Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for Task Episode 4.
Narrative twists can make or break a story. Reveals such as Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) being Luke's (Mark Hamill) father in Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back have gone down in history as moments that audiences will never forget. On TV, such shocks can be given even more build-up and teasing, given the additional time available for the story to develop. When big twists work, they either completely flip the board of play or provide clues that viewers can look back on and realize they should have seen what was coming. Task Episode 3, "Nobody's Stronger Than Forgiveness," introduced the idea of a mole in Tom Brandis' (Mark Ruffalo) task force, who is leaking information to the Dark Hearts, but the most recent episode, "All Roads," appears to imply that this traitor may be Kathleen (Martha Plimpton), Tom's FBI boss.
When Tom comes to her about his concerns regarding a potential leak within their ranks, Kathleen seems interested in learning any information about the sting being a setup, but an ominous phone call, coupled with later events, makes it almost too obvious that she could be the mole. If this is the case, then it is a rather wasted twist considering how overt the signs of betrayal are. In fact, it makes more sense for Tom's character and his arc if a member of the task force is revealed to be the Dark Hearts' informant, and hopefully, Task's talented creator, Brad Inglesby, has recognized this.
'Task' Episode 4 Heavily Implies That Kathleen is the FBI Mole
Early in Episode 4, during a meeting between Tom and his boss, Kathleen seems all too ready to downplay the existence of a mole, insisting that information "slips through the cracks" all the time in these kinds of cases. Considering that the typical trope of a law enforcement officer and their superior involves the boss eager for results without any rules being broken, Kathleen's lax approach seems extremely unusual.
Moreover, Kathleen quickly switches the subject to when and where Tom is setting up a sting for Cliff (Raúl Castillo) and Robbie (Tom Pelphrey) to recover the stolen fentanyl and rescue Sam Nance (Ben Lewis Doherty). It's possible that she could have just been trying to focus on the important upcoming sting and doing her due diligence, but it feels like it can't be a coincidence that the Dark Hearts, not the FBI, are the ones who end up getting the drop on Cliff by ambushing him at a different meeting point.
Kathleen's Actions Feel Too Obviously Sinister in 'Task'
Task may be offering more obvious clues to build tension and dramatic irony, so that the longer the story goes without Kathleen being explicitly revealed as the mole, the more we realize that Tom is trusting the wrong person. However, it feels like the show is going too far in making viewers want to believe Kathleen is slipping information to the Dark Hearts. Her phone call when Tom leaves the room, where she tells a faceless someone, "We have a problem," may as well have cut to Perry (Jamie McShane) or Jayson (Sam Keeley) to nail home the betrayal. But the fact that we don't see who is on the other end of the call leaves the door open for it to be someone else, perhaps an even bigger evil, whom Kathleen is speaking to. For someone as talented as Ingelsby, whose stories, such as Mare of Easttown, are so complex and nuanced, this kind of Scooby-Doo-like twist would feel far too simplistic.
'Task' Should Make a Member of the Task Force the FBI's Mole
In the end, it would be far more tragic if the mole were revealed to be a member of Tom's task force. The story has established real emotional connections to Aleah (Thuso Mbedu), Grasso (Fabien Frankel), and Stover (Alison Oliver) for the viewer, with Grasso and Stover becoming romantically involved and Aleah reluctantly giving in to Stover's chaotically adorable charm. If the mole were revealed to be one of them, this would be a real gut punch and would reflect Tom's arc of coming to terms with being hurt by people he has taken under his wing, as he is having to do with Ethan (Andrew Russel). This could even lead to a more complex dilemma where Tom chooses to use his knowledge of the mole against the Dark Hearts by feeding them false information or cutting off their source entirely, which feels like a move that could actually hurt the criminal organization.
Overall, making Kathleen the mole in the FBI would create an unnecessary villain. It would be satisfying to watch Tom bring her down, but it wouldn't carry the same gut-wrenching feeling of betrayal as it would if one of his subordinates had switched sides. Episode 4's exchange between Tom and Kathleen has way too many arrows pointing to the theory that Kathleen told the Dark Hearts when and where to find Cliff so they could change the meeting point. Inglesby seems like too good a storyteller to pursue such an obvious twist, but only time will tell as Task heads into the back half of the season.
