Servant: Haggis Recap

The origin of the Reborn Doll is revealed in this episode of Servant, titled “Haggis,” and another wall in the precarious house of cards threatens to crumble around the Turners.

Past Dorothy is completely shut down over the loss of Jericho when a woman hands her the Reborn Doll. For better or worse, it seems to shake Dorothy of her grief. The woman turns out to be the Natalie that was previously mentioned by Julian as not being a therapist. She’s a kinesthesiologist who also happens to work with Dorothy to relieve her stress.

But because she knows how fragile Dorothy is and how it was handled, she’s immediately concerned when Leanne arrives home with Jericho – who she assumes is still the doll. Dorothy whirls out of the house and Sean is nowhere to be found, so when Natalie hears a noise, she goes to investigate. Before she can lift the blanket on baby Jericho, she’s thrown to the ground by Leanne, who takes the baby and runs away. 

Let’s pause for a moment to think about the optics that Servant has been presenting on people of color in Philadelphia: the dogged, broke-into-the-house PI is black, Sean’s commis chef (not his sous chef, but lower than that) is Hispanic, the “friend” who betrayed Leanne’s trust is Asian, and now the friend who arguably set this whole plot in motion is black. It’s a longer conversation for a different article, but something interesting to note.

Sean arrives home to stop her from pursuing Leanne and Natalie lectures him about allowing the charade with the Reborn Doll to continue. He’s relieved that she doesn’t know about the real baby.

Unfortunately, his relief is short-lived because Dorothy fires Natalie as her kinesthesiologist, but keeps her as a friend by inviting her to dinner. Thinking quickly, Sean relies on Leanne once again to help him keep up the charade by playing hostess during the dinner. She seems pleased with being asked to do this and it showcases just how quickly Sean came to rely on her after his initial suspicions.

Underlining that, Julian shows up ahead of dinner with $20k and Sean has $8k that he managed to move without Dorothy noticing. It’s in case Uncle George comes back and they need to pay him off for the baby.

When Leanne greets Natalie at the door, she’s obviously frosty and questions what Leanne is doing at the Turners’. There’s a ridiculous balloon floating on the table that Leanne pops in order to release the essence of heather to really give it a Scottish vibe. If nothing else, Servant has given us the joy of these hilariously pretentious meals, which Dorothy has to suddenly pray before.

Leanne goes to get another bottle of wine from the cellar when a crack appears in the floor and she looks terrified. Things are also tense upstairs as Dorothy teases Sean for his continued lack of taste. He says it’s a virus, but an annoyed Natalie says it could be a symptom of extreme stress. She goes on to try to confront Dorothy about the Reborn Doll as Sean and Julian work to delay her. Dorothy incorrectly assumes they’re attacking her for firing Natalie and she storms off to be with Jericho. 

Before she can bring Jericho downstairs, Sean stops her. It’s starting to become upsetting to Dorothy that she can’t show off her son. With the dust mostly settled, the evening moves on. Natalie uses the restroom upstairs and once again hears an actual baby in the house. This time, she sees the actual baby, but is interrupted by a mangy dog that chases her down the stairs. Julian ends up killing the dog and everyone is rattled. 

While the Turners check on Jericho, Julian takes care of the dog. Natalie follows him outside to confront him about the baby and he lies to her, claiming its Leanne’s that they’re going to adopt. They share a moment… which leads to a further moment of them having sex in the cellar. When they go to leave, Julian goes to get her coat that was left in the room with the body of the dog. As he opens the door, the dog is very much alive and it flees the residence. 

When everyone was distracted, Leanne quietly went into that room and must have done something akin to what she did to bring the cricket back to life. She was just as horrified as everyone else about the dead dog in the living room and it raises questions as to whether she does these things deliberately and why.

The previous episode was the creepiest of the series so far, but this episode left me trying to figure out if we were getting something akin to The Omen or Poltergeist with this series. Is the house on a portal to Hell? Is this resurrected baby important for some reason? Either way, I’m hooked and eagerly awaiting next week.