to point out the fact that Jericho died on her watch, nor have they made any efforts to get her the proper care she needs to reconcile that. But at long last, that particular truth finally came about in this specific episode and it came to the surface, by way of Officer Reyes; the very officer who has dealt with this family and their mistakes on a fairly consistent basis. And her concern for what’s happening in this household, along with the discovery of some suspect pizza menus and Dorothy’s image in the Marino home, brought her back to their doorstep once again, to do what needed to be done.

Shortly after Reyes pushed Dorothy to confess to the fact that she was still ‘chasing’ after Leanne and answers about Jericho, that is. Because that prompted Reyes to finally say out loud… what we’ve all been waiting to hear. With mixed results of course. Because while Sean at least seemed to acknowledge his mistakes here, sadly, the continued enabling by Dorothy’s loved ones and the now out of control situation surrounding this family, has likely put Dorothy past the point of no return. Since she was quick to brush off the truth. But while that is frustrating in its own right for certain (because good heavens at some point it has to sink in), it was horrendously refreshing to see someone finally speak some truth to Dorothy.

But there was mention of multiple reasons as to why it is important to reflect upon the fact that the show is suddenly offering up all kinds of big moments and answers and that is likely related to the possibility that bigger moments await us. Which means that getting this stuff out of the way now, clears a path for the kind of stuff that is going to shock us and wow us and that possibility is slowing becoming a reality. Because some scary stuff was happening behind the scenes in this tale, since Leanne was struggling to reconcile the fact that her return to the Turner home possibly led to the death of an innocent child. To the point where she began to do all kinds of unhealthy things, such as flog herself and to obsessively build more of those twine, Blair Witch-esque, talismans… and that’s worrisome to say the least since it seems that when she is upset, the uglier side of her powers are unleashed. 

Plus, the fact that another assignment with an ominous note arrived, only lends credence to how the story is building to something more and well, that makes this quite the satisfying episode when all is said and done. Because you simply cannot go wrong with a story that finally makes the Turner’s face the music for their selfish actions, and this episode really did accomplish that in a magnificent manner and it also does a fine job of piquing our curiosity. Because we really are eager to learn what comes next and well… it seems as though it won’t be long before said curiosity is satisfied. For the plot really is moving at a breakneck pace now and the reveals are coming in a furious fashion and it will be interesting to see what wonders and horrors await us as the floodgates are unleashed. Until next time.

‘Servant’ is available to stream right now on AppleTV+.

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