Josephine
Episode 10 of Servant Season 2 begins with Leanne staring out the window, wide-eyed at the arrival of a shadowy figure. It’s Aunt Josephine, who happens to be the person we saw in the previous episode. It turns out she’s taking over from May and George and tells Sean he can trust her. With her face covered, Josephine enters the house as Dorothy charges down the stairs and listens. Josephine calls her a warrior and promises that everything will be okay. She refuses to answer Dorothy when she quizzes about Jericho, and instead tells her she was never meant to be part of this. Josephine tells Dorothy to end this and instead turn toward a chance for peace. In order to do so, she needs to see Leanne. Sean is convinced that Josephine is here to help, and this is enough to let Dorothy allows her to see Leanne for 15 minutes. In exchange, she wants Jericho brought back. When Sean heads up to let Leanne know, she’s frightened and pleads with him not to leave her alone. Up in the attic, Josephine speaks to Leanne and encourages her to leave, telling the girl that this family don’t love or care about her. This seems like persuasion enough for Josephine to leave with Leanne that night. Josephine heads back to see Dorothy and drops off a baby grow, telling her that this is the truth. As she walks away, Sean senses something is up and tries to check on Dorothy in Jericho’s room. Only, she’s locked the door and refuses to open up. Dorothy, as it turns out, is frantically dressing Jericho in his baby grow, breathing heavily and panicking. While she does, up in the attic Leanne watches static on TV. When Josephine shows, they turn on a videotape where a man named Uncle Frederick claims to be able to bring people back from the dead. The ritual occurs in four separate steps, each more bizarre than the last. This seems to be an instructional video of sorts. After the video, Josephine confirms that they’re there for one purpose – to serve Him. Well, this begins with Josephine throwing scolding hot water on Leanne’s face. Scrambling downstairs, Leanne grabs a knife but remains blinded from the hit before. She follows Josephine down to the basement, but on the way listens to antagonizing words from her Aunt, telling her she’s lost her way and must now pay the price for that. Josephine makes her way to the basement and lights a fire. She grabs Leanne, and looks set to start the ritual. Thankfully Dorothy is there and she manages to thwack Josephine in the back of the head with a spade, having left her room after an earlier incident where Sean convinced her not to kill herself. Just before Dorothy leaves, Leanna confirms that Jericho is still alive and she’s going to bring him back for her. When Dorothy leaves, Josephine strikes back but Leanne manages to knock off her veil, revealing burns underneath. This is enough of a distraction for Leanne to stab the woman through the eye with a red hot poker. When Dorothy and Sean head downstairs, the duo seem to be gone. Even more alarming, up in Jericho’s bedroom they see Leanne holding a baby. When she hands the baby over, Sean and Dorothy believe their problems are over now that Jericho is back. Only, Leanne talks to Him in her room and discusses how the darkness in her is growing. In fact, that darkness manifests itself in a blackout across the whole street. Leanne knows that “they’re coming for her” and promises that she’s ready for this. As the camera pans across to show a crispy (and very dead) Josephine chilling between the walls, it seems like this is the start of a war.
The Episode Review
Much like last year, Servant saves the best until last by delivering an episode chock full of clues and tidbits hinting at where this show may be going next. However, it’s also done so at the expense of 9 episodes where not very much has happened. All that drama with the Moreno household, finding Uncle George and subsequently Jericho going missing all fall by the wayside for what appears to be a cult-war about to begin. It seems like everyone inside this cult call themselves Uncle and Aunt as well, which explains the tag-line and why they’re not all related. Leanne seems to be the “chosen one” of sorts and clearly possesses some sort of supernatural power too. Quite what that darkness she mentioned is remains to be seen but it’s definitely something we’ll have to keep our eye on next season! All in all though, Servant delivers an enthralling finale off the back of a slow, ponderous season of not-very-much. Hopefully season 3 will deliver more answers but for now, Apple TV’s horror bows out with a promising sign of things to come.
