‘Task’ Star Fabien Frankel Doesn’t See Grasso’s Finale Move as a Redemption Arc: ‘It Doesn’t Exonerate Him’

Note: The following story contains spoilers from “Task” Season 1, Episode 7.

With guilt mounting on Fabien Frankel’s Anthony Grasso after his covert op with the Dark Hearts resulted in the death of his fellow task members and his romantic interest, Lizzie Stover (Alison Oliver), Grasso begins evening out his sins in the “Task” finale.

After being tipped off that the Dark Hearts would be going after Maeve (Emilia Jones) to get the money, Grasso, bloodied from a gunshot wound, drives over to Maeve’s house to warn her to leave as quick as she can. While Grasso remains in his car injured as Jayson (Sam Keeley) enters the home and chases down Maeve, and as Tom (Mark Ruffalo) and Aleah (Thuso Mbedu) go after Jayson, Grasso delivers the definitive 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 doesn’t see Grasso’s finale movements as a “redemption arc,” saying “there’s nothing redeeming about that.”

“It doesn’t exonerate him from what he’s done. He’s still responsible for all of that stuff,” Frankel told TheWrap. “At least he’s tried to do right by what he’s done, but I don’t see that as a clear conscience at all.”

Frankel pointed to the final scene between Grasso and Tom at the hospital as being telling of Grasso’s still murky conscience, when Grasso asks for penance and Tom instead replies, “I never gave anyone penance, people beat themselves up on their own.”

“The hollywoodified version of that ending is that Ruffalo goes, ‘It’s okay, brother, I forgive you. In the eyes of the Lord, you’re forgiven, and in my eyes you’re forgiven,'” Frankel said, applauding Brad Ingelsby’s writing for always choosing “the option that’s the most difficult to choose.”

What were your early conversations with Brad about the role like, and how did the character evolve once you got 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, had dinner in Philly, had a lot of wine, he told me an outline of the show, and then didn’t tell me, I don’t think, what happened in the final two episodes, and then sent me all seven that night. I started reading them on the train home, and then called him the next day shouting about everything that had happened.

Brad loves these stories, and they’re also part of a lot of him, a lot of these people, at least, they’re his people, they’re his life … all these things are very personal. And also getting Jeremiah [Zagar] to come and direct —Jeremiah is born and raised in Philly — you couldn’t find a better pairing of two people to accurately tell this story, because they understand … the way the city breathes — that’s their wheelhouse, more than anyone. Certainly for Ali[son Oliver] and I, [we] follow their lead, and everything else will be okay.

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 start a relationship. What is it about Lizzie that Grasso is drawn to?

There’s a familiarity that he has with Lizzie really quickly — that first scene when she comes in and they’re immediately up against each other, I don’t know, there’s just something very familiar there. They feel like two people who’ve known each other in a past life or something … it definitely feels like they know each other. They probably grew up in similar financial situations as children — both come from no money, and I suppose the police force for them is a purpose that I think neither of them would have without it, albeit maybe Grasso was maybe always going to do that thing, but that’s the purpose that they both have.

How does Lizzie’s death rock Grasso? Had he been feeling morally gray about working with the Dark Hearts before this?

I think he’s been feeling morally gray about working with the gang from the moment he did it. I don’t think it was something he did lightly. He was in a pinch. His mum had been very sick, he needed money, and this was an easy way for him to get money. Whatever anyone wants to say, that’s a justifiable reason to me, I can understand that entirely — not making enough money, and your family not having any money, and then your mom being really sick — if there’s any reason to do something morally ambiguous, that’s it — taking care of your family. I don’t think he feels good about it at all, and I think you can see in the scene with Jayson, the first time you see them together, it’s very clear this isn’t something he feels proud of. I never feel like he’s team Dark Hearts. That’s not what I felt, certainly not what I was playing.

Grasso and Tom have a very emotional conversation at the end of Episode 6. What does Grasso take away from that?

For Grasso, a lot of what he’s battling is his own relationship to God and his relationship to Catholicism, his religion, and being faced with a man that you really admire, but also a man who’s devoted his life to God, is quite effacing. You’re genuinely being faced with your own fate. I can imagine that if that’s the thing that is your pillar, your center as a human being, and then you’re faced with someone who’s a disciple of that, and who you’ve developed a really strong relationship with, and they’re saying to you, “Well, you can be forgiven for this. All you have to do is ask” — that’s quite a powerful moment for a young man or a woman. He suddenly is faced with the reality of his actions, not what he’s imagining the reality to be in his own brain, but the actual realities of it.

In Episode 7, Grasso prepares his sister that he’s gonna confess. What’s going through his mind at this point?

You can feel the difference of him in that scene: he’s got resolve. He’s resolved to doing this, and his resolve is, “I’m going to turn myself in,” and I think that’s him off the back of that scene with Tom coming to the realization of the realities of his actions … I think he accepts that ultimately, by turning himself in, he at least rids himself of this secret that he’s been holding for so long and I think that, at least by doing that, there’s going to be a sense of release, or at least a sense of surrender.

Do you think Grasso truly liked Lizzie or was it part of his facade?

No, I don’t think it’s part of the facade. I don’t know what the benefit of that would be. You would have to be really a twisted person — I’m sure there are people who do that — but I don’t think that’s him at all. I think he genuinely takes a shining to Lizzie, and you can see in those scenes, he’s not trying to wean information out from her, apart from when he asked her, “Do you think they actually did this because of this?” He’s just trying to see if she actually has figured it out, but I don’t think he’s doing that to go, “Give me info that you have.”

Brad said … those scenes with Lizzie need to feel like the moment of genuine levity for someone who clearly doesn’t have a lot of levity in his own life.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

“Task” Season 1 is now streaming on HBO Max.

The post ‘Task’ Star Fabien Frankel Doesn’t See Grasso’s Finale Move as a Redemption Arc: ‘It Doesn’t Exonerate Him’ appeared first on TheWrap.