Servant – Season 3 Episode 10 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Mama

Does Dorothy forgive Leanne?

Episode 10 of Servant Season 3 starts this finale with Dorothy waking up in bed alone. Without Jericho strapped to her chest anymore, Dorothy feels like a shell of the confident woman we saw earlier in the season. She’s silent as she approaches the kitchen, as everyone fusses over her, encouraging the frazzled woman to eat her breakfast.

Leanne speaks up and points out that she wants to help, urging Dorothy to stop fighting her and to start fresh. She forgives Dorothy – and always will – for trying to send her away. Dorothy smiles weakly and promises not to go against Leanne again. And so, the fresh start sees Leanne and Dorothy getting along like a house on fire.

Julian knows his sister though and doesn’t buy her act. He talks to Sean about this and even confronts Dorothy after, believing she’s up to something and trying to work out what. Dorothy refuses to let him in on it though, while Leanne continues to act in her usual creepy way.

What is Dorothy offered?

Leanne sneaks in the space behind her room to the dead body, which simply turns to dust and fades away. As it does, she collects up the remains and throws it in the bin outside. However, Leanne soon learns from one of her informants that Milo (one of the squatters) has gone missing and no one seems to know where he is.

One of the recurring motifs this season has been maggots and this visually references the rot that’s infiltrated Dorothy’s mind, growing ever-more obvious as the episodes have progressed.

In the morning, Leanne takes Dorothy out into the middle of the park, where all the squatters gather. Surrounded, she hands over a slip of paper that offers up a lucrative position for Dorothy’s career. Eleven News are looking for a new reporter and this could be the dream job she’s been after. It would also allow her to get a better work/life balance with Jericho.

What is Jericho’s first word? Who is he looking at?

That night, Jericho says his first word “Mama”. Only, he’s not looking at Dorothy when he says it… he seems to be looking at someone in the hallway. When Dorothy looks though, there’s no one there.

It’s subtly hinted that Jericho could be looking at Leanne. We don’t actually receive an answer for this but given what we’ve learned this year, as well as the influence Leanne has on the family, it makes sense.

After drinking some alcohol over dinner (something Julian isn’t happy with give his prior addiction) Dorothy speaks to Sean in private. She’s no longer upset with her husband and has made peace with what’s happened. She apologizes for her anger and pent-up frustrations, kissing him and promising to be by his side.

Outside, Uncle George shows up and claims that “things are decaying, the house is filled with parasites.” He can smell the rot coming from the house and believes that whatever is inside, is growing stronger. Apparently, the end is nigh.

How does Servant Season 3 end?

Back inside, Dorothy waits until Sean is asleep and sneaks out to where she has a whole bag all made up and ready to go. Julian was right – she does have a plan. She scoops up Jericho along with her bag and tries to leave.

After giving him his pacifier, Leanne appears on the stairs. After trying to talk Dorothy out of this, Leanne screams for Julian and Sean to help. Only, there’s a problem.

The rot on the stairs has grown too much and as Leanne apologizes to Dorothy, she slips backwards, tumbling down the stairs and landing in a heap on the ground. Just before she falls, Leanne scoops up Jericho and watches Dorothy’s lifeless body as blood oozes out from her.


The Episode Review

So Servant bows out its final episode with a surprisingly subdued episode, one that doesn’t quite have the same aplomb or shock factor that the two previous seasons had in abundance. Instead, everything just sorta ends with Dorothy’s life hanging in the balance.

Given how integral she’s been to this story though, I can’t imagine the script writers have actually killed her off and I’d bet she’s probably still alive but potentially confined to a wheelchair or the hospital for the time being.

Beyond that, there’s some chatter about the end and evil itself, courtesy of a cameo from Uncle George, but there really hasn’t been a whole lot else to really sink your teeth into.

I said last week that this story could have been told in 6 episodes and I stand by that after seeing this finale. The show has felt completely meandering and drip-feeding its story for absolutely no reason.

Unfortunately this hasn’t been a season to remember, slipping into the usual AppleTV issues by spreading out a story that could have been told in a much shorter timeframe. Despite that though, fans of this show will undoubtedly be eager to find out what happens in season 4.

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7 thoughts on “Servant – Season 3 Episode 10 Recap, Review & Ending Explained”

  1. Dorothy is a female narcissist and sociopath. I think we often times see male characters in this role so a female makes it even more interesting. We the viewers are seeing things through the perspective of Dorothy’s psychotic breakdown she’s been in since the original Jerichos death. I think, sometimes the “real baby” is non existent and it’s still a doll but we are seeing a “real baby” because that’s what Dorothy still sees but I could be wrong. Narcs/Sociopaths are very good at getting their close friends and family to believe their crazy lies, it’s like they are good at putting goggles on their eyes so they believe all the crazy stuff they see and this is what Dorothy had done to Sean and Julius but has met her Match with LeeAnn-the only way to fight crazy is WITH crazy and Lee Ann knows this. She has to play the game with her.

  2. In the last season Leanna says she started a war but no war really broke out, so I get the slow all over the place Dorothy and then keeping us in the dark about Leanna and the powers – but I felt like we needed more from what they did give us – Dorothy catches on camera that Leanne was attacked – well she could have told Sean and held that over him to take her more serious, wrap up the mysterious mugging were really the cult people again. And then the love interest with Tobe, we see him at the block party and then nothing from there. It’s okay to slow burn but I felt like nothing was wrapped and all of those teasers could have been a trailer or one episode and then have a show to explain. But instead we got a lot of beginnings but no “ending” as George says. Disappointed and if season 4 does the same I would expect a lot of people would fall of if they were to make a season 5 and just not continue watching.

  3. I understand your frustration , however I appreciated this seasons slow burn with Leanne’s growing power and the question of …well..who and what is she? Demon , Cult leader , Fallen Angel…?
    It just left me wanting more..
    Let’s hope next season doesn’t disappoint.

  4. For me, this season has been a bit meandering, but I believe it’s because we see things mostly from Dorothy’s perspective, if not through her eyes, and she has definitely been all over the place. For a woman defined, at least for herself, by her career, not having that, and feeling like it was taken away from her, not just that she voluntarily gave it up, must be difficult. Leanne’s initial act of bringing back Jericho came from a selfless place. She assumed there would be a price to pay. But now she is a perfect example of “Self will run riot”. Any recovering addict can relate. Leanne brought back Jericho. She has brought back Julian. So, in a way, they both belong to her. One could argue that Jericho is as much hers as Dorothy’s. Given the events of the finale, I believe she will bring back Dorothy as well (though I hope not, I hope Dorothy survives based purely on her own stubbornness) but in such a way that she can keep Dorothy with her, forever. Or at least so she thinks. I won’t be surprised if she gets the opportunity to bring Sean back next season. Then she’ll have her family, all inside that house, which is falling down around them, all under her thumb. Just where she likes them to be.

  5. When shows like this are stretched over years, some episodes are bound to be filler, “Breaking Bad” was no different.

  6. The lack of focus this season has meant begging more questions than ever before. What’s going on with Leanne? One day she’s agoraphobic, for no apparent reason, then she’s the villainous matriarch to a small cadre of young squatters. Sean’s newfound interest in religion is completely unmotivated. Julian is ever more present for no apparent reason. And Dorothy is more and more unsympathetic – if she ever was sympathetic – and, apparently, bordering on psychosis. This is all wrapped in the suggestion of a conspiracy involving Sean, Julian, Leanne and Dorothy’s father. Yet each of these characters play like props as opposed to flesh and blood protagonists. The entire season meanders, lost in a desert where theme, character development and narative arc prove to be nothing more than mirages.

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