What Task’s Gutting Episode 6 Death Means for the Series Finale

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Task Episode 6. Within the first 20 minutes of the sixth and penultimate episode of Task, both PSP Lizzie Stover (Alison Oliver) and Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey) are dead. Robbie was stabbed by his Dark Hearts nemesis Jayson (Sam Keeley) and ultimately bled out in the car as Tom (Mark Ruffalo) attempted to rush him to the hospital. Lizzie, meanwhile, who couldn’t hear after a bullet discharged next to hear ear, was run over by Jayson and Perry (Jamie McShane) as they sped away from the crime scene after County Detective-turned-Dark Hearts mole Anthony Grasso (Fabien Frankel) allowed them to go free. It was certainly a depressing opening to the episode, and things only got more tense from there. Following the shootout at Bushkill, the FBI launched a probe into the task force to investigate whether there was someone on the inside feeding information to the Dark Hearts. We, of course, already know this was Grasso, who we also learned was grandfathered into his mole role by County Chief Michael Dorsey (Raphael Sbarge). Lizzie’s death appeared to send Grasso into a spiral of regret, but Dorsey ordered him to keep it together so they could get out of the situation unscathed. Meanwhile, despite the fact that she was the one who turned Sam (Ben Lewis Doherty) over to the cops, Maeve (Emilia Jones) was being detained for questioning about her role in his kidnapping. After hearing what Maeve had to say about why she didn’t immediately turn Sam in, the district attorney told Tom she wanted to move forward with charging her. But Tom managed to convince her she was going to have a hard time getting a jury to agree Maeve was guilty of anything—not to mention that doing so would leave the two kids now in her sole care to the system. Maeve was allowed to go free and returned home to Harper (Kennedy Moyer) and Wyatt (Oliver Eisenson), and Tom was able to fulfill his unspoken promise to Robbie to help Maeve as she had nothing to do with the whole Sam mess, or for that matter, really, anything . Tom also learned from Maeve that Robbie and Cliff (Raúl Castillo) thought the Episode 4 drug meetup was going down at a different park than the FBI sting operation was set to take place at. And after Kathleen (Martha Plimpton) revealed there was a previous complaint lodged against Grasso for similar issues with the Dark Hearts, Tom put two and two together and confronted Grasso about being the mole. He was unable to get Grasso to fully admit he was guilty, but left him with the parting message of, “I’m comin’ for you.” As for the status of Tom’s family life, things are only getting more complicated. After visiting Sam at the juvenile detention center where he was being held due to the fact that the local temporary housing facility had lost its funding and shut down, Tom ended up using his status as a registered foster parent to take Sam in and bring him to stay at his own home—clearly to the surprise of Tom’s daughters, Emily (Silvia Dionicio) and Sara (Phoebe Fox). As Sara pointed out, given everything going on in their lives, it doesn’t seem like the best time to take in a vulnerable young child. If that somehow wasn’t already enough twists and turns for you, Task Episode 6 still had one final gut punch to deliver in the form of an ending montage that juxtaposed Jayson and Perry discovering the bag Robbie threw into the river was full of real estate pamphlets just as Shelley (Mickey Sumner)—the former partner-slash-escaped victim of Robbie and Cliff’s underworld associate Ray (Peter Patrikios)—showed up on Maeve’s doorstep to deliver the real bag of cash. Turns out Robbie had hedged all his bets on Shelley’s promise in Episode 5 that she was a “good person,” and purposefully led the Dark Hearts astray in order to try to give Maeve and his kids a chance at a good life. Unfortunately, we can’t imagine Jayson and Perry aren’t going to consider the idea that Maeve may have been the one to end up with the money, meaning there may be yet another showdown between the Prendergrasts and the Dark Hearts ahead in the finale. Will Maeve be the one to avenge her dad and uncle? Some other outstanding questions that need answering before Task is over: What will Jayson do if/when he finds out Perry killed Eryn? Is Grasso going to get his comeuppance? Is Sam going to permanently move in with the Brandis family? And, last but certainly not least, what’s going to happen at the much-discussed sentencing hearing for Tom’s son Ethan? It’s a lot to wrap up, but if creator Brad Ingelsby’s handling of the Mare of Easttown finale is any indication, he’s up to the task.