Servant Season 4 Episode 3 Seance Review And Recap- All The Details You Missed And Burning Questions

Dorothy’s new live-in nurses, Bobbie and Bev, have injected some much-needed hilarity in Servant Season 4 Episode 3 that took the series to some dark places. So far, Servant has stayed just this side of disturbing. Despite all the horrific things that happened and the bizarre attacks, there was always a lightness to the series, largely due to jarring beats of humor. This last season feels like the end is here, and although the payoff will be good, it will be very heavy. Something is coming, and it might mean the end of the world. Along with a lot of comedy gold, there were quite a few important details to be gleaned and several pressing questions.

The pair of nurses introduce themselves to Julian, Leanne, and Sean by way of a Seussical poem. It’s a strange moment in a sea of weirdness that marks Servant’s style. The Turner’s ever-expanding house seems to defy conventional geometry when yet another room is unlocked. They will be staying in the downstairs space renovated in the 1950s, some time after Dorothy’s parents bought the brownstone. The small apartment was meant to be used as tenant income but was never rented. Leanne originally was going to stay there, but Dorothy insisted on her being closer to the baby.

Fresh off of the bed bug incident of 2022, Bev and Bobbie are here to support Dorothy and thwart a petulant Leanne. As determined as Leanne is that they need to go, they are determined to help Dorothy. It has been four months since Dorothy’s accident, and she is tired of being helpless. The “Shining Twins,” as Julian refers to them, are here to help her get back on her feet. Leanne’s paranoia is warranted but not needed, as we later learn. These two answer only to themselves and their patients. They also genuinely seem to want to help the whole family heal.

They systematically work through the house, updating decor(including Leanne’s room), delivering self-help books on love languages for Sean, organization for Julian, and, most fun, social skills for teens for Leanne. The gifts don’t go unnoticed by Leanne, who snaps when she finds her room changed and a cloth rabbit in Jericho’s bed. She tosses the rabbit in the trash but doesn’t completely lose it until the rabbit appears again in his crib. Is the rabbit magical? Are the nurses? Did anyone clean the stuffed animal before placing it in the crib?

When she screams at the nurses that she knows who they are, they deny it and say they saw the rabbit in Amish country and thought Jericho would like it. It’s hard to tell if they are trustworthy yet. The pair seem to sense something terrible needs to be cleansed from the house, even if they don’t know how much danger they are in. Their new-age approach to healing appears innocent enough, but anything is possible in a show like Servant.

Lauren Ambrose gives her best performance in Servant Season 4 Episode 3, where she lays bare her fears and disappointments. She is a terrified mother fighting for her child and her life. Leanne may think she controls the entire household, but Dorothy is a force to be reckoned with, even with her injuries. She is determined to walk again. With the nurse’s help, she could get to her feet but taking a step was more than she was ready for, and she took a nasty fall. Bobbie and Bev encourage her to rest and pressure her that no one is giving up.

While she is trying to walk, Julian searches their apartment and finds more evidence of new-age mysticism and a wooden box full of adult toys. Maybe the source of their constant happiness and confidence is good vibrations. Meanwhile, Sean desperately tries to win Dorothy back one act of service at a time. Charcuterie boards and truffle pithivier don’t do the trick, but later blueberry pancakes begin cooling her anger. It helps that the family participated in a seance with Bev and Bobbie. The seance at first is a familiar display of cold reading and guesswork. It quickly goes awry, though, when they mention a crying baby and a dark shadow haunting the house. Are those both guesses, or are these two really clairvoyant?

Leanne uses that opportunity to rip open Bobbie’s dress to check for the cult’s mark. She has no scars on her back, though, and Sean and Dorothy banish her from the room. Absurdist humor mixes with horror when Sean tells Leanne she can’t rip the clothes off of everyone who enters the house. It’s funny but also demonstrates how vulnerable they all are. The cult has proven to be resourceful and committed. Servant Season 4 Episode 4 is a perfect example of the tension and release balance that the series has always done so well.

Something is happening to the entire city that can’t be denied. The news this week brings a story about overrun hospitals. Whatever is happening to the Turners has leeched out beyond their walls. Who knows if the nurses are right about the dark force hanging over their house? In the final moments, we see what could be a nightmare of either Leanne or Dorothys. A smoke monster is living rent-free in their home. Is that an implanted fear that manifests as a nightmare from one or both of the women? Are they sharing the same dream? Does the monster exist?

Do we have it wrong yet again? Is Leanne just an angry, abused girl who is finding her voice and lashing out in all the wrong ways, or is she a hell beast determined to end the world? She seems to genuinely love the Turners even when she’s mad at them. The series has always been about more than a reborn baby. The relationship between Leanne and Dorothy and the men that love them both is the heart of the series, and Servant Season 4 Episode 3 shows that. On the other hand, Leanne might be an innocent girl looking for the mother she always wanted with the power to resurrect. Is she a demon or an angel? Maybe the road to hell is paved with good intentions? Find all our Servant coverage here.

Stray Straw

• I wonder how things might have been different in Leanne had stayed in the apartment downstairs instead of the house. Would it have changed anything if there had been more distance between the family and her?
• Out on the street, it looks like a warzone of sealed-up and abandoned mattresses wrapped in plastic, scores of bed bugs layering the corners, and a watchful crow warning of impending doom. Quote the raven nevermore.
• What was in all the Amazon boxes? Did Bev and Bobbie really charge the Turners for all their sex toys?
• One of the nurses has an anteater or an elephant stuffed animal on their bed. Is that important?
• Dorothy is reading a book about astral projection. Maybe the smoke monster is Dorothy’s astral projection. There is no way this detail is not critical.
• Has the cult gotten smarter with their scars? Is it possible the nurses are with the cult after all? The box of sex toys indicates differently, but anything is possible. I would like to see them square off against the cult with the Turners.
• As suspected, Leanne and Julian’s mother died in the house. Was she depressed? Did she die by suicide? Did something drive her to do it? Is Leanne not the source of the problem but the trigger? What if Leanne does have some power and the monster in the house wants to control her and exploit her power? If so, will Leanne figure it out and stand against the spreading evil or sacrifice herself for her chosen family? That would be a truly fitting end to Servant.