Servant Season 4 Episode 1 Pigeon Recap And Review-Witchy Women, The Symbolism Of Pigeons, And The Dangers Of Hot Dogs

When it comes to prestige television, Apple TV + has been gaining ground. Consistently they have produced and thrown support behind complex, heady programming. From trippy Severance to hilariously self-aware Mythic Quest or the sweetly addictive Acapulco, they have shown a commitment to giving their viewers something fresh and smart. They have also proven that they aren’t going to give shows the ax unceremoniously like Netflix tends to do. Servant from creator Tony Basgallop is one of the first of their high-profile offerings to see its intended conclusion. Servant Season 4 Episode 1 marks the beginning of the end for this sometimes hysterical(thank you, Julian’s one-liners), always creepy series.

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and no amount of fancy wine, Hermes belts, or culinary wizardry can make us feel fine. Things are crumbling down around the Turners, and like Humpty Dumpty, it can’t be put back together again. Servant Season 4 Episode 1 serves up more of the same claustrophobic dread that proves this show is going out with a bang, not a whimper.

First, let’s talk about the opening credits. It can’t be by accident that we are now getting reflected images of the city in the rain that puddles on and around the Turner’s house. Was the cult right all along, and Leanne and Jericho are harbingers of the apocalypse? Will the madness and corrosion that has not so slowly been eating away the Turner’s house begin seeping into the greater world? Is the rain a sign of baptism? Will the rain from the heavens wash away their sins and make Leanne and Jericho new again? The final season of Servant is here, and we will finally get our answers.

Dorothy did not die from her fall over the termite-infested railing at the end of Servant Season 3. She was hospitalized, rehabbed, and finally is returning home. In the time since we last saw this quartet, they are still doing what they do best. This crew keeps on keeping on like no one else. It is a testament to Toby Kebbell(Sean), Lauren Ambrose(Dorothy), Rupert Grint(Julian), and Leanne(Nell Tiger Free) that these often vapid, strangely menacing, and repugnantly narcissistic people are still likable. Against all logic, we still care about what happens to these messy people who have been through so much.

Julian has completely fallen off the wagon(who can blame him), and Sean is the hottest mean chef on television. Although Leanne is deluding herself about Dorothy’s happiness to see her again, she continues to grow her church of Leannapalooza. The Philadelphia block we have come to know so well appears to be withering away in front of us. No longer full of life and color, the streets feel neglected, dead plants litter the flower boxes, and pumpkins go ignored long after they should. There is something in the air that can’t be denied. Something bad is either coming or is already there.

Leanne remains diligent about locking doors as she fussily prepares for Dorothy’s return. Her previous cult is not giving up. When a man breaks in, a harrowing race through the house and out into the street commences. As a group of cult members closes in, a car drives by, and one shouts, “only the church can see us,” while they all scatter and hide like cockroaches. Insect symbolism has always been strong in Servant. Moths, termites, bees, and now cockroaches make us feel like these people may not be normal humans. Maybe golems made of earth and clay, or The Magician’s Beast that can form insects into destructive weapons of disguise and fear. We don’t know yet, but In Servant Season 4 Episode 1, her old group is learning Leanne has friends of her own.

The police have driven Leanne’s faction out of the park, leaving her alone and vulnerable. The detritus and paintings are reminders of how chaotic things have become. In Servant Season 1, things were weird. In Season 2, they were dangerous and confusing; Season 3 brought a fresh sense of humor and a renewed chemically altered recipe for weirdness. Like Sean’s masterful culinary concoctions, all of the ingredients were familiar but used in such unique ways we couldn’t help but enjoy every delicious thirty-minute bite. The catastrophic calamity of possibilities is only beginning to crystallize. Like a cat who hadn’t started hissing the previous seasons were the flattening of ears and the arching of backs. Now in the fourth and final season, Servant is bearing its teeth and preparing to take a meaty, potentially maggoty bite.

With hordes closing in, Leanne hides in the car as life slowly slips back into the street. Neighbors and family pets scare her now, though. Who is a friend? Who is a foe? Is anyone ever just a Karen with a tube of lipstick and a sequined dress? Everyone is a threat, and now that the police have taken all her followers and dumped them somewhere in the city, she is in trouble. Her old group won’t stop coming for her, and we still don’t know whose side we should be on. A dog barking and lunging at the car further confusions the issue. Does the canine sense something hinky? Should we be listening?

Servant constantly invents new ways to enclose Leanne while rarely leaving the block she lives on. First, it was the main level of the brownstone, then the strange confines of her religiously themed bedroom. The attic came next, and now a car parked right outside. Clever camera work constantly pulls and pushes our perspective, making us feel every drop of sweat and beat of her heart. Busybodies, children, and street vendors are all potential threats now.

When the hot dog vendor attacks her, she fights back and stabbed him with a pen. It’s a moment of violence that shocks her. It demonstrates she is still the same young girl despite all of her changes. The Leanne we see in Season 4 has emerged from her shy cocoon into something to be reckoned with. She still wears muted colors, but now her style is best described as pious sensuality. Her softly curled hair, delicate barely-there makeup, and casually unbuttoned keyhole dress all scream, “I am a woman coming into my own, and I will Silent Hill you into existence if you mess with me.” Just because you are an angel or a demon doesn’t mean you can’t be sexy, right?

She narrowly escapes when another cult member disguised as a jogger comes to the vendor’s aid and throws the ritual ointment at her face, temporarily blinding her. Leanne manages to get into the car and away from harm but only just barely, and Aunt Josephine isn’t done with her and us just yet. Is it a hallucination brought on by stress, or has she come back from the grave to haunt her? It’s hard to say where the pale blue eye begins, and the tell-tale heart ends.

When another carload of cult members roll up, including two creepy twins well past their Overlook days, Leanne looks defeated. An ominous commanding man tells her to come back and that they don’t want to hurt her- but they will is the unspoken menace. She retorts that they can’t hurt her anymore. She isn’t who she used to be and tries to start the car and drive off. They try to smoke her out. Just when it seems all is lost, pigeons begin circling and attacking the cult members, plucking out eyes and piercing flesh. When the attackers leave, the pigeons retreat to the top of the brownstone to watch and wait for when they might be needed next. Not to be outdone, her lieutenants finally return in a cab, and she tells them they have to be smarter.

Inside, her cake is burned, and signs of the break-in remain. Always stylish, Dorothy arrives home in an ambulance in subdued but fine fashion. This home has seen too many ambulances in the last couple of years. Dorothy hasn’t forgiven Leanne, and everyone knows it. Suddenly the mood shifts from a Hitchcockian thriller to a melodrama with the subtle swing of a musical swell. This is a family in crisis, after all. It is easy to forget amongst all the supernatural happenings, reborn babies, and ominous portends.

These are damaged people in damaged relationships clinging to normalcy when none is present. All of this started because no one had the courage or decency to get Dorothy the help she needed after a terrible postpartum accident left her childless and catatonic. Even without all the woo-woo mysticism and strict scary faith, this is a horrible tale about parents who lost their child and a brother who can’t do anything to help them or himself, and so he numbs the pain however he can.

Dorothy may be home, but nothing is fine in Servant Season 4 Episode 1. She is paralyzed, and the prognosis is uncertain. She has closed herself off from Leanne emotionally and physically, and the younger witchy woman is devastated. Yet, after everything that has happened, Leanne still views her as a mother figure. At the core, Servant comes down to family relationships. Mothers and children, husbands and wives, sisters and brothers. Leanne yearns for a mother, and her and Dorothy’s relationship has been fascinating to watch. I wonder how far Dorothy will go to get rid of Leanne? Will Leanne ever let her go?

As Leanne’s surprise turns to hurt, lights flicker, bulbs pop, and the cracks in the foundation grow and extend out past the house. Something is blossoming, and it isn’t always a flower that grows from a bloom. It’s possible a weed has sprung up from Hell itself, and you know what they say about Hell and women. Everyone should watch out or become scorned, scorched, or something even worse.

Watch for all of our Servant coverage here. New episodes premier every Friday.

Stray Straw:

• Dorothy’s style is impeccable, as always. You may be able to dull her spirit but never her sparkle.
• Is Leanne Snow White or the Wicked Witch? Both could command nature. It sure seems like they are setting Leanne up as a powerful witch, angel, or demon. There aren’t many other explanations for all the electric pulses, foundation cracks, flooding, and pestilence. She’s either controlling it all, or something wants her on Earth.
• Pigeons symbolize prosperity, peace, and transformation. Leanne has already changed so much. After what happened with the birds in Servant Season 4 Episode 1, I doubt that these birds are here for peaceful purposes. They’ve been used as messengers and pets for thousands of years because of their intelligent but gentle nature. The creatures who attacked the church members weren’t peaceful, but they were loyal. Often a symbol of the Holy Spirit, is this a sign that Leanne is tied to the Good Place instead of the firey one? Maybe Leanne is an Old Testament kind of angel who burns with the fire of Heaven and with the anger of Hell?