Yahoo Finance Exclusive: Servant season 2 boss and cast on who the real villain is
Servant season 2 spoilers follow.
M Night Shyamalan and the cast of Apple TV+'s horror series Servant have shared with Digital Spy some intriguing thoughts on who the ultimate evil of the show truly is.
While the first season juxtaposed the potentially sinister motivations of nanny Leanne (Nell Tiger Free) with the grieving family she was working for, the latest episodes have unravelled a deeper mystery.
The reborn doll, Jericho, that grieving mum Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) believed was her actual daughter might actually have been an avatar for the fact that her daughter is still alive – but kidnapped by Leanne's mysterious Aunt May. Or is someone else entirely behind Jericho's disappearance, as Leanne suggests?
When we recently chatted to the Servant team, Toby Kebbell and Lauren Ambrose urged viewers not to draw any finite conclusions over who's good and who's evil.
"I don't know who the villain is," Kebbell admitted. "I don't think it's reductive but I don't know who the villain actually is. We're all causing damage that we shouldn't by doing the wrong thing, and trying to deal with our own guilt and shame and grief. At least with Sean, he makes a big switch because of the loss of his senses. But he starts to believe possibly what Nell's character, Leanne, is hinting at.
"I think we're all almost verging on criminal behaviour. I don't know if it's good or bad – good or evil, rather. It's almost criminal at times. I don't know what the morality is of that."
Ambrose concurred: "I think part of the mystery of the show is who is right and wrong. That reality is constantly shifting and might change, depending on who you are, as you view it – if you see the characters as vindicated in their actions or not.
"I certainly had my work to do – or continue to have my work to do – to make sure I stay compassionate to Dorothy, who is certainly a flawed character, although so many things have gone so terribly for her that you have a lot of sympathy for her [laughs].
"People make terrible decisions and choices, especially in the face of tragedy and trauma. I suppose it makes it easier for me to turn a compassionate eye towards all of the characters, even though they're all villainous in their own ways."
If you were expecting finite answers from M Night Shyamalan on the twists of one of his horror stories… well, you probably haven't been paying much attention for the last 20+ years.
"I find it really uninteresting when we start to label characters as either good or bad," the filmmaker insisted. "It doesn't ring true for me. I think we're much more interested in seeing the bad guy who's complex – especially in long-form storytelling.
"We all feel anger and loss and rejection. Why do we shove someone we love away? Why is it that the thing we want, we destroy? All those things are interesting to me, and fun to write about."
Cryptic, as usual! At least some answers are likely coming because Shyamalan has confirmed that he can "see the finish line" on Servant even though it's only in its second season.
Servant is now available to stream on Apple TV+.
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