Abhiroop Das
Co-developed by Ed Whitmore and Tracey Malone, Fox’s ‘Memory of a Killer‘ explores the insides of the mind of a professional hitman, one whose life takes a sharp turn when he begins showing signs of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. As his memory begins to cloud and his judgment grows weaker, Angelo finds himself questioning the boundaries between right and wrong, both in the actions he has done in the past and the ones he is about to do in the future. The previous episode of this mystery thriller series brings this dilemma to life through a flashback sequence, detailing the trajectory of Angelo’s brother, Michael. This episode, titled ‘Uncle Jacob,’ returns to the present and forces Angelo back into the spotlight, as his mistakes slowly begin to take a visible toll on him. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Angelo Gets a Stark Reality Check With His Alzheimer’s Diagnosis
‘Memory of a Killer’ episode 6 begins with Angelo making his way to a church to sit down for a confession. As the reverend watches with increasing horror, Angelo not only confesses to being a professional hitman but also to the fact that his next target is none other than the reverend himself. Turns out, the reverend is a child sexual predator, and though he keeps making excuses even to the dying end, Angelo doesn’t have to think twice before pulling the trigger. While he may be on a golden run for now, it is apparent that his memory troubles are slowly catching up to him. It gets to a point that he can no longer concretely tell reality apart, and that is particularly troublesome when he wishes to remember the exact details of what he heard Nikki say on her call to Leo.
Desperate to nip the problem in the bud, Angelo seeks out a doctor, admitting at last to having memory problems. The report comes out soon enough, confirming that he has early-onset Alzheimer’s and is projected to be in a similar state as his brother once was. However, because of his early diagnosis, Angelo has a number of treatments available to him, all of which can only slow down the disease, but not wipe it out outright. As he walks out of the hospital, disheartened, it seems that his list of problems is still growing. As fate would have it, the police discover wool threads at the crime scene of Peter Bloch’s murder, and these threads appear to be of high-end, Italian wool. While that alone isn’t enough to find the killer, it nonetheless helps the cops narrow down the target.
Angelo Plans Out an Assassination on Live Television
Even as the police’s search intensifies, it appears that Maria is ready to take matters into her own hands. After developing some connections at her shooting range, she strikes a deal with one of the locals to get her hands on a gun illegally. However, the man is quick to warn her of the immense consequences that come after pulling the trigger, with the words increasingly feeling like an ominous foreshadowing. From there, we return to Nikki’s side of the story, with her telling a friend that she is seeing a new man she doesn’t quite understand just yet. This holds true later, when Angelo and Nikki are on a date. His earlier lies about the gun don’t exactly hold up to scrutiny, and Nikki begins to wonder if Angelo is hiding something major from her. While she gives an example of her grandma, who forgot much of her daily life due to her alcohol problems, Nikki has no idea how close she is to the truth.
That night, Angelo walks into Cucina Forlanni to find Eddie, the mob’s cop-in-arms, taking in some cash. It is Dutch’s plan to get some more dishonest cops under their payroll, and while Eddie exits the scene early, this feels like the building blocks for a later plot line. That, however, has to wait, as Angelo is already there for Joe with a new assassination target: Gene Handsen, a banker who has been laundering money for Russian gangsters for quite some time. However, with the DEA on his tail, Gene decides to cut a deal with the authorities in return for immunity. This time, Dutch has special instructions for the hit, as Angelo is tasked with killing Gene in broad daylight, when he is on-air. While it sounds dramatic at first, bypassing his security turns out to be nearly impossible until Joe makes the discovery that Gene has a pacemaker.
Nikki is Confirmed to be Clawing Her Way Into Angelo’s Secret
The following morning opens with Jeff barging into Dave’s office, concerned about what Maria has been up to over the past few weeks. It is also confirmed at last that Dave and Maria were in a relationship a long time ago, which also gives the investigation a personal dimension. While Dave manages to calm Jeff down, some burning questions about the case still remain, prompting Dave to dial up Linda, the FBI agent who is leading a parallel investigation. After being nudged a bit, Linda reveals that she has been following Bloch and his largely anonymous network for quite some time, hence the overlap. Going one step further, she suggests that Angelo may have been the one to kill Bloch, citing his military background and experience.
While Dave is initially taken aback by Linda’s suspicions, the idea soon starts to make vague sense to him. That, however, has to wait for the time being, as Angelo’s next hit takes over much of the finale. Realizing that they must kill Gene while he is live, Angelo and Joe don the garb of TV workers, taking out one of Gene’s guards along the way. From there, they swap his microphones with one pre-installed with a sensor meant to disrupt his pacemaker. When the show begins, Gene predictably has a heart attack and falls to his death, securing yet another victory for the assassin dream team. However, the episode ends on two big reveals, with the first being that Nikki is secretly accessing Angelo’s medical files, including his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. The other twist is the discovery of the Italian suit’s button by a private detective hired by Jeff, bringing things one step closer to Angelos’s arrest.
Read More: Is Fox’s Memory of a Killer Based on a True Story?
