Memory Of A Killer Episodes 8-9 Recap: Is Michael Dead?

With almost all the majority of the narrative conflict has been resolved; revelations have been made before the final episode of Fox’s “Memory of a Killer” releases, only leaving out the question about consequences for the final chapter of the first season. The extremely eventful, action-packed eighth and ninth episodes focus on the identity of the Ferryman, the personal connection that acted as a motive for the elusive fixer to go after Angelo, and Angelo’s struggle to protect his close ones from repercussions of his past action. The best part of these episodes is that minor characters like Maria and Dutch get their chance to shine for a change, without Dutch having to do all the heavy lifting like usual.

Spoilers Ahead 

Following up on his suspicion about Angelo after learning from Maria that he too owns a Fabroni suit, Detective Dave pays a visit to his house and directly asks Angelo to show him the suit. The thing is, Dave had previously mentioned the missing button to Angelo already, which prompted Angelo to send the suit back to the bespoke tailor, and he just produced a different Fabroni suit to dodge Dave’s suspicion. However, Angelo overplays his hand by trying to stay at Dave’s good side by emotionally connecting with him, reminding him of his past relationship with Maria. In doing so, he ends up stalling Dave for a little longer, and Dave notices the parking ticket for a Porsche at Angelo’s place with the location mentioned nearby Fabronis, NY. It doesn’t take long for Dave to visit the luxurious designer tailor and learn that Angelo had ordered a button to be reattached in one of his suits. 

Connecting the dots, Dave realizes that his suspicions have come true, meaning Angelo indeed killed Henry Bloch. However, by now Dave has gone through an emotional crisis as he has opened up to Maria about how he still laments how abruptly their relationship ended when Maria left for Chicago. Maria is later confronted by her husband Jeff, who shares his disappointment upon realizing she has been keeping secrets from him and lying to him. Knowing how much effort Jeff has put into their relationship and how much he values their family, a soon-to-be mother, Maria, chooses to put out whatever chances there were for her and Dave to get back together. It goes beyond saying that when Dave returns to Angelo’s place, he is not in the right state of mind, as he lets his emotions for Maria’s family get over his responsibilities as a law enforcement officer. He mentions to Angelo that he sympathizes with his predicament of being a grieving widower who did what he had to do to keep his family safe. Dave spares Angelo by justifying his actions, and this raises so many questions about his credibility as an investigator. It is baffling as to how Dave did not get suspicious about Angelo living a dual life about which his daughter is in the dark and also about a professional hitman like Henry Bloch targeting Maria out of nowhere. Also, he warns Angelo regarding FBI Agent Linda Grant’s suspicions about him, prompting Angelo to assess their past interactions in a new light. 

Before getting into details about Ferryman’s identity reveal, let’s discuss Angelo’s latest assignment for a moment, which focuses on Joe’s psyche. Angelo needs to kill a certain Anthony Dewitt, a Ponzi scheme swindler, and his way through is to get access to the hotel room where he and his gambling-addicted wife are staying. To do so, Angelo needs to get close to her by participating in the high-stakes poker game secretly set up in the hotel, and Joe manages to use his smarts to manage a seat at the game. However, while looking into an address connected with Dr. Robert Parks—his former target whose death still pangs Angelo—he ends up reaching his residence and is unwittingly dragged into a trauma-sharing therapy session led by Robert’s wife. As a result, Joe has to complete Henry’s assignment on his behalf, and despite getting nervous initially, he manages to play his cards just right to reach his target. However, Joe is no killer, and he finds himself unable to shoot down a sleeping, unarmed Anthony Dewitt who doesn’t have the slightest idea of how close he is to his demise. Joe calls Angelo, who takes down Anthony to finish the job promptly. 

Now coming to the identity of the Ferryman, it might come off as  to viewers that Angelo’s mysterious nemesis is none other than Linda herself, who used her expertise and resources as an FBI agent to pull strings to make Angelo’s life a living hell. Linda is Robert Parks’ mother. The codename, Ferryman, which she assumed, refers to Robert’s favorite childhood character, Charon, the Ferryman from Greek mythology who transported departed souls to the underworld. After Robert’s tragic demise, a grieving Linda lost herself to alcoholic tendencies, and after gathering herself, she became hell-bent on her mission to take down her son’s killer. She used criminals like Henry Bloch and Earl Hancock to set a trap for Angelo and toy with him throughout to make him feel as helpless and miserable as she did after losing her son. Nicky, who was awaiting life imprisonment after killing her abusive husband to protect herself and her daughter, was approached by Linda, who persuaded her to infiltrate Angelo’s close circle in exchange for getting fully exonerated. 

Stefanie Gilchrist is revealed to be a fixer for big pharma, who ordered the hit on Parks after his whistleblowing activities became a major concern for profit-oriented seedy conglomerates. After having Parks murdered, Gilchrist and her associates offered support to his family to keep the narrative under control. During Stefanie’s last interaction with Dutch, who questioned her about Parks and Ferryman on Angelo’s behalf, she had warned him to keep Angelo under control or remain prepared to face consequences. Now that Angelo is snooping around Parks’ household, Stefanie fears trouble and, to teach Dutch a lesson, ambushes him at his restaurant by taking a couple of her enforcers. Restraining Dutch, Stefanie orders his goons to kill him, only for Dutch to free himself and kill both the enforcers before taking Stefanie captive. 

After learning the truth behind Stefanie’s interaction with Dutch, Angelo lambasts him for not doing a proper background check before taking the assignment. He would never have killed Dr. Parks had he known he was an honorable man who was trying to do the right thing, and all this trouble could have been avoided. Angelo wonders whether he can trust Dutch ever again, as he now knows fully well that the Ferryman is taking revenge on him for the murder of the scientist murder. Investigating Nicky’s background and upon learning she was detained by the FBI, coupled with Linda’s suspicion about him, Angelo figures everything out in no time. Still, to become absolutely sanguine, he watches over Linda and surprises her by going to the cafe she is visiting. Julia, Linda’s daughter-in-law, is present as well, and she recognizes Angelo from their recent interaction. That’s enough to warn Linda that Angelo is in close proximity to her family, and Angelo too confirms her motive to go after him. In the meantime, he gets concerned for Michael’s safety after learning that his former attendant has been replaced by a new one, whom Angelo can’t fully trust. 

Linda has already decided to make Angelo pay by sending her cronies after Michael and Maria. She assigns Nicky to use her connection with Maria to reach her place and destabilize her home security to let Earl break in. Nicky is conflicted; as a mother she cannot bring herself to do something as horrendous, but eventually she decides to follow through with Linda’s command. Linda calls Angelo, as there is no point to pretend ignorance any longer now that both their secrets are out in the open. She blames him for how her life took such a dark turn following her son’s demise; she gave up all her codes and ethics to manipulate criminals and target innocents. Angelo cuts to the chase and offers to set things right by setting a meeting in a rendezvous place. He brings a captive Stefanie to her and makes her confess about her role in Robert Parks’ death. Had it not been for bad intel, Angelo would have never killed Parks. It should be mentioned that Dutch has tortured Stefanie in the meantime to extract intel about her possible connection with Ferryman, and it turns out she doesn’t know anyone like that. Linda is shocked to learn the truth and shoots Stefanie to death without hesitation. However, Angelo is not off the hook just yet, and Linda reveals she has set her cronies against his loved ones. 

Angelo rushes to Maria’s place after confirming Michael is attending a music therapy session. Earl breaks into Maria’s place but fails to kill her as Nicky has a change of heart, and she has warned Maria about what is going to happen. Maria warns Earl to stay back, and as he continues to ignore her warning, she shoots him in the shoulder. Earl nearly manages to catch Maria off guard as she gets distracted while attending a call, and Angelo finishes him by arriving at the nick of time. On the other hand, it appears at the end of the music therapy session, when Michael is trying to reconnect his old days by conjuring tunes in piano, someone has ambushed him with a garrote wire. However, as Angelo returns to check up on his brother, he finds out Michael’s new attendant was one of Dutch’s enforcers, who saved Michael by shooting the piano teacher, who was one of Linda’s cronies, to death. Dutch arrives at the scene to reveal he has been keeping Michael and Angelo safe, just as he promised, and with this action he regains Angelo’s trust. As the episode ends, it seems with all the major issues resolved, the finale will consist of both Angelo and Linda coming to terms with their actions.