The famous HBO mnemonic – that static fuzz sound blending into an “ahhhhh” chorale – has barely finished playing when one of the most crucial scenes in Task unfolds.
It is the start of Episode 3, which picks up after a massive cliffhanger in the prior episode, a moment revealing the extent of the desperate measures Robbie Prendergrast is willing to take. Robbie and his niece, Maeve, sit in the front seat of a car in front of his house. It is nighttime after rain showers have passed. The two family members, whose complex relationship is key to the show, spill out their anxieties and anger in waves. In the process, they open up entire new dimensions of the series for viewers.
Robbie “finally opens the door to the audience to the fact that it’s not just about these crimes,” creator and executive producer Brad Inglesby told Deadline in a Backstory interview. (Watch it above.) “It’s about an unlived life. I thought it was time to give the audience a window into his desire.”
Tom Pelphrey, who plays Robbie, calls it – the most important scene in the whole show,” one that demonstrates what is motivating everything he does.”
Filmed in a series of takes in a single night, the two-hander is a showcase for Pelphrey and Emilia Jones, who plays Maeve, as well as the creative team whose work heightened the dramatic impact of the scene.
“This one was cookin’ deep in me for a long time before we started filming,” Pelphrey said, drawing laughter from Inglesby, Jones, and episode director Salli Richardson-Whitfield. “They’re laughing because of my behavior on set that day. I was … a little withdrawn.”
Jones said the scene is “a real turning point” for Maeve. “I think she thought she was the only one who was miserable and was judging Robbie’s decisions and actions in a very black-and-white way. This scene is the first time that she sees that grey area. She finally sees him as someone who is close to herself.”
Setting the scene in the car, which Inglesby’s script does so that the children inside the house won’t overhear sensitive conversation, only raised the stakes. “Being in such a confined space really forces intimacy,” Jones said. “Seeing Tom’s performance and the emotional intensity, we’re so in each other’s faces in the car, it’s like a metaphorical mirror. … You could hear a pin drop on set. It was a very raw scene and it felt very raw to film it.”
Richardson-Whitfield said she consciously sought not to “overcomplicate” the scene, which she admitted that directors sometimes do. “My job is to tell a simple story,” she added. “Sometimes that’s harder than you think it is. You want to do all these cool shots, but it’s really about these two people and that’s what makes it so special.”
Editor Amy E. Duddleston said the simplicity became more pronounced as the scene went through post-production. Originally, it began with a long tracking shot approaching the car as Robbie and Maeve begin speaking. “The tracking shot became shorter and shorter through the process,” she said with a smile. “Brad always wants to see people’s faces and get to the heart of the emotion.”
Director of Photography Elie Smolkin said lighting also proved to be critical to establishing the mood. “We built these floodlights so there was this idea that there was this light illuminating just inside the car,” he said. “You get that rain pattern and you get their faces,” he said. “But, it falls to darkness.”
Similarly, composer Dan Deacon, who wrote surging tracks for the many action scenes in the show, made an effort to pare way back when it came to the car scene. Evoking Inglesby’s go-to phrase, he said, “We don’t want to put a hat on a hat. … It was there. The scene was there. The music for this just needed to be a spice.”
Pelphrey marveled at the chops shown by Jones, who was just 22 at the time of production. “She didn’t back up an inch,” he said. “She took me in but she still honored where she was … I was clocking it as we were working, like, ‘Man!’”
Jones returned the compliment, saying Pelphrey’s craft not only made him a reliable acting partner throughout the shoot, but also, importantly for the audience, “Tom made Robbie even more likable. … Everyone who’s seen Task has just fallen in love with his Robbie.”