Apple TV’s Servant
3×08: “Donut”
Directed by Dylan Holmes Williams
Written by Alyssa Clark

* For a recap & review of 3×07, click here.
* For a recap & review of 3×09, click here.
Leanne goes to the park again, comfortable among the houseless folks. Is she finding a home with them similar to the cult? Is it troubling that she likes how they treat her as special? At home, she tries her best to make life easy for both Dorothy and Sean, who are having problems since the latest debacle. Dorothy doesn’t even want the nanny doing her laundry anymore. She won’t even let Jericho out of her sight for a second. She outright tells Leanne: “You will never touch Jericho again.”
While Leanne’s at the park she runs into Isabelle. The newswoman knows Dorothy so well she recognises the tears the latter can produce in others. She sits with the nanny and commiserates about Dorothy’s temper. Leanne confides a bit in Isabelle. The TV reporter clearly wants to dig up dirt, offering to take Leanne out for coffee soon.

Julian’s talk about “repressed vaginas” and a “black hole” is so revealing about his personality; a wonderful, comic moment. He heads downstairs, instead of helping his brother-in-law, and gets roped into a weird domestic game of dominance by Leanne as she forces him to pour milk until it’s running all over the counter onto the floor. There’s something in Leanne that craves power. Sean’s been busy fixing up the house, hoping that’ll impress his wife enough that she’ll let him sleep in their bed again. Dorothy won’t relent until Leanne is out of the house. Sean feels like Leanne’s family now and doesn’t want to kick her out with no place to go. Later, he talks to Leanne about how much he loves his wife, wanting to make peace with Dorothy and end the bullshit.
Sean intends on cooking a “special dinner” for just him and his wife, to get things back to normal, but Dorothy isn’t down for that, inviting her father and his lady. We see Leanne on the street watching an ambulance, as well as Isabelle paying off an EMT, likely for info on the Turner residence. Perfect time for the newswoman and Leanne to have coffee together. They sit and talk, mostly about Dorothy. Isabelle does her best to snoop for info, once more getting back to asking about the ambulance last year. Leanne spills coffee, which winds up revealing a scar on her arm, and she almost suggests Dorothy hurt her. Would she ever do something drastic to push Dorothy out of the house? Worth a thought…

Leanne’s also praying in the park with the houseless people. She’s using the people to keep an eye on the neighbourhood. They tell her the EMT talking to Isabelle “seemed angry.” They also have one of the daggers. Leanne calls it “a symbol of our fear,” something that was used to control them by the cult. She cuts her finger and then joins the others to do the same as everybody passes the blade around, one by one. At home, Dorothy watches more Gourmet Gauntlet from last season, trying to figure out her own timeline in regards to Sean’s but finding it difficult to grasp a sense of reality. When Leanne gets home she puts the dagger back in a box underneath her bed.
The next morning, Isabelle turns up accusing Dorothy of things, looking at Jericho with creepy suspicion. She threatens to end Dorothy’s career. Oh, shit, this is going off the rails hard. Leanne draws Dorothy inside with noise, then goes out to talk with Isabelle. The newswoman tells the nanny about a call last year and that the EMT was “horrified by what he saw.” Isabelle even has a death record showing Jericho’s dead. She wonders if the baby’s actually Leanne’s, and whether Dorothy took the child. She wants to expose Dorothy but doesn’t want to do anything that’ll hurt Leanne, either. Regardless, she’s going to tell the truth. God. Damn.

Dorothy only thinks Leanne wants “petty revenge,” but nothing’s quite clear. The nanny didn’t exactly try to stop Isabelle definitively. No telling how all this will play out. Later, Sean’s prepping dinner with the father-in-law, Julian’s stressing out, and Leanne helps with the cooking. Frank arrives soon with his girlfriend Kourtney, then he and Dorothy have a private chat. Dorothy tells her father that Leanne “should be sent away for her own health.” Even dad thinks that’s a very serious plot. Another awkward evening at the Turner house!
Everyone sits down to watch the next episode of Gourmet Gauntlet: Philly. Dorothy interrupts to put on a report with Isabelle from a police shootout at a standoff involving armed people inside a home. Shots start to be fired and Isabelle moves in with her camera crew. Out of nowhere, a bullet flies through Isabelle’s forehead, killing her instantly on live television. Leanne smiles momentarily and Dorothy catches a glimpse. Afterwards, the nanny puts a bag in the trash, a bag that Isabelle brought earlier with donuts. Is it food for her followers? Probably so.