Memory of a Killer Season 1 Episode 2 Teases a Much Bigger Enemy

Critic’s Rating: 3.8 / 5.0

3.8

We’re only two hours into this series, and my favorite thing so far is Angelo tracking people in his fancy pants car mere feet away, and nobody paying him any attention.

A contract killer should be someone who can blend into the crowd. A face easily forgotten.

And yet, Angelo is about the flashiest man in every single space he enters as Mr. Doyle.

After Memory of a Killer Season 1 Episode 1 introduced the characters and central conflicts, Memory of a Killer Season 1 Episode 2 slowed the pace.

We know that Angelo’s worlds are colliding, and that his mind is failing him, but to tell this story adequately, things have to be rolled out over time.

Some hours may drag, and this one wasn’t as entertaining as the premiere, but it developed various plot points.

After Maria was nearly killed, Angelo was obviously not going to rest until he found out who was after him and was willing to harm his pregnant daughter, and even though it’s wildly convenient that Angelo is apparently BFF with local cop Dave, I can also see why Angelo was smart to befriend him.

And that’s assuming that’s how their connection was born.

We don’t know much about Dave, but context clues would lead you to believe he was an investigator of Leah’s death, and he formed some kind of bond with Angelo and Maria while Earl Hancock was on trial for Leah’s murder.

And it’s an awfully tight bond for him to pull enough strings to let Angelo watch him interrogate the man who killed his wife and potentially tried to kill his daughter.

Earl getting released from prison, frequenting multiple bars, and overhearing the name Ferryman are wildly coincidental, but hey, this is a broadcast television crime drama. There are going to be a lot of coincidences needed to further the plot along, and you can’t get too caught up in all the incredulities, or you’ll be miserable.

We already knew Earl wasn’t the would-be killer, but it was somewhat beneficial for Angelo that no one else did.

Angelo is walking a slippery slope right now, trying to keep things separate when there’s so much overlap. Maria, thinking she may be in danger, actually helps him keep things in line. Because the second eyes are turned his way, he risks full implosion and a lifetime of lies slowly unraveling and crushing the one thing he cares about most.

And that’s the danger of the FEDs now getting involved.

Unlike Dave, Linda doesn’t know Angelo from a hole in the wall, and haven’t we learned that ALL FEDs on television are born suspicious?

I will applaud and champion any reason to bring Gina Torres into the fold, and even though her introduction was brief, it seems fairly obvious that Angelo will be on her radar, which adds a very interesting wrinkle to everything.

Along with Angelo being the least inconspicuous contract killer in history, it’s also entertaining that he has a go-to person for everything and seemingly endless resources at his disposal.

I thought it would take Angelo longer to track down the man in the blue pickup, but he found him quickly, learned about Ferryman, and expanded the mystery.

So, who is the Ferryman?

It’s impossible to say who it is at this point, because we’re so new to this world. But my first inclination was Dutch, if only because I am just not buying what he’s selling.

We’ve already established that up until this point, Angelo’s seemingly done this masterful job of keeping his two worlds separate.

He’s got reliable, family man Angelo Flannery in one corner, and hotshot hitman Angelo Doyle in the other. While Maria knows nothing about Doyle, it’s possible Dutch knows more than he lets on.

Dutch seems to have fully bought into the Doyle persona of him being this almost reclusive man who kills for a living and does nothing else. But he was way too quick to believe Angelo’s lie about killing Mosher, and it got me wondering if he’s only allowed Angelo to believe that he’s been getting away with his lies all this time.

Even though Angelo and Dutch share a history, Angelo’s been lying to him, so who’s to say Dutch isn’t doing the same?

But the thing about this Ferryman person is that, more than just wanting Angelo dead, they seem to want to make him suffer. That’s the only reason I could think of as to why they would go after Maria instead.

Angelo may have easily found the driver, but it’s likely to take much longer to uncover Ferryman’s identity. By then, everything may spiral out of control.

With Maria now at least having suspicions about her father, it’ll be interesting to see what her next move will be.

Angelo seems like a pretty great father on the surface, so it was a bit surprising to see her start to doubt him after finding a news article about a mob accountant in his jacket pocket.

That and the expensive jacket unsettled her, but is that really enough to doubt the man who raised you?

It seemed a little nonsensical for her not just to ask her father about the article, but then again, she was just shot at for seemingly no reason at all. Perhaps her suspicions of her father stem less from distrust and more from feeling destabilized and fearful after her near-death experience, prompting her to seek answers on her own rather than risk direct confrontation.

Speaking of nonsensical, why does Angelo hate Joe so much?

This was another hour that didn’t dive too deeply into Dutch’s nephew, but Angelo can’t stand him, to the point where it seems wildly personal.

I’m beginning to wonder if Angelo typically worked alone, but Dutch has made the executive decision to stick Joe with him, either because he wants to give his nephew some work or because he’s noticed Angelo slipping, which has made Angelo resentful of the other man.

The beef seems very one-sided on Angelo’s end, and yes, Joe did make a mistake during Operation Kill Mob Accountant, but as Dutch later pointed out to him, he also made mistakes when he just started.

It’s unclear whether we’re meant to like Joe at this point, but Angelo’s dislike for him certainly makes me more curious about Joe’s future role.

There are a lot of moving parts to this series right now, and I haven’t even grazed Angelo’s memory issues during this one.

Aside from running into the street after saving Maria, the most off-kilter and terrified we’ve seen Angelo to this point was when he was momentarily lost in the woods. His face was that of a man scared for not only his immediate future but maybe even beyond it as well.

Thus far, Angelo’s ignoring all of the memory gaps, but that has to come back to him at a certain point, and likely at an inopportune moment.

It adds this very complicated puzzle piece to this complex tale being woven right now as Angelo fights to hang onto his brand of normalcy, even as the cracks in it continue to widen.

Killer Notes

• So, Dave is in love with Maria, right? It’s so incredibly cliché, but he clearly has a soft spot for her.

• The opening with the elevator killing was a lot, but I’m guessing the murder of that scientist will be some overarching story that carries through the rest of the season.

• One thing Angelo did well was not trying to change too much between Flannery and Doyle, aside from the attire and the car. He acts pretty much the same in either life, which has probably helped him keep things straight over the years.

• I’m wondering whether we need flashbacks in every episode, told from Angelo’s perspective. I get the point, but does it have to be an every-episode thing?

I was decidedly less impressed by this hour, but a good mystery is still taking shape.

After the two-episode premiere, how are you guys feeling about the series?

Who are your early guesses for the mysterious Ferryman?

Talk to me about anything in the comments below!

You can watch Memory of a Killer on Mondays at 9/8c on Fox.