Servant season 4 wasn’t the final season for the series, was it?

Even before the start of Servant season 4, we knew not to expect more. M. Knight Shyamalan made it clear that the fourth season would be the last one for the series. And according to a tweet in December 2021, when he announced Apple TV+ had greenlit Servant season 4, that was always his plan. “I set the goal to tell 1 story in 40 episodes knowing there was no guarantee we would achieve it.”

That’s what he did. Four seasons, 10 episodes each, for a total of 40.

On Friday, March 17, the final episode, “Fallen,” dropped. And as far as “Are you kidding me?! That’s how it’s ending?! No! It can’t be!” series finales go, Servant‘s ranks up there pretty high.

Or am I the only one having this reaction? It sure feels like it. Everyone else’s response has alternated somewhere from “Typical Shyamalan twist” to indifference.

I mean, Servant season 4 definitely wraps up the series’ storyline. But it also sure feels like it leaves the door open for more, possibly even a spin-off.

Servant season 4’s final episode

We finally learn the whole sordid truth about exactly how Jericho died. Thankfully the flashbacks are tasteful and don’t show us all the gory details. Just the heartwrenching moments when Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) finds him in the back of the car she forgot him in —and left him in overnight after a hot summer day.

And to Ambrose’s credit, that had to be an absolutely excruciating performance to undertake. It was certainly excruciating to watch the normally composed and in control Dorothy Turner finally snap out of the fugue state she’d been in as she accepted the horrid memories and truth of what had happened.

As I’d done many times during the series, I completely forgot I was watching the girl from Can’t Hardly Wait and Six Feet Under as an all-grown-up actress in a role she deserves an award nomination for, at the very least.

Oh wait, that’s right. She has received a couple of nominations for Servant, including Best Actress in a Thriller Series from the 2021 SEC Awards and Best Actress in a Horror Series from the 2022 Critics’ Choice Super Award. But for what she had to portray in Servant season 4, she deserves a win next award season.

We still don’t really get an answer about what Leanne (Nell Tiger Free) is. Sure, we kind of get a resolution to the “is she/isn’t she” question. As in, is she something supernatural? Does she really have powers?

Yes.

On the one hand, she’s a zombie. Not the brain-eating kind from The Walking Dead, though. But she was resurrected from the dead.

As for her powers…did she always have them or was it a gift when Aunt May and Uncle George from the Church of the Lesser Saints brought her back to life? Is she an angel or a demon? None of that is answered. It’s left up to our own interpretation.

And even though we see her catch fire in the flames she set inside the Turner home, once the fire is out authorities say they never found her body.

So is she truly dead and gone? Or will she rise like a Phoenix from the ashes to join Julian (Rupert Grint), her lover?

Julian

Ah, Julian. Dorothy’s mess of a misguided but well-meaning little brother. He doesn’t hide his addiction to three things: drugs, booze and women. Well, four if you add in money.

He gets a little too carried away snorting his drug of choice in season 2, episode 9, “Goose.” During an awkward family Christmas lunch, he quietly ODs in the bathroom.

Dorothy and Julian’s father, Frank (Todd Waring) is at the family gathering with his much younger girlfriend, Kourtney (Katie Lee Hill). She’s the one who first finds Julian when she tries to get into the powder room, but his body is blocking the door.

Somehow Kourtney manages to get it open, Julian tumbles out and everyone’s panicking, alternating between trying to revive him and taking too long to call 9-1-1.

None of them want to face the awful truth, but they all know what’s happened. He’s dead.

Then, as cool and calm as a summer cucumber salad, here comes Leanne. She takes over, pounding on his chest a couple of times before bending over and giving him a simple life-reviving kiss.

And just like that, “Ju Ju,” as Dorothy affectionately calls him, is back. He gulps in air as he body snaps upright.

Nothing else comes of it after that, but Servant season 4’s finale answered a question I had even back then, “Does that mean Julian is one of them now?”

Yep.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Shyamalan balked at being labeled a “twist guy.” But if the twist fits…

Which, the revelation that Julian is now an honorary member of what Dorothy, Sean (Toby Kebbell), and Julian all referred to as Leanne’s cult, a.k.a. the Church of the Lesser Saints, wasn’t as much of a twist as was how it was revealed.

When Jericho dies, Officer Stephanie Reyes (Victoria Cartagena) is one of the responding officers. She’s there on and off during the series for various other matters the police are called in for, including Julian’s near-fatal OD. Or at least what seemed like a near-fatal one at the time until Leanne’s intervention. And Officer Reyes is once again there as part of the team that responds after the fire.

She first reveals she’s one of “them” to Dorothy, explaining they’re there to help people during difficult times. So that’s how we find out she was also a member of the Church of the Lesser Saints. She’d been instructed to keep her eye on Leanne.

Some time afterward (a day or a week, we’re not sure), she finds Julian coming out of a coffee shop. She flags him down, telling him they need to talk. He can’t understand about what. He’s already talked to the police about the fire.

She reminds him she was there the Christmas before when his heart stopped.

“When you’re given a second chance, it’s for a purpose,” she tells a very annoyed and agitated Julian.

He again insists to know why she’s bothering him. She simply says, “I think you know.”

As the reality sets in, she says, “We’ll be here. When you’re ready to talk. We’re family now.”

Mic drop!

But seriously? Julian is the one who’s expected to go forth and help people? Yeah, that’s a cliffhanger ending for a season finale, not for a series finale. See why I’m hoping it’s actually a setup for a spin-off?

Servant season 4 trailer

What did you think about the series overall and Servant season 4 in particular? Would you love to see a spin-off too? Or maybe even a movie adaptation? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment letting us know!