‘Task’ Finale: Emilia Jones Explains Maeve’s Biggest Struggles This Season and How She’s “Fed Up”

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Task.]

The season finale of the HBO series Task turned the spotlight onto Maeve (Emilia Jones), the 21-year-old niece of garbage collector turned criminal Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey), and Emily (Silvia Dionicio), the adopted teenage daughter of FBI Agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo), as it highlighted the aftermath of destruction caused by their loved ones. Robbie may have been trying to provide a better life for his family the only way he knew how, but his tragic end at the hands of Dark Hearts biker Jayson (Sam Keeley) doesn’t change the fact that Maeve and his two young children that are in her care are now left to pick up the pieces. And while Emily wasn’t the one who caused the death of Tom’s wife, she carried more on her shoulders than someone her age ever should have had to as she worked to mend her fractured family.

During this interview with Collider, co-stars Jones and Dionicio discussed how family defined so much of their characters’ journeys, how stifling and suffocating it was for Emily to want to feel her own feelings, what made Ruffalo the best collaborator, exploring a relationship as complex as the one between Maeve and Robbie, working with Pelphrey, shooting the most intense moments that Maeve found herself in, and having to figure out how to play drunk.

Family Drives the Emotional Journey That Both Maeve and Emily Go On in ‘Task’

“Maeve is losing her sense of identity, but I don’t think Emily even got a chance to really find her sense of identity”

Collider: Everything that these characters experience this season is really driven by family. They have very different lives, but they seem to similarly experience grief over a loved one, and they’re put in these situations because of things their family has done and not that they’ve asked to be a part of. At the start of this season, how do you think they each felt about their family and the situation that they were in because of their family?

EMILIA JONES: When you see Maeve in the show and you first meet her, she’s just very, very stuck. She’s been absorbed into this household and has to care for her uncle’s children. She has to cook and clean and create structure for these young kids’ lives, and it’s a lot for someone of such a young age. She’s very angry at the world. She internalizes a lot of emotions because she hasn’t had the space or time to process the pain and loss of losing her father. She’s losing her sense of identity when you meet her.

SILVIA DIONICIO: I agree, in the sense that Emily also feels a little stark. She is being put in this position where she has to choose between her biological family and her adoptive family, and also feeling like she can’t really speak up. The world that is happening inside of her, she doesn’t have the tools or even a safe space to say how she really feels or explore how she feels. You said that Maeve is losing her sense of identity, but I don’t think Emily even got a chance to really find her sense of identity. Here she is, at a very specific point in a teenager’s life where you are finding yourself, and yet she’s met with this very challenging, tragic set of circumstances.

It’s sad that the only person Emily is telling her actual emotions to is a therapist who’s a total stranger because she can’t have that conversation with anyone in her family.

DIONICIO: Yeah. Honestly, I think that’s the most she talks in the whole show, in one sitting. That was the first day on set, period, for all of us, and it was quite a lot.

Silvia, Emily mentions that all she’s allowed to feel is gratitude because of the situation. It’s something that has brought tension into every relationship in her family. How stifling and suffocating is that for her? When you have to bottle up your true emotions and not show them, how hard does that make things?

DIONICIO: It’s a balloon that just keeps growing and growing and growing and is this close to releasing. Her relationship with her therapist, or her guidance counselor, is such an anchor for her. From the very beginning, we drop hints that her sister is coming, and that is a big catalyst for her to finally have the release and blow up and really share how she feels with her family. It’s a really hard position to be in at such a young age, raising your dad, all of a sudden. I had this image in my mind that she was such a daddy’s girl, up until recently, and all of a sudden, there’s this avoidance from both of them. They are not having these conversations like that scene where they’re both literally looking down at the table and they can’t even have the conversation. But it was fun to play. It was fun to go on that journey and that arc with her, for sure.

Silvia Dionicio Was Very Appreciative to Have Mark Ruffalo as a Scene Partner in ‘Task’

“There was just such a beautiful dynamic off-camera that allowed us to go in front of the camera and have fun.”

What was it like to find that with Mark Ruffalo and to have someone like him to explore that with?

DIONICIO: Oh, so cool. He’s the best. He’s such a giving scene partner, and (creator) Brad [Ingelsby] is such a giving writer. You show up and you’re like, “Oh, my God, how am I going to do this? There’s so much happening.” And then, you have the best collaborators next to you and you’re like, “This is great. This is a walk in the park.” But it’s not because of me or how hard I prepared. There was just such a beautiful dynamic off-camera that allowed us to go in front of the camera and have fun and play and be a safe space for each other. We got to work with an acting coach, especially for the kids, but we got to be in the room and really get close and start connecting with each other, prior to shooting. That really allowed us to jump in very strong.

Emilia, what was it like for you to find that with Tom Pelphrey? The relationship between Maeve and Robbie is so difficult because he’s just this person that she’s left with. He’s not her father, but he’s put so much on her. What was that like to find together?

JONES: Maeve and Robbie’s relationship is so complex. There’s a lot of resentment and a lot of anger there, understandably, because of the situation that they’re both in. Halfway through the show, there’s a really important scene where Maeve is just so angry at Robbie and feels like he doesn’t understand her. He just keeps throwing things at her, and she’s supposed to just stand there and take it. There’s a moment mid-show that’s really important for Maeve because it feels like she’s actually looking in a mirror and that Robbie and Maeve actually are not that different. They are both just as stuck as each other in this cycle, and they’ve been dealt a really tough card in life.

He’s just trying to find his way, and she’s just trying to find her way. He makes mistakes because he loves his family, and I think deep down she knows that. I love Tom, wholeheartedly. I think he’s an amazing actor, and he’s so giving. He was such an amazing scene partner. A lot of my big emotional scenes were with him, and I was just so grateful that they were. He’s so fantastic. He’s literally like my uncle in real life. He’s really protective of me. We get on so well. So, I think that that was a really nice foundation because, no matter how angry we were at each other, I love him, and he loves me. That was a nice foundation. We could act as angry as we wanted to, but the love was always there.

How different do you think Maeve’s father was? What do you think their relationship was like?

JONES: The thing about Maeve is that Billy, her father, has brought her up in a similar way to Robbie. He wasn’t always there for her. He was a little bit of maybe an absent father. He was quite immature. But at the same time, the love was always there. In the Prendergrast family, no matter what people are doing or what mistakes are being made, there’s so much love and everybody in that family would do anything for each other. I think that’s why Maeve is so angry at Robbie when he starts spiraling into criminal activity like her father. I think she’s sad that he’s following in the same steps as him. It didn’t end up well for her father, and she loves Robbie and would hate for him to go the same way. She’s just trying to gain some control and keep the people that she loves near her.

Emilia Jones Says That Maeve Was in a Constant Battle to Escape Her Past in ‘Task’

“My adrenaline was so high that there was not a lot of acting required.”

Image via HBO

That moment in episode five when Perry shows up and Maeve has to keep the child hidden, there was so much tension watching that, when you could see the child outside the window and Maeve inside the house. How did you find the right level of tension in that, and to have it be enough to push her to finally draw a line?

JONES: Throughout the whole show, I created a little emotional map and graph. We filmed out of order, so I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t peaking on an emotion too soon. When I was mapping out where, emotionally, I was in each scene, I did realize that I am tense throughout the latter half of the show, but I’m really, really tense [in that moment] . When I was reading it, I kept saying to Brad, “When are we getting episode five? When are we getting episode six? When are we getting episode seven?” And then, when I read it, I just couldn’t put it down. It was so stressful. Jamie [McShane] does such a fantastic job of being so still and so evil. He’s Maeve’s family too. She’s really close with him. So,not only was I trying to portray the tension and being so petrified of him, I was also trying to portray this deep-rooted anger because he keeps ruining her life. All the Dark Hearts do.

She’s just fed up with it. She tried to get away from them, and then Robbie brought her right back in. It’s just a constant battle of trying to escape her past. But all those scenes were really fun. The scene with Sam [Keeley] , who plays Jayson, was super fun because we got to do all our own stunts. I was actually running away and being held down on the ground by Sam. My adrenaline was so high that there was not a lot of acting required. All the Dark Hearts guys were so scary and great. They play their characters so differently, which was really cool. They’re so warm and caring. The minute they’d call, “Cut!,” they’d be like, “Are you okay?”

Silvia, there’s a moment in episode four when Emily comes home drunk and is being helped into the house. How was the experience of pretending to be drunk because it seems like that’s weird to figure out?

DIONICIO: It was so weird. That was the scene I was most nervous about in the whole experience. I had the best teacher, Mr. Ruffalo. He’s so good at playing drunk. I asked him for a few tips, and he helped me out a little bit. Salli [Richardson-Whitfield] is such a great director. She really helped me find that sweet spot and guided me to the moment when she finally blows up. We had to figure out how raw and messy it would be. And also, when we shot that, it was the peak of summer, and we were so hot. I was sweating so hard, which really helped when I was sweating and running and puking. But it was really fun.

And after all that, that poor young man still came back.

DIONICIO: I know, he did. Good boy.

What was it like for Emily to find somebody to spend some time with, who’s actually just nice and who doesn’t seem to have the baggage that the whole rest of her family has?

DIONICIO: It’s a nice break from the tension and the sadness. It’s really nice to go see this sweet kid, figure out who she is and what she likes, and give her space to be a happy kid, or to at least try to allow those emotions and that hope and that future. That shows us hope for her, and that shows us hope, in general, that someone can go through something so heartbreaking and still crack a smile and say yes to hanging out.

Release Date

2025 – 2025-00-00

Network

HBO

Directors

Jeremiah Zagar

Task airs on HBO and is available to stream on HBO Max. Check out the trailer: