Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Task Episode 5.
The further we get into Brad Ingelsby‘s new HBO crime drama Task, the more intense everything becomes, and not simply because the walls seem to be closing in that much more on Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey) in the wake of a tragic loss last week. The death of Cliff Broward (Raúl Castillo) has really hammered home the level of danger that Robbie is in moving forward, but it seems like turning himself in to the FBI and Tom Brandis’ (Mark Ruffalo) task force would be a much better option than letting the Dark Hearts motorcycle gang track him down first — especially now that we’ve seen what they do to people they consider traitors.
The question of Robbie’s ultimate fate isn’t the only one hanging over Task right now; in the lead-up to this week, we still haven’t really earned any clear-cut answers about the identity of the mole working with the Dark Hearts from inside the FBI. (It feels a little too obvious for it to be Martha Plimpton‘s Kathleen McGinty — and not just because I’ve fallen head-over-heels in love with this woman in every new scene she earns, but because that mysterious phone call she made after meeting with Tom feels more like an intentional red herring.)
This week’s episode, “Vagrants,” written by Ingelsby and directed by Jeremiah Zagar, ramps up the overall peril factor even more, especially in the wake of Dark Hearts leader Perry (Jamie McShane) finally acting on his increasing suspicion regarding Eryn’s (Margarita Levieva) betrayal — and the results are as devastating to watch as they are seemingly inevitable, given the way this show has been going so far. But even that character’s fate isn’t as surprising as what plays out in the episode’s back half.
‘Task’ Episode 5 Explores the Fallout of the Failed Sting Operation
While we already know the extent of the terrible, excruciating fate that’s befallen our pal Cliff (RIP), Robbie isn’t privy to that information yet — so it’s understandable that he’s been retracing their steps in an effort to figure out what happened. The most logical conclusion is that Ray (Patrick Patrikios) ratted them out to someone, so Robbie sleeps in his car outside their place until he can barge in early in the morning, going room to room with gun drawn until Shelley (Mickey Sumner) spills the beans. It’s the first real inkling Robbie has that the situation is starting to spiral out of his control, especially when the FBI gets namedropped, but even hearing that Ray is now in custody doesn’t explain what happened to Cliff — or why the last thing Robbie heard before their call went dead was someone trying to run him off the road. In the meantime, Shelley offers to act as Robbie’s go-between on the fentanyl, and it’s an olive branch Robbie can’t afford to refuse right now.
Speaking of the FBI, they’ve brought in the guy Robbie repeatedly decked in the face outside the truck depot, with a sketch artist on the way to take his description of their kidnapping suspect. Aleah (Thuso Mbedu) is all business in filling Tom in on the case’s latest progress, while Grasso (Fabien Frankel) and Lizzie (Alison Oliver) are the worst at hiding the fact that they’ve been hooking up. At least it seems like Tom has forgiven Lizzie for freezing during the incident that resulted in him earning a concussion, but maybe that’s just because his headache has worn off. What’s more perplexing for the head of Task is that, according to their chief witness, young Sam Nance (Ben Doherty) didn’t seem all that scared or even frazzled when Robbie confronted them. To hear this guy tell it, he just looked like any normal kid would. As for Kathleen, it turns out that call she made to a faceless individual last week wasn’t about tipping off the Dark Hearts after all; she’s just doing her own, independent digging into the members of Tom’s task force — with a little help from her lackey Connor (Will Turner), obviously — and he may have stumbled into something interesting.
‘Task’ Episode 5 Ends With Another Death and an Informant Reveal
Meanwhile, Perry has become quite the little investigator in his pursuit of the truth — so much so that he’s willing to go as far as sticking a tracker under Eryn’s car to verify her whereabouts. Apparently, their earlier conversation hasn’t assuaged any concerns on either side; Eryn silently observes smears of what suspiciously looks like blood on Jayson’s (Sam Keeley) shirt, though neither of them makes any effort to really discuss it. But Perry’s amateur sleuthing also allowed him to stumble across an old photo of late Dark Hearts member Billy Prendergrast (Jack Kesy) wearing the same gun holster the gang found in the car Cliff was driving. Also in said photo? Billy’s daughter and Robbie’s niece, Maeve (Emilia Jones), who just so happens to be at home, alone, with Sam, when Perry decides to stop by for a friendly catch-up and a request to borrow Billy’s old sleeveless leather vest, or “cut.”
It’s a near-miss event, honestly, since Sam has just ducked out of the house to hang out in the Prendergrasts’ chicken coop and Maeve spins a yarn about just having mopped the floor to nudge Perry back out front toward the garage, but it’s a moment that still might have you holding your breath throughout. Observing the extra bikes and bins in the garage, Perry inquires about where they came from, though it’s clear he doesn’t think much of “crazy Robbie,” which means he might still be underestimating where the real threat has been coming from. As Perry proceeds to dig through Billy’s belongings, Maeve rushes out to the coop and manages to get Sam stashed away just in time — but then Perry notices a picture of Cliff standing with Robbie on their fridge, and his suspicions might be raised once again. He’s not the only one starting to put the pieces together, as Aleah reveals to Tom that they’ve run the fingerprints on that bucket Sam was using for fishing in the previous episode, and another set came back: Maeve’s. Tom reasons that the Prendergrasts are somehow caught up in all of this, given that Billy’s a name he’s already heard, but what he doesn’t know yet is how, or even why. What he does plan to do is visit Maeve himself.
Amidst all of this, Eryn and Robbie circle up at the quarry, where Eryn reaches a logical conclusion about Cliff’s fate based on that blood she saw Jayson wearing earlier. In that moment, Robbie has the gutwrenching realization that his friend is dead, but he can barely allow himself any spare time to grieve when he has all those drugs to get rid of. Robbie leaving their meet first gives Perry the opportunity he needs to swoop in — because he’s tracked Eryn to this very spot. One look at Perry’s face and Eryn knows that she won’t make it out of this confrontation unless she resorts to drastic measures, so she tries to run, even going as far as to jump into the lake in an effort to swim for her life. Despite her cries for help, the people partying on the other side of the water can’t hear her over the sound of their own music. Ultimately, Perry catches up to Eryn in the shallows and shoves her under the surface in an attempt to stifle her, but he clearly didn’t expect to have any real blood on his hands, because the shock when he sees her lifeless expression is real. On the heels of that tragic ending, Robbie’s taking the enemy-of-my-enemy approach in trying to sell the fentanyl, since he’s set up a meeting with the Dark Hearts’ rival Freddy Frias (Elvis Nolasco) — but Freddy is apparently more than happy to rat Robbie out to his competition if it means being cut in on the payout.
It also bodes well for Task‘s pacing that the show doesn’t make us wait another week to learn the truth about who the Dark Hearts’ informant is inside the FBI — and, depending on how closely you’ve been paying attention, you might not be that surprised. After fielding a call from Tom about his intended stop at the Prendergrast house, Grasso hangs up the phone and proceeds to a separate meet-up… with Jayson. It seems all that time Grasso spent working in gang territory with Delco PD has led to some corruption, but what remains unclear as of now is whether he’s been working with the Dark Hearts willingly or if he was blackmailed into being their contact. Either way, Grasso was the one who gave the gang the ability to call Cliff and change the meeting location, and he also flashes the photo of Sam in Jayson’s direction, confirming the boy is still alive and well.
‘Task’ Episode 5 Makes Its Riskiest Move Yet With an Unexpected Meeting
Somehow, none of this is the most thrilling part of the episode, which ultimately climaxes with a meeting between Task‘s two biggest characters. Having driven out to the Prendergrasts’ place, Tom, ignoring Grasso’s phone-call warning to stay in the car and wait for backup, proceeds on alone when he sees a man leaving the house. That man? None other than Robbie.
It’s a risky move for Ingelsby to bring these two together, with two episodes still remaining, but the results make for a fantastically gripping piece of television, a true cat-and-mouse sequence as Tom and Robbie circle one another, each trying to suss out what the other really knows. (Tom trying to make himself seem as unassuming and ill-equipped as possible is a great bit of acting on Ruffalo’s part.) When Robbie gets suspicious enough to pull a gun, he escorts the FBI agent out to his car and orders Tom to start driving, and it’s unclear whether one or both of them will make it out alive. For one, Robbie opens up to Tom about “what started this whole thing,” including Billy’s death at Jayson’s hands and the drug-house robberies, while Tom admits he’s far from a hotshot for the Bureau and even goes as far as to talk about how he and his late wife first met.
The more the two men share, and the further Tom drives, the higher the chances that Robbie won’t let Tom just walk away, and the veteran agent knows that — but Episode 5 also ratchets up the tension even further than you expect it to. It turns out that Maeve has willingly turned herself into the FBI, with Sam by her side, while Perry has to pretend he doesn’t know where Eryn is, making up a lie for Jayson about hitting his head in the bathroom to excuse away the marks he earned during their scuffle. As Grasso shows up at the Prendergrasts’ house to find it empty and tips off Lizzie and Aleah, who quickly fill Kathleen in that Tom’s gone AWOL, Robbie forces Tom to pull off the road and then marches him into the brush.
Confronted with the likelihood that he might be facing his death, Tom actually asks Robbie to bring a message to his son, Ethan (Andrew Russel), before realizing his kidnapper is taking a leak in the bushes — but Robbie wants to make a deal of his own, for Maeve’s immunity from all of this. With tears in his eyes, he directs Tom to walk straight for about a mile, where he’ll find the park by Locust Lake. After two quick calls on a borrowed phone to his daughters and Kathleen to let them know he’s OK, Tom reveals an important detail: Robbie’s car has Sirius satellite radio, which should allow them to track him down and bring him in. As all parties close in on the remote cabin where Robbie has headed — Grasso has also apparently tipped off the Dark Hearts, too — and Tom gets in a position to hold him at gunpoint, Task smashes to black on a cliffhanger that sets up the ultimate confrontation in next week’s penultimate episode.
- Release Date
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2025 – 2025-00-00
- Network
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HBO
- Directors
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Jeremiah Zagar
Pros & Cons
- Tom and Robbie’s cat-and-mouse game in the back half of the episode is terrifically compelling.
- Grasso’s reveal as the FBI mole isn’t wholly surprising, but makes him a more interesting character.
- Martha Plimpton remains a joy to watch in every scene.
- The Brandis family drama is nowhere near as interesting this week.
