This is more like it. A paranoia-induced chapter that inflicts something on one of the characters. Servant Season 1 Episode 8, opens up with Julian (Rupert Grint) sat in the car, waiting to go inside the house. A flashback reveals Julian knocking on his sister’s house at night, the rain pouring down on him. There is no answer.
In the present day, Sean is experimenting with excess baby milk. Julian arrives. Toby is taking Leanne bowling and Sean and Dorothy are going to an Annual Television Awards event. Julian is babysitting. Dorothy suggests to Leanne that Toby is interested in her and takes an uncomfortable photo between them both.
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Servant Season 1 Episode 8 Recap
Now that Julian is alone he does his usual in Episode 8, “Boba”. He enters the wine cellar and starts drinking copious amounts of wine before digging into the food from the fridge. He listens to the baby monitor and cannot hear anything so he goes upstairs to check.
What he finds is a doll, not a human baby; Julian freaks out and checks every room. He immediately leaves a voicemail for Sean and checks in with the private investigator; the baby is not with Leanne. When Sean calls, Dorothy is listening in so Sean cannot express his concerns.
Julian’s father comes over; they have a drink and then Julian’s father reveals a secret — he shows Julian a photo of a baby that is looking for a home. The father wants to get rid of the doll and replace it with a baby. Julian laughs; not at the idea, but at the irony and absurdity of the situation he finds himself in.
After his father leaves, Toby and Leanne return home; Leanne tries kissing Toby but he backs off. When Leanne enters the house, she picks up the doll. Julian asks where the baby is and Leanne replies asking for a diaper. Julian offers her fifty thousand in cash for the real baby, but it doesn’t spark a response.
Julian tries another approach; he tells Leanne what he found in his investigation and the apparently stolen identity of the real Leanne Grayson. Leanne breathes into Julian’s face and then asks how they make cotton candy. A now frustrated Julian asks where the baby is and Leanne responds predictably — “Jericho is in his crib”. Leanne then thanks Julian for sitting with Jericho.
In a last-ditch effort to find an answer in Episode 8, Julian hangs the doll over the banister at the top of the stairs. He demands to know the truth or he will let go. As he momentarily drops the doll he hears a baby cry and quickly grabs hold of the doll again. Julian thinks the real baby is downstairs and starts going crazy, banging a self-made drum to encourage the baby to cry again.
Episode 8 then serves us with a flashback; Julian enters the house and when he goes upstairs into the nursery, the window was wide open.
Servant Season 1 Episode 8 Ending Explained
Dorothy and Sean return home; Dorothy does her usual and checks on the baby. Julian says he did not hear a peep from the baby all night and asks if he can hold him. Julian then tells Sean that Leanne now knows everything.
What that revelation is was not clear but Sean seems extremely concerned about what Julian told Dorothy.
Servant Season 1, Episode 8, “Boba” ends with Leanne helping Dorothy take off her necklace. Dorothy teases Leanne about Toby but Leanne dismisses the idea that Toby likes her — “You were wrong, Mrs. Turner”. Leanne breaks Dorothy’s pearl necklace and while Dorothy panics and picks up the pearls from the floor, Leanne puts one in her mouth.
Servant Season 1 Episode 9 Recap
Servant Season 1 Episode 9 (Credit – Apple TV+)
We’ve been waiting for this episode for a while. Episode 9, “Jericho” provides us with the secret the story has been holding back — what happened to Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) and Sean’s (Toby Kebbell) baby? Why did the baby die?
Episode 9 opens up with Dorothy giving birth in a birthing pool. She’s instantly in love, holding Jericho in bed – -they’ve decided to keep the placenta and chill it in the fridge. The news broadcast congratulates Dorothy on the arrival and they seem to be getting on with family life. But then it all changes; Sean has been offered a TV career opportunity that he can’t refuse — a reality cooking show competition. “It will only be for a few days”.
“Jericho” highlights the struggle parents have in a world where support is lacking and unequal between father and mother. Sean leaves for his job opportunity and Dorothy looks after the baby. Over video call, Sean and Dorothy nag at each other like any couple would with a newborn but it is clear Dorothy is struggling.
Dorothy tells Sean he looks exhausted on TV but it’s evident she is the one that is concerned about her mental wellbeing. On one of the days without Sean, she goes out shopping with Jericho; there’s a heatwave. Dorothy returns home, takes the shopping in the house, goes to the toilet, and then goes to sleep. The temperatures are rising outside…
She’s left Jericho in the car. When she wakes up at night, she checks the cot and realizes Jericho is not there.
In the present day, Leanne wakes Dorothy up — her car alarm is going off and she’s starting her periods again. Leanne offers to make her breakfast; Sean helps out. Sean randomly tells Leanne the “incident” wasn’t a crime — the police said it can happen to anyone.
I tend to agree with this statement from Sean based on experience — sleep deprivation with a newborn baby is extremely difficult; it must be more difficult with a fragile mind.
At the midway point of episode 9, Dorothy rushes out to work and tells Sean she needs the car. When she jumps in, she smells the fish in the back seat and throws up instantly and heads inside. Sean tells her to “let it all out” and recover.
Back to the flashback. Dorothy is experiencing the first stages of her mental breakdown; she is walking around the house slowly looking stunned. Dorothy heads out to the car and lifts out a dead Jericho. There is then a series of scenes where she has a bath with him, uses her breast pump and tidies up the house. The next day, a large meat order arrives and she leaves it in the kitchen.
Back to the present day, the car alarm is going off and the baby wakes up. Dorothy cannot find the keys and she panics, searching the house everywhere for a set of car keys. Eventually, she finds a set and heads outside, but the car will not turn off and it continues to blare the alarm.
People in the street record Leanne on their phones as she becomes increasingly frustrated. Inside the house, Leanne is in the window with another set of keys causing the alarm to keep going off.
And we are served another flashback; Dorothy goes on a walk with her dead baby in the pram. The meat that was delivered has gone off quickly in the kitchen due to the heatwave. On a video call, she asks Sean to come home and he says he will be doing, “on Monday” — there’s a series-ending after-party. He suggests they hire someone for help.
The next day she hears the baby crying on the monitor and she rushes upstairs, confused that she can hear crying. She checks the cot to see a dead Jericho — she’s losing her mind; she can hear herself on the monitor soothing a crying Jericho. Dorothy has a strange fit and then zones out on the bed, looking into space.
We then see the scene again where Julian goes to check on Dorothy in the pouring rain and he sees the off meat in the kitchen.
Servant Season 1 Episode 8 Ending Explained
Back to the present day, Dorothy is watching her “sick day” replacement on TV. Sean asks Leanne for help — he wants her to try out his food. It’s blowfish. He describes a process where it has cooked itself raw naturally and then you have to be very careful in how you cut the fish up. Leanne tastes it and claims it is sharp and bitter.
Sean asks her to try another piece but Leanne asks why he left Dorothy alone. Sean explains that it was an accident, a mistake, and he left them for four days — if he stayed, everything would have been okay. Dorothy eats the blowfish again and gives a new description — “Tastes like an apple that’s been in the sun for too long”.
Episode 9 closes with Leanne taking the baby off Dorothy and explains that she should be staying away from the baby because she’s sick. Leanne tells Dorothy that she wants what is best for the baby and Dorothy agrees.
Dorothy looks back at Leanne and the baby looking worried. Leanne is clearly punishing Dorothy.
What did you think of Servant Season 1 Episodes 8 and 9? Comment below.
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