Mark Ruffalo and Task TV Show Creator on the Two Deaths That Change Everything in Episode 6
Mark Ruffalo and creator Brad Ingelsby unpack Task’s penultimate shocker—Lizzie and Robbie’s devastating deaths—revealing how the gut-punch scenes rattle every character and rocket the series toward a no-turning-back finale.
Task just took a sledgehammer to its own cast list, and the people making the show know exactly how much that hurts. Creator Brad Ingelsby and star Mark Ruffalo weighed in on the two gut-punch deaths that cap the penultimate episode and tee up the finale.
What happens in Episode 6
Episode 6, titled "Out Beyond Ideas of Wrongdoing and Rightdoing, There Is a River," ends with two major losses: Lizzie (Alison Oliver) and Robbie (Tom Pelphrey).
Lizzie dies during a chaotic FBI showdown with the Dark Hearts gang. A nearby burst of gunfire leaves her with tinnitus, she tries to call for backup, and then a getaway car plows into her. It is brutal and deliberately messy.
Robbie goes out in a one-on-one brawl with Jayson, the guy who murdered his brother Billy. Robbie takes a fatal wound to the chest and dies in Tom's arms on the way to the hospital.
Why Lizzie's death hits harder than the car
Ingelsby told Entertainment Weekly that Lizzie's end is especially ugly for one reason: the guilt it drops on Grasso (Fabien Frankel). Earlier, he let Jayson and Perry slip away, and this is the domino that falls.
Ingelsby calls it "a tremendous amount of guilt" for Grasso.
He also said Lizzie's death hardens Aleah (Thuso Mbedu) and Tom (Mark Ruffalo). They were already chasing answers; now they are locked in.
Ruffalo on Tom and Robbie
Ruffalo frames Tom's reaction to Robbie's death as empathy in action, not just cop mode.
"He understands why he's doing what he does," Ruffalo told EW.
He describes Tom's compassion as his superpower. In his view, Robbie was a decent man who made bad calls in bad circumstances. The scene also loops back to Tom's past life as a priest, with him literally comforting Robbie at the end. It's the character coming full circle in the worst possible way.
Who feels the fallout
- Grasso: crushed by the choices that let Jayson and Perry get away and the chain reaction that followed.
- Tom: doubled down, guided by empathy and that former-priest moral center.
- Aleah: equally relentless now, with the case turning personal.
- The case: the Dark Hearts standoff escalates everything heading into the finale.
Finale timing
Task wraps its first season on October 19 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO. Expect the aftermath of Lizzie and Robbie's deaths to drive the final hour.