Servant
4×05: “Neighbors”
Directed by Carlo Mirabella-Davis
Written by Kara Lee Corthron

* For a recap & review of 4×04, click here.
* For a recap & review of 4×06, click here.
Sean’s laying next to Dorothy when she wakes up; something neither of them are used to as of late. They’re having a nice husband-wife moment. They’re back on “the same team.” But, y’know, Sean still hasn’t told Dorothy the actual truth about everything, the reason they’ve gotten to this place. For now, things are fine, and Sean’s helping Dorothy get into a wheelchair so that she might have a bit more mobility around the house. “There‘s a new sheriff in town,” Dorothy says, as she rolls out of her room to the motorised seat that will take her up and down the stairs. Leanne rushes out to tell them it’s too soon, worried that the lady of the house will hurt herself all over again. But Sean insists they go about their business, getting Dorothy onto the seat and downstairs for the first time in ages.
They arrive downstairs in time for something to get slipped under the door. Dorothy rushes to get it, and Leanne goes to help her, causing a big panic. The nurses and Sean rush to Dorothy, too. But she sends them all away. She and Sean open a letter from the Church of Lesser Saints, who says they want Leanne back. Dorothy thinks they should “help pave the way” for the cult, whereas Sean doesn’t want to get too involved. They wonder if it’s the new neighbours behind the letter. She asks if this makes them monsters, or if they’re “already monsters.”

Sean and Dorothy are starting to lay out their plan. They’ll have the nurses distract the nanny. They also attempt to drive Julian off with a ticket to a basketball game. But Julian doesn’t like this whole plan, he sees through it. He thinks the house is now Leanne’s home, but the Turners aren’t willing to go along with this anymore. Sean and Julian talk alone together. Sean says that Leanne is “fucking dangerous,” that something’s “fundamentally wrong with her.” Later, Sean’s heading off to invite the neighbours to their party, and Leanne catches him, telling him he shouldn’t keep things from her. The invites all get out to the neighbours, but Sean and Dorothy will still have to figure out who are the cultists.
Leanne goes out to commune with her houseless friends and followers. She shows the book she puts things in; things that all come true. She says if you want something all you have to do is write it down and believe that it will come true. Dorothy and Sean watch from upstairs; she didn’t realise that former members of the cult were living nearby, nor that they left the Church of Lesser Saints to follow Leanne. Dorothy wants the nanny out even worse now. In the kitchen the next day, Leanne pokes a hole in her hand with a knife while questioning Sean about the party. He claims it’s about his wife having “social interaction” after being isolated for so long. Leanne says she loves the Turner family and “nothing is going to change that.”

When the party happens, the Turners work to figure out who may be the cultists. Sean has lots of pretentious food and drink for everybody to indulge in, and he gets lots of people showing him attention, including a neighbour who’s seen “every episode” and finds him “the sexiest chef” on Gourmet Gauntlet so far. Dorothy gets her own fame-whoring from people who’ve seen her on the news. She also interrogates her guests on questions that may lead her to discovering a cultist amongst the partygoers. Sean does his best to do his own interrogation, albeit not quite as smooth as his wife. Leanne takes her time to do her interrogating, as well. She digs into guests about why they moved to the neighbourhood, mentioning being assaulted “more than once” and surviving “a home invasion.”

While the party goes on, Leanne’s houseless friends are searching the neighbours’ houses for anything that might relate to the Church of Lesser Saints. In one house is a very culty piece of cross-stitching. But whose house is it?
Sean and Dorothy keep up their work as “terrible detectives,” throwing out questions about God and the NXIVM docuseries in hopes to cast out bait that’ll be chomped on by a dormant cultist. They go about their business until Dorothy notices a potential scar on one of her neighbours’ backs. She ingratiates herself to the man, asking him to take a little tour into the kitchen. She points him towards the patio. Then she tells Leanne to go check the patio gate’s lock. Leanne’s interrupted by the neighbour outside. He starts talking about being a photographer seeking models and an open marriage with his wife. Leanne tells him to leave, and the man soon goes away. Dorothy sees the tail end of the interaction. She tells Leanne they have no relationship anymore. She says she won’t be obliged to care about Leanne. Inside, Dorothy tells Sean she needs Leanne out of their house tonight. She urges her husband to go downstairs and cut the circuit breaker.

Dorothy starts a quote party game in the living room to keep everyone busy until the power goes out suddenly. Sean brings in some lights to keep everyone out of the pitch dark. He directs people to the kitchen for coffee and dessert. He and Dorothy are clearly trying to setup an environment for the cultists to spring into action. Sean’s sure this will be over soon. Leanne hears the conversation nearby, realising that the Turners are trying to let the cult have her. And that’s when Leanne is grabbed in the dark, a hood thrown over her head. She fights against it and one of the cultists uses a taser on her. That’s when the place starts to split apart, from the ground and the foundation to the walls themselves. Jericho cries and the partygoers are scared. A piece of falling debris hits one of the potential kidnappers. A chandelier falls and stops a foot away from Sean. Leanne’s been saved. She tells the Turners: “We‘re a family. What is going to take to make you understand that.”
Outside there’s destruction. A giant hole lies in the middle of the road.
Leanne smiles, standing above the hole.