Servant – Apple+ Season 2 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Doll

Episode 1 of Servant Season 2 sees us return to our spooky, modern house as Sean places his hand above the stove and Dorothy rushes outside. With Jericho and Leanne gone, Dorothy phones the police to help. Only, she obviously sounds pretty crazy to them when divulging exactly what’s happened.

This brings the return of Officer Reyes to Sean, who looks at the plastic doll and remains silent. When Julian returns to the house, he talks to Sean in private and believes this may actually be good for them.

Reyes eventually leaves empty-handed, allowing Sean to finally open up and talk about how he feels. He wants to bring Jericho back, especially as they were trying to give the child a happy home.

Dorothy continues to loses control, eventually grabbing a coat hanger and prying open a gap in the bedroom wall. There, she finds a hidden camera and realizes they were being watched all this time. This seems to spur her on to find Jericho, printing out flyers and doing all she can to bring the child back.

Meanwhile, Sean finds Leanne’s bible and starts sifting through the pages. He finds a passage called “The Test Of Leprosy” and his name handwritten on the side. Eventually Sean has enough and throws out the baby and the flyers, unwilling to entertain Dorothy’s ideas.

A knock at the door brings a package with a single baby shoe of Jericho and a note, “Tell no one, baby lives.” Clearly rattled, Sean brings the doll back inside again and begins giving it a bath.

The Episode Review

After two years of waiting, Servant returns with a relatively subdued episode. We pick up right where we left off from before with 25 minutes of our characters picking up the pieces of their shattered lives.

As I said in 2019 with Servant season 1, the decision to release this one weekly really doesn’t suit the story and given how slow this is inevitably going to be, the Hulu model of releasing 3 episodes and then 1 a week thereafter may have actually served this one better.

Still, the episode itself is propped up by solid acting from all involved, as Sean and Dorothy grapple with the loss of Jericho. With 7 rather than 10 episodes this time, it remains to be seen whether Servant will pick up the pace.