[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Task, Season 1 Episode 3, “Nobody’s Stronger Than Forgiveness.”]
Task‘s newest episode dove deeper into the history of its task force members as Thuso Mbedu‘s Aleah Clinton revealed her history with domestic violence while she chatted with a suspect in “Nobody’s Stronger Than Forgiveness.”
The arguably buttoned-up detective sergeant who was tapped to assist on an FBI case surrounding a string of Delco-based robberies led to a revealing moment as Aleah and fellow task team member Lizzie Stover (Alison Oliver) questioned Shelley Driscoll (Mickey Sumner), after she was caught robbing Cliff Broward’s (Raúl Castillo) house with her husband, Ray (Peter Patrikios).
Earlier in the episode, Robbie Prendergast (Tom Pelphrey) and Cliff hit up Ray and Shelley for help to move the drugs they’d snagged from the Dark Hearts, but Ray had other plans as he hit Cliff’s house and tried to take the stash for himself. During Robbie and Cliff’s visit with Ray and Shelley, viewers witnessed the abusive way he treated her, and Aleah clearly sensed that.
Alison Oliver and Thuso Mbedu in ‘Task’ Season 1
Peter Kramer / HBO
Aleah explained to Shelley that she’d had to have a metal plate put in her head after her ex broke her eye socket, and she’d even written her social security number into her shoes so that if he killed her, the police would at least be able to identify her. It’s a heavy realization for viewers, and one that Mbedu didn’t take lightly as she approached the role.
“Her history with domestic violence, I think that one was the most sensitive,” Mbedu tells TV Insider of her experience preparing for the role. “Having to allow myself to be in a space where I’m taking in all these traumatic experiences of different women and then applying it to Aleah, but not in a way where the intention is to invoke tears from the audience members,” she adds.
“This is a character who’s lived through this trauma, but it’s her first time talking about it,” Mbedu explains. “It’s not a weapon that she uses to gain an up in investigations.” In other words, Aleah didn’t share her story with Shelley in order to crack the case; she wanted to connect with her on a human level in order to help someone else out of abuse she’d experienced herself. “She is still reconciling within herself but is using it to help others,” Mbedu adds.
As fans may have noticed in previous episodes, Aleah is the most buttoned-up and Type A of the task force members, as she was seen wiping down her laptop, using hand sanitizer, and continuing to keep her shirts literally buttoned up. “In conversations with the wardrobe department, I said Aaliyah would never have her shirt slightly open,” Mbedu confirmed. “She literally buttons up until the top, and it’s just like small things that speak to her needing to be in control of something because of how out of control she was when the abuse happened.”
That care Aleah extended to Shelley branched out to her care for task force lead, Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo), who suffered a concussion after Ray threw him down the stairs of Cliff’s house. See what Aleah gets up to next as Task continues, and stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes insights in the weeks ahead.
If you or someone you know is the victim of domestic abuse, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233.
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