WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 1 of Apple TV's Servant.
M. Night Shyamalan is famous for his twists in movies, most notably Bruce Willis' character being dead in The Sixth Sense. Not all have hit the mark, however, with The Happening's botanical revolution really being his most laughable to date. Nonetheless, you've got to respect the way he works these nifty little turns into his stories while trying to surprise us.
Come Apple TV's Servant, though, we may have just gotten Shyamalan's greatest twist through his latest set of villains yet as his creative team details the Turner family and "a reborn doll" that's come to life for grieving parents who lost their baby.
Season 1 has focused on Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose), her chef husband Sean (Toby Kebbell), and Dorothy's brother Julian (Rupert Grint) dealing with young baby Jericho, who's now being taken care of by the shady babysitter Leanne (Nell Tiger Free). It's an emotive story and genuine enough when you see how deluded Dorothy's become, blocking out the child's death and simply accepting Leanne and this new baby as her family. However, the series is trying to paint them all as victims of circumstance, with Sean and Julian going along for the ride as they have no clue what to do or what's Leanne's deal.
They tracked her past to a gravesite in Wisconsin and with the arrival of her devilish Uncle George, it seems as if a cult is puppeteering the entire family. Leanne might be some sort of religious witch and Jericho could well be a product of her people's supernatural work. But when Dorothy's kinesiologist, Natalie (Jerrika Hinton), enters the fray in the seventh episode, "Haggis," clues are dropped the baby didn't die from natural causes. In fact, the parents, and even Natalie herself, might be the culprits -- killers covering up their tracks as part of a conspiracy.
This episode opens with Dorothy grieving in the bathtub in a flashback as if she's washing off blood and owning up to committing some sick act. There's an air of responsibility she's shirking and we get further clues of this when they try to hide Jericho from Natalie in the present. She eventually discovers the baby and keeps telling Julian about "what we did" hinting they all had something to do with the baby's death. With a state of turmoil embroiling everyone in the house after a dinner party, when a depressed Julian and Natalie have sex in the basement, the sight of Jericho's onesie scares him during the tryst, and reconciling all their behavioral patterns so far this season, it's clear there's a lot of guilt manifesting.
Peering closer, we can see hints of what might have led to the child's death as Shyamalan's team seems to be working in messages over each episode. Sean's emotionally abusive, a narcissist and a perfectionist, and often comes off as neglectful to his wife. Dorothy is also superficial and career-driven, obsessed with material things, so it's of note that a child might up her social status and class. Whereas Julian's a womanizer and an alcoholic, while Natalie seems to be very carefree and inconsiderate. With everyone's hubris and inattentiveness on display, they're not just bad parent material, they're atrocious human beings. Sean always cooking is clearly a play on creation while Dorothy as a news reporter is all about her decisions to fake or reveal the truth, so you do have to read in between the lines at times. With the ground cracking open in the basement, Leanne -- who's been reciting Numbers 16:30 which speaks of God's revenge at sinners -- knows there's atonement to be had for people who may have treated the kid as an object, not a life.
Servant seems to want to remind us bad people must face consequences for their actions and this foursome may well be complicit in Jericho's death. So far, the misdirection points to Leanne's cult but what if they're the avatars acting as everyone's conscience reminding the family of what they did and the joy they blotted out from existence? It'd be a harsh twist but it's real and relatable, and would once more prove Shyamalan to be as ambitious as he is nuanced. And ultimately, the parents being the killers, accidental or not, will shake Servant up big time and truly leave us wondering if there are no heroes left in this particular corner of Shyamalan's creative world.
Created by Tony Basgallop and directed and executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Servant stars Toby Kebbell, Lauren Ambrose, Nell Tiger Free, and Rupert Grint. Season 1 is currently airing on Apple TV, with new episodes every Friday.