The Searing <em>Task</em> Finale Tells Us Exactly What This Show Was About

If you ask me, last week’s Task episode felt like the season finale. The idea that we’re watching another hour of this HBO crime drama without Robbie (Tom Pelphrey)—no matter how stellar this series has been week after week—is hard to stomach. That said, I understand that creator Brad Ingelsby has a few plot threads to wrap up. Our fallen favorites deserve justice. The Dark Hearts (Sam Keeley and Jamie McShane) and Anthony Grasso (Fabien Frankel) have a furious Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) on their trail. But this finale ultimately feels like an epilogue.

I’m certainly not the only one who feels this way. Task fans flooded our comments sections this week with polarizing opinions about episode 6. While some agreed that it was easily one of the best episodes of the series—my heart still belongs to episode 5—others argued that episode 6’s showdown in the woods was a bit confounding. Whichever way you feel about it, at least we all receive a little closure in the finale. There’s nothing left to question when Task’s final credits roll. Nothing except: Why can’t I stop sobbing?

End of the road, Jayson.

For starters, Perry (Jame McShane) and Jayson (Sam Keeley) are still on the lam. They killed a federal agent last episode, and Papa Dark Heart—that’s what I call the unnamed head honcho who has only appeared twice—is still pissed that Jayson still has a heartbeat. Perry winds himself up to skewer Jayson with a kitchen knife out at their cabin, but he can’t go through with it. Killing Jayson would also mean that Perry failed to keep him safe.

Meanwhile, the police finally find Eryn’s body. She’s clutching Perry’s metal chain, which also happens to have his initials etched into them. Absolute idiot.

Jayson flips the script and stabs Perry while he’s bathing in the creek. He slides the knife into his stomach and carves him up like turkey. “I know what you did,” he says. “I know.” Then, he takes off.

I’m glad Grasso redeems himself.

Fabien Frankel did such an amazing job at turning Anthony Grasso into a villain last episode. He questioned Tom Brandis’s (Mark Ruffalo) faith over Yuenglings in one of the best scenes of the entire series. Then, he accepted Tom’s challenge to prove that he was the mole. Of course, we know that he is—and now Tom does too. But is there any room for sympathy for ol’ Grasso?

Well, Task deepens his character even further in the finale when Anthony pays a visit to his sister. He warns her that “some things are going to come out about me,” including the fact that he paid for their mother’s nice home with money from “doing things with people I shouldn’t have been involved with.” Even worse? “Because of me, this girl got killed,” Grasso tells her. He’s actually planning to come clean to the police. Maybe Tom got through to him after he slept on what he heard in their meeting. According to Grasso, “I’m suffocating.”

However, Tom doesn’t know that Anthony is going to tell the truth. He’s still investigating, and you wouldn’t believe what he’s after. Yup. It’s the cell phones. “The phone was swapped by Grasso,” Aleah (Thuso Mbedu) says. “That’s why Cliff never showed that night.” I’m glad that they’ve finally figured this out, but I caught this like four weeks ago. “Without [access] to the evidence locker, Grasso is going to walk,” Tom tells Kathleen (Martha Plimpton). So, they need to be back on the case. Plus, “we’re gonna need our guns back.” You know what that means, folks. Action.

Just when you thought it was all over... everyone heads to the Prendergrast residence for the big finale.

There’s a big bash happening at the Prendergrast household, and everybody’s invited. Jayson is coming for the money, Grasso is searching for redemption, and Tom is hoping to put this case to rest once and for all.

Grasso arrives first. He just survived a shootout with some Dark Hearts members at his own home, but he took a bullet to the stomach and he’s bleeding out when his car pulls up. “Maeve, you gotta leave now,” he utters. “They’re coming for you.”

Maeve puts the kids in the car and prepares to leave before realizing she doesn’t have her keys. She runs back inside and finds Jayson before leading him to the money. Then, Tom and Aleah pull up to the party. Here, the finale really begins.

While Tom searches for Maeve around the house, Aleah fights for her life battling another Dark Hearts member inside. She kills him and Tom runs inside. So, Jayson prepares to leave the hen house and take off with the cash. Maeve tries to wrestle free from him and screams. So, Tom and Aleah finally have eyes on Jayson. As Jayson backs up to the car with Maeve as a hostage, Tom realizes that Grasso isn’t in his car anymore. Somehow, he managed to leave the vehicle and make his way over to Jayson’s. So, when Jayson drops Maeve and prepares to quickly take off in his car, Grasso is there to put a bullet in his brain—right between the eyes.

Ruffalo goes for the Emmy.

Tom Brandis is the best. He secretly swaps out the sack of money with Robbie’s bag of newspaper ads. Presumably, so Maeve can keep the cash and get the hell out of Dodge. He also has some final last words for Grasso—who miraculously survives despite looking white as a ghost as he bled out in the back of Jayson’s car.

“Well, aren’t you gonna give me my penance?” Anthony asks him.

Tom responds, “I never gave anybody penance. People beat themselves up enough on their own.”

Great line—and it’s not even why I believe Ruffalo is Emmy-bound. We still have Ethan’s sentencing. Remember Tom’s family struggles? His adopted son pushed Tom’s wife down the stairs and accidentally killed her. He has a mental condition that became hard to deal with—and he just lost it one day. Now, the family is supposed to read a statement at his sentencing hearing for the judge to consider before they decide his fate. Tom makes the statement himself. Folks, I hope you have your tissues ready.

In a heartbreaking speech, Tom outlines everything we didn’t know about this whole family drama subplot: How much doctors struggled to correctly diagnose Ethan’s psychosis, and how the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a shortage of the medication that silenced the voices in Ethan’s head. “The voices returned, angrier than before, and on May 15, those poisonous voices told Ethan to kill Susan," Tom tells the judge. “That incident now threatens to define his entire life.”

But as Tom explains, Ethan is not defined by those voices. “There was also joy, so much joy,” he says. “When he first called me Dad. When we went to New York City and he bought 25 hamburgers and handed them out to homeless people, and Mrs. O’Keefe—that lovely, understanding art teacher—pulled me aside and told me what a bright light of a child he was.”

Ruffalo chokes up a bit here, and goddamn it… it got me too. Then, he tells Ethan to look at him and finally says it: “I forgive you. I love you.”

“I’m not here today to tell the court when my son should be released—that’s not up to me,” he continues. “I’m here today to let you know, Ethan, that when that day comes, I’ll be ready. Come straight home. I’ll be there waiting for you.”

Now, even if you somehow aren’t bawling your eyes out—you might still be sitting on your couch now and wondering: Why was Tom’s dark family story even part of this show to begin with? Why are we, in the final moments of this show, watching Mark Ruffalo’s character reckon with his son’s sentencing?

Well, this is what Task was all about. Sure, the guns and the drugs and the whole task force of it all was more thrilling than what Tom would say at his son’s sentencing. But Task was such a strong series because it wasn’t just about catching the bad guys. In every conversation Tom had with Robbie or Grasso, they question Tom's understanding of faith, forgiveness, and the afterlife—even though Tom's own beliefs are shaken.

Task never answers those questions directly. How could you? But Ingelsby certainly throws Tom through as much hell as he can before his protagonist comes to a final realization. It’s not easy, but we must try to put the past behind us and forgive. It's the only way forward.