Servant Ending Explained: Is There a Shyamalan Twist?
After four seasons, Apple TV+'s Servant has come to an end. Here is how M. Night Shyamalan concludes this spooky story.
This article contains spoilers for the Servant series finale.
When Servant first launched on Apple TV+ back in 2019 (one of its first original shows, may we add), M. Night Shyamalan‘s tale of a family whose reborn doll comes to life after the death of their son had the potential to be a fascinating and suitably spooky take on grief and its seven stages.
By the time season four started dropping this year though, it seemed like a completely different show. Anger, denial, and bargaining was replaced by the ever-growing presence of a character who, in her own way, was developing into Damien from The Omen, only this time with an entire family behind her.
So what exactly was happening? We had a lot of questions. And with the finale episode, “Fallen,” finally airing, we’ve got some answers. Mostly. But then again, it’s opened a whole new host of questions we’re finally trying to figure out.
Here’s how everything played out in the finale, and where it could lead next.
Servant Season 4: What’s Happened So Far?
To fully understand what happened in the series finale, we have to look back at what’s been uncovered in the whole of season four.
First, there’s the confusion over Leanne (Nell Tiger Free) and what her powers actually are. In one of his final acts before being burned to death (seriously, that was brutal), Uncle George tells Julian and Sean that Leanne isn’t any kind of God or spiritual entity, rather a very confused and mentally unstable girl who is making them believe she’s all powerful in order to keep them close. The situations they’ve found themselves in? A ruse. Baby Jericho? Just a child she’d stolen from a dead heroin addict, and smuggled into the house via tunnels that exist thanks to the prohibition era.
Considering this as fact, viewers are then tuned into the fact that this is not actually true – and even Uncle George doesn’t believe it, later whipping himself to repent for lying about her true nature. Sean and Julian know they need to get Dorothy away from Leanne and out of the house, but they both end up gravely injured and whisked away to the hospital.
Leaving Leanne and Dorothy alone in the house (let alone within a five mile radius as the sinkholes and terror on the street has meant everyone’s been evacuated), Leanne finally gets what she wants – Dorothy all to herself. Being obsessed with her and her “perfect life” since she was a child, that is literally all she’s wanted. In the penultimate episode, Leanne is happy to play house though doesn’t entirely believe Dorothy is buying into it, no matter how much she’s willing to pretend she is. Despite a back injury that has left her barely able to walk for most of the season, Dorothy sneaks out of the house to meet Julian and Sean on their request.
Then, while sitting in a car, they finally tell her the truth of the horror they’ve been hiding from her for more than six months – Jericho is not her baby, and Dorothy is the reason the real baby Jericho is dead. Having accidentally locked the baby in a hot car in a state of postpartum depression/psychosis, Jericho had died, and yet she still looked after the baby for a few days as if he was alive, blocking out his death from her mind entirely. Dorothy is left catatonic as her memories finally come flooding back about what happened, and she lashes out at both a dangerously injured Sean, and claws the face of her brother Julian, before collapsing outside in the rain, devastated.
Returning to the house as a reunited force, they tell Leanne that the jig is up. But Leanne appeals to Dorothy, saying she’s capable of incredible things, including bringing Jericho back to life, and all Dorothy has to do is agree.
Servant Finale “Fallen” Explained
In season 4 episode 10, Servant‘s wheels fully come off. Picking up in the immediate aftermath, Dorothy asks Sean and Julian to wait in the car so she can have a moment alone. Baby Jericho has turned back to the reborn doll in Leanne’s arms, and she’s aware there is no baby in the house. Sean and Julian reluctantly agree, and Leanne tells her that “it doesn’t matter what she is, she’s hers and they can be happy”. But armed with the truth, Dorothy says no, they can’t be happy like she wants.
Leanne is distraught, saying she wants to be better. Rejected, she heads to the roof, into the storm, and starts screaming at God and the world. She declares being with the family was the only thing she wanted, and doesn’t know why she can’t have it. Dorothy follows her and tries to reason with her, saying she believes she brought Jericho back to life but she can’t let her do it again. She calls her magic a kindness to her, allowing her more time with her child, but she needs to be able to grieve for her son.
She tells Leanne she’s not evil, but she disagrees. She admits the fire that killed her family when she was a child was her fault, and she wanted them to die. She says Uncle George “brought her back” but she couldn’t deal with the power she’s been given. Heading back into the house, the pair dry off and share a moment of peace, before going to join Sean and Julian in the car. The pair are in a rush before the roads are closed. They offer to let her join him, but Leanne declines, instead going back into the house to “pick up something Uncle George left.” Julian realizes what she’s planning to do, but lets her go, with her parting words instructing him to “take care of them for her”.
She then goes to George’s burnt out corpse (which is still in the house) and pulls the dagger from the Church of Lesser Saints from his eye, telling the body she “hopes he’d be proud of her.” With that, she burns the entire house to the ground, with her and the reborn doll inside. Committing the ritual the Church had been trying to do to her, she remains in her bedroom loft, calls Tobe to arrange a date as if nothing is wrong. The duo plan a full date together, and Leanne smiles at what could have been.
She then turns on music, blinds herself with perfume, uses the dagger to slice her arm, and dances as the flames engulf her. Julian does return to the house to get her, but sees it on fire and can’t get in. It’s too late to save her, and the three of them watch Leanne die as their home turns to ash. Members of the Church of Lesser Saints wait outside, saying she’s chosen to save them all.
The next morning, the police turn up to question them, with the house now nothing but rubble. They’re reassured the house will be brought back to its former glory, but Sean comments they’re never planning to return to a place of such loss and devastation for them. The family are resigned, and ready to start a new life. But this is an M. NIght Shyamalan story after all, and it wouldn’t quite be right without a twist. Leanne’s body is never found, leaving the mystery to whether or not she somehow survived or not.
As Julian goes to get a cup of coffee, he’s stopped by a police officer who has been around the family throughout all of their biggest losses. Julian declines to speak to her, but she insists – and reveals Leanne had brought him back to life back after he overdosed at Christmas. She’s a convert to the Church of Lesser Saints, and tells him they “are family now” and will look over him. As he stares at a mural of a bird, which in the reflection of the coffee shop gives him wings, he realizes he now has the power that Leanne once possessed, with the cult now seeing him as their next servant.
All four seasons of Servant are available to stream now on Apple TV+.