SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses major plot points from Task — Episode 5, “Vagrants.”
Setup and what happens
Episode 5 tightens the vise around the show’s two opposing forces: Tom Brandis’s FBI task force and the Dark Hearts motorcycle crew led by Perry Dorazo. The Dark Hearts identify Robbie Prendergast as the man behind a string of robberies and the kidnapping of Sam, and Perry goes to the Prendergrast property looking for answers. What follows are two pivot points: a shocking, escalatory killing at the lake, and a long, intimate encounter between Tom (Mark Ruffalo) and Robbie (Tom Pelphrey) that finally brings their arcs face to face. Maeve’s decision to turn Sam over to the police, the discovery of internal moles, and the shifting mini-alliances in the town all move the season forward—sometimes with satisfying force, sometimes in chaotic bursts.
Screenshots via HBO
The Eryn scene and Perry’s breakdown
Jamie McShane has described Perry’s killing of Eryn as not strictly premeditated; the death unfolds as a chaotic, catastrophic moment rather than a cold-blooded plan. Perry arrives intending to extract information and give Eryn a chance to confess, but when the situation spirals—Eryn runs, kids are partying on the cliff, and screams ring out—Perry loses control. The sequence is staged to show the collision of intentions and instincts: immediate horror at what’s been done, followed by the gangster mentality reasserting itself. That oscillation is what makes Perry compellingly human and alarmingly dangerous. On-set details McShane shared—physical injuries, brutal conditions—underscore how visceral the scene is, and that physicality translates into a performance that sells both the accident and the aftermath.
Tom and Robbie: the emotional payoff and the episode’s rhythm
The road-trip-like confrontation in the car is Episode 5’s emotional center. Framed so that both men look forward rather than at each other, the scene becomes a space for confession and recognition. Robbie, who oscillates between fierce violence and paternal devotion, and Tom, the weary agent clinging to scraps of morality and family, briefly mirror one another. Their talk—about family, faith, and the idea of “home”—humanizes both and offers a rare quiet before the storm. It’s less about exposition and more about character: both men unburden themselves, and the moment lets viewers feel the human stakes before the external violence resumes. Structurally, the episode is uneven: some narrative threads are resolved or clarified, while others remain crowded or rushed. The nature motifs—birds, lakes, woods—thread the episode together, acting as quiet metaphors for characters who’ve strayed from their courses. If the series can keep delivering scenes of this emotional clarity while tightening secondary plotlines, the season’s final acts will land with greater force.
In short, Episode 5 delivers two standout set pieces—a tragic, impulsive killing that reframes Perry, and a long, intimate exchange that redeems and complicates both Tom and Robbie. The episode’s strengths lie in performance and atmosphere; its weakness remains structural, as a surfeit of subplots sometimes blunts the momentum. Still, with the moral gray areas deepening and the central relationships clarifying, the season moves into its most combustible stretch.