This week on Servant, it’s Halloween in Philadelphia and while Julian deals with pranksters, Dorothy yearns to be outside, and Sean spends quality time with Jericho, Leanne is going down a dark rabbit hole that’s both disturbing and (maybe) unintentionally hilarious.  Plus if you’re a horror fan (which if you’re on this site, we assume you are), you’ll dig this episode’s entire aesthetic.

Devil’s Night
Opening up on teenage hooligans running around, smashing pumpkins, TPing houses, and leaving a hilariously obscene image on Julian’s car, Halloween is in full swing.  Dorothy watches old news footage of herself on Halloween, longing to be out of the bed she’s currently restricted to.  So in order to make her feel better, Sean puts up decorations (although it’s unclear why he waited until Halloween itself to do so), and puts together a cute outfit for him and Jericho to wear.

Although this episode does fall into one of the common pitfalls of many Halloween episodes in that every single costume looks like it was made by a professional costume designer (because they were of course).  It’s nothing against this series in particular, because everyone is guilty of it, but it would be nice just once to see a Halloween episode where the characters are wearing cheap-looking costumes they got at Party City, or something random they threw together themselves.

Aside from this B plot, the Turners are a bit sidelined in this episode.  Even the incredibly strange nurses barely get a scene or two.  It’s not really an issue because what we do get is a very Leanne centric episode that goes for disturbing, but comes off as funny more often than it should.

Supervillain Origin Story?
We’ve watched Leanne go from shy and timid to opening up about her own life and what she wants for herself.  She’s also still being chased by her Uncle George and the cult, so as a result, she spends the night going around “incognito” and looking for potential threats.

But of course, because she’s not very subtle and isn’t great at reading people, she ends up traumatizing children and even assaults a teenager who was just trying to scare her for fun.  Scenes like these will never not be funny, and this series has way too many moments like these for the creators to not be aware of its very twisted and deadpan sense of humor.

One thing that really sticks out is Leanne’s realization that “sin can be fun”.  Much like a rebellious teenager (lest we forget that’s essentially what she is), she’s going way too far in the other direction after abandoning the religious extremism that was her upbringing.

Not to say that her old ways of belief were healthy in any way, shape, or form.  But going too far the other way (especially with the abilities that she has) has the potential to make her very dangerous, as is evidenced by what she does in this episode alone.

This is probably one of the best episodes of the series thus far, and Nell Tiger Free really shines.  Over the span of just a few minutes, she goes from vulnerable and unsure to sadistic and scary.  She’s at a stage where she’s finding herself and trying out different ways to be, and that level of fluidity is not easy to portray.

Turners Turning Tides
Both Julian and Sean witness firsthand what Leanne does, and both are starting to shift their loyalties.  Having Dorothy away at physical rehab for months allowed Leanne to get into both their heads and win them over to her.  But now they’re starting to see the potential villain she has the ability to become.

And with Roscoe working with Uncle George now, could it be just a matter of time before the entire Turner family joins him and no longer feel safe with Leanne in their house.  This season has definitely escalated everything and there’s definitely a larger conflict coming.  It’s just a matter of who will be on which side?

What did you think of this episode of Servant?  What do you hope to see next week?  Let us know in the comments!

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