{"id":57050,"date":"2025-10-06T03:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T03:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/57050\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T03:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T03:57:09","slug":"task-episode-5-deliver-tvs-best-cliff-hanger-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/57050\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Task’ Episode 5 Deliver TV\u2019s Best Cliff-Hanger of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exclusive: Task creator Brad Ingelsby broke down episode 5 for Esquire. You can read it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Detectives, I cracked the case. I don\u2019t want to pat myself on the back too much, but my efforts rewinding and rewatching the failed sting in Task<\/a> episode 4<\/a> were fully rewarded this week. I caught the mole in the task force. That\u2019s right folks, the cellphone switcheroo didn\u2019t go unnoticed by this viewer. Thankfully, I didn\u2019t have to wait as long as Philadelphia\u2019s Process Era to reap my rewards.<\/p>\n

Twenty minutes into episode 5, the mole reveals himself. Jayson\u2014fresh from killing Cliff (Ra\u00fal Castillo<\/a>) last week, even though he didn\u2019t learn anything from the trash collector about Robbie (Tom Pelphrey<\/a>)\u2014confirms that someone from the task force slipped him Ray\u2019s phone (with the Flyers wallpaper) right before the sting. That phone needs to head back to evidence as soon as possible. So, Jayson meets with the mole to swap the phone back with whatever phony phone the mole used. Take a wild guess who appears.<\/p>\n

Yes, Anthony Grasso (Fabien Frankel) is the mole. Not only did Frankel switch sides as Sir Criston Cole in House of the Dragon<\/a>, but the actor is double-crossing his team members again in Task.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m cutting things way too close this time,\u201d he tells Jayson. There\u2019s a kid who is \u201cvery much alive\u201d still missing, and now he\u2019s stealing evidence straight out of the locker. If Tom (Mark Ruffalo) and Co. weren\u2019t so focused on finding Sam, I\u2019m sure falsified evidence room visits would have given him away by now. I don\u2019t even know if I can trust his \u201cwe can\u2019t have sex in your marriage bed\u201d aversions with Lizzie now either. When she jokingly texts him an ad for a \u201cPOST-DIVORCE HOUSE EXORCISM,\u201d it sets in just how crushed she\u2019ll be when she finds out Anthony\u2019s the mole. We might know\u2014but nobody else does. Yet.<\/p>\n

\"task<\/p>\n

Fabien… how could you do this to us again? HBO<\/p>\n

Robbie Really F*cked Up<\/p>\n

Remember when Robbie punched that random guy at the truck depot? Well, it was just the latest in a string of bad decisions that started with a really awful idea: robbing drug houses. He\u2019s still trying to move the fentanyl and find out what happened to Cliff, but the walls are closing in on him. The man he punched is at the police station describing his appearance to a sketch artist. Meanwhile, Perry investigates his home to look for clues and spots a picture of Robbie and Cliff.<\/p>\n

When Eryn (Margarita Levieva) tells Robbie that Jayson came home with blood all over him\u2014and that she\u2019s certain that he killed Cliff\u2014Robbie loses it. He looks up in the sky and spots a hawk flying by, offering a moment of peace. He could turn himself in, work with the FBI to catch the Dark Hearts, and maybe even reduce his sentence. But Robbie\u2019s in too deep. In one of the most confusing scenes in Task so far, he meets with Freddy Frias (Elvis Nolasco) and the Dominicans to discuss a deal. Basically, all you need to know is that both parties are preparing to double-cross each other. Robbie isn\u2019t moving the drugs until he\u2019s certain the Dark Hearts aren\u2019t involved, and Freddy is planning to sell him out to the Dark Hearts anyway.<\/p>\n

On the other side, Aleah (Thuso Mbedu) is having a fantastic day as a detective. She may have lost her sense of smell\u2014another dark story courtesy of series creator Brad Ingelsby\u2014but at least she\u2019s out of that abusive relationship. Aleah has forensics look at Sam\u2019s bucket that he left at the trucking depot, which results in DNA evidence pointing to Maeve Pendergrast. Then, she digs into Maeve and uncovered the family\u2019s connection to the Dark Hearts. So, Tom decides to check it out for himself.<\/p>\n

\"task<\/p>\n

I suspect we\u2019ll need some more shovels for the bodies to come. HBO<\/p>\n

Perry\u2026 Soprano?<\/p>\n

In one of the most heartbreaking Sopranos episodes, Tony sends Silvio to kill Christopher\u2019s fianc\u00e9e, Adriana, for working with the feds. It draws a sharp comparison to Eryn\u2019s murder in episode 5. Perry heads to the woods immediately after her meeting with Robbie and drowns her in the lake for betraying them. Much like Tony Soprano, it\u2019s tough to imagine how Perry thinks he can keep this from Jayson moving forward. He knows that he\u2019ll have to kill him too, but where does the violence end? How could anyone in the story see a way out other than death?<\/p>\n

Mark\u2026 Columbo?<\/p>\n

Sorry, I got a little dark there. Let\u2019s hop into something a bit funnier\u2014i.e., Mark Ruffalo\u2019s spot-on Columbo impression. When Tom Brandis arrives as Robbie\u2019s house, he kicks into one of the best reenactments of the Peter Falk character I\u2019ve ever seen. I\u2019ve never thought about it before episode 5, but Ruffalo could have made an excellent Columbo reboot.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about acting clueless. Do whatever you can to make yourself as unassuming as possible while pretending like you can\u2019t already tell that they\u2019re your main suspect. First, Tom asks if he can borrow his pen\u2014a classic Columbo move. He uses his restroom just to pour a drink down the drain while he looks around. Asks him to pull up a chair. Acts tired. You name it.<\/p>\n

Then, I remember that no one really threatened Columbo with a gun on his show. This is Task, where guns are more than just the murder weapon in a bag. \u201cYou\u2019re a little sneak, aren\u2019t you Tom?\u201d Robbie asks him at gunpoint. \u201cI know you weren\u2019t pissing in that bathroom. Nobody pisses like that.\u201d It\u2019s the most aggression that we\u2019ve seen from Robbie since the opening drug bust\u2014and when he punched that one guy\u2014but it\u2019s just the start of what\u2019s arguably the greatest scene is Task yet. Let\u2019s get into it.<\/p>\n

\"task<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not too late, Robbie! HBO<\/p>\n

This Is The Juice, Folks<\/p>\n

So, here we are. After four and a half episodes, Tom and Robbie have finally met\u2014Tom at the wheel, and Robbie in the backseat aiming a gun at him. Country music playing on the radio. Robbie holding a giant duffle bag full of drugs. It should be tense, and yet it\u2019s oddly peaceful.<\/p>\n

Robbie clearly wants to talk. He\u2019s doesn\u2019t give off the vibe of someone who has ever tried therapy, and Tom\u2019s expertise as a former priest who visited hospitals may just come in handy here. So, Tom starts talking about his wife. \u201cSusan was an atheist, so we argued quite a bit about what to say to people who were dying,\u201d he tells Robbie. \u201cShe believed that this is our only life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robbie is team Susan. He knows there\u2019s a chance he won\u2019t walk away from this new drug drop-off\u2014especially after what happened to Cliff last episode\u2014and he likely assumes that Maeve took Sam into the station. She told him she would, and she did. \u201cI\u2019ve never once felt God in my life,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople want to believe that there\u2019s more than this \u2018cause if this is really all there is, that\u2019s too fucking depressing. But there\u2019s nothing else after this.\u201d<\/p>\n

He’s scared. He asks Tom about what people\u2019s final moments were like as he read them their last rites. Tom switches the conversation to Robbie\u2019s family. He\u2019s trying to convince this man not to go through with whatever he\u2019s about to do. So, Tom works in a little metaphor about birding. He tells him that a summer tanager appeared in his backyard, even though it was out of season for that bird to appear in Pennsylvania. \u201cIt\u2019s called a vagrant,\u201d he says. A bird that\u2019s strayed so far from its normal range that it\u2019s forgotten how to find its way home. \u201cMost of them don\u2019t survive,\u201d he warns. Sound like someone we know?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve kidnapped the world\u2019s most depressing human,\u201d Robbie jokes. He orders Tom to take the next exit so that they can\u2019t track him on the highway. \u201cTom, I like you, but I don\u2019t like you enough to let you fuck up my plan,\u201d he tells him. He walks Tom into the Bushkill woods at gunpoint and drops the act.<\/p>\n

He asks for Tom to help Maeve and makes him promise. Then, Tom tries one last time to convince Robbie to call off his plan. \u201cWhat\u2019d you call me again, a vagrant?\u201d he asks the detective. \u201cEven if I wanted to go home, I don\u2019t know the way no more.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Task shows Tom walking away to safety as Robbie accepts whatever fate lies ahead for him. Thankfully, the HBO series shows few minutes of Tom walking in the woods to let me catch my breath. I never thought Robbie would kill Tom, but I didn\u2019t expect such a beautiful exchange between the two leads.<\/p>\n

I also couldn\u2019t believe that this episode still ends with Tom catching back up with Robbie at Bushkill. With the two pointing their guns at each other and Tom yelling, \u201cIt\u2019s over,\u201d it\u2019s one heckuva cliff-hanger to wait out until next week. Scratch that. It might just be the best cliff-hanger of the year.<\/p>\n

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