‘Task’ episode 3 recap: nobody’s stronger than forgiveness
The Dark Hearts bring the Puerto Ricans into the fold; the task force know about Cliff; Tom doesn't want his son home. Here, we recap this week's episode of 'Task'
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FORGIVENESS IS THE MAIN theme of Brad Ingelsby’s Task. As we near the second half of the series, Tom faces the fact that he can’t forgive his son, Ethan, for pushing his wife down the stairs. Robbie is pursuing Jayson for the unforgiving fact that the Dark Hearts leader killed his brother. ‘Nobody’s stronger than forgiveness’ feels like it’s finally driving the plot forward, turning Tom and Robbie’s forgiveness into an intriguing will-they-won’t-they.
Below, we recap this week’s episode of Task.
Spoilers abound! read our recap of last week’s episode here.
Money is the reason
With the twelve kilos of fentanyl, Robbie has got himself a twofer. For one, he’s still planning to move it and earn the money from the sale, an estimated $1.2 to $1.6 million according to Aleah’s estimate. That’ll be enough to relocate him and his family to that private Canadian island he saw in a catalogue back in episode one.
And two, we get a bit more backstory on how his older brother, Billy, was involved with the Dark Hearts. Many years ago, buzzed and tatted-up Dark Hearts leader Jayson killed Billy; he even went to the nerve to turn up to the memorial service and shake Robbie’s hand, the same hand that killed his brother, he remembers. Siphoning the money is Robbie’s payback.
Maeve, on the other hand, has been trying to distance herself from her family’s history with the Dark Hearts; she resents Robbie for bringing them back into their orbit. If Robbie wants to go down this path, his legacy will read “murderer, thief and a kidnapper”. He ignores his niece; he’s found his reason.
The task crew’s smoking gun
There’s plenty going on over at camp Task. Combing through 500 tips, Lizzie and Aleah have put an estimate on the fentanyl from the Nance house. Meanwhile, Grasso and Tom traced the provenance of Peaches’ gun back to a Dark Hearts shoot-out against rival gang, the Vipers, back in 2017. This pleases Kathleen, who’s fabulously blunt when Grasso arrives late from a coffee run.
Aleah and Lizzie head to Peaches’ old workplace at a lumber yard, where they’re met with some misogynistic workers. Aleah swiftly shuts them up before she hands out flyers with a $25,000 reward for information on the home invasion suspects and Sammy’s whereabouts. This draws out Danny, whom the two rendezvous with later at a diner and reveals Cliff’s name to immediate interest.
On the other side of town, the boys pay Jayson and Perry a visit at their club to offer an olive branch to collaborate on locating Sammy as they near 72 hours. But the Hearts of their under-the-table methods. But what’s news to them is the presence of a leak within the gang.
The Dark Hearts bring the Puerto Ricans in
Last episode, we learned that the Dark Hearts’ influence is meagre compared to that of the Puerto Ricans, who control most of the drug flow in the wider Pittsburgh area. Perry and Jayson make their first move by visiting Freddy Frias, leader of the Puerto Rican gang, as they face an undersupply with their “12 birds” stolen. They offer him 25 per cent, which is pathetic considering Freddy’s supply is purer, faster and cheaper. But no one in that town cares for quality, so long as their seller is white, Freddy observes.
Jayson and Perry throw in another risk: other rival Latin gangs might move in, namely the Ecuadorians and Colombians, on Freddy’s West Pittsburgh domain. With Freddy’s cut increased to a cool 50 per cent, the Hearts have officially brought in the Puerto Ricans into the fold – which doesn’t look good for Robbie.
Eryn is the informant
I love a double agent moment, especially if it involves a ‘We should all just stab Caesar!’ sounding scheme. Maeve’s mother is alive and well, though it turns out she’s the First Lady of the Dark Hearts after leaving Billy and marrying Jayson. Though I’m not sure if she’s unhappy with her surroundings or if she’s always harboured an intent to eventually betray Jayson. Anyway, she’s the leak after all, helping Robbie and Cliff with tip-offs about what drug houses to hit. The bust Nance house operation still leaves a sore taste in Cliff’s mouth, but now Robbie wants help from her to move the fentanyl inconspicuously. She says Freddy is a no-go, now that he’s involved with Jayson and Perry. But her agenda remains to overthrow Jayson – maybe she’s been plotting revenge after all this time.
Cellmates = brothers for life
With Freddy off the table, the other option is Ray, who was Cliff’s former cellmate. Ray hasn’t been adjusting well to life on the outside; he casually referees for a club sports match, which is very unexciting to him. So when Robbie and Cliff mentioned the 12 birds, he practically jumped at it. “This is the most exciting thing that’s happened today,” he says, taking a long drag from his cigarette. Ray also name-drops one Lee Whitehead, who is now their key to moving the fentanyl through improper channels.
Task‘s first double-crossing!
A good crime show should involve a double-crossing, and Task has its first three episodes in. Naturally, Ray would like to fentanyl for himself, so he and his wife, Shelley, break into Cliff’s house later that night. (He never made it to his game.) Meanwhile, Tom and the task force also head to Cliff’s house after Danny’s tip, finding the house door ajar. Back-up is 15 minutes away, so they move in.
They aren’t slick thieves either. Shelley is the first to be pinned down, while Ray pushes Tom down the stairs and makes a run for it. Lizzie freezes as she comes face-to-face with a masked Ray. ‘Stop! Police!” she says. Duh. She and Grasso chase him down the street and eventually tackle him at a nearby car park.
Ray and Shelley are taken into custody and split off for interrogation. While Ray plays the idiot, Aleah gets Shelley to give him up by revealing that she’s also lived with an abusive husband. Now that the task force knows Cliff and an unidentified man visited Ray earlier that day, Tom gets him to unlock his phone (Birds wallpaper!) to set up a fake meet tomorrow night at the park. Tom drops the conspiracy charges, but backhands him with an ‘assaulting an officer’ charge.
Task It couple? Snickerdoodle and DJGrassanova go for a drink
You can’t blame Lizzie for being smitten after Grasso saved her. (He is played by Fabien Frankel, after all.) On a happier note in the episode, she asks him out for a drink. They’re awkward together as they pitch some new nicknames other than Snickerdoodle and DJGrassanova. How about “Grassa-gets-no-assa”? He says it’s not a total lie, leaving her a little speechless. As he leaves, he rings the communal bell with a self-deprecating admission that all cops are corrupt, but raises a glass to his colleague that she’s the only good nut.
Tom doesn’t want Ethan out
Back at home, Tom soothes his head injuries with some vodka, much to Aleah’s dismay. His mental state is precarious after falling down the stairs and hallucinating his late wife, Susan, at the top of the landing. A mean reference. Meanwhile, Emily spent the day visiting Ethan in prison, who has a new buzzcut and has lost a significant amount of weight. She returns home later that night to hear her father admit to Sara that he also doesn’t want Ethan out of prison. He can’t forgive him, he says, leaving Emily alone in her feelings.
We end on a bittersweet flashback to when Susan and Tom just adopted the siblings. They’ve prepped the house with streamers and a cake welcoming them to the family. “Should we congratulate them?” he asks his wife. That sounds egotistical, she says, instead proposing: “We couldn’t imagine letting you go, so we decided not to.”
The show couldn’t leave it there. Joe visits Tom with some cam footage that suggests that there’s also a leak in his task force. Turns out he didn’t vet the team he inherited. Tom lists out: the competent officer Aleah, the rookie state trooper Lizzie, and the county detective Grasso. My guess is that it could be Lizzie, whose rough background might be tied to the Dark Hearts. Or Grasso, whose suaveness seems a little contrived – a good cover-up. These aren’t good guesses, so, hell, it could even be Aleah, whose locked-in disposition makes her a good double agent. In other words, it’s a good sign to where Task is headed.
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