Servant
4×09: “Awake”
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Written by Ishana Shyamalan

* For a recap & review of 4×08, click here.
* For a recap & review of the series finale, click here.
Dorothy’s trying to find out info on Sean and Julian, but due to the storm in the city there’s a lot of waiting for everybody. She’s stuck on hold looking for answers. She asks Leanne about what happened, and the nanny simply says things will be okay. Eventually she gets through to Sean and he says there’s something they have to talk about as soon as possible. She can’t get out of the house right now. Neither can Sean leave the hospital; he may be there up to a week. He offers to have Tobe bring by some food in the meantime. He says everything will be okay.
Right now, Dorothy and Jericho and Leanne are alone together at the house. We see Leanne get through to Sean on the phone. She says it’s “a miracle” he’s even alive after his injury. Leanne tells Sean to rest up because he’s going to have to “build a whole new life” after he’s out of the hospital. Then she goes to spend the night in Dorothy’s room, looming in the corner while Dorothy tries to fall asleep.

In the morning, Dorothy wakes with Jericho and everything’s normal. The storm continues to rage outside. Dorothy takes her baby downstairs via the lift and does a little walking with a rolling walker, carrying Jericho in front of her. Leanne has been up for hours, unable to sleep. She has things arranged nicely, and suggests they watch a movie together today. A gift basket is dropped off outside the front door along with a note that tells Dorothy to pretend like she’s talking to Tobe and to meet nearby. Dorothy fakes a short talk with Tobe, as Leanne listens not far away in the hall, then she puts on an act for the nanny while they plan to watch a movie. Leanne knows Dorothy’s plotting something. “If I could‘ve left, I would have,” says Dorothy. Yet it doesn’t convince Leanne, so they’re all going to sit down for a movie. They choose The Wizard of Oz.
After a while of watching the movie, Dorothy feels tired and sore. She asks Leanne to watch Jericho and give him a bath. “I know you love him,” Dorothy assures the nanny. Will this plot to sneak outside work? Or will Leanne continue to have her guard up? For the moment, Leanne takes Jericho for a bath and leaves Dorothy with a pill to take before some bedrest. Naturally, Dorothy spits the pill out once the nanny’s out of the room, and when she hears the water running she starts to move, carrying the baby monitor along with her to hopefully keep track of Leanne while she does her sneaking. It’s much more tense since Dorothy’s got to get downstairs without using the lift, in case it might alert the nanny. She manages to get downstairs without falling, and then she struggles her way outside into the storm.
Dorothy gets to the vehicle on the street, where Julian and Sean are waiting. They’re all bonded together again now by the belief that Leanne’s crazy. Sean and Julian are ready to reveal the truth about everything that happened with Jericho, the big lie they told ages ago that started all the madness in their lives. It’s a tough convo to have in a storm sitting in a car, especially while Jericho’s still with Leanne. Sean starts off asking what Dorothy remembers “about last August.” He questions her about her memory. Dorothy’s already been struggling, so the questions just annoy her. Sean talks about taking a guest spot on Gourmet Gauntlet at the time and regretting being away, calling himself “a coward.” Julian breaks down and tells Dorothy about her calling him, saying she was struggling. He was too fucked up on cocaine and didn’t come to her, despite the fact she needed him. He even plays Dorothy the message when she doesn’t believe it. She still doesn’t understand what they’re talking about, and so Sean says there was “a doll” that she believed was Jericho. They’re slowly building to the accident, the one Dorothy’s tried so hard to put out of her mind. Julian urges his sister to remember now.

And Dorothy starts to recall that dreadful night.
She remembers the warmth, the fan blowing in the background, the open windows. She remembers the dark street she went out into that night. She finally remembers going to the car, where she’d left Jericho inside to perish in the heat. She remembers a police officer who came to ask questions about her son, along with a couple other officers, but she was in no shape to answer anything. She remembers people in hazmat suits carrying away her dead child. She remembers Sean and Julian trying to get her to respond, yet she seemed a million miles away mentally, absconded into some hidden place in her mind. Now Dorothy remembers it all and she freaks out. Sean and Julian attempt to subdue her, but she kicks at the windows of the vehicle, she bites and scratches her husband and her brother. She spills into the street screaming and crying, and the two men hold onto her, trying to stop her from going anywhere while simultaneously comforting her. Upstairs, Leanne looks out at the street and sees Julian’s vehicle with the doors open.
Julian and Sean bring a soaking wet Dorothy back inside. They say “it‘s over” now that Dorothy knows the truth. Then Julian says Leanne has nothing to hold over them, especially now that they know of the tunnels and supposedly how Leanne’s done all her magical tricks on them. But Leanne has faith that the men don’t have any power over her, either. She confronts Dorothy about the death of Jericho. She says her purpose was to help Dorothy correct the mistake that was made. She boasts about her “extraordinary” powers. She’s the one who brought Jericho back to life. She said Sean and Julian “have a hard time believing in things.” The men claim to have all the answers; supposedly a family’s looking for their baby. Leanne says she’s sent Jericho back to the place where he was before. She claims she’s able to bring Jericho “back for good.” She promises it could be just three of them together. Is this another Faustian bargain? Leanne’s offering Dorothy anything and everything.
What will Dorothy’s answer be?

“There are things that just can’t be explained.”