The source of the dispute is clear enough. Eryn (Margarita Levieva), Jayson\u2019s girlfriend, was secretly Billy\u2019s lover, and now she\u2019s the rat inside the Dark Hearts who\u2019s tipping Robbie and Cliff off about trap houses that are cash-rich. In other words, this isn\u2019t business, or not only business \u2014 obviously Robbie and Cliff could use the money \u2014 it\u2019s personal. By making Jayson look weak, they can finally be his undoing, together.<\/p>\n
But all of this sounds pretty lame when you\u2019re trying to explain to the niece you\u2019ve forced into raising not only your children but the son of a couple you recently murdered why you\u2019ve basically strapped the whole family into a suicide run. So yeah, maybe he\u2019s repeating himself for emphasis. Or maybe he\u2019s doing it because the person who really needs convincing of the rectitude of his actions is Robbie himself.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If you know actor Tom Pelphrey at all, it\u2019s likely because of a single scene: a monologue he delivers in the back of an Uber on Ozark<\/a>, desperately explaining to a person who doesn\u2019t care why he\u2019s almost certainly crossed the wrong person and gotten himself and, possibly, his sister and her family killed. But of course there\u2019s hope around the corner, a light at the end of the tunnel, if he can just\u2026keep\u2026going. Despite the scene\u2019s almost unwatchably painful naturalism, Pelphrey has said he didn\u2019t improvise a word<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n But he\u2019s such a good actor that it feels like he\u2019s making it up as he goes along, even as he sticks to the script\u2019s chapter and verse. His dialogue seems to come from within his body, not his head. So when Robbie repeated himself during this pivotal scene, over and over and over, my first instinct was to give Pelphrey the credit. But if his process remains the same as it once was, writer-creator Brad Ingelsby is responsible for this revealing detail. If you\u2019ve ever wondered why I like Task so much better than Mare of Easttown<\/a>, this kind of thing is why.\u00a0<\/p>\n I started things off with that lengthy appreciation of Pelphrey\u2019s work here because, well, I had to start somewhere, and on this show I\u2019m spoiled for choice. I could just as easily have led with the lovely scene in which Maeve teaches Sam, the boy Robbie and Cliff kidnapped from the home of his slain parents, how to float in the water. I could have gone with the painful scene in which Tom Brandis and his daughter Sara hash out their ugliest feelings about Ethan, the adopted son who killed Tom\u2019s wife, unknowingly within earshot of Ethan\u2019s sister and fellow adoptive child, Emily.\u00a0<\/p>\n I could have went with the fascinating sit-down between Dark Hearts leaders Perry and Jayson on one side and Dominican drug kingpin Freddy Frias (Elvis Nolasco) on the other, a group of gentlemen who are perfectly collegial with one another, right up until they aren\u2019t. I could have talked with the immensely romantic early drunken flirtations between Grasso and Stover from Tom\u2019s task force, established as Grasso gives a rousing speech on her behalf at a cop bar to the tune of \u201cChloe Dancer\u201d by Mother Love Bone, an amazing deep cut needledrop that made me fall in love with both of them.<\/p>\n But the pivotal pairing is that of ex-con Ray Lyman (Peter Patrikios) and his abused, dead-eyed wife, Shelley (Mickey Sumner). They\u2019re the definition of minor characters, a guy Cliff and Robbie approach about helping them move their unexpected windfall of fentanyl, and the wife he coerces into trying to rob Cliff\u2019s house to beat them to the punch.<\/p>\n Look at all the ways the use of these characters pays off. For one, both actors do memorable work in their small roles. Even though Ray is written to be too scummy to sympathize with, his energetic, streetwise demeanor and his incongruous day job \u2014 he\u2019s a rec-league referee! \u2014 liven him up. Shelley\u2019s plight, meanwhile, gives Grasso, Stover, and Brandis\u2019s teammate Clinton a chance to deliver a powerful speech of her own, about the abusive relationship that nearly killed her and the random moment she simply decided she\u2019d had enough. That moment comes for Shelley and smashes Ray\u2019s hopes of getting away scot free.<\/p>\n So Tom and Grasso get Ray to tell them all about Cliff and what little the man can remember about his accomplice. Then they screw him over, allowing him to get his parole violated for assaulting Tom during the fracas at Cliff\u2019s place. (The task force was tipped off by a coworker of the slain robber Peaches, who doesn\u2019t really care of the missing child involved is alive or dead as long as he gets his cash reward. Lovely.)<\/p>\n Now, again, Ray is not the kind of person you sympathize with. He\u2019s a domestic abuser who heavily hints he may be into even worse shit as well. At the same time, Tom and Grasso were pretty goddamn deceptive with him. I get that that\u2019s how cops do their jobs, but it just seems to me lying for a living is corrosive to the soul, no matter why you do it, or why you convince yourself you\u2019re doing it. You can only imagine how many similar interactions with police have jammed up Ray and his relatives going back to time immemorial. (At least Shelley\u2019s out for good now, though.)<\/p>\n Finally, the raid on Cliff\u2019s house and the rumble with Ray (who nearly kills both Tom and Stover before Grasso gets the jump on him) expose a new wrinkle to the story. We already know that the Dark Hearts have a rat in the crew, Eryn, feeding Robbie and Cliff their intel. But surveillance photos reveal an unknown car parked outside Cliff\u2019s house, watching and waiting for the guy even while the FBI and cops conduct their business there.<\/p>\n That means the Dark Hearts were there. That means they knew to be there. And unless they\u2019ve got their own crack investigative team working 24\/7 and running down the same leads as the task force, that means they\u2019ve got a leak inside the task force, feeding them information. Clinton? Stover? Grasso? After this episode you hope it\u2019s none of them, since each has done something to endear you to them. But Tom\u2019s cop buddy\u2019s advice is unequivocal: \u201cSuspect everyone.\u201d With its clever writing and precise performances, plus a score and a soundtrack that engage the emotions, Task has now made this our challenge, too.<\/p>\n Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins<\/a>) writes about TV for\u00a0Rolling Stone,\u00a0Vulture,\u00a0The New York Times, and\u00a0anyplace that will have him<\/a>, really. He and his family live on Long Island.<\/p>\n \t\t<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n