Varun Patel
In the second episode of Apple TV+’s ‘Servant,’ the intrigue, mystery and slowly enveloping dread continues to pick up as the show maintains a superb grip on its pacing. The second episode felt decidedly different than the pilot, albeit not in a disappointing or unsatisfactory manner. One can reasonably expect the first episode of any television series to provide an all-guns-blazing kind of opening. The first line of any novel, after all is the most important and such thinking is reflected in episodic series too.
To begin with, the first episode put in significantly more effort in developing the show’s tone, its characters and the general direction of the story. However, the second episode focuses more on plot as Sean tries to uncover the mystery behind the real baby that replaced his son, Jericho’s doll overnight. While the overall sense of psychological distress is maintained, more events take place in the episode. But there is enough room provided for reflexive thought and for the viewer’s minds to simmer in the shocking story till it turns into a fully cooked meal (with no splinters present in the final dish).
Servant Episode 2 Recap
The episode starts with Dorothy coming back home in a cab. However, when the cab driver asks her for the fare, she freezes completely in a catatonic shock. Upon returning home, she finds Sean in their baby, Jericho’s room and asks him if Jericho missed her.
Then, Sean confronts Leanne in the kitchen and asks her where she got the baby from. Apparently, it is not Jericho and Sean thinks that Leanne stole the baby from someone to replace the doll with. Leanne tells Sean that it is Jericho indeed, but their conversation has to end abruptly when Dorothy enters the kitchen.
Then, while having dinner, Sean asks Dorothy where she found Leanne. Dorothy tells Sean that she had posted a shoutout on her twitter handle, asking for any leads for a decent nanny. She tells him that a friend had seen that and responded to her request with her contacts.
Unsatisfied, Sean tries to reach out to Julian but he does not pick up his phone. Then, his foot gets pierced by a splinter from the wooden floor. Next, he plucks the cross near Jericho’s bedroom window, crushes it and drains it down the sink.
At night, Sean wants to take Jericho out for a drive and hence, proceeds to unlock his house’s security system. He tries to enter his code but the system says it’s the wrong one. After his third attempt, the security system starts to buzz. Dorothy comes rushing towards the system and enters the same code that Sean had been punching in. The system is unlocked immediately.
The next day, Sean goes through Leanne’s application letter to be their nanny and finds wet blood behind the letter. The blood has not dried and sticks to Sean’s hand indicating its freshness. On the other hand, upon finding out that the cross in Jericho’s room is absent, Leanne begins to weave another one.
Sean calls Julian home immediately and shows him the new, living baby who has taken Jericho’s place. Julian gets equally taken aback. He suggests looking at reports of missing babies for a clue.
When Dorothy returns home, she finds Sean observing his butt in the bathroom mirror. She inspects it herself and removes a couple of splinters lodged in Sean’s buttock. When she jokes about Sean cheating on her with a dominatrix, he reminds her that they haven’t had sex for a full year.
At night, Julian comes home once again as it is her birthday and Dorothy has prepared dinner for the occasion. Julian takes Sean aside and tells him that no Caucasian babies have been reported missing in their city.
Then, Julian requests Dorothy to invite Leanne to have dinner with them. Dorothy gives Leanne one of her dresses to wear and brings her downstairs. As Sean, Dorothy, Leanne and Julian begin to have dinner, Sean passes a comment about the food being tasteless. Then, he complains about not being able to taste anything, including his wine. Suddenly, he starts feeling something in his throat and goes to the bathroom. Inside, he removes a splinter from his throat and goes to confront Dorothy about it.
Sean finds Dorothy in the kitchen, standing frozen, in a catatonic shock near the refrigerator. Julian sees her in this condition too. Sean asks Dorothy if she remembers anything about Jericho’s death. However, she gets stirred from her state of shock when the baby cries. The episode ends with Dorothy playing with the baby and then smelling its hair with a look of suspicion.
Servant Episode 2 Review
The second episode had a lot more going on than the pilot, in terms of plot. However, it was also less focused on the mood and more on the mystery. Overall, it served as a decent and entertaining follow-up. The stakes were raised and the mystery continued to become more pressing and complicated with no answers revealed yet.
If one were judge the show from the first two episodes, it is clear that the show’s writers have done a great job at pacing the story. It feels neither rushed nor extremely slow. One can observe notable change in the characters too as Sean starts to get way more worried while Dorothy is shown to be generally calmer. The only stabilizing and ‘normal’ presence is perhaps that of Julian.
Read More: Where Was Servant Filmed?
