Task season 1 episode 5 ending explained: Does Tom shoot Robbie?

Task season 1 episode 5 titled Vagrants extends the collision course of law, loyalty, and revenge. The series follows FBI Agent Tom Brandis, who heads a task force attempting to bring down a series of violent robberies against the Dark Hearts biker gang. In the process, he becomes entangled with Robbie Prendergrast, an unassuming individual who commits crimes on the side to support his family.

At the end of Task season 1 episode 5, the central question hangs on whether Tom killed Robbie. The answer, at least for the time being, remains unclear.

In the last scene, Tom and Robbie stand apart from each other by a forest stream, each holding a gun in their hand. Tom yells for Robbie to drop his gun, but Robbie refuses to do so. The camera pans to black just before a shot is fired. The standoff remains unresolved, leaving fans wondering who will pull the trigger and whether this will bring an end to the war or fuel it further.

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Task season 1 episode 5: How does Robbie kidnap Tom?

A still from the show (Image via HBO Max)

In Task season 1 episode 5, it is the desperation and disillusionment rather than strategic motives that drive Robbie to kidnap Tom. Upon tracing Maeve's fingerprints to the crime scene, Tom arrives at the Prendergrast house, demanding explanations. Already knowing his link to Maeve and the developing investigation is closing in on him, Robbie intercepts Tom before he can warn the others.

Forcing Tom to drive to his secluded hunting cabin, Robbie holds him at gunpoint. The kidnapping is not motivated by revenge but out of necessity, so that Robbie can find a way to escape. Their conversation in the cabin devolves into a psychological confrontation, in which Robbie's effort to justify his actions is combined with his refusal to relinquish control.

Even as he lets Tom go unharmed, the episode demonstrates Robbie's disintegration as it's his last, desperate bid to dominate a situation already past redemption.

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What really happened with Eryn in Task season 1 episode 5?

A still from the show (Image via HBO Max)

In Task season 1, episode 5, Perry confronts Eryn after learning she has been actively betraying the Dark Hearts. Previously, she tells Robbie that Jayson came home covered in blood, leaving her in the know about Cliff's murder. Trying to escape near a lake, she leaps into the water in hopes of getting some attention from other campers nearby.

Perry pursues her, desperate not to lose control of the moment, and drowns her. He's shaken afterward, hiding her body under the water. The scene is enacted like a sad accident and not a calculated killing, and the emotional toll is felt afterward.

Eryn's death makes the Dark Hearts confront the price of internal betrayal. It also poses the question of how far Perry will go to keep this under wraps, or if the others, particularly Jayson, will ever know what really happened at the quarry.

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Task season 1 episode 5: Who is the mole inside the task force?

Task season 1 episode 5 validates that Anthony Grasso is the mole sabotaging the task force. It begins with a revelation that the FBI-Dark Hearts phone handover, orchestrated in the previous sting, was made possible by someone within the task force. Grasso meets with Jayson to swap Ray's phone and tells him that Sam is alive.

In the meantime, Tom's crew investigates prints on Sam's bucket and connects Maeve's name and Billy's face with the Dark Hearts. Robbie, on the other hand, responds to Shelley's announcement that Ray is in custody, further questioning who really framed him.

The subplot not only solves the mole mystery but expands it. Grasso, being the informant, provides him with access to all information, including Sam's abduction, the phone mazes, and the Dark Hearts' maneuvers. This means the task force has been compromised at its roots, and any success they think they've achieved may be fake or rigged.

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Task season 1 episode 5 is available to stream on HBO Max.