REVIEW: ‘Task’ Episode 3 — “Nobody’s Stronger Than Forgiveness”

Task Episode 3, “Nobody’s Stronger Than Forgiveness,” sees the various parties continue to search for critical information as they each pursue their own goals. However, as more details leak out, the situation becomes increasingly complicated and more perilous. 

Picking up where the previous episode left off, the narrative in Task Episode 3 begins with a conversation between Robbie (Tom Pelphrey, Blindspot) and Maeve (Emilia Jones, Locke and Key) as the latter confronts the former about what he has done. This moment highlights the vast disparity between the two characters and the distinct qualities of their personalities. 

For the first time, it feels like the series shows us a core element of who Robbie is. We see his anger play out more violently here, leaving the diminutive Maeve looking imperiled within the small confines of the car where their discussion takes place. Even as he tries to project rationality in the steps he wants to take, Pelphrey does a great job of showing how hyper-focused the character is to get back at the Dark Hearts.

Viewers see more of Robbie’s tendencies towards emotional manipulation in Task Episode 3.

We also get a deeper look at his tendencies towards emotional manipulation. The man yelling at Maeve and putting her down in the previous two episodes is nowhere to be found in Task Episode 3. Now, it’s a desperate man, trying to make a better life for his kids, for whom Mave is the only family he’s got. Using the kids he knows she cares for against her as leverage. While this doesn’t feel fully calculated on Robbie’s part, that it’s his default still speaks loudly about the character. 

Maeve, however, is far more reasonable and level-headed. Despite her own terror, knowing what she has been dragged into against her will, she has a far better handle on what is going on and what needs to be done. And while the contrast between her measured control and Robbie’s unsteady lashing out is striking here, it grows even more as we learn more about Maeve.

The contrast between the two becomes clearest later in the episode when Maeve is at a small river with Sam (Ben Lewis Doherty). Learning that Sam can’t swim, she proceeds to teach him how to. When she tells the young boy about how her dad threw her into a pool to teach her, she quickly follows it with assurances that she will not recreate the event with him. Rather, she tells him that the good thing about growing up is that you get to choose what to take from your parents and what to leave behind. 

Mark Ruffalo conveys his character’s pain tremendously in Task Episode 3.

In the moment, this feels aimed chiefly at Sam, and Maeve’s hope that he won’t follow in his biker dad’s footsteps. But it also speaks very deeply to Maeve herself, and how she has separated herself from the cycles of violence that Robbie is trapped in. She has made the choice to rise above all this. Something Robbie’s refusal to do has now put them all in dire danger. 

Task Episode 3 also dives deeper into the emotional conflict plaguing Brandis’ (Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things) family. The complexities of the family trauma suffered from the unfortunate events surrounding them continue to deepen the pain and damage done to all involved. Ruffalo does a tremendous job projecting this pain in one critical scene, admitting he doesn’t want his son to return from jail. 

Everything about the admission hurts. Ruffalo’s body language and vocal delivery in Task Episode 3 manage to create the sincerity of the words, as well as the shame that taints them. He isn’t proud of this truth, but it is nevertheless true. We cannot always control how we feel, as painful as it may be. 

The emotional stakes rise in Task Episode 3 as the central narrative escalates.

Even as the emotional stakes rise in Task Episode 3, the various angles of the central narrative surrounding the criminal investigation, the bikers’ search for their leak, and Robbie’s attempts to unload the unexpected 12 kilos of fentanyl he has continue to escalate. As moves are made and options become limited, each group is forced to approach parties they dislike or do not wholly trust, but have information or connections they desperately need. 

These clashes create fantastic moments of interpersonal tension. Needs and business considerations can only paper over so many problems, making it simple for uneasy alliances to rub parties the wrong way. Best of these is when Jayson (Sam Keeley) and Perry (Jamie McShane, Wednesday) call on the previously mentioned Freddie (Elvis Nolasco, Mr. Crocket) to get his help recovering their lost drugs. 

While the Dark Hearts’ leaders enter the scene with swagger and a sense of control, the moment quickly slips away from them. As they try to pressure Freddie into making a deal with them, the drug boss gives the duo a history lesson, setting no uncertain terms about his feelings towards them or why they are even able to continue doing business.

As the credits roll on Task Episode 3, the situation has only grown more desperate.

Nolasco does a tremendous job in this scene. His thinly veiled disgust with the pair of bikers is projected with every line the actor delivers. Everything about Freddie’s command of the moment elevates his presence into someone truly not to be trifled with, while it diminishes the others to little more than bullies. They feel weak and small, showing that they are truly only as strong as the club behind them, not through any innate strength of their own.

As the credits roll on Task Episode 3, the situation has only grown more desperate. With the FBI getting closer, Robbie thinks he has a way out of the situation, though it isn’t going to lead to where he expects, and there is the possibility that even more things could go wrong before the end.

Task Episode 3 is streaming now on HBO Max with new episodes every Sunday in September and October.

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