Showrunner M. Night Shyamalan explains how the two women’s storylines became so central to the show’s endgame.
WARNING: This post contains spoilers fromServantseasons 1-4.
But the complicated surrogate mother-daughter relationship between Dorothy and Leanne has gradually taken center stage.
Nell Tiger Free and Lauren Ambrose on ‘Servant.'.Apple TV+
They’ve come a long way since the first episode.
Leanne was originally hired by the Turner family to be a nanny for their baby Jericho.
Was this a con, or a legitimate resurrection?
Nell Tiger Free and Lauren Ambrose on ‘Servant.'.Apple TV+
The question has hung over the show ever since.
In the subsequent seasons, Leanne has demonstrated more and more seemingly supernatural abilities.
Only Dorothy can really talk to her.
“I realized that there are two storylines to the show,” Shyamalan tells EW.
When I thought of it like that, then I went, ‘oh, okay.
I was like well, that’s where our 40 episodes are going."
It was a hard truth to hear but a necessary one.
Shyamalan tells EW that the initial plan was to tell Dorothy the truth early.
But he and the otherServantwriters soon realized her journey to understanding was the whole story of the show.
“Then I went, ‘okay, but then what’s better than that?
Let’s just push it.
Let’s keep writing more episodes.
Maybe let’s push it to episode six.
Let’s do the backstory instead, the reveal of what happened to baby Jericho.
We’ll do it at the end of the last episode of the first season.’
That’s the only time to do it.
As soon as she wakes up, the show’s over.'”
Shyamalan continues, “then the question was, ‘can we do that for 40 episodes?
Can we do 39 episodes with her essentially asleep?’
All ofServantis streaming now on Apple TV+.
