Showrunner Reveals Why [Spoiler]'s Finale Death Was Inevitable

If you watched HBO's Task finale and yelled at your TV during that last stretch in the water, you were not crazy. Creator and showrunner Brad Ingelsby just explained why Perry goes out the way he does, and yes, it was deliberate.

Why Perry had to die like that

Ingelsby told Collider he designed Perry's end as a mirror to an earlier death in the series. If you were thinking about Eryn, that was the point. He framed it as a clean bookend that ties Perry's fate back to hers, right down to the setting.

"Totally. It felt like a bookend. It felt almost like poetic justice that he would die in water the same way."

That water motif? Not an accident

Ingelsby said the show was built around water from day one: the quarry, Billy's memories, the swimming — all of it. With that in mind, leaving Perry behind there wasn't a twist so much as the final beat of a theme the series kept circling.

He also made it clear Perry's death is meant to hurt. Perry was trying to make things right and protect a friend; in reaching for that, he ended up causing his own downfall. It's a straight-up tragedy, not a moral victory.

Loose ends, on purpose

One thread Ingelsby wanted humming under the finale: Jayson. The show leaves him unresolved by design.

"Part of the tension in the last episode is knowing he's still out there and he's still determined to get something."

For context: Task wrapped its season on October 19, 2025, with Mark Ruffalo leading the ensemble. Ingelsby broke all this down in a conversation with Collider.

• Perry's death intentionally echoes Eryn's, right down to the water.
• Water has been a core visual theme (quarry, Billy's memories, swimming), so ending Perry's story there tracks with the show's design.
• It's framed as tragic: Perry tries to help a friend and pays the ultimate price.
• Jayson remains at large, which Ingelsby says is part of the finale's intended tension.
• Task is an HBO series led by Mark Ruffalo; the finale aired October 19, 2025.