‘Task’ episode 2 recap: Maeve should win an Emmy

IF YOU’RE FLICKING between Task and the Emmys, welcome! It’s a big night for prestige TV, but sadly, the new HBO show won’t make the cut this year. However, as this week’s episode propels us through the new Brad Ingelsby limited series, I’m already seeing a few major nomination nods for the Task cast and crew come 2026. (Remember: Kate Winslet took home the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series Emmy for Mare of Easttown.)

This week’s episode picks up at the Nance house murders. Tom and his new team of charges have concluded that Robbie and Cliff are being assisted by someone deep in the Dark Hearts gang to pull off their house raids. Meanwhile, the two robbers are in over their heads after losing Peaches, as well as having Sammy in their care. Maeve is quickly becoming a highlight, who seems to be the only one with her wits about her.

Below, we recap this week’s episode of Task.

Spoilers abound! read our recap of last week’s episode here.

Father-daughter dance this Thursday

Robbie is out of his depth as he wakes up the next morning with an extra mouth to feed. He hasn’t told Maeve or his children about Sammy as they get ready for school. Harper reminds him that she needs $25 to contribute to the pizza fund for the daddy-daughter dance this Thursday. Robbie’s got several plates spinning, so naturally, he forgot-slash-can’t come up with the money. As he spends the day at home cooking fluffy pancakes and playing in the chicken pen with Sammy, let’s hope he doesn’t neglect his actual children.

Robbie is simply a pawn

Meanwhile, Uncle Trash (aka Cliff) isn’t doing so well after the raid went awry. It’s so bad that Robbie has to soothe his friend and coworker, but Cliff isn’t buying Robbie’s “everything happens for a reason” rhetoric. There wasn’t a reason for Peaches to die, he says. Naively, Robbie says they’ll make a reason, which now takes the form of the duffle bag full of fentanyl, or “12 kilos of unprocessed China”, that they found at the Nance house. If anything, that amount of the painkiller is worth more than the money they imagined was inside as they plan to sell it.

They bring this up to MZ, who, I’m guessing, is their informant from the sketchy house they drive by every day in their garbage truck. As the two head to their scheduled rendezvous at Tiptop bar, MZ is a no-show, leaving Robbie and Cliff with the bag as well as Sammy. A blonde sitting at the bar gets Robbie’s attention, her friend nudging her to make a move. Robbie will have to put his love life on hold as he figures out his next steps – he’s too deep in it now.

Meet the Dark Hearts

This week’s episode introduces us to Jay and Perry, two senior member in the Dark Hearts. We learn from Tom and Grasso’s assessment that Perry is one of twelve national members who groomed Jay from a young age as his protégé to be the current Delaware County Chapter President. (What Perry saw in Jay is to be explored further, but it’s sure to have been a big incentive to kill everyone in Jay’s way to the top.) Jay’s reign has been fruitful. He’s brought in fentanyl as the city’s prime drug export after the market for cocaine and heroine dried up.

As the two meet up after the Nance murders, they almost seem like father and son – Jay still a tad afraid of his master. Other members are questioning Jay’s leadership in the aftermath. To prove he’s still got the chops, he orders an “emergency church meeting” at the bar they frequent. The gang assembles that night, driving down the high street in two file lines – totally inconspicuous. Perry and Jay also feel the FBI are on their scent as they assemble a special task force, putting unwanted attention of the Dark Hearts. But they’re familiar with Tom, and surmise he’s not a threat.

For now, the Dark Hearts have identified Peaches’ body, whose real name is Kenny Pollard. Jay and Perry are still under the impression that the murders were targeted and that Robbie and Cliff knew about the fentanyl delivery. To send a message, the Dark Hearts murder Peaches’ fiancé and her father.

DJGrassonova and Snickerdoodle

Over at the task force home base, Tom and his charges are assembling intel about the Nance house murders. On the way back after visiting Kaylee, Grasso gets to know his teacher a little better, who can’t believe he started at the Bureau as a chaplain. Grasso himself was raised Catholic: going to church every Sunday, his single mother’s only day off; not eating meat on Fridays. Tom’s role as a man of the cloth with the FBI was to act as Counsel for victims after traumatic events. “Not many people lie about being a priest,” he says. Grasso addresses him as “Father”, which I would do as well to Mark Ruffalo. But both seem ready for eternal damnation as they order pizza for the house.

In terms of the others on the team, their dynamic is similar to that of siblings. We have the competent germaphobe in Aleah, who’s actually doing her job managing the tipline. Meanwhile, Lizzie and Grasso are the fighting brother and sister as he keeps calling her Snickerdoodle, referring to her 15-year-old email. He opens up a little, though, revealing his email from when he was a kid: DJGrassonova@yahoo.com. Fabien Frankel is doing good work here, proving, yet again, that Brits are accent chameleons. His East Coast Italian accent is incredibly attractive as he recites his old DJ routine at catholic mixers. His playlist? ‘Summer’ for Calvin Harris as a crowd warmer; Flo Rida’s ‘Whistle’ for the teens who want to grind.

Sara comes home

Back at home, Tom still has his son’s court appearance coming up. His eldest daughter, Sara, has come home from Chicago, bringing her gassy baby too. She wants this “nightmare to be over,” he admits to their family lawyer, Matt. We learn in this episode that Emily and Ethan are adopted. Sara has no problem othering her younger sister as she can no longer stand Ethan, who is revealed to have killed their mother during a psychiatric breakdown, throwing her down the stairs, breaking her neck. “Our mother was murdered, by her [Emily’s] brother,” says Sara.

Originally, the family agreed not to make a statement, letting the full force of the third-degree murder charge come into effect, keeping Ethan behind bars for 15 years. Emily has been talking with her therapist about writing one up, though, and that she’s doing it out of guilt to not abandon her brother. She wants the judge to sympathise on the grounds of Ethan’s mental health and that his meds weren’t available during Covid. (The pandemic is officially canon.) Tom is still in two minds about it all. His main thing is that he couldn’t have imagined this happening to them. “We were so . . .” he trails off. Perfect?

Maeve brings Sammy to the toy store

Aside from the obvious mirroring between Tom and Robbie, Maeve, on the other hand, is the only one with her wits about her. Robbie also wasn’t lying to Sammy that he knows his parents through his brother (Maeve’s father), which means the family has some loose ties to the gang. Maeve is instantly familiar with Sammy’s parents, Derek and Joanne; Google tells her that the boy has a missing child alert.

She wakes him up later that night to go on a trip to the mall to pick up that Lego Batman set he wanted for finishing Reading Club. My first thought was that she’ll drive off, leaving him there for someone to recognise him. She heads into work and dials 911 from the lost and found bedazzled phone, leaving a tip for Aleah to pick up on. Here, the storylines collide as Maeve watches the car park quickly turn into a crime scene lit up with red and blue lights. To her surprise, and a little comical twist, Sammy made his way back into her car. He hides in the boot as Maeve drives through the police checkpoint, thinking quick enough to redirect attention to KJ’s.

As she walks into the house, a sleeping Sammy in her arms, she’s absolutely seething at Robbie, who stands there like a fool. ‘What have you done to us?” she says to her uncle. I hope Emilia Jones is nominated for an Emmy next year.

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