The penultimate episode of Servant, “Jericho,” is arguably the most dread-filled episode of the series yet. After Julian confessed everything to Leanne last episode, the audience is finally clued in to what happened to baby Jericho.
In flashbacks interspersed with the present timeline, Dorothy gives birth to Jericho and the happy family is seen going through their new normal. Sean keeps the placenta from the birth after the doula encourages it for post-partum benefits; the news channel announces Dorothy’s given birth; she starts to look through the nanny applications; they build the nursery; it’s all about how they are adapting to having a child.
During this time, Sean has to leave Philadelphia for California — where he is hosting some kind of Chopped Championship-esque show for television. I watch a lot (I mean a lot) of cooking competition shows and it was incredibly spot-on, while also being hilariously cringe-worthy to see Sean browbeating contestants over the ridiculously pretentious food he’s been preparing all season on Servant.
Dorothy was reluctant to see him go, leaving her with Jericho alone, but she denied being jealous when he teased her about his own television appearance and let him go. Unfortunately, she seems to struggle to take care of a perpetually crying baby all on her own and Julian can’t help her because she suspects he’s on drugs again. On a particularly hot day, Dorothy goes out for groceries, returns to the house, and does the unimaginable.
A car alarm wakes Dorothy from a dream in the present and Leanne tells her that it’s been going off for half an hour. When she finds the keys to turn it off, Leanne notices that Dorothy has started menstruating again. Leanne thinks this is a good thing because Jericho can have a little sister, but Dorothy reacts to Leanne as she has been since her date with Tobe: rudely.
Graciously, Leanne tells Dorothy to sleep longer and that she’ll make her breakfast. Sean returns from the fish market as Leanne is finishing up and helps her with the presentation of the dish. He also tells her that what happened wasn’t a crime, since Julian spilled the beans.
Upstairs, Dorothy is trying on a bathing suit for a news story and Leanne shows some of her growing resentment toward her by passive-aggressively telling her that she looks great and everyone would expect the extra baby weight. This upsets Dorothy, who wants to make a quick escape, but ends up throwing up in the car after smelling the rest of Sean’s fish market order still in there.
She misses out on filming the story as Sean takes care of her throughout her vomiting episode. He also puts what’s left of her omelet in a baggie in the freezer – next to Jericho’s placenta. When she wakes up from a nap later, the car alarm is going off again and she can’t make it stop. Barefoot and harried, Dorothy walks all the way to the car to try to make it stop. The camera pans back to show that Leanne is controlling the alarm.
After not being able to spend time with Dorothy, Sean gets Leanne for her opinion on a dish. He has her try blowfish, which she spits out because she doesn’t like it. Sean urges her to try again and she presses him about why he stayed with Dorothy after what happened to Jericho. He insists it was a mistake — people make mistakes — and his own mistake was not being there to help. Mollified, Leanne takes another bite and then tells him it tastes like bruised fruit that’s been out in the sun too long.
Later, Jericho is crying in his crib and Dorothy goes to soothe him. Leanne rushes in and rather quickly and forcefully takes the baby from her. She’s upset, but Leanne explains it away by saying that she doesn’t want Jericho to catch Dorothy’s illness. When she leaves the nursery, Leanne makes sure to shut the door on Dorothy.
It took a solid half of the episode to find out what horrible, scarring thing happened to Jericho — all the while my brain was conjuring up a huge list of worst-case-scenarios. I have to say it was completely expected and not at all what I expected. The pain of watching it play out and how it affected Dorothy explains a lot of the family dynamics of the Turners and made for some tense television knowing the outcome.
With a lot of the side mysteries and questions solved about the Turners, I’m interested to see what audiences learn about Leanne and how Jericho came to be from the Reborn Doll in next week’s season finale!
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