pkill -f inside a shell command can kill that same shell

If you run pkill -f "<pattern>"; other commands in one bash -c invocation and the pattern also occurs in that command line, pkill matches the wrapping shell and kills it (exit 144). The commands after it then never run. Use a pattern that cannot match itself, for example pkill -f "[l]ean Club/Foo". Alternatively, get the PID from the background-task tool or from pgrep output, and kill that PID.