M. Night Shyamalan is known for creating twist endings and dropping breadcrumbs for his audiences, and he's done this again with the insinuation of witchcraft on his new series, Servant.
Servant feels like the perfect mix of all of the themes and ideas that fascinate Shyamalan as he creates a drama that’s both intimate and sprawling. Servant has a lot to say on family, grief, and trust, but as much as it’s an emotional juggernaut, it’s also a creative supernatural mystery. Dorothy and Sean Turner (Lauren Ambrose and Toby Kebbell) experience a reckoning of sorts when Leanne (Nell Tiger Free), a nanny who is supposed to make their lives easier, moves in. Leanne initially seems like a godsend, but cracks in her pristine demeanor begin to appear within the Apple TV+ drama.
Leanne operates very differently than Sean and Dorothy, and even though she appears to have experience and a natural affinity for children, there’s something inherently unnatural about her. It’s also likely no coincidence that Leanne’s appearance is accompanied with a number of unexplainable events that certainly feel like they have supernatural connotations. There’s absolutely something out of the ordinary going on with Leanne, but exactly what is another question entirely. M. Night Shyamalan has done crazier things.
One of the major symbols to appear in Servant is the hay cross that Leanne constructs and hangs over Jericho's crib. It's a creepy little relic that instantly conjures up thoughts of The Blair Witch Project over Mother Goose. In spite of its creepy presence, it's likely that this is a "Brigid's Cross", which is a cross that ties back to a protective patron saint of Ireland, Brigid of Kildare. A Brigid's Cross is specifically meant to protect homes from fire, which is exactly what it seemed to do in Leanne's former residence which burned down. The area where the cross was hanging was the only place in the home that was unscathed. It's comforting to think of this ornament as something helpful, but when Sean destroys the cross, he immediately starts to experience supernaturally adverse side effects. Sean becomes afflicted by massive splinters, which show up in terrible places like his throat. On top of that, he also loses his sense of taste, like he's decaying. This retaliation may be a protective measure of the cross, but perhaps the house (or Jericho) manages to stay protected by feeding off of Sean and growing stronger at his expense.
Sean and Julian’s road trip to visit Leanne’s family also seems to indicate that her entire family—or at least the people she claims are her family—are all dead. What’s also possible here is that the family who perished in the fire were involved with some kind of sinister witchcraft and a witch or evil spirit took possession of Leanne’s body for self-preservation. Leanne’s whole attitude and body language feels foreign and disconnected. At the same time, Leanne begins to increasingly mimic Dorothy’s behavior and emulates her in various ways.
With hay crosses showing up at both of these houses, maybe Leanne has become enamored with Dorothy and thinks she would make a better host. She’s definitely taken notice of her public image and the platform that she commands on the news. Maybe that’s also appealing to whatever “Leanne’s” true mission is. She may be prepping the Turner family to go through a similar experience as the one that took out her previous family. It’s also worth considering that Leanne is actually a good witch who is using magic to protect the family.
The meaning behind the hay crosses is consistent with this, so maybe Leanne is actually a harbinger of peace who is meant to help the Turner family heal and the series’ unsettling tone is intentionally misleading. This could all be a big misdirect like in Shyamalan’s The Visit, where there’s nothing sinister at all going on. Regardless of whether Leanne is a force of good or evil, her hold over the Turner family in Servant is just getting started.
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