'Task's Most Brutal Scene Yet Just Proved How Dangerous the HBO Crime Drama's Stakes Have Become

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Task Episode 4.

Task‘s central conflict has grown week to week from what felt like a rather low-stakes plot of a drug-house robbery gone wrong to a personal vendetta that could upend an entire organized crime group — and, in the process, reveal a mole within the FBI. The increasingly weak position that Robbie (Tom Pelphrey) and Cliff (Raúl Castillo) have found themselves in as Tom Brandis’ (Mark Ruffalo) task force seemingly set them up for a trap, as well as growing desperation from Jayson (Sam Keeley) and Perry’s (Jamie McShane) gang to find their stolen fentanyl, has built up to a tragically explosive climax in the latest episode of Task, “All Roads.” Rather than selling the stolen drugs to pay for their escape into Canada, as Cliff and Robbie had hoped, and instead of arresting them, as Tom aimed to, the Dark Hearts are revealed to be the ones lying in wait for an ambush.

This leads to Cliff’s savage and disturbing death, which not only emphasizes how in over his head Robbie is, but also raises the stakes even higher by showing exactly what kind of treatment Robbie will be subject to if he is caught by the Dark Hearts rather than the FBI. Yet, that is somehow not the most distressing part of Task‘s latest episode, as it appears that Perry may have made a connection between Cliff, Sam’s girlfriend Eryn (Margarita Levieva), and Billy Prendergrast (Jack Kesy), Robbie’s late brother.

Cliff’s Death in ‘Task’ Episode 4 Could Hint at What’s in Store for Robbie

Tom Pelphrey and Raul Castillo in Task Episode 2

What happens to Cliff in Task‘s latest episode is a brutal scene that makes some of the best use of prosthetic injuries since Glenn’s (Steven Yeun) infamous cracked skull in The Walking Dead. When it is revealed that Cliff is still alive, but babbling nonsense, it is shocking in the wake of his car crash, which builds expectations of what he may look like. When Cliff’s face is finally revealed after Jayson walks into the room, the visceral nature of his injuries is a keen display of his pain every second that he is still alive. When Jayson finally seems angry enough to kill him, after Cliff spits in his face, it feels like a mercy, but the plastic wrap around his head is another form of sensory distress, resulting in a claustrophobic form of torture that ultimately ends in his death.

Cliff’s death also serves to make the Dark Hearts more terrifying than ever, and it’s not hard to jump to conclusions about what the gang might do to Robbie, the ringleader, if they get their hands on him. With a mole seemingly in the FBI giving them the advantage to set Cliff up and kidnap him, the level of influence the Dark Hearts have makes Robbie’s fate feel inevitable. Compared to how Robbie reacted after killing Sam Nance’s (Ben Lewis Doherty) parents in Episode 1, “Crossings,” it is clear that Robbie simply is not built for this level of conflict and barely stands a chance of survival moving forward.

The Dark Hearts May Come for Robbie’s Family After Perry’s Discovery in ‘Task’

The brutality of Cliff’s death would have been enough to make most viewers squirm, but Perry’s discovery of a photo of Billy and his daughter, Maeve (Emilia Jones), is even more anxiety-inducing when considering what’s likely imminent. Perry’s detective work in this episode, trying to deduce why the Dark Hearts were targeted, was already ominous enough in how he intimidated Eryn and discovered her affair with Billy.

Perry’s discovery seems to have triggered a realization of how Billy’s death at Jayson’s hands would have potentially enraged his family, and now that the gang knows Cliff was a part of it, it won’t be long before they connect things to Robbie, especially if his niece is a potential weak point to exploit. With that, Task has put arguably the show’s most innocent and moral character in a huge amount of danger, meaning that, even if Robbie achieves his goal of leaving town, he won’t be freeing his family from this nightmare.

Robbie Is Better Off Surrendering Himself to the FBI in ‘Task’

Task Episode 4’s brutal and ominous closing scenes both serve to show how woefully unprepared Robbie is and how impossible it is for him to positively emerge from this mess. This makes the show a far more tense viewing experience for the audience, especially because Robbie has no real means to escape this situation. Perhaps the only way out for him is to surrender the drugs to the Dark Hearts and turn himself and Sam over to the FBI task force, but the existence of a mole working for the Dark Hearts suggests that even this wouldn’t lead to a positive outcome for Robbie.

Task‘s latest episode has made it clear that there is almost no way out for Robbie, which is a testament to the complex narrative that series creator Brad Inglesby has concocted. Even the idea of Robbie turning himself in seems an impossibility, considering his stubbornness and need to be the hero. While much of his development up to this point has been effective, the final scenes of Task‘s latest episode emphasize the tragedy of his character. Cliff’s death outlines the danger Robbie faces, and Perry’s discovery of that photo has endangered the people he cares about most. If Robbie and his family ultimately survive this season, it will be more shocking than a fate that feels much more likely at this point for one of Task‘s most complicated characters.