Last week, Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) gave Robbie (Tom Pelphrey) his last chance to walk away from all this mess. In an emotional and honest car ride to Bushkill, the two lead actors finally shared a scene together where they spoke about death, faith, and family. Although Robbie let Tom live, the FBI agent gathered his team quickly and doubled back to the woods to apprehend him. Episode 5 ended with the two actors pointing their guns at one another before the credits rolled. It was a chilling cliff-hanger, and one that seemed to point to certain doom for either of the parties. The first 18 minutes of episode 6 are truly remarkable. As Tom’s Task Force and Jayson’s Dark Hearts biker gang close in on Robbie to seize the drugs in his backpack. Quickly, though, everyone is outmatched. The Dark Hearts didn’t expect to be in a live or die shoot-out with armed officers, whilst Robbie remains focused on his ultimate goal of making Jayson pay for what he did to his brother.

It’s a brutal and lengthy sequence as heavily armed people on both sides of the fight stealthily manoeuvre their way through thick forests, trying to keep their wits about them whilst hearing gunfire ricochet off the branches nearby. Robbie, the good guy in this scenario, finds Tom and keeps him safe in a cabin, but Perry happens upon Tom, and the pair exchange blows. It’s a frantic sequence where anyone could lose their lives. As Perry and Tom fight, Robbie coaxes Jayson to him by throwing the ba.g full of drugs into the fast-flowing waters. Everyone is here because of these two men. When they do meet, it really is a fight to the death. Robbie has the upper hand initially, strangling Jayson, sitting on top of him, with his nostrils flaring. He screams at Jayson, and it looks like Jayson’s going to die. However, it’s Robbie that comes off worse, with a vicious stab wound. He’s not the only one caught in the crossfire during the exhausting fight with Kath (Martha Plimpton), taking a stray bullet in the shoulder, and Grasso’s bullet deafens poor Lizzie (Alison Oliver) as he guns down someone who threatens their lives. Several members of the Dark Hearts are killed, but Jayson and Perry evade capture. By the time Tom reaches Robbie again, he’s bleeding heavily.

Further away, Aleah (Thuso Mbedu) is reminding everyone why Lizzie nicknamed her “Bullseye.” She takes out two Dark Hearts and comes to Kathleen’s aid, getting her to a safe place before hurrying to radio for help.  The bullet that shatters Lizzie’s eardrums ends up in another Dark Hart member, as Grasso is forced to choose between her and the gang he’s been loyal to up to this point. Disoriented and unable to hear, Lizzie is alone, and whilst she is trying to call for help, she is callously run down by Jayson and Perry as they drive away from the massacre they’ve caused. Her death, brutal and sudden, is a complete shock in a sequence full of unexpected moments. It’s fitting that it’s Grasso who witnesses the tragedy and cradles her in his arms, unwilling to accept that she’s gone. The cocky self self-assured officer who joined the task force finally gets a reality check, but it’s at the expense of sweet Lizzie, with whom he shared a genuine connection. So that’s numerous Dark Hart members dead, Lizzie dead, Kath with a bullet in her shoulder, and Robbie fading from blood loss at the hands of Jayson’s penknife.  Tom rushes Robbie to a waiting police car and stays with him for the journey. It’s an interesting choice not to show Robbie die. Instead, we learn of his death when Tom tells a grieving Maeve  (Emilia Jones) how sorry he is for her loss. Both last week and this, it’s clear that Tom and Robbie liked each other. They could see the baggage each one was carrying. As I’ve said before, they had a lot in common but chose very different paths in life. Maeve admits that she made the call to the police to report the sighting of Sam at the arcade where she works, but that she got scared when Sam returned to her car. She’s completely honest with him, so much so that, again, Tom realises that even though she kept Sam hidden, no jury would convict her.

So what now? The task force has lost a member, and with any officer-involved shooting, another team takes control of the investigation. So the Task Force is disbanded, and Tom has lost his access to the office. He never did discover who the leak on his team was, and it takes Kath (convalescing at home after her shooting) to inform him that it was Grasso who was keeping the Dark Hearts informed of every pivotal movement in the investigation. Kath reveals that her people found a complaint lodged against Grasso in their search for the mole. He was part of another task force in 2021 where an officer said he thought he was tipping off the Dark Hearts. No formal charge was ever made, so it didn’t appear in his file. Tom drives to Anthony’s to confront him directly. In one of the best scenes that Task has offered fans yet, he interrogates Grasso about what happened that night of the sting. He tells Anthony that Lizzie would probably still be alive had they just taken Cliff at Bailey Park, but he heard from Maeve that he and Robbie were headed to Wissahickon instead. Curious, huh? Who could have mixed that up? The guy in charge of the confiscated cellphone? There’s a change in Grasso’s demeanour, and the pair part on bad terms. Writer Brad Ingelsby has been waiting six episodes for these heated conversations, and they really pay off. Sam (having lost his parents and now Robbie), is in a government facility that Tom doesn’t approve of, so he gives the young boy his third home in as many days, much to the bemusement of his two daughters.

Perry and Jayson, are still in the wilderness waiting for the heat to die down when they find Robbie’s drug bag. They open it to discover Robbie’s final act. The bag he’s been carrying isn’t full of drugs but maps of Canada – the place he and Cliff had planned to escape to, but in hindsight, you’ve got to wonder if Robbie knew how this would play out. Maeve, having lost her father and now her uncle, returns home to look after her cousins when she gets a knock at the door. As his final act, Robbie has had Shelly sell the drugs and have her deliver the profits to Meave’s door. It’s perhaps the one decent thing Robbie has done for Maeve, and proof, if we needed it, that he cares deeply for the family. With one episode left, and a lot of the key players either dead or in very different places now than they were at the start of the story, I’m fascinated by how this limited series resolves itself. One thing’s for certain: I trust Brad Ingelsby to deliver.

Task Concludes on Sunday on HBO and Monday on Sky Atlantic.