October 05, 2025
Provided image/Peter Kramer/HBO
Tom Brandeis (Mark Ruffalo) and other task force investigators continue their search in 'Task.' Episode 5 reveals which one is a mole.
As the walls close in on Robbie Prendergrast, the Delco thief takes matters into his hands.
Episode 5 of "Task" opens with Robbie (Tom Pelphrey) on the warpath. He barges into his old pal Ray's place demanding answers after his partner Cliff's disappearance — only to learn that Ray is in jail. Wheels turning, he puts together a plan to offload the drugs once and for all.
Perry, the elder statesman of the Dark Hearts biker gang, is also putting some pieces together. He shows up at Robbie and Maeve's place unannounced, asking if he can look through some of her dad's old things. (She barely manages to stash Sam, the kid who's been missing since Robbie and Cliff's botched robbery, in the chicken coop in time.) But Perry's really snooping, and finds a clue on the fridge: a photo of Robbie with Cliff, the guy the Dark Hearts just beat into a bloody pulp.
The FBI task force is making crucial connections, too. Aleah has a fingerprint linking Maeve to Sam and as she rattles off background, a lightbulb goes off for Tom (Mark Ruffalo). The mention of Maeve's missing Dark Hearts dad Billy sends Tom racing out the door to the Prendergrast residence. Grasso is supposedly right behind him, but he makes a stop first.... to see Perry's protege Jayson. That's right: DJ Grassanova is the mole inside the task force. And his shady meeting costs Tom dearly.
Tom does not find Maeve when he pulls up to her home. (She has already left to turn herself and Sam into the police.) But he does catch Robbie right as he's about to put his plan in motion. While Tom tries to stall him by putting on a doddering old man act, Robbie sees through the performance and forces him into the driver's seat of his sedan. They're going for a ride deep into the Poconos.
Robbie is heading north to meet the Dark Hearts and, presumably, sell them back their fentanyl. Though he initially complains that he's "kidnapped the world's most depressing human," Robbie and Tom bond on their strange road trip. They part before reaching the meeting point — Robbie lets his prisoner go — but the chase continues once the rest of the task force catches up and they all converge on the meeting spot. The episode ends on a cliffhanger: Robbie and Tom, guns drawn, with the Dark Hearts and FBI stalking the woods around them.
Part of Robbie's plan involves the drug kingpin Freddy Frias, last seen in Episode 3. The "Task" crew used Ralph's Italian Restaurant and the property behind it as the set for Freddy's home base, and they're briefly back in action for this installment.
The hostage situation sparks a lot of chatter between Robbie and Tom — and Tom's frantic colleagues — about highways and landmarks far outside the five counties. The pair initially takes Route 100 toward Bushkill, discussing how Tom met his wife at Bryn Mawr Hospital along the way. Robbie eventually directs Tom off the highway and lets him go by Locust Lake. The meeting point is Billy's old hunting cabin on Lehigh River, and the truss bridge the task force swarms looks a whole lot like Dingmans Ferry Bridge.
Dark Hearts leader Jayson, aka the man responsible for Billy Prendergrast's death, is becoming more of a presence as the season picks up. Sam Keeley, the Irish actor who plays him, said he strove not to make his character a "cookie cutter villain."
"I suppose I wanted to show that this was just a boy who had to grow up in these circumstances and he's a product of his environment," Keeley said. "He is someone who has had to kind of forge himself in that fire. … So I just had to, in many ways, put blinkers on and go like, OK, this is this guy's reality. This is the world with which he operates in, and these are his rules."
Though Jayson looks tough, Keeley says he is "ultimately a scared little boy." And a very bad thing his mentor Perry did in this episode might just break that kid.The odds of a "Mare of Easttown" crossover are dimming as we head into the final two episodes of "Task." But fans are showing a similar aptitude for theorizing on Reddit.
Many of mole predictions were off the mark, though some were onto Grasso's double act. Another user suggests that Lizzie might be a secret daughter of the Dark Hearts, given her aptitude for patches, or that Tom might become Sam's foster dad. But will Sam actually die? Also, could the task force be a decoy operation for a larger FBI effort to bring the Dark Hearts down?
These questions and more are in play as the series heads toward its conclusion. At least we learned one thing: FBI boss Kathleen McGinty is an emotional eater.
Follow Kristin & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @kristin_hunt
| @thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice
Have a news tip? Let us know.
