WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Season 1 of Apple TV's Servant.
M. Night Shyamalan's Servant has quickly gone from psychological thriller to straight-up horror as the story of Leanne (Nell Tiger Free) unfolds in the city with the Turners. After the family lost their baby Jericho, Leanne arrived as a babysitter to a reborn doll, only for the doll to come to life.
As the show's progressed, though, on the heels of Leanne's sinister Uncle George arriving and hinting there may be more to Jericho's death than meets the eye, it does seem his parents had something to do with it. Now, the murder mystery has taken an even more sadistic turn, even by Shyamalan's twisted standards.
There are so many clues seeded in Episode 8, "Boba," that dad Sean (Toby Kebbell) and mom Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) were complicit in Jericho's death, it's not even funny. In fact, the way they're laid out could make one sick to their stomach. The first hints Jericho was accidentally pushed into the washing machine when Dorothy's brother Julian (Rupert Grint) spends a night as his caretaker. With the Turners at a work dinner and Leanne on a date, Julian's shocked the doll has reappeared, and as he searched for the human baby, we see him staring petrified at the sight of the washing machine.
It ties into past episodes when linen and more so, the sight of Jericho's onesie, scared Julian to death. Dorothy's hand baskets are often played up by the cameras, too, so some fans believe she accidentally put him in a basket and the kid was placed to spin. After that, it's theorized Julian found him, which scarred the man for life and led to his drinking problem. Fans also believe he went out his way to help Sean cover it up and also get Dorothy the doll as she repressed the incident, all because he didn't want his sister to be jailed.
Another dark theory is Dorothy dropped Jericho out the window of their two-story house late one night. It's foreshadowed when Julian threatens to drop the doll unless Leanne brings the real Jericho back on his night of babysitting. Mostly though, this notion's stirred at the beginning of the episode when Dorothy zones out while staring out the window. Over the ledge seems to house a bad memory and recollecting how this also tied into the scene where she was found crying in the bathtub, it seems this window does have a lot to do with her past depression. It's apparently a reminder of an error she made and this may well be either letting Jericho crawl out of the crib (as he might be older than the show lets on) or, given her drinking problem, she did indeed let him slip out her grasp and to his demise.
This leads to the sickest theory: Jericho was cooked, which is why the series places so much emphasis on food shots. At first glance, it seems this is because Sean's a gourmet chef, but the concept of eating might be that the family ate Jericho's life, not literally, but metaphorically. Julian recalls seeing a slab of cooked meat with flies around it a while back, as if it were a baby pig on Sean's counter downstairs -- a jarring shot that also scares him in the present day as he sees the counter when looking for the child. That said, it's speculated that however Jericho died, to remove all evidence, Sean -- who merges a lot of unconventional science about meats into his culinary expertise -- cooked the child to remove all evidence linking them to his death.
This could be why he lost his taste and why Servant relies heavily on sequences with him cooking -- as cooking is creation, which ties into the baby they procreated. With this episode involving Sean using Dorothy's breast milk to make new dishes, including Boba tea, there's an underlying theme Sean's being a parent to his food as a reminder of Jericho being turned into a meal they didn't consume. Let's face it, while they may be murderers -- they're not a family of cannibals.
Either way, Julian eventually breaks down and tells Leanne the truth when he can't find Jericho, and while we don't hear what he tells her, she seemingly brings the kid back, accepting his honesty. However, she's still angry and steals some of Dorothy's pearls as if to enact voodoo (Leanne has shown some witch-like tendencies). As she aggressively breaks Dorothy's necklace and gives her employer the cold shoulder, it seems she's ready to inflict judgment and for the Turners' sins.
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.