I’m curious to know how HBO and Brad Ingelsby settled on seven as the number of episodes for this season of Task. In some ways, it feels like the season could have benefited from a more standard eight-to-10-episode run, which would have allowed the series to expand on the Brandis family history (it’s crazy to cast Mireille Enos for one brief flashback scene), flesh out the Grasso chapter of the crime saga, and round out some of the underdeveloped supporting characters. As the season comes to a close, there’s still so much more I want to know about so many of its key players.
And yet, in other ways, I think the series could have benefited from a more condensed five or six episode run that cut out the Grasso chapter altogether and really anchored this story around Tom and Robbie, with the Dark Hearts as a background threat to drive the plot forward. While the action and violence that happens in this finale is tense and visceral, it lacks the same emotional drive as last week’s forest shoot-out. That action sequence was thematically rich. This episode’s big Maeve vs. the Dark Hearts showdown is impressive on a technical level and incredibly tense to watch in the moment, but a little less impactful as a climax to the season. (Even Perry’s visit to Maeve’s house back in “Vagrants” had way more meat on its bones in terms of her family’s connections to the motorcycle gang.)
Still, as Tom puts it to Kathleen, “Wisdom is knowing what to overlook.” And Task has been such a unique addition to the prestige-TV landscape, that I’m inclined to overlook some of the bumpier moments in this finale. Is it insane that Perry left his monogrammed chain on Eryn’s body after he killed her? Yes. Does it make any sense that Grasso kept Ray’s burner phone rather than switching it out with the decoy one in the evidence locker? No.
Yet when I think back on Task, I suspect that what will linger with me won’t be the plot holes, but the unexpectedly gentle tone this intense show has found for itself. This is an episode where a surprise apartment shoot-out and a conversation about dog walking both feel equally impactful. And that’s an impressive balancing act.
The big theme of “A Still Small Voice” is about the importance of speaking the truth, even when it’s messy and unfinished and might get you in trouble. And, to its credit, this is one of the few crime shows I’ve watched where characters seriously consider turning themselves over to the cops rather than simply running for as long as they can. Maeve did that with Sam and she considers doing it with the one-million dollars that Robbie left her as well—at least until her arcade co-worker suggests she should at least try to keep it for herself. (Amen, girl!)
Grasso also plans to turn himself in after Lizzie’s death proves to be the straw that broke the camel’s back for his two-year stint as a Dark Hearts informant. Despite how intense his conversation with Tom was last week, Grasso’s pretty eager to do the right thing here. In fact, one of the clunkier elements of “A Still Small Voice” is how quickly it rushes Grasso out of morally grey territory and into an overtly sympathetic place. He gets a single mom sister and two adorable nephews he’s been selflessly supporting with the Dark Hearts money. And after Dorsey’s attempt to frame him goes violently wrong (a great scene!), he literally drives to Maeve’s house while bleeding out from a gunshot wound in order to warn her that the Dark Hearts are coming to take her money and potentially kill her family.
In some ways, there’s been a sort of karmic balance to who lives and dies this season. Cliff, Tom, and—to a lesser degree—Eryn died for the hubris of trying to bite off more than they could chew with their get-rich-quick/revenge scheme. Instead of listening to Cliff’s gut instinct, they went through with an ambitious burglary and eventually lost their lives for it. Grasso, however, does enough to earn redemption and survive his gunshot wound. He’s left with guilt and (presumably) a prison sentence but still very much alive. And Maeve—perhaps the purest, most sympathetic character on the show—gets to live thanks to her guardian angel Donna and some quick, if reckless, thinking from Harper. She even gets to keep the money, after Tom agrees to look the other way.
Perry’s death, meanwhile, takes on the sheen of a Greek tragedy. He’s killed by his surrogate son after killing his surrogate daughter. Yet even as he’s bleeding out from a gruesome stab wound, he’s still trying to save Jayson’s life—warning him that the Dark Hearts mother club is coming to kill him. That Jayson eventually dies at Grasso’s hand also fits the sort of karmic circle the show has going. And, if you squint, I suppose Aleah’s karmic reward is getting to work through some of the trauma of her past abuse by taking down a giant Dark Hearts goon who’s trying to choke her to death.
Still, it’s a little hard to square that sense of moral justice with the death of poor, doomed Lizzie. I guess you could say Lizzie suffered the tragedy of trying to prove her heroism without understanding her limits. But it mostly feels like she died to give Grasso something to avenge. If anything, though, I think leaving Lizzie alive to process Grasso’s dirty-cop reveal would have been more interesting than killing her off to motivate his face turn. As is, she winds up feeling weirdly forgotten in this finale, even though her death was such a major event last week.
Which isn’t to say that Task hasn’t had some compelling female characters—including Kathleen as a great successor to the Mare Of Easttown vibe. I also love the way these past few episodes have depicted Sara and Emily’s slowly thawing relationship. Tom’s impulsive decision to honor his wife’s memory and take Sam in as a foster kid becomes an act of healing for the whole Brandis family.
Seeing Sam’s innocent excitement at getting to decorate his own room or his sweet request that Tom stay with him until he falls asleep serves as a reminder that Ethan and Emily were once just young, vulnerable foster kids that Tom, Susan, and Sara excitedly welcomed into their family. If Task is in some way a show about generations, then Sam’s arrival allows Tom, Sara, and Emily to look at their experiences through a new, gentler lens—one where Sara proudly recalls her little brother finding a lost neighborhood dog and Tom remembers that Emily is still just a kid who needs a parent, not someone he should be leaning on to take care of him.
That all builds to the standout scene of the finale: Tom writing and reading a family statement at Ethan’s sentencing hearing. It’s not a literal confession, but it’s an act of speaking the truth in order to remove the shame of it. Ethan did something horrible. But he was also dealt an incredibly unfair hand in life, both with his intense disruptive mood dysregulation disorder and with a pandemic that cut him off from the only medication that could quiet the dangerous voices in his head. Tom doesn’t know what to do with that; he can’t say what punishment Ethan does or doesn’t deserve. But he does decide that he wants to keep his son in his life. Whenever Ethan is released from prison, Tom will have his room waiting for him.
It’s a beautiful sequence, all the more so because the episode doesn’t go for the cheesy, predictable route of having Tom put aside his prepared statement and give some perfect off-the-cuff speech. Mark Ruffalo plays the reality of Tom reading the letter in court, only going for the emotional jugular when Tom pauses to ask Ethan to look at him so he can offer forgiveness, love, and freedom from shame.
I also love that even after all the sweet scenes of Tom bonding with Sam, the show doesn’t just have Tom adopt him. Sam may have helped the Brandis family heal, but he also deserves a home where his healing can be the full priority. Father Daniel (another character I would have liked to learn more about) helps Tom realize that. And the show ultimately ends on a hopeful—but not quite “happily ever after”—note.
The last thing we see is Tom repainting Ethan’s room, symbolizing the fresh start of a new chapter whenever Ethan returns. Instead of being beholden to the dynamics of the past, they’ll build a new future together—although, as Maeve tells Harper, there’s power to remembering the past too. Before the Prendergrasts take off for their own new future, Maeve takes a photo of Harper in front of the home that played such a seismic role in their lives. The past doesn’t have to define us, but it’s still a part of our story.
Stray observations
- • Maybe the most moving shot in the entire season is the image of Tom’s Phillies cup repurposed as a bird feeder. What a lovely detail.
- • While I’m always glad for Thuso Mbedu to get work (she’s so great in The Woman King), you could basically lift Aleah out of this story entirely without affecting the arc of the season. We don’t even see her again after the shoot-out at Maeve’s house.
- • In a full-circle moment, the scene where Sam’s new family comes to adopt him is staged almost exactly like the day that Tom and Susan adopted Emily and Ethan.
- • It’s interesting that Freddy Frias never reentered the story after all that setup.
- • Given that this whole season ultimately hinges on Donna betraying her lover in order to protect Maeve, it might have been nice to give Donna and Maeve some actual screen time together.
- • In my head canon, Maeve dropped off Gertie the chicken with Sam’s new family before heading out of town. Also, Grasso goes back to being a DJ after getting out of prison.
- • Thanks so much for following along with this season of Task recaps! I really enjoyed getting to dive into this show and its themes with all of you. Ingelsby has said he’d be open to doing another season if this one does well, so maybe I’ll see you back here again one day!
