Task: Why did Tom let Sam go in the finale? Mark Ruffalo and Brad Ingelsby explain

Task ended on a note that tore through the heart. Tom Brandis’ decision to let Sam go was the final step in a long, painful journey toward forgiveness. After losing his wife and nearly losing himself, Tom’s choice was about doing what is right, not what is easy.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Mark Ruffalo and series creator Brad Ingelsby explained that Tom knew love sometimes means letting go, especially when holding on could cause more harm than good.

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When love means letting go: Tom’s breaking point in the finale of Task

The Task finale wasn’t just about endings but also about release. After spending an entire season haunted by guilt and loss, Tom’s bond with young Sam became the one thing keeping him grounded. But that same bond was also a reminder of everything he had lost.

Sam, the boy he took in after a violent gang crime, had come to represent both comfort and chaos. In the finale, Tom makes the agonizing call to send Sam away with Maeve to North Carolina, ensuring his safety. Mark Ruffalo told Entertainment Weekly that his character’s choice wasn’t clear-cut:

“It’s hard for him with Sam. I don’t think he knows if he’s doing the right thing for Sam, but he does know that he’s too old to take care of him.”

Ruffalo explained that keeping Sam close would have been more about Tom’s loneliness than Sam’s well-being. His decision came from a place of painful self-awareness, realizing that love can’t always fix what is broken.

What makes this moment hit so deeply is how real it feels. Tom’s choice doesn’t come with closure or certainty. It is imperfect, just like the rest of his life. But it is also the first time he chooses peace over punishment. In giving Sam up, Tom begins to forgive himself, and that is something no gunfight or manhunt could ever give him.

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The cost of forgiveness: what Tom’s decision really meant?

Brad Ingelsby, who created Task, revealed that Tom’s choice was deeply connected to his fractured relationship with his son, Ethan. Ingelsby told Entertainment Weekly:

“The arc of the show is that Tom needs to forgive his son and then get the house ready so he can come home...”

For Tom, forgiveness was an act. He couldn’t bring Ethan home while clinging to another father/son bond with Sam. Ingelsby admitted that many fans would have wanted Tom and Sam to stay together. But in his eyes, that would have betrayed the truth of the story:

“It would be the easy thing to do but not the right one.”

He explained that the finale’s emotional power came from everything Tom had endured, be it Lizzie’s death, Robbie’s sacrifice, and Maeve’s quiet courage. Ingelsby goes on to say:

“All of that gives him hope in the end. There’s a belief that I can give the boy up, but he’s going to be okay...”

That scene with Tom standing in the empty room where Sam once slept captures exactly what Task has always been about. Redemption isn't about grand or big gestures. It's about painful choices and forgiveness.

When Tom looks out the window in the final scene, Tom feels his wife’s presence, the same presence that once held their family together. As Ingelsby beautifully put it:

“She’s still with him. He’s not going on the journey alone.”

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Tom’s farewell to Sam was a reckoning. Task closed not with a twist, but with truth: That letting go can be the purest act of love. Through Ruffalo’s performance and Ingelsby’s writing, the finale captured what makes the show unforgettable, i.e., the messiness of being human.

Tom’s choice reminds us that healing doesn’t always mean holding on; sometimes, it begins with goodbye.

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Also Read: Task: Emilia Jones on that explosive finale and how no one recognized her as the actress from an Oscar-winning movie