Note: The following story contains spoilers from Season 1, Episode 7 of “Task.”
As guilt mounts in Fabien Frankel’s Anthony Grasso after his covert operation with the Dark Hearts results in the deaths of his fellow Task members and his romantic interest, Lizzie Stover (Alison Oliver), Grasso begins to even out his sins in the “Task” finale.
After being informed that the Dark Hearts will go after Maeve (Emilia Jones) for money, Grasso, bloodied from a gunshot wound, goes to Maeve to warn her to leave as quickly as she can. While Grasso remains in his car injured as Jayson (Sam Keeley) enters the house and chases Maeve, and Tom (Mark Ruffalo) and Aleah (Thuso Mbedu) go after Jayson, Grasso delivers the final bullet that ends the chase when he shoots and kills Jayson, saving Maeve.
But, despite the shot protecting Maeve as well as the officers, Frankel does not see Grasso’s final moves as a “redemptive arc”, saying “there’s nothing redemptive about it”.
“That doesn’t absolve him of what he did. He’s still responsible for all of this,” Frankel told TheWrap. “At least he tried to do good by what he did, but I don’t consider that a good conscience at all.”
Frankel highlighted the final scene between Grasso and Tom in the hospital as indicative of Grasso’s still-cloudy conscience, when Grasso asks for penance and Tom instead responds: “I never did penance to anyone, people fought on their own.”
“The Hollywood version of this ending is Ruffalo saying, ‘It’s okay, brother, I forgive you. In the eyes of the Lord you are forgiven, and in my eyes you are forgiven,'” Frankel said, applauding Brad Ingelsby’s writing for always choosing “the hardest option to choose.”
What were your first conversations with Brad about the role and how did the character evolve once you arrived on set and started bringing the words on the page to life?
Frankel: I actually went to dinner with Brad in Philadelphia. At that point, I had only read the pilot. We went there, had dinner in Philly, drank a lot of wine, he gave me a preview of the show, then didn’t tell me, I don’t think, what happened in the last two episodes, and then sent me all seven that night. I started reading them on the train home, then called him the next day to tell him everything that had happened.
Brad loves these stories, and they’re also a part of a lot of him, a lot of these people, at least, it’s his people, it’s his life… all of those things are very personal. And also get Jeremy [Zagar] to come and direct – Jeremiah was born and raised in Philadelphia – you couldn’t find a better two-person duo to accurately tell this story, because they understand… the way the city breathes – it’s their wheelhouse, more than anyone. Certainly for Ali[son Oliver] and me, [we] follow their lead and everything else will be fine.
Read our full interview below. For more on the “Task” finale, read our postmortem interviews with creator Brad Ingelsby and Maeve actress Emilia Jones.
Lizzie and Grasso quickly begin a relationship. What attracts Grasso to Lizzie?
There’s a familiarity that he has with Lizzie very quickly – that first scene where she walks in and they’re immediately against each other, I don’t know, there’s just something very familiar there. They feel like they’re two people who knew each other in a past life or something… it’s really like they know each other. They probably grew up in similar financial situations as their children – both have no money, and I guess policing is a goal for them that neither of them would have without it, although maybe Grasso was always going to do that thing, but that’s the goal they both have.
How does Lizzie’s death upset Grasso? Had he felt morally gray about working with the Black Hearts before this?
I think he’s felt morally gray about working with the gang since the moment he did it. I don’t think it was something he did lightly. He was in trouble. His mother was very ill, he needed money and this was an easy way for him to get it. Whatever anyone wants to say, it’s a justifiable reason to me, I can totally understand that – not making enough money, and your family doesn’t have any, and then your mother is really sick – if there’s a reason to do something morally ambiguous, that’s it – taking care of your family. I don’t think he feels good at all, and I think you can see in the scene with Jayson, the first time you see them together, it’s very clear that it’s not something he’s proud of. I never feel like he’s part of the Dark Hearts team. That’s not what I felt, and certainly not what I was playing.
Grasso and Tom have a very emotional conversation at the end of episode 6. What does Grasso get out of it?
For Grasso, a lot of what he’s battling is his own relationship with God and his relationship with Catholicism, his religion, and to be confronted with a man that you really admire, but also a man who has dedicated his life to God, is pretty self-effacing. You are truly faced with your own destiny. I imagine if that’s what’s your pillar, your center as a human being, and then you’re confronted with someone who is a disciple of that and with whom you’ve developed a very strong relationship, and they say, “Well, you can be forgiven for that. All you have to do is ask” – that’s a pretty powerful moment for a young man or woman. He is suddenly confronted with the reality of his actions, not what he imagines to be the reality in his own brain, but the actual reality of it.
In episode 7, Grasso prepares his sister to confess. What is going through his mind at that moment?
You can feel his difference in this scene: he has determination. He’s determined to do it, and his resolution is, “I’m going to turn myself in,” and I think that’s him at the bottom of that scene with Tom realizing the reality of his actions… I think he accepts that ultimately, by turning himself in, he’s at least getting rid of this secret that he’s held for so long, and I think at least by doing that, there’s going to be a sense of liberation, or at least a sense of abandonment.
Do you think Grasso really loved Lizzie or was that part of his façade?
No, I don’t think that’s part of the facade. I don’t know what the benefit would be. He would have to be a really twisted person – I’m sure there are people who do that – but I don’t think it’s him at all. I think he really cares about Lizzie, and you can see in these scenes, he’s not trying to get information out of her, other than when he asked her, “Do you think they actually did this because of that?” He’s just trying to see if she actually understands, but I don’t think he’s doing that to say, “Give me the information you have.”
Brad said…those scenes with Lizzie must feel like a moment of true levity for someone who clearly doesn’t have a lot of levity in her own life.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Season 1 of “Task” is now streaming on HBO Max.
