Abhiroop Das
Developed by Ed Whitmore and Tracey Malone, Fox’s ‘Memory of a Killer‘ zeroes in on the double life of Angelo Doyle, at once an endearing, family-centric copier salesman and a feared hitman working closely with the mob. Having built his reputation in both realms over the years, Angelo believes he has cracked the code of life, but that resolve is put to the test when he begins showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease.
One by one, memories both random and cherished begin to slip out of his mind, and while that is an emotional blow itself, there are far greater and more realistic risks at play. Soon, the cracks threaten the accuracy of his hits, putting everything he has built at risk. The third episode of this crime drama series, titled ‘Samurai,’ both widens these cracks and fills in some additional context. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Dutch and Company Have to Kill Before Their Cover’s Blown
‘Memory of a Killer’ episode 3 begins in the middle of a rainy night, with all the higher-ups of Dutch’s gang gathered together at the restaurant. It turns out that someone has turned on them, and the NYPD has information that could spell their ruin within two days. The gang gets this information from Marty, their source asset in the police, who is in many ways far from respectful of Dutch, and especially Angelo, whom he considers a thug in a suit. Still, it is Marty who reveals that the group has but one silver lining: it will take the NYPD officer, Garcia, two days to process the information and get it notified to higher authorities. Thus, Angelo now has a timeline to conduct one of the biggest hits in his life, and he must frame it as an accident.
As Angelo and Joe begin looking into Garcia’s personal life, they learn that his son is somewhat of an internet celebrity with a drug addiction, making him a potential gateway. Still, for maximum impact, Joe has to get his hands dirty, literally, by digging through Garcia’s trash the following day. Elsewhere, Maria sits up at night with Dave, discussing the ins and outs of the investigation into her shooter. If it wasn’t apparent earlier, it is obvious now that the two have a deep history together, enough for her to confide in him the thing that has upset her the most: the newspaper slip in her father’s jacket. Curious, she asks Dave about how to go around dealing with suspicion when it comes to family, but the idea of telling the police only makes the decision more, and not less, complex.
Back at Cucina Forlanni, Angelo learns in an off-handed conversation with Dutch that this is not the first time they have been knee-deep in trouble. In fact, it was Eddie who helped Angelo avoid NYPD suspicion two years ago, but surprisingly, Dutch kept that fact to himself. Although Angelo is alerted by this, he hardly has time to react, as Joe is back with the trash, which soon reveals that Garcia’s son is also a diabetic and needs insulin dosages. This, coupled with Joe gaining complete access to Garcia’s digitized housing system, means that Angelo already has an initial plan in place, and that begins with Joe befriending the kid under the guise of exchanging drugs.
Angelo Probes Deeper Into the Ferryman
Angelo begins the next day with a surprise conversation with Earl Hancock to learn more about the Ferryman. It turns out that Angelo doesn’t believe that Hancock was just conveniently at a bar where he overheard someone concoct the death of Maria, and Angelo believes that, at the very least, Hancock was intentionally placed there by this mysterious Ferryman to further the information. Angelo is especially worried about the mythic connotations of this name, pertaining to the role of sending a person from life to death. Still, that has to wait, for now, as his next stop is Garcia’s house, where Joe is already waiting. While the kid is distracted, Angelo sneakily ups the dosage of insulin, but is surprised to later learn that Garcia does not even plan to return home for two days, which means their job is about to get much harder.
Elsewhere, Maria still feels the brunt of the trauma every waking hour, and, realizing that she’s had enough, decides that she needs a gun. However, speaking that loudly at a police station isn’t exactly a wise idea, and Dave has to reluctantly bring her out to a shooting range to practice her shot. Just like her father, Maria turns out to be a crackshot, but Dave still feels uncertain about arming her up so readily. He also has a lingering question about why she came back to Hudson Springs, indicating romantic tension, once again. However, that changes when Dave gets called up by the river, where Peter Bloch’s body has apparently been found. Neither he nor Maria knows him just yet, though, and they certainly don’t know that Bloch’s killer is none other than Angelo himself.
Angelo Gets Rid of the Mole
At the hotel, Angelo finds Nicky’s necklace, giving him an opportunity to reinitiate contact with her, and while he does apologize and make up a story about the gun in the fridge, he is surprised to see that she already has a partner. Disheartened, he heads right back to work, which presently involves shadowing Garcia to find a good opportunity to kill him. As such, when Garcia walks into a forest that night, and Angelo is given a silver platter opportunity, he isn’t exactly too eager. Tailing Garcia, he learns a shocking truth: the traitor who has been feeding Garcia information is none other than Eddie, who clearly has been playing the long game. Dutch is left aghast by this development, but now it gives him an opportunity to strike down two birds with one stone.
The following morning, Angelo finds out that FBI agent Linda Grant has been tailing him in the subtlest of ways, seemingly running into him while at the grocery store by pure accident. While Angelo manages to evade her soon enough, it is clear that he has even more eyes and ears to worry about than before. That noon, before heading out for the assassination, he manages to convince Maria that the picture she found referred to one of his clients, who turned out to be a mobster. Maria is convinced by her father’s innocent-seeming explanation, which belies his true nature, only fully displayed long after. After summoning Eddie to the restaurant, he announces that the plan is to murder Marty in the evening, and Eddie needs to bring some drugs to Garcia’s house to make the staging more convincing.
What Marty doesn’t realize, however, is that Angelo is already planning three steps ahead, and that Garcia’s son is already knocked out by the time Marty rings the doorbell. After being outed as the traitor, he tries to convince Angelo that it is Dutch who has been playing him this entire time, but that hardly stops the seasoned hitman from killing Eddie with a samurai sword. Next up, he and Joe frame the kid as the murderer, and leave a camera on, as Gary returns home, believes his son to be the murderer, and proceeds to carry the body out to bury it. Naturally, Angelo catches him red-handed, and a deal between the two of them is cut out at last. The rest of the night is one of celebration, as Nicky visits him once again, announcing that she has broken up with her partner, following which she and Angelo spend the night. Still, he cannot get the Ferryman out of his head, which means paying the gunsmiths one more visit.
Read More: Where is Memory of a Killer Filmed? All Shooting Locations
