Abhiroop Das
Developed by Ed Whitmore and Tracey Malone, Fox’s ‘Memory of a Killer‘ navigates the complex reality of Angelo Doyle, whose double life as a family man and an assassin is further complicated by his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. As the disorder takes root, both the memories he cherishes and the memories that are important to his profession begin eroding one after the other, pushing his consciousness to a perpetual dream-like state. The previous episode of this psychological thriller series ends with the reveal that Nikki might just be toying with Angelo, as she now knows of his deepest vulnerabilities and plans to use them.
On the police front, Dave discovers pieces of high-end fabrics at the crime scene, and is on the cusp of tracing them back to the killer, not knowing how close to home the answer can lead. Both these threads stretch further with this episode, titled ‘Tailored by Fabroni,’ tightening their grip on Angelo along the way. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Angelo Connects the Dead Scientist to the Ferryman
‘Memory of a Killer’ season 1 episode 7 begins with Angelo in panic, as the gaps in his memory are increasingly shaping up to be the reason for his downfall. Between cracks and bursts of remembering, a single image appears to haunt him the most: that of shooting down a scientist. While Angelo is able to vaguely recollect the event, the finer details remain obscured, forcing him to go experimental. At the hospital, he chooses to undergo the new and risky transmagnetic treatment, designed to bring specific memories back to the brain. However, even this takes a turn for the worse when Angelo’s memories get mixed up with nightmarish visions, particularly those of pointing a gun towards Maria and then himself. Going from panicked to outright frightened, he dashes out of the hospital, nowhere closer to figuring out the truth.
Carrying over the discovery from the previous episode, Jeff brings the button to the police station, along with his eccentric uncle. Dave has a hard time believing that the button can be relevant to the case, but even if it is, he is unable to register it as evidence, thanks to Jeff’s uncle getting his guys to examine the thing first. The results, however, are definitive, as the button is amongst the rarest in the world, and almost certainly a match for the high-end wool discovered by the river. Still uncertain, Dave chooses to keep the button and tasks his own researchers with verifying its origins. On his way out, Jeff is surprised to see none other than Earl Hancock, the killer of Maria’s mother, at the police station. As it turns out, he might no longer be on parole, which can only be more trouble for the family.
As night falls, Angelo grows more restless about his unresolved memory splashes. His research online shows that the scientist he killed was actually a whistleblower, and has been heralded as a hero in the years since his death. This forces Angelo to question just about everything he stands for, and even prompts an emergency visit to Dutch. It has been the duo’s policy to never target civilians from the start, and while the assassin has so far blindly trusted his handler, he no longer feels confident doing the same. This upsets Dutch, who doesn’t even remember having dealt with a scientist’s case before, and Angelo’s inquiry is forcibly shrugged off. Angelo, however, has no plans of slowing down his search and goes to Dorian to get a tracker attached to the Ferryman’s next shipment.
Dave Gets Close to Discovering Bloch’s Killer
Although Dorian warns Angelo that a tracker might spell a death sentence for both of them, he is still lured by Angelo’s promise of being pulled out of the game for good. Elsewhere, Maria tries to get back into her routine, starting with her Yoga sessions, only to unwittingly interact with Nikki, who is nestling herself deeper and deeper into Angelo’s personal life. While she fishes for details from Maria, Dave gets his hands on the second valuable piece of information of the day: a witness who claims to have seen Bloch’s murderer. While her description matches Angelo to a T, Dave still doesn’t consider him a suspect. However, when news about these developments reaches Angelo during a family meeting, he realizes just how close to getting caught he actually is.
The biggest threat to Angelo manifests the following day, when Dave’s team not only confirms that the button matches the suit’s fabric, but is also able to narrow down its source to a handful of luxury fashion outlets in New York. As the cops inch their way to solving the mystery, Maria has yet another surprise waiting for her, as Hancock is now employed as a telecom operator and makes a pitstop at her home with ambiguous intentions. Frightened for her life, Maria is now closer than ever to making use of the proverbial Chekov’s gun. Meanwhile, Angelo and Joe team up for yet another covert mission away from Dutch’s eyes and ears. This time, they plan to return to the laboratory where the scientist died, and even though this breaks every rule in the hitman book, Joe has no choice but to tag along.
Angelo Loses to the Ferryman Once Again
The now-abandoned lab turns out to be a treasure trove of memories for Angelo, as each step he takes unlocks newer and longer visions. Before long, he is able to piece together exactly how the scientist tried to defend himself before falling to his own death, but the whys of it all still remain a mystery. The most valuable memory he is able to excavate is the scientist asking if Gilchrist ordered the hit. Angelo has no recollection of any such person, and before he can probe any further, his GPS tracker begins to beep, signalling that the shipment is right with them in the building.
To Angelo’s surprise, however, the source of the beep turns out to be Dorian’s dead body, attached to which is a message greeting Angelo, and officiating the game of chess. With the confirmation that the scientist and the Ferryman are connected, Angelo knocks on Dutch’s doorsteps yet again, enquiring about Gilchrist. While Dutch confirms that this person is one of his contractors, nothing seems to suggest that this person is the boogeyman who has been chasing Angelo all along. However, when Dutch later dials up Mrs. Gilchrist and asks about the scientist, he is shut down with enough intensity to confirm that something sinister is up.
That night, Nikki and Angelo’s dinner conversation takes a strange twist when she name-drops Maria. Going further, she gaslights him into believing that he told her about his family, and Angelo is left convinced that his Alzheimer’s is getting worse, not better. Not long after, it is revealed that Nikki is working with the Ferryman, whose middleman is none other than Hancock. Deemed unrelated to the mystery at the start of the season, Hancock at last proves himself to be perhaps the scariest man in the show yet again, with Angelo not having the slightest clue.
Read More: Is Fox’s Memory of a Killer Based on a True Story?
