‘Task’ Episode 6 Recap

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Watch – ‘Task’ Episode 6 Recap

Podcast: The Watch
Hosts: Chris Ryan & Andy Greenwald
Publisher: The Ringer
Episode: ‘Task’ Episode 6 Recap
Date: October 13, 2025

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Main Theme & Purpose

In this episode, Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald deliver a passionate, in-depth analysis of Episode 6 of HBO’s crime drama Task titled “Out Beyond Ideas of Wrongdoing and Right Doing.” The hosts break down the monumental events in the episode, exploring its emotional impact, philosophical underpinnings, standout performances, and how it shifts the trajectory for the series ahead of its finale.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Immediate Reactions & Episode Structure

• The episode picks up right after the climactic standoff in the woods, unleashing one of the “most unrelenting, breathless 15 minute sequences” seen on television recently ([03:24]).
• Title card appears strikingly late at the 18-minute mark ([03:24]), praised as “such a sick move” and “devastating” by the hosts ([03:27]).
• Chris and Andy agree: this is the best episode of the series so far and a potential best of the year moment.

2. Plot Highs and Major Events

• In rapid succession:
  • Kathleen McGinty is shot in the shoulder.
  • Robbie is fatally stabbed by Jason.
  • Lizzie is run over and dies in Grasso’s arms.
  • Robbie sacrifices himself for his daughter Harper’s future.
• The consequences of violence on each character are explored, not shied away from.
  • “A TV show that doesn’t look away from the consequences of terrible things.” – Andy ([06:22]).
  • “It supports and allows… the kind of stuff that we used to like to do in college English classes.” – Andy ([11:48])
• The arbitrary and deeply human nature of the violence—particularly Lizzie’s death—is foregrounded.

3. Philosophical and Thematic Threads

• Nature and Place: The unusual, peaceful natural settings (woods, rivers, birds) serve as constant juxtaposition to the violence—functioning as places of peace and innocence lost ([08:01], [09:26]).
• The episode’s title draws on Rumi, signaling spiritual and existential depth ([02:31], [12:18]).
• Task is about “spiderweb, cracked tendrils of violence and community and loss and regret and guilt” ([05:17]).
• The show isn’t about cop-versus-crook, but the “totality of human experience”—every character contains multitudes and contradictions ([18:10], [36:03]).
• “He can’t stop drinking from the cup of life… everyone exists in all ways, all at once.” – Andy on Brad Inglesby’s writing ([18:10]).

4. Impact of Character Decisions & Performances

• Robbie’s tragic arc: His dream of escape is revealed as a myth; his fate was sealed by old wounds, longing for innocence, and sacrifice for loved ones ([10:48]).
• Grasso’s turn into villainy: Once sympathetic, now the show’s real villain, while still portrayed with depth ([07:16], [38:43]).
• Tom’s transformation: From broken to redemptive, largely through his relationships with his daughters and the foster son, Sam. Mark Ruffalo’s “sneaky, good” performance is highlighted ([29:36], [27:03]).
  • “His emergence from those woods seems to revive… his ability to be a police… but also a father and a communicator.” – Chris ([31:18])
  • The peanut butter and jelly scene is singled out for emotional resonance ([29:36]-[29:43])
• Lizzie’s death: Brutal, arbitrary, but emotionally and thematically meaningful ([15:44], [39:00]).
• Strong praise for Emilia Jones (Maeve), Alison Oliver (Lizzie), and Fabian Frankel (Grasso), the latter who Andy calls “so haunted” and “deeply haunted throughout” ([34:41]).
• The fate of Maeve, now a 21-year-old handling stolen money and a death, is left ominously unresolved ([16:44]).

5. Craft and Structure

• Brad Inglesby’s showrunning is praised for:
  • “Show your hand early or kill someone before you think it’s time.”
  • Use of time and structure to destabilize expectations.
• Comparisons are drawn with Mare of Easttown (also created by Inglesby):
  • Task gives the audience information ahead of the characters, creating tension and inevitability ([23:17]).
  • “Sense of inevitability and tragedy” ([24:40]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I just think there’s something both beautiful, and really, really healthy at this moment about a TV show that doesn’t look away from the consequences of terrible things.” — Andy Greenwald ([06:22])
• “He can’t stop drinking from the cup of life… everyone exists in all ways, all at once.” — Andy Greenwald on Brad Inglesby ([18:10])
• “You’re hitting at the recon… reconciling and dealing with violence.” — Chris Ryan ([15:48])
• “I find myself in two-handed scenes like that…when actors take dialogue off the board. Not saying that line was written, but it could have been and it wasn’t necessary. I love that.” — Andy Greenwald on emotional restraint in writing ([40:26])
• “His emergence from those woods seems to revive… his ability to be a police, a law enforcement officer or an agent, but also a father and also a communicator and somebody who’s, like, opening up his heart.” — Chris Ryan on Tom’s arc ([31:18])
• “I respect the fiction.” — Andy Greenwald on the aftermath of Lizzie’s death ([39:59])
• “Confession’s for human beings, like confessions are for humans. A human practice to help us with our shame. It’s not for God’s sake. If you want to be forgiven, all you have to do is ask.” — Andy Greenwald paraphrasing Tom’s dialogue ([33:58])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:24] – Breakdown of action sequence and title card timing
• [05:14] – Conversation about the show’s inevitability and humanity
• [08:01] – Importance of natural settings and poetic imagery
• [10:48] – Robbie’s awareness of his fate
• [12:18] – Deep-dive on Rumi, spirituality, and literary symbolism
• [15:32] – Analysis of Lizzie’s death and how violence is depicted
• [16:44] – The fate of Maeve and the implications of the money
• [18:10] – Complexity of character writing by Brad Inglesby
• [27:03] – Praise for Ruffalo’s performance
• [29:36] – The peanut butter & jelly scene and Tom’s redemption
• [31:18] – Tom’s emotional journey post-Robbie
• [34:07] – Religion, confession, and themes of redemption
• [39:00] – Further thoughts on Lizzie’s death and Alison Oliver’s performance
• [40:26] – Emilia Jones’ performance and the power of restraint
• [42:32] – Speculation on the show’s ending and open questions

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Final Thoughts & Speculation

• The finale is anticipated to focus on emotional and existential closure rather than a traditional shootout ([37:31]).
• Open questions remain about unfinished arcs—Grasso, Maeve, the money, and whether there are still “dangling threads” ([42:23]).
• The hosts ruminate on what distinguishes Task from earlier works, and how it “doesn’t look away” from aftermath and consequences.

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Tone and Style

Chris and Andy strike a mix of reverence, analytical depth, and trademark banter (“Philly Heat,” “Yinglings, morning, noon and night” ([36:19])), while keeping the conversation thoughtful and grounded in the show’s rich emotional palettes.

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For listeners and non-listeners alike, this episode provides an insightful, moving look at how a modern crime series can triumph by balancing action, consequence, humanity, and craft.

Transcript

[Chris Ryan]

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[Chris Ryan]

I need support staff to clear the room.

[Andy Greenwald]

Stand up and walk now.

[Chris Ryan]

Hello and welcome to the Watch. My name is Chris Ryan. I am an [e-mail] and joining me on the other line, it's his house. He'll smoke if he wants to. It's Andy Greenwald.

[Andy Greenwald]

In fact, literally, you. First of all, I think that this is a very incredible episode of Task and a serious one, and we need to treat it with the seriousness that it deserves. But I must say at the outset that Grasso's house did in some way remind me of the apartment that you and your not yet wife shared in Brooklyn, in which the constant factor, whether it was summer or the dead of winter at your beautiful Christmas party is the cracked kitchen window. Oh, yeah, smoke around which everyone smoked. Yes, there were rules and they were respected.

[Chris Ryan]

Andy, we are going to talk about episode six of Task, which was huge, which was momentous, which had a lot of stuff going on. So if you for some reason are tuning into the Watch and have not watched Task yet, stop what you're doing, go watch Task and then you can come back and check us out. I want to get right into it, man. I have no banter. I have no amusing anecdotes. My amusing anecdote is, this is one of my favorite shows of the year. Uh, this was, I think, the best episode of the series so far. It's called Out Beyond Ideas of Wrongdoing and Right Doing. There is a river.

[Andy Greenwald]

Is that a songs Ohio song? Like what. What. What is that?

[Chris Ryan]

I think it's actually a line from a poem by the 13th century Persian poet Rumi that's so weird.

[Andy Greenwald]

That was my second guess. Yeah, that's one of the odds.

[Chris Ryan]

Uh, this one was written by Brad Inglesby and it was directed by Sally Richardson Whitfield, who also appears as the prosecutor when Maeve is being interrogated by. Midway through the episode.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, shout out to Sally.

[Chris Ryan]

Excellent size. We're getting two hats in this episode. And it continues right where episode five left off with the standoff in the woods and, you know, one of the more unrelenting, breathless 15 minute sequences that I've seen on TV in a long time, or at least since, you know, the standalone episode of adolescence in the interrogation room. But just an incredible 15 minutes of a stamp of woods.

[Andy Greenwald]

I believe the title card appears at the 18 minute mark.

[Chris Ryan]

So sick.

[Andy Greenwald]

That is such a sick move. Devastating.

[Chris Ryan]

If you're doing the SportsCenter version of it. Kathleen McGinty gets shot in the shoulder. Robbie is fatally stabbed by Jason. Lizzie is run over by an escaping Jason, and Perry in a truck, and she dies in Grosso's arms despite him betraying the task force and everyone else. You know, moments, moments that, like this show has been building towards and it really, really delivers. You know, last episode was, you know, the Heat diner scene essentially with. With Robbie and Tom in the car heading out towards this. This spot where. Where Robbie had grown up and. And spent time with Billy as a kid on the Lehigh or in Lehigh. No, no, no, honestly, it's Lakes and Rivers. I'm getting a little confused, but it is Bushkill. I honestly, this was the kind of action set piece that this show hadn't really touched on since, you know, Tom and Ray wrestling in a basement kind of. I mean, we haven't really. We've done a lot of talking and then we had some serious action. I. I kind of complained a little bit about. Oh, you know, I think people have expected ending the episode with a bang and they start the episode with a bang. So much to go over here, man. We want to just do general thoughts and impressions first.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, I mean, I do want to talk about, obviously, the consequential moments of the episode and in terms of the plot, in terms of the surprises, in terms of the masterful orchestra conducting that Brad Ingoldsby does here regarding when, how and where he deploys certain events, certain.

[Chris Ryan]

Things that are inevitable but feel surprising because of where they're placed.

[Andy Greenwald]

Maybe surprising, but the flip side of inevitable is that dangerous word earned. And it also helps clarify what show we've been watching in a way that I found very significant. You know it's glib to say that task is Philly Heat. I think there were clear. Clearly it's not just that, but I think to use the previous episode's car ride with Tom and Robbie as the comparison point to the diner scene, like the diner scene is a lot of it means it's, it's Michael man. Men, right? Like they're kind of like eyeing each other up and they're, they're gauging each other and it's kind of like a dick measuring contest in the best way with those actors. This is about two broken men, like connecting over their shared humanity, which is a little bit more my speed, but then again, I haven't been to a diner in a minute. So the fact that this show isn't about necessarily the mano a mano collision between these two guys, it's about the spiderweb, cracked tendrils of violence and community and loss and regret and guilt is really meaningful to me in watching it and also feels exactly where the show should be and what the show should be. And the thing that I wrote down after watching most of it was, and this is my top down, 100,000 foot statement that I kind of want to get your perspective on, is that I just think there's something both beautiful and, and really, really healthy at this moment about a TV show that doesn't look away from the consequences of terrible things. Yeah, we are desensitized to so much because of the scroll, because of just the nature of what's popular, what's grabby. And this is a show that gives us and earns again that tricky word. Robbie's would be father daughter, dance with Harper and shows Harper sobbing because her father has, as we learn at the end of the episode, essentially sacrificed himself for her future. Grasso is a full human who has done something unforgivable and has now, in the last episode, with the last episode ahead of us, has evolved into the show's villain in a very strong way. Even Jason, who is unequivocally the show's villain, who has murdered both Prendergrass brothers with his bare hands, basically.

[Chris Ryan]

He's still a wife guy.

[Andy Greenwald]

He's still a wife guy. Big picture and maybe this is also international picture. I just found at this moment in history and in also my travel schedule, I found the just unshakable humanity of this show both affecting but also a restorative.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, I wonder whether or not some of it is just the uncommon settings of some of these real breakthrough moments. I mean, I think I, I Went into this series, and I was like, oh, this is going to be the urban crime drama that Philadelphia has never really truly gotten. Like, it's gonna cat. There's. I. I don't know if I thought there was going to be a shootout on Broad street or a chase through the Italian market.

[Andy Greenwald]

There almost was after Shane Sean Payton's behavior on Sunday.

[Chris Ryan]

But this show is largely takes place in. In the natural world. And many of the insert shots, many of the cutaways are to birds and water and trees and the connection that these characters have to this. These places being places of peace for them. You know, in the previous episode, Ruffalo.

[Andy Greenwald]

They have places of peace. Right. Like, even that is so fragile.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. And the idea that, like, Ruffalo is trying to relate to Robbie by describing the patterns of behavior of a bird that that shouldn't be where it is, but could still find its way home. Or the way that Robbie releases Tom by sending him to a beautiful place that he has to get through by walking for a mile in the woods. And to say, as someone who's not much of a hiker, that's not an easy walk, like a mile in the woods.

[Andy Greenwald]

It's more the woods part than the mile, I think. But, yeah, in any case, there's just.

[Chris Ryan]

You know, this is also the setting, obviously, for this incredibly violent exchange between the bikers, Robbie, and the task force. But it's really striking how much of this show has decided to take place in an incredibly idyllic setting and what it's trying to do with that. I thought that a lot of the repeated imagery, Robbie jumping into the quarry of birds flying, of whatever, like, obviously get brought back up his last few seconds of life in a way that I thought was quite beautiful and quite earned. You know, like, that can often be that. Like, ah, yes, I'm touching wheat as I walk into, you know, Valhalla. Valhalla. But this felt very much like they did the work to get to that moment of release. And even more so, the fact that Robbie had been basically, like, asking Tom what happens when you die? Like, what do you see? What do people seem to behave like? Because he fucking knows. In the backseat of that car, he might as well have basketballs in that duffel bag. He is not bringing drugs. He does not expect to get out of this thing alive. He knows that he's signing up for his. That's his plan. So his interest in how do people feel when they die? What do you do when people die? Like, that's real. Because he knows that's what's about to happen.

[Andy Greenwald]

I also think it's significant that his dream of escape, a dream that you, I think really smartly pointed out, is just punctured like a balloon instantly by a 21 year old. When he says it out loud to her, the dream of going to Canada, like an unspoiled green wilderness, it really made me reconsider all of that because he lives in an abundant green, beautiful wilderness or he grew up in one. So it's really about returning to the, the innocent self. It's about returning to a time of before sin, basically. Yes. And that place doesn't really exist. It's in brochures or it's in the Bible maybe. You know, I find like when people I have seen like online, some people casually dismissing the show, not that they don't like it, but that it's just like a HBO classed up version of a more typical procedural. And I just think that that's to be, to be, you know, with all due respect, I think that's really missing the point. Yes, I think that this show is a very, very thoughtful and at times beautiful and profound meditation on life and loss and it, it supports and allows this kind of like the kind of stuff that we used to like to do in college English classes. Oh well, this imagery is significant because it represents a prelapsarian time when blah, like all that bullshit that we don't do anymore because we don't even write, we just talk on podcasts. But it does feel like we could go back to some of that. I mean, you're reading spirituality books, you know.

[Chris Ryan]

Because of this though.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

The fucking episode is named after a line from Rumi poem.

[Andy Greenwald]

Come on. You know, the tom talks about this bird and then a bird distracts Robbie. Is it, is that earthly business or is that inevitable? Like the way of the natural world goes? I don't know. But I think it's worth talking about because we've been praising Brad's architecture skills throughout the whole season. And so I feel like it's worth diving into just exactly what he did here because in addition to playing. I've been saying this for years and I'm not the only one saying it. Playing one of the most effective and still underutilized cards in the showrunning deck, which is show your hand early or kill someone before you think it's time or time is really the thing that, that is still most potent I think for showrunners in terms of breaking through to a jaded audience in addition to doing all of that. And along with Sally and the crew designing this incredible action sequence, he also rope a doped us because everything was so full on. I can't be the only one who didn't really think about Shelley. I didn't think about that business.

[Chris Ryan]

The only reason I thought about it really, more than once is that Mickey Sumner is very good. And why would you have her do one and a half scenes, you know.

[Andy Greenwald]

But she had came. But she. And this. She's there for one. She has one line. But the fact that everything about the. Like I found, you know, a minute ago, I'm talking about how. How beautiful and profound and how moved I was by how, like, bleak, bad the show sometimes is. No moment maybe more so than when Robbie has his revenge and then he too gets killed by the same monster that ruined his life, only to find out, as you were alluding to, that this entire thing was a suicide play and that the money was already secured and it was about keeping.

[Chris Ryan]

Maybe there was a. Maybe he hoped to get out of those woods. I don't think he seemed surprised by the amount of motorcycle guys who showed up. I do think he was surprised that the task force found him, and I do think he would. He was hindered by the fact that Grasso was doing Chip Kelly hand signals all over the place to get guys to, like, do this, don't do that. Do not take a shot at Lizzie.

[Andy Greenwald]

Talk about traitors to Philadelphia.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, you. You know what? There's something about how a lot of what happens in this episode feels inevitable. Like, I did not assume Robbie was going to get out of this series alive. Right. And I didn't think everybody from the task force was going to live. I don't think I foresaw it being as. Not random, but seemingly arbitrary in terms of its circumstances, the way that Lizzie died, but the connection that she and Grasso, I think, sincerely had, I don't think that that was part of the assignment. I think all he had to do was just be like, they're coming for you here. You know, like, he obviously opens himself up to her. The arbitrary nature of the way that she dies in a car crash rather than in a shootout.

[Andy Greenwald]

You know, I mean, not crash, but she. She gets run over.

[Chris Ryan]

She is run over and she can't. And the reason she gets run over is because she can't hear the truck coming, because Grasso is fired off a gun right by her head.

[Andy Greenwald]

So her rupture eardrum.

[Chris Ryan]

I kind of. You know, I figured Aaliyah or Lizzie would probably die. Out there or McGinty. But this show isn't about those kinds of moments. It's about the moments afterwards. And that's what you're. You're. You're hitting at the recon, reconciling and dealing with violence.

[Andy Greenwald]

You.

[Chris Ryan]

The set piece works better because we are now going to spend an hour and a half thinking about and talking about what happened. And there may be some shootout in the finale, and it may be Jason versus Perry versus Grasso versus Tom versus Aaliyah. But I think that it. It's so much more effective to think about it in terms of, like, these people's, these characters. Lives go on. Even if the series ends, you know, and even when Maeve gets that money at the end, which would be the end of any of 90% of versions of this show is Maeve gets a huge bag of money in it. I think Maeve's in trouble, man.

[Andy Greenwald]

Like, yeah, she's 21 years old raising.

[Chris Ryan]

Drug money now, and a lot of people are watching it or looking for it. And it was so important to Jason that Jason was like, still out there eating Perry trout, you know, trout Owl of Perry, do you think?

[Andy Greenwald]

I have two quick side questions for you, digressive questions for you. One, are you excited for the day in 20 years when Brad Inglesby announces that he's making task two with Leonardo DiCaprio in the Maeve part about what happens to the money? I feel like that's just. Let's just book it in advance. Get your tickets in VistaVision. And the second question, as I did, wonder sometimes, often around where I am right now in the beautiful city of London, you and I will indulge little fantasies of, like, oh, what if just two chums shared a flat for a time and split the G together on occasion or whatever? Do you think we could have hung in a Perry and Jason type way? Like, I feel like that would be a recipe for the.

[Chris Ryan]

I do think 29 years just. You're still. You just keep getting on your phone. Why are you doing that?

[Andy Greenwald]

I'm trying to make you dinner. Show some respect. Yeah, just some wet fish from Straight from the River.

[Chris Ryan]

That's not where I saw this show going. I didn't see this show going in like a weird. Like, all of these people are trapped with their own decisions. Now, Grosso is there are people, there.

[Andy Greenwald]

Are writers, I'm sure, in any medium, but let's talk specifically about television. There are writers who are obsessed with. And there are writers who are obsessed with aesthetics, and there are writers who are obsessed with style. And there are writers who are obsessed with surprises. And those are all valid. And there are examples in each category of shows that I love. What's clear about Brad Inglesby is he's obsessed with life. He can't stop drinking from the cup of life. Like in some sort of dramatic religious analogy that I can't quite pull off here, everyone is given a full life. Everyone exists in all ways, all at once. Like you're saying Jason is a wife guy, but like everyone is the totality of their experience. Tom and Robbie didn't need to get along, but they did. And their behavior afterwards reflected that. You know, Grasso absolutely, really cared about Lizzie, but he also is a flawed and failed person who is trying to have everything all at once and make it work out, which doesn't seem to ever work out for anyone at any point in the show. You said that and you're right that the Lizzie death felt sort of random. But I'm not really ready to talk about it yet. Well, I'm going to check in. I just wanted to say that I was more prepared maybe than you were because early in the episode, like super early, Crosso says, lizzie, stick with me. And I was like, ah, shit, that's the McBain moment right there. That's a wrap on her.

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[Chris Ryan]

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[Andy Greenwald]

So talk me through your feelings.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, I thought it was a great character and I think it speaks to a larger conversation that probably people are going to have after this episode of like why were these people put on a task force in the first place? You know, because with the exception of Aaliyah, they seem to have some. Some questions about some red flags. Preparedness. Yeah. Aaliyah, obviously, like all about her business, has this sharpshooting background. Seems like she's a pretty good detective. Investigator.

[Andy Greenwald]

She got her badge and her nickname.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. But Lizzie has a bad reputation among her fellow state troopers as being a little bit of a nervous nelly when it comes to when. When shit goes down. And Grosso has something in his file.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

That is like is known to possibly tip off dark hearts. FYI.

[Andy Greenwald]

There's two. Two strands of thought there. Right. One is being asked to join a task force is not nearly as special as you and I may have thought it was.

[Chris Ryan]

Sure.

[Andy Greenwald]

That everyone's always getting pulled into task forces. It's like being a sophomore in college and someone saying want to join my band.

[Chris Ryan]

Right.

[Andy Greenwald]

Like everybody does a time. Everybody picks up a base once in a while.

[Chris Ryan]

At least once. Did not play psychedelic country for two great weeks.

[Andy Greenwald]

You know, two of the best weeks of your life. The other alternative, and this is something that I'm legitimately asking you because I haven't read anything about this episode yet. And I also am in the dark. And I don't know if that's good or bad is is McGinty still sus because we felt that way and then it seemed to. She seemed to be cleared a little bit by the Grasso stuff. But doesn't her still being a little bit compromised cover for the motley makeup of the task force, I feel like putting possibly.

[Chris Ryan]

I mean, I think that I'm open to anything happening. I would say that the difference between Task and Mare is. Is found in this kind of construction where Task is a crime show. And a lot of. A lot of what is happening is evident to viewers if it's not evident to the characters. So the viewers know that Grosso is the mole before Tom does. I think the viewers know Cliff is dead before Robbie does. You know, like, there's.

[Andy Greenwald]

We see it.

[Chris Ryan]

It's a totality of like this sort of these dozen characters and what they're going through and what they're doing and what they're thinking. We know that Eren's dead before Jason does. Who killed Aaron, and Jason does not. Mare was more of a.

[Andy Greenwald]

You're talking about mayor of Easttown.

[Chris Ryan]

Brad's first show, Mare of Easttown was more about this woman looking for the killer of a young girl. And as things were revealed, they usually happened in the order that Mare herself was finding them. The viewer and Mare were on the same page. So I think that there's elements of it that make May make you second guess. And. And one thing that Inglesby is doing in this show that I think is successful sometimes, and every once in a while I bump against is the someone is about to find out a very important piece of information, but the show is going to cut away from that.

[Andy Greenwald]

Well, yeah, but that's TV101. Sure, I get it. I hear you. I mean, for me, stuff like that is baked into the concept when you make a detective or a crime show, and it's just a question of how artfully you hide it. And, you know, look, there's a character on the show who is a magician, and so maybe there's some projection there that likes how Brad sees himself. You know, please come to my show.

[Chris Ryan]

My point is really more that, like, the way that he is making it and the way that we are being given this information sometimes before the characters is that it creates a more of a sense of inevitability and tragedy about it. Because you're like, I know. Hey, man, Robbie, like, this is about to be the most popular woods in America. Like, you please don't go here. But he's. He's got a destiny, you know, he's got. He's got something he's moving towards. And I think, you know, the idea that the show is going to be about Tom finding Robbie, and instead it's almost going to be Tom finding peace for Robbie.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

Is pretty amazing.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes. I think two quick. Well, one quick thing and one longer thing. The quick thing is just there was a really artful reprise of the crazy Robbie thing. Crazy Robbie always trying to find a way to. What was it? To save his life, to change his life. I wrote it down. I just can't find it in my notes. This people are who they are.

[Chris Ryan]

Which is what Perry referred to him as in episode.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yes. And you're like, wait, what?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

And then that's how people see him because we're introduced to him as someone who is quirky and interesting and maybe. Maybe biting off a little bit more than he can chew. But the nature of television is we're right there with him, so we just kind of trust him. Oh, Cliff likes him. We like him too. That put an era that added an air of tragedy and inevitability to his arc for sure. Realizing that everyone was kind of like, this guy's. This guy's just gonna keep trying and we don't think he's ever gonna get there. This, the subtle reveal that the show actually isn't a two hander, it's the Tom show was, I think, kind of beautiful and felt surprising in a way. And I don't say that to diminish Tom Felfrey's performance because it's one of the best performances of the year. And I think Emmy voters are going to agree with me on that. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

All they have to do is watch. Watch his scene with Margarita Levova when he finds out Cliff's dead.

[Andy Greenwald]

This is such a sneaky, good Ruffalo performance. And one of the things that is a Hallmark of Ruffalo's 25 year career is that you could say that about all of his best performances because he's such an un. Showy actor. The spotlight speech aside, like, he is just. He just sinks into things and he just embodies a kind of conflicted morality, but always erring towards good that I think is really, really compelling. And so his performance, the pairing of the two we've talked about, is so brilliant that he's just such a steady. Speaking of bass, like a steady bass drum underneath the more frantic snare of what Robbie's doing with Cliff and. And to have it emerge into the solo and realize that this has been about. I mean, everyone's the main character of their own story, but he becomes the main character and his story becomes the main story of the show, of one of redemption. And I think that Ruffalo is astonishing in this episode. Like, he has big action moments, and they're clobbering the shit out of Perry. And it's like, whoa, I didn't know Tom had that in his bag. But what he then goes through in the aftermath, and you see the priest emerge again in terms of giving Robbie last rites. And then there is a moment, and I know. I feel like you lost Alison Oliver's performance, and so you went through your grieving process and you were emotional, maybe uncharacteristically so. It could be the jet lag. I miss my kids. But when Tom comes home with Sam, and again, we were joking over text last night and we both watched the episode and you were like, well, the inevitable happened in a compelling way. And I was like, oh, Tom adopting Sam. Which felt inevitable from the beginning. I don't have receipts. I didn't say it on the podcast. It just felt like something that we were headed towards. But he shows up and he's got a Batman Lego and he goes in the kitchen to make peanut butter and jelly and his daughters, who are now united in a really beautiful way. And again, this is a subtle thing. Clearly, Brad has multiple children because a sign of a healthy home is the children conspiring against the adult and not being on the adult side anymore, being on each other's side, which is sort of beautiful and subtle and definitely recognizable, I would say, as a hashtag girldad. But he's making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and they're saying, like, why are you doing this? Is this a. Why did you do this? Are you sure this is a good idea? And I'm sure the audience is saying that as well. And he basically says, I saw him in this place, this awful, hopeless place, and I thought about your mother, and I thought, what would she do? And the best answer I could come up with was to bring him home. Now, does anyone else.

[Chris Ryan]

Doesn't he say something like, there's no way she would let him be there. Like, she would never let. Just stay in this place. Yeah.

[Andy Greenwald]

And now does anyone else want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? And it got super dusty in this London executive party.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, it's just like. And the totality. The totality of the experience of watching Tom basically get this second lease on life from Robbie, because Robbie is. You know, they do this car ride. They talk about Team Susan or Team Tom and. And what happens after you die and birds. And Tom thinks he's going to be killed. He's going to be executed out in the woods by Robbie. And he's just like, just let me talk to My kids. Let me talk to my kids. And Robbie's like, I'm going to actually send you somewhere beautiful, you know? And he lets him go, and he makes him walk through the woods. And that his emergence from those woods seems to revive not only his ability to be a police, a law enforcement officer or an agent, but also a father and also a communicator and somebody who's, like, opening up his heart. And maybe that's also what happens after Robbie dies in his arms, you know what I mean? Like, he's given this gift that allows him to return to who he was. I mean, think about, like, he's now got two kids in his house. He has now got another third child that he is essentially fostering. He's pursuing this case outside of, like, what is just the bare minimum of what is required from him in his job. He's like, no, I'm gonna go to Kathleen's house. I'm gonna keep looking after this. And then he goes after Grasso. And what was a. I thought a wonderful scene. Like, yes, it is the third time Grasso has pointedly asked about the Catholic Church. But I actually thought it was pretty cool that Grasso wasn't like, I didn't do anything.

[Andy Greenwald]

Like, no, I love that.

[Chris Ryan]

That he was like, is that rhetorical question, or are you really asking me? And it's like, what can you prove versus what do you know is the whole thing?

[Andy Greenwald]

Before we get there, just to say, like, this entire series is above my religious pay grade. There is something that strikes me as profoundly Catholic about all of it in ways that I don't.

[Chris Ryan]

I'll let you know when I get to the chapter that explains tasks.

[Andy Greenwald]

I was going to ask if you could talk me through it and maybe, you know, if we get a chance to talk to Brad again, we can talk specifically about this stuff. Because the idea of life and death is connected as a circle is, you know, is stitched into every fabric of. Stitched into the very fabric of the show. Tom lost his wife and essentially lost his son in the process. Robbie kills Sam's parents and takes Sam. And all of this awful, awful, deeply felt death leads to Sam snuggling up and falling asleep safe for the first time in maybe many years in his life, in Tom's house. And that's what I think anyone who's ever lived or gone through any kind of grieving process clings to and comes out the other side of. It's like, we have life still. We have more life, and we have to make the most of it when we have it. And I just. I found that again, I found it very affecting. I find it very moving. And I feel lucky about the show because it gave me the action highs and it gave me this punch of emotion even.

[Chris Ryan]

I think sometimes like Catholic imagery and religious imagery and crime stuff can be. It can be a sign of heavy handedness.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah. It has been both in the work.

[Chris Ryan]

Of somebody, I think at one point in the fifth episode when Shelley and Robbie meet in the beginning of the episode, and Robbie's like, why should I trust you? And Shelly is like, here I have this plan. We're gonna sell the drugs on our own. He's like, why should I trust you? And she's like, because I'm a good person. And he goes, jesus Christ. And I'm a good person or am I a good person? Or we bad people? Is like a very, very, very overworked trope in crime television and in prestige television over the years. But I don't know, the show just kind of earns those kinds of discussions. And I think that when Grasso is asking about confession and talking about like, the nature of like, you know, unburdening himself and Tom just says, like, confessions for human beings, like confessions are for humans.

[Andy Greenwald]

A human practice to help us with our shame. It's not for God's sake. If you want to be forgiven, all you have to do is ask. Yes, yes, about that.

[Chris Ryan]

And then like a vengeful God, Tom's like, if you're not going to come clean with me, I'm coming for you.

[Andy Greenwald]

Pretty ballsy to show up at the new bad guy's house.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes.

[Andy Greenwald]

Alone. Especially now that you've taken on the charge of a traumatized eight year old boy. Yeah, but you got to make, I mean, still got to be a TV show. I respect it. One thing I want to say, I want to. I want to make sure that this is on the record, that I will no longer be slandering Ser Criston Cole.

[Chris Ryan]

He's got.

[Andy Greenwald]

Is an incredible thing when you realize that your only experience with an actor is seeing them essentially in a corset, or in his case, a very tightly fitting armor. I'm not saying he's bad on that show. I'm saying what is he doing? And it's certainly not. We've been talking a bunch over the last few weeks about shows or directors that understand the actors that they cast and how to showcase them and unlock them and unleash them, like Eth Hawk in the Lowdown or whatever, or Tom Pelfrey here. Or actually most of the. Amelia. Amelia Jones, who might be the. Like, the MVP of the entire series. We haven't even mentioned her much today. He's so good. He is just purely good at the show. Fabian Frankel, like, English actor who is just understanding the assignment. And I feel like maybe we'll ask him about this. But, like, I just. Without naming names, I bet they auditioned a lot of people who thought they were auditioning for Delco Heat and were playing not to the cheap seats, but playing to the popular seats. And this guy is so haunted. He's just deeply haunted throughout. And the turn from calling him boss and seeming to be really the supplicant going to him for confession to the devil.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes.

[Andy Greenwald]

Is so elegantly done.

[Chris Ryan]

Did you like the scene between Grosso and his county detective boss, who's also obviously in cahoots with the dark hearts and. And them talking about. And, like, Grosso just being like, she died in my arms.

[Andy Greenwald]

And, like, he's like, forget her. Yeah, I. I mean, it was a good scene. Lot of Yinglings. A lot of Yinglings, morning, noon and night, which I don't necessarily disrespect. One thing I'm learning, you know, when you get, like, TV brain, when you see shows too close to each other, and like, after I watch this, and then I watched the first House of Guinness, and I was like, boy, men do not like to have liquid poured on them. Like, that is just, like, a real violation to get your head in the sink or have a drink thrown in your face. Yeah, I like that scene. But, like, I just. I guess the other thing to say about the surprise, like, finding out where we are in the show, like, all these things happened, and then it pivots into kind of a different type of story for the last episode. The proof that it works. And it's a leap of faith. Shout out the Catholic Church. It's a leap of faith that they would get to episode 6 and take the 1A on the call sheet off the board and essentially solve many aspects of the task force's case. And I don't feel diminished. Like, I'm not thinking that it's going to be like, in the grand tradition of the Wire, where the last episode's like a long denouement. Like, that is not the case. We are dealing with something deeper from a different perspective than we had previously realized.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. And I haven't watched. Obviously, we have not watched the finale. But given what we know now about what this show is really about, and given what even Tom and Grosso talk about in Grosso's house. You have to assume that Ethan's court hearing is coming up and that is going to be about, like, physician, heal thyself. Like, yes. You can't just go around telling people, you know, what happens when you die and how forgiveness works without. Without reckoning with your own family. And that might be what this fucking show is about. Like, the Perry and. The Perry and Jason and Grasso stuff could get wrapped up in five minutes. It's really going to be about, like, is this guy's soul capable of being revived?

[Andy Greenwald]

I can't be the only one who thought that when there's the shot of Tom walking into not Covenant House, but essentially the juvie where Sam's being held, that I thought he was going into the prison. That's not the first episode thing. You're right about Perry and Jason. Like, all Jason has to do is figure out what happened with Aaron and then that's a wrap on Uncle Pear. Do you think we're going to get.

[Chris Ryan]

Much of an explanation as to how Grosso comes. Comes to be a. A Departed style?

[Andy Greenwald]

Like, yeah, I think there's a lot more there and that, like, that character is going to reveal himself and, like I said, has suddenly he's the villain now in a show that doesn't really do villains other than. I mean, Perry and Jason are villains, but they still love their ladies, you know.

[Chris Ryan]

Anything else from this episode? I mean, I have a bunch of stuff that I thought was just really lovely, like, or well done. I mean, obviously Lizzie's death, her whole, like, sequence of events in the woods getting basically, like, terrified and then killing Shane when Shane obviously thinks that Grasso is going to stop her from. From pulling the trigger. That quick moment where grass where Shane is just like, I'm gonna kill. I'm gonna get her. And gross is like, if you touch her, you're dead. You know, his. His efforts to protect her while also trying to do whatever he's trying to do out there. I mean, I don't think he wanted the bikers there in the first place because he had told Jason, yeah, he's got an agent with him. Don't come out here and look, man. I mean, like, that's a fucking brutal death scene for Lizzie. I. I will note with it, you know, getting hit full speed by a pickup truck. I don't think you'd look as lovely and peaceful afterwards as holding her in.

[Andy Greenwald]

I respect the fiction. Yes, I was grateful for the fiction. Alison. Oliver. Get your flowers. Incredible. An incredible 110% commitment performance. I watched Conversation with Friends and you could have given me 10 guesses about what I would see her do next. And none of them would have been this. And I like that show fine.

[Chris Ryan]

And that was the only when Aliyah finds the bullseye patch.

[Andy Greenwald]

Heartbreak. Beautiful. I, I love the Maeve confession scene. I think Emilia Jones is just God tier and I love the writing and I love just enough, you know, like I find myself in two handed scenes like that. I was like, is she just gonna say that's the same guy who killed my dad? Now he's taken everyone away. But she did it in a look, you know, and so when you have a chance, when actors take dialogue off the board. Not saying that line was written, but it could have been and it wasn't necessary. I love that.

[Chris Ryan]

I also love Maeve's release, like when she gets home.

[Andy Greenwald]

I did too. Again, that reminded me of Mare in the sense that I think some people who were watching that show also as a crime show or procedural were like, oh, it's a little bit fantasy at the end. It's a little bit rewarding. But I'm like, these people deserve a reward. I think that Brad is essentially optimistic about life, even though the shows are quite dark.

[Chris Ryan]

It's funny I used to say that, though I did read a little bit of ambiguity in the reaction where she was like, now I'm the mother of two.

[Andy Greenwald]

Oh yeah, small children. Exactly. It's hugging you and it's hitting you. I mean, it's better for the world. Tom is factually right when he says that. But it's not like her life gets that much easier even then when the drug cast shows up. I liked how strongly Tom kept saying wissahicken. Yeah, that's a word we used to hear a lot in our life. And 20, 30 years go by have.

[Chris Ryan]

To wait for an HBO series to say it a lot. That was pretty much all I had for this one as far as like unanswered questions. Like we've kind of gone over them. Perry and Jason are still out there. The Aaron mystery, to the extent that there is one. We're just waiting for Jason to put two and two together. And then it's grosso and his boss and whether or not the boss will get implicated and. And just where's Freddie? Because we've spent some time with Freddie.

[Andy Greenwald]

And.

[Chris Ryan]

Look, I, I think that there is some chatter out there about this not being a limited series. So I.

[Andy Greenwald]

There was chatter about Mayor too. And Mayor remained a limited series Season.

[Chris Ryan]

Three, we bring the two the two houses of Philadelphia together.

[Andy Greenwald]

Jesus Christ.

[Chris Ryan]

Don't have a good time Mayor of Task town.

[Andy Greenwald]

But I think.

[Chris Ryan]

I wonder whether or not they would let anything be the Is Grosso in the wind? Is.

[Andy Greenwald]

Is there going to be anything dangling? Yeah, sure.

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[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah. I. I don't think so.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't think so either. But it find out. I thought. I thought the. The thing that jumped out at me most was McGinty saying, I'm not going to put you up for my job. Like maybe she will.

[Andy Greenwald]

Yeah, well, let's find out what her intentions are.

[Chris Ryan]

Great to talk to you, man. We'll be back on Thursday with some more Watchpod stuff. Everybody enjoy Task. I hope you've already enjoyed Task.

[Andy Greenwald]

That would be a weird way to.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, and I can't wait to talk about the finale with you.

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