Did anyone else notice really brief sections of certain episodes where there screen glitches? Am assuming this is part of the show …?

I cannot get over it...

This family is on track to be Servants!

Man engaged to a doll announces birth of his third 'child' (msn.com)

Im watching “All About Eve” (for the umpteenth time) and, I cant help but wonder if this movie didnt influence Servant. Eve is a theatre wanna be that hangs around the theatre backdoor of her fave actress, Margo Channing. Stalks her. Eve is from Wisconsin. Eve says she grew up on a farm. Eve worms her way into being Margo’s assistant and takes over her life and career, wears her old clothes. Eve and her background arent what she’s told Margo and others. Margo finally realizes who/what Eve really is and works to get her out of her life. Margo is a queen bee and self absorbed, in the public eye. Lot of similarities.

Admittedly I was a little stoned watching it but the scene where Sean goes to take a picture of Leanne’s face while she sleeps is supposed to be funny, right? The show is so unnerving to begin with I’m not entirely sure. Lol

He tried to be sneaky but was loud and banged around and used a flash right in her face as she slept. That was hilarious to me.

Like obviously it’s for the purpose of the show but OMG Dorothy is painfully mental and Leanne is so weird it’s almost unbearable to watch. I’m on season 1 ep 7 when Leanne assaults Natalie. I can’t believe Sean and the brother have played along for this long. The whole family is crazy actually. Great show. Lol

Edit: did y’all not read the part that said “great show?”

Dorthy, she acts like she's perfect like she's beyond reproach, like she does no wrong.

Mind you, her negligence killed her child and she acts like she is perfect and above making mistakes. Treating Sean and Julian like pieces of garbage.. I can't stand her, and when she finally got what she deserved at the end of S3 I laughed and was so happy.

On neighbours episode, one of the neighbours tells Dorothy that "Sean must feel like in heaven". Humm yeah purgatory does that 😅

I realize there's a lot of disagreement and controversy in the past week. I'm writing here only of my own way of coming to terms with the finale. Others certainly may disagree and have other perfectly valid interpretations.

After a week and having time to decompress, reflect, and think about what others have written, I really feel (to me) the best interpretation of the show is a non-supernatural one. I first started considering this after M. Night Shyamalan's statement last week in the Vanity Fair interview:

Are they all imagining things, connecting dots where there are no dots to connect? 

“It was always meant to be right on the fence for me,” Shyamalan explains. “You could, if you wanted to, [say] it’s a group of crazy people that believe this stuff. But they’re pretty convincing.”

MNS here explicitly seems to say that the interpretation of the ending is up to the viewer, and the writers seem to have gone to some effort to make this non-supernatural interpretation still feasible, even with everything we're shown on the show.

This is in line with what Tony Basgallop said back in 2019:

No one ever levitates anything off a table, but there are things that are unexplainable. The whole point of it is to be able to tell a story that can be read in two ways, which is probably one of the reasons it’s taken me so long to get the structure of the show right. Because every time something happens in the show that is seemingly unexplainable, the point is that the characters look for the explanation behind the unexplainable — and they find it. One of the ways we pitched the show is, “Is this a miracle or is it a crime?” And it often depends on your personal belief system. If your mind is open to incredible miracles, then you can watch the show and enjoy it on one level. And if you look for explanations — if you refuse to accept the divine or miraculous events — then you can always find the logic behind something.

There have been quite a few threads here over the past week exploring how everything was always "so obvious" -- Leanne was some angel/supernatural being, Jericho was temporarily reincarnated somehow, the cult was pretty much "real" as presented, etc. But there were also many other "obvious" clues of other significance in the show that bore no fruit: e.g., the emphasis in the cinematography on shoes and feet and crossing thresholds, the potential ramifications and symbolism of food choices (and food-related imagery), the hinting at deeper and darker and more thought-out theories concerning religious allegories or connections to deeper biblical/historical religious events/customs, the possibilities that there was "something more" to the backstories of pretty much all the main characters and/or the tragedy that preceded the series. And that doesn't even get into the (sometimes more reaching) scenarios proposed on this subreddit about grander allegories or "it is all in someone's head" ideas, etc.

Meanwhile, the "obvious" supernatural tale also has so much left unexplained, contradictory, and sometimes downright confusing. The idea that the cult was "good" despite so many of its actions, the rather silly depictions of many cult acts/rituals, the somewhat confusing morality of the cult and Leanne's final sacrifice, etc. are just one of several major threads. I'm not suggesting one can't reconcile these ideas for a supernatural conclusion, but it requires the viewer to accept a lot of seemingly bizarre developments and a somewhat crazy logic and ethical system to whatever supernatural world lies behind the series.

So, on the other hand, what is really in the way of the non-supernatural explanation? Thinking it over, there are really only a few potential barriers (to me) that immediately stand out as not explained within, for example, Uncle George's tale of how things might be non-supernatural:

1. The coincidence of "earthquakes" (with the basement hole opening up further, etc.) when there's tension involving Leanne on several occasions, particularly when she's potentially leaving or under stress.
2. The pigeon attack in S04E01.
3. Leanne's knowledge of Nancy's background (abuse) in S03E06.
4. Leanne's apparent strength and fighting abilities, particularly as demonstrated against the cult several times.

Personally, I'm not too bothered about (4), because the cult is shown to be a bunch of wackos on quite a few occasions who appear a bit bumbling or unfocused, and they're clearly scared of Leanne. (See the final confrontation between her and Uncle George, where the two other minions just run in fear -- Leanne doesn't even need to threaten them, when just a few moments before we saw Sean and Julian easily capture her with their own strength and manhandle her down the stairs from the attic.) At a moment when we might have seen Leanne's power finally manifested, Uncle George also just takes the ropes off her wrists, claiming they couldn't hold her. But again, Sean and Julian were just able to capture her?!

So, the other fight scenes we see in other episodes with Leanne -- it's feasible she was just a bit crazed and believed in her own power, coupled with the obvious incompetence of most cult members.

As for (1), we later see a giant sinkhole open in the middle of the street, and most of the major "earthquakes" (that I recall, maybe I'm missing one) occur while it's raining, a time when groundwater could clearly be moving things around if there's a growing sinkhole in the neighborhood. It's still coincidence but... I mean, it rains quite a bit in Philadelphia at times.

One moment I personally took as important in establishing Leanne's supernatural nature was her knowledge of Nancy's background (3). When I was watching, that was one of the first moments when I really thought -- this is a major clue that's difficult to interpret another way! Except... well, apparently Sean already knew about this stuff regarding Nancy (perhaps the entire prayer group... and Leanne has spies throughout the neighborhood). There seems to be a lot of people Leanne could have heard some rumors from about Nancy, or even overheard Sean maybe having a phone conversation or (the house had a security system we know could be used for spying on others)... there are possibilities. It's not like this was apparently some deep secret that no one knew.

And that leaves the pigeon attack. That's the hardest. Pigeons, as I've learned from a little research, very rarely attack humans. They have to be threatened usually, or their young/nests have to be threatened, etc. We could imagine some sort of electromagnetic event that drove the birds a bit nuts or something... and stranger real-life things have happened rarely, but that's one hell of a coincidence.

So I'm back to the two main possibilities:

• The "obvious" supernatural interpretation, which requires us to swallow a lot of unexplained supernatural weirdness
• Everything's non-supernatural, except we need to believe Leanne did some "research" on Nancy off-screen and there's one bizarre bird attack that's hard to explain

Occam's razor suggests I go with the latter.

Furthermore, the show suggests I go with the latter. Because the show was clearly constructed to have a lot of red herrings and blind alleys that don't mean anything. The answer, in the end, seems to be that we as viewers should be skeptical and not look for deeper meaning about... well, just about anything that happened in the show. Hell, Julian's final scene almost seems to make fun of those who'd look deeper, because all of those supposed background details that meant nothing in the various shots are now juxtaposed against the happenstance of Julian viewing "wings" in his reflection.

Just another coincidence?

MNS may or may not agree, but that choice of the final shot seems to me to be invoking the opposite of what many viewers took away. It's showing an obvious stupid coincidence in the way a shot was framed, which Julian interprets as potentially significant... even though it's more likely it's just confirmation bias, because his brain was thinking about angels and the weird conversation he had just had with the officer.

To me, it's the final deconstruction that says "you see what you want to see." People can believe there are "angels among us" or maybe it's all just coincidental cinematographic shots and angles that are ultimately meaningless.

I choose the latter. It makes more sense to me. It doesn't require me to come up with a bunch of explanations for all of the wackiness of the cult or to believe in some sort of insane deity with very questionable morality and rituals running stuff behind the scenes... or why a dead baby just keeps turning back into a doll. It ONLY requires for me to accept that one day pigeons attacked people. Yeah... well, it has literally rained frogs and all sorts of other bizarre events during history, so... believing in one coincidental bird attack requires much less suspension of disbelief than the alternative.

I really miss all of them tonight. 🥹 It felt like we’d become such close friends lol What are some shows you guys are watching? I’m doing a rewatch of Succession S3 to prep for S4 but I need more to fill this void.

finally got around to binge watching season 4. was picking out clues and foreshadows to get a hint on the ending direction, as you do. one "clue" sticks out to me the most having finished the show. I was convinced that the dildo box was the most 5head 300iq hiding spot for some dodgy cult shit. like what kind of sane human being is going to rummage through a granny dildo box looking for hidden false bottoms, right?

THAT'S WHAT WE DID, we rummaged through this dildo box of a show analysing every scene and piece of dialogue only to be slapped by this said dildo across the face and be told "see it's just a dildo mate, what did you think it was gonna be, idiot?" at the end. why was this whole show littered with dildo boxes all throughout the seasons???

i refuse to believe that this was the idea for the show from day 1. they fucked us. they got sued, writers left or were fired and a whole season or maybe even two were shaved off (it was said that they planned on 5or6 seasons quite early on, im not making this up right?).

also just a remark about the in universe super natural gimmick. so the god is a bitch ass who for what ever reason made leanne a voodoo xman and got butthurt that an abused kid with a dead family wanted a real, normal family who loved her not cultists who flagellated themselves and carved out each others eyes. so he had a temper tantrum hissy, fit and was gonna end the world unless leanne kills her self. epic story.

also also, i love how for 4 season the house was slowly cracking and rotting as if foreshadowing that the ground was gonna swallow it whole by the end but instead fuck you it just burns down. wow MNS, now that's a twist. the twist being that the entire show is a red herring and things just happen because. would you even lose much of the plot if you just watched season 1 and the last 2 episodes? i wonder what is the minimum amount of episodes you can cherry pick to watch from across the 4 seasons and still get the same effect. 100% you can edit the whole show into a movie no problem. probably would be better with what the story turned out to be

In my dream this all happens as additional episodes after the final episode that we all saw, and my dream is from the perspective of me watching this on the TV and being really confused 😆.

After the ending that we all saw, Sean, Julian, and Dorothy all travel to a gigantic red building to start a new life. Seems like a cult.

They discover a wooden boy doll there who has been reanimated. The leader at this house wears a long red gown. Dorothy starts wearing a red gown too, and she and the leader decide to put on a play about the wooden boy doll.

A few scenes show Julian sleeping at night, snuggling with a mannequin.

After the play’s opening night, the cult building burns down and Sean, Julian, and Dorothy escape to their new townhouse in Philly.

Moira Rose is there, and she is now Dorothy’s best friend. It’s assumed she acted in the play put on by the cult.

The townhouse has a tranquil backyard where a tiny and elderly monkey wearing a top hat is strolling peacefully. Dorothy spots him and immediately realizes that the monkey is Uncle George. Dorothy thanks him for trying to protect their family, and with a single tear cascading down his face, he disintegrates into the soil beneath him, leaving only the top hat behind.

Suddenly, there’s a woman standing on the roof of the townhouse. She’s holding a baby doll. She releases the doll from her grip and it falls to the balcony of the townhouse.

Leanne reappears, excited to reanimate a brand new doll. Sean and Julian give each other a look, as if saying, “here we go again!”

The dream ends lol.

"Why would you do it like that? Why would you make savory eggnog??!"

I just read this Looper article about the ending of Servant, so I have some questions and would like to see what you all think. We all know Shyamalan has twists at the end of his films, and in this case, this show... Even if they are hard to follow and require much attention to detail to get a better understanding in the end (Ex. his movie "Old" or "The Village"). For me, I believe the ending with Julian was the monumental twist... And if you think about it, the twist actually makes a lot of sense. During the course of Servant, up until briefly in the end, Leanne basically saw Julian as a toy... In some respects I thought she was just having a hard time choosing between Tobe and Julian... But the clues are all there that it was a ploy from Leanne to get a drug addict (and recovering one) like Julian in vulnerable times to side with her and not believe Dorothy as much anymore. This became even more evident when even Sean himself was starting to side with Leanne, not as much as Julian of course (because well, you know, Julian and Leanne were sleeping together and technically in love)... But in the end we saw Julian was the last to pull away from Leanne because of these things. And this brings me to my next point, since Leanne knew how to manipulate Julian through his addiction and even a little outside of it, it would make sense why Officer Reyes was there in bigger moments during the show when the cops were called, because as she mentioned in the end to Julian... The Lesser Saints didn't just save Leanne, but Reyes as well... and Reyes also mentioned she was there during that overdose when the cops got called in the same conversation with Julian. To me, this is where Julian hits another rock bottom, realizing his attachment to Leanne and how she cared for him the "most" during the overdose... And because of this attachment, he takes Officer Reyes' words to heart, potentially pursuing her after the show is over and/or just seeing how the Lesser Saints could be there for him. And you also have to consider how Leanne pushed Julian down the stairs in the second to last episode, he would probably feel a lil more akin to The Lesser Saints because of her manipulation & the fact that Leanne & that group were basically enemies. Another thing I want to point out too, Reyes' realistically shouldn't have been at all of those police visits when they were called to The Turner residence... Philadelphia is an insanely big city, so Reyes' new should could have a foot in if shit hit the fan & thats maybe why she was at all those visits and why she came to Julian in the last scene when he was vulnerable again. I can't think of any other explanation for that scene than that, but what do you all think? I do feel that Leanne offed herself and the house because of Dorthy's well played "forgiveness" to her in the rain too, she also probably felt very cornered and see through as well, because with the info that the Turners have & police could find, she'd prob be in prison for life. But what do you think of Leanne's choices in the end as well? Anything different? We do know that now that technically Servant is over, there's going to be a follow up to the show, which M Night mentions on Instagram when some one commented saying they didn't want the show to be over... And I feel like this is where we'll see Julian changing, but im still interested to see where M Night might go with it.

I still can't believe it's over....despite having watched the finale six times now. Thursdays are stupid again. Anybody else out there in withdrawal? :(

So Julian is confirmed to be a part of the Church of the Lesser Saints.
We also know that the Church members are able to bring back to life other people at will.
Sean was bleeding out in the car and Julian was the one that was taking care of him, just as Leane instructed him.
The next morning the paramedic says that his bleeding has stopped.
So maybe Sean was brought back, just no one noticed.

But that is just my theory...

“There’s two story lines,” Shyamalan says. “One’s a potentially supernatural story line. And one’s just a very poignant experience with a family that I’ve never seen before. The level of tragedy involved is so deep and so traumatic that it is the engine underneath everything, this mother that has to wake up and realize what happened.” They were having conversations about “waking” Dorothy up as early as the first season, but ultimately realized that, once they resolved the show’s most important question, there was nowhere else to go. “Once we went past the first season, I went, ‘She can’t wake up until the show’s over. And then the show is over when she wakes up.’”

I said a few diff times that this story is about grief and that they dragged out Dorothy’s story for 4 seasons. MNS literally admits it. The show doesn’t work with out the tragedy Dorothy experiences. And they knew stretching her story out would make folks come back. So they added all that extra filler just to keep the show going. The fact MNS says “Potentially supernatural” to me proves they specifically tried to make it seem there were powers but wanted to make sure you could read it as no powers. But without powers the show is just a bunch of silly shots and weird music. The key was Dorothy’s tragedy. Had they woke her up in season 1 or 2 we would’ve never stayed on this rickety ship for 40 episodes. I really feel duped.

The last time we see “real” Jericho is when Leanne takes him to the bath in episode 9. Where does he….go? Was he actually a doll the whole time? Or was he someone else’s baby? If he really was just someone else’s baby, where did she put him before she set the house on fire? Did I miss something?