Home Is Where the Horror Is

A fourth and final season of M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Servant’ reveals the truth behind the dark forces that have been stalking the Turner family

When last seen, Dorothy Turner (Lauren Ambrose) was lying at the bottom of her staircase, possibly mortally injured in the closing moments of Servant’s season-three finale. 

As the fourth and final round of the M. Night Shyamalan-produced thriller gets underway, we learn she is indeed alive but badly hurt. What’s more, all is not well either inside or outside the Turners’ swank Philadelphia brownstone. 

For one, nanny Leanne’s (Nell Tiger Free) war with the Church of Lesser Saints reaches a crescendo, threatening Spruce Street, the city and beyond. And Sean (Toby Kebbell), Julian (Rupert Grint) and the rest of the Turner family must confront the threat that Leanne poses. As the house continues to crumble, viewers will come to learn just who Leanne Grayson is as well as the identity of the child in their home. 

Apple TV+Unable to do anything for herself, Dorothy is forced to rely on her “loved ones” for even the smallest of tasks, including the care of little Jericho, thus forcing the super-fit Ambrose to spend a lot of filming time on her back. 

“The arc really is this slow, painful, drawn-out healing process…” Ambrose explains. “And of course every movement is agonizing and every movement is painful. And it’s kind of great to take… a control freak and you force them to be at the mercy of everyone around them, especially the psychotic teenager who wants to control her.” 

“And then I think it’s sort of a beautiful metaphor that she’s stripped of everything,” the actress continues, “her dignity and ability to move easily and move on her own, her ability to get to her child and help her child… do anything for herself; [she] truly has to rely on others. And that’s sort of the beginning of the stripping away and getting closer and closer to, we hope, obviously, that she faces this grief at some point. And then also it’s fun.” 

Apple TV+With Dorothy laid up, husband Sean must pick up the slack at the same time his culinary career is taking off. In Friday’s opener, he’s a judge on a Hell’s Kitchen-type food competition show berating a contestant—a scene for which Kebbell channelled Gordon Ramsay, of whom he is a big fan. 

“Actually, my wife’s in that scene,” the British actor notes. “I mean, throughout the season, you’ll see snippets but one of the contestants was played by my wife and that was great fun. Because there’s a scene where I have to really lay it on her and she was like, ‘You’re enjoying this.’ So I was like, ‘No, no, no. This is the dialogue, hon. I have to do this.’ So it was good fun.” 

The fourth season of Servant premieres Friday, January 13 on Apple TV+