That’s bad news for Robbie. It’s one thing to kidnap a kid. It’s another to kidnap a kid who a terrifying biker gang considers family. But it turns out that’s not Robbie’s only personal connection to the Dark Hearts. His beloved brother Billy was actually a member of the club until he was beaten to death by Jayson because of a “rules violation.” And Billy’s time in the Dark Hearts means his daughter Maeve is intimately familiar with the club’s inner workings as well. It doesn’t take her long to piece together the fact that Sam’s parents are—well, were—members. And one quick internet search later, she realizes just how much trouble Robbie is in. (As Cliff put it last week, “People. They can just google you nowadays.”)
While it’s a little jarring to jump headfirst into the world of Dark Hearts after last week’s premiere had such a narrow focus, the personal connections between Robbie and the biker gang help keep things grounded. Without those bonds, Task would be telling a more familiar story about stolen drugs, the thieves trying to sell them, and the crime lords who want them back. But with so much emotional baggage in the mix, Task is able to stay more personal and less abstract. This is a story about Robbie fucking up his own life by making terrible, impulsive decisions (even if he’s really sweet with Sam on a personal level). But it’s also a story about how those decisions fall back on those he loves too. As we see when Peaches’ fiancée and her dad are attacked, Dark Hearts aren’t above coming after the family members of their enemies.
That’s also bad news for Agent Tom Brandis, considering Jayson and Perry know he’s leading the task force looking into the incident. But, for now, Tom’s problems are closer to home. After last week left things ambiguous, we get much more clarity on Tom’s family life. It turns out his older daughter Sara (Phoebe Fox) is alive and (mostly) well. She lives in Chicago with her husband and their new baby. But when she flies in for her brother’s sentencing, all the lightly repressed family trauma comes rising to the surface. From the moment Sara only tentatively hugs her sister Emily, it’s clear there’s a deep divide in the Brandis family.
As was suggested last week, we get confirmation that Ethan killed his mom while off his meds, throwing her down the stairs and breaking her neck. And we also learn that Emily and Ethan are bio siblings who were adopted into the Brandis family, while Sara is a biological child—a fact she cruelly weaponizes. For Sara, keeping Ethan locked up as long as possible seems like the only answer. But for Tom and especially Emily, the calculus isn’t so simple. As Emily tells her therapist, it seems inhumane to keep Ethan in prison where he won’t be able to get the mental help he needs. (She implies they had a tough childhood before the adoption.) Yet the idea of him getting out terrifies her just as much.
In that way, “Family Statements” becomes an episode about moral dilemmas and the people who are or aren’t capable of tackling them head-on. We learn that before Tom officially joined the FBI as an agent in 2003, he worked with them as a volunteer chaplain during mass casualty events like the Columbine shooting and the Oklahoma City bombing. Yet during his own crisis event, he’s frozen. Tom remains uncertain about how to handle Ethan’s sentencing, even as his two daughters are more confident in their polar-opposite perspectives. Similarly, it’s Maeve who makes an immediate decision about what to do with Sam as Robbie and Cliff hem and haw—even if her plan ultimately goes completely awry.
Indeed, the end of this episode introduces another note of dark comedy as Maeve drops Sam at a random store and calls the authorities to report his location, only to discover he’s snuck back into her car by the time the police show up. It’s a full-on comedy of errors that would be funny if it weren’t so tense. Of all the ways I thought the crime and FBI halves of the show might meet, Maeve getting herself into and then out of a complicated ruse certainly wasn’t one of them. (It was quick thinking on her part to stop the police from searching her trunk by claiming she saw Sam at her arcade job, though!)
Task also introduces its first true ongoing mystery as we learn there’s a mole in the Dark Hearts who’s been feeding Robbie information. That fact—along with all the plot we get this week—makes “Family Statement” a crucial stepping stone toward narrative momentum. This episode still has hints of the poeticism we saw last week, like when Tom finds Emily hiding out at the place where Ethan once hid or when sweet little Sam shares all his empathetic animal musings with Robbie. But for the most part, this is Task in a more practical mode, putting up the scaffolding for the rest of the season to build on.
Stray observations
- • I know most shows have MCU actor connections these days, but with the addition of Margarita Levieva as a member of the Dark Hearts, we’ve now got the Hulk chasing Ward Meachum while Daredevil’s girlfriend looks on.
- • I love the little beat of Emily and her therapist giggling together before diving into her session. It really makes her feel like a sweet, well-adjusted teen.
- • Admittedly, it’s been a while since I used a flip phone, but do their text messages really look like that? They’re giving off Kelly Rowland texting in Excel vibes.
- • I’m obsessed with Maeve’s supportive arcade co-worker who covers an extra shift and invites her over for baked ziti. “You really need to get the hell out of that situation.”
- • I’m sorry, am I supposed to believe that two separate Zillennials had Yahoo email addresses in 2012? I feel like Gmail was the default by then. At least Fabien Frankel’s DJ speech is charming enough to make up for it.
- • On the other hand, any time a character gets charming on this show I start thinking about Evan Peters in Mare Of Easttown and panic.
- • Early bets on who the mole is? We get some notable screentime for Jayson’s girlfriend Eryn (Levieva) and a sorrowful bartender named Donna (Stephanie Kurtzuba), so those seem like potential candidates.
