‘Servant’ Recap: ‘Reborn’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the series premiere of ‘Servant’.
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When we think about stories that involve loss and the resulting trauma that comes from it, we often think of how inspiring they can be. Because more often than not, these types of tales tend to focus heavily on the road back from said loss. Wherein the main character or characters begin to put their lives back together after going through utter hell and watching them stand tall despite the pain they carry, outright inspires and reminds the audience to stay strong when these tough moments hit. Because this is something that people can come back from, provided they put in the work and stay the course in their long and winding road to recovery. 

But while it is nice to enjoy a tale about how we bounce back over time from something as important and as painful as that, these stories tend to purposefully overlook the darker side of trauma and loss. Simply because audiences would struggle with stories about people who simply cannot handle the loss of a loved one. For it is heartbreaking to know that some people can be lost to the world when their pain outright consumes their soul and their mind. But once in a while, a story comes along that is willing to explore that kind of dark and dreary topic and it just so happens that M. Night Shyamalan saw a grand opportunity to examine that unfortunate scenario and pair it with something sinister in order to soften the blow of the subject matter, by way of the AppleTV+ series, Servant.

For in this particular tale we are introduced to Dorothy and Sean Turner, a couple that have fallen on some difficult times. Because not that long ago, their beloved newborn son Jericho, passed away unexpectedly. Something that sent Dorothy into an outright tailspin, mentally, and in order to help her recover from this loss, Sean and her brother Julian resorted to some odd and extreme and outright unhealthy measures. For they got her a fake baby doll to care for. One that is lifelike in appearance but is nothing akin to the real thing, all in the hopes of easing her pain. And while it worked and snapped her out of her funk, it also backfired. For she immediately believed this fake baby to be her deceased child, and rather than use this opportunity to get her proper help, Sean and Julian let the matter ride, which helped to encourage more unhealthy behavior from her.

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Because now she’s taken the time to hire a nanny named Leanne Grayson, whose job is to watch over this fake and inanimate child. An act that Sean goes along with because it’s better to have his wife happy than in the catatonic state she used to reside in. But despite his best efforts to let Leanne know that she is free to do as she pleases since this is all a big joke, she’s convinced this is the opportunity of a lifetime, and refuses to deviate from the daily routine that Dorothy has laid out for her. Making life around the Turner house quite creepy. Especially when one particular day, Sean hears the cries of a baby coming from the late Jericho’s room and when he investigates the noise, he comes to discover… that a living and breathing child is squirming inside the crib where his son, and a fake doll, once resided. 

Which is a hell of a way to end this particular premiere. But a grand and unexpected twist should be expected when you settle in to enjoy something from M. Night Shyamalan and it is good to know this series is no exception to that rule, and that season one of this saga is going to be filled to the brim with the unexpected and so much more. Because we are also embroiled in a powerful set of mysteries, one involving the baby that appears out of nowhere in the Turner household and one revolving around the enigmatic nanny walking the halls. Because we know very little about Leanne, outside of the fact that she is dedicated to child care and religion and truly, it is going to be quite interesting to learn what she is all about and what her role was in bringing this baby to fruition in the weeks and days to come. 

But in the here and the now, it is best we celebrate one solid series premiere. Because this particular opening chapter did a phenomenal job of establishing what it is going to stand for in a supremely brief period of time and that’s no easy feat. But this opening chapter pulls it off and a great deal more. For it also does a phenomenal job of establishing the mood with its claustrophobic and jarring visuals, and you really cannot go wrong with a series that also offers up complete backgrounds for its characters in such a short run time since we learn so much about the Turners and their plight in this tale. If anything, this premiere makes it clear that this series is going to be something quite special and  that it is going to take us on a winding and twisted journey through a dark corner of our world that few of us understand, all while offering up an air of mystery and hints of the supernatural, in order to take this story to a whole new level. Until next time.

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