Summary
Memory of a Killer finds a bit more tension in “Uncle Jacob” thanks to Angelo’s official diagnosis, which provides a ticking clock over all the mysteries he’s trying to solve.
Assassins are usually a death sentence for other people, but Memory of a Killer takes the bold step in Episode 6 of confirming what we all suspected – that Angelo is suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s, like his brother before him, and there’s no cure. Sure, some drugs are offered that’ll slow the decline, but nothing is going to stop it. Angelo’s fate is sealed. He’s on borrowed time, and he has a few matters to square away before he becomes too far gone to function.
This has been the hook of the show since the beginning, but it feels more pressing now that things are official. Every job Angelo has to take on, every mystery he still needs to solve, suddenly feels more tense, more liable to go wrong and bring about his undoing. There are four episodes left, which feels faintly alarming. Memory of a Killer is already committing to big story swings. Just how bad are things going to get?
For the time being, at least, Angelo is functional. The cold open finds him at work, which in this case is killing a priest who has been diddling children through the wall of a confession booth. But even this sequence, largely arbitrary in the grand scheme of things, works better than it should, since Angelo flirts, however briefly, with the idea of repentance. It’s a fake-out, granted, a way to make the priest look like a hypocrite before making him look dead, but this is probably the kind of thing Angelo needs to be thinking about.
Angelo seeking out a professional diagnosis seems a big step for him. There’s nothing more annoying than characters in film and TV delaying the obvious. He has been through this before, of course, though admittedly not with himself. But he knows the score. The prognosis is bleak. Outside of pills and experimental trials unapproved by the FDA, all of which are delays rather than cures, there’s nothing to be done except find a support system he can be honest with. For some reason, Angelo defaults to thinking about Nicky instead of Maria.
You probably don’t need me to tell you that the Nicky thing is plot-mandated. Angelo has to begin to trust her with his innermost secrets so that her inevitable betrayal stings more. And since it has already been teased that Nicky isn’t quite who she’s saying she is, it’s no surprise that the latter stage of “Uncle Jacob” confirms it. For now, though, it isn’t entirely clear whether she is the elusive Ferryman or she’s just connected to him (or her) in some weird way. Time will tell.
It’s still kind of dumb for Angelo, though. As soon as she revealed that she researched his made-up justification for leaving a gun in the fridge, I’d have been out the door – when she implied alcoholism might be the cause, I’d have been gone even faster. Angelo must just be a sucker for a pretty woman. And he has kept his private and professional lives so compartmentalised at this point that he clearly doesn’t want to trouble Maria with anything even resembling the truth.
Speaking of Angelo’s professional life, Memory of a Killer boasts another fun assassination in Episode 6, insofar as assassinations can ever be “fun”. But these scenes are designed to flesh out the relationship between Angelo and Joe, who is absolutely desperate for approval in a lame, puppy dog way. And it’s kind of working. They’re also designed to show both how good at his job Angelo is and how complicated and high-tech that job can become. Here, the killing of a money launderer using a microphone to trigger a heart attack live on TV is a novel operation, but in light of the Alzheimer’s diagnosis, you can’t help but think of the myriad ways in which it might go wrong.
These kills are essentially cases of the week, though. More compelling is the overarching storytelling, none of which is boding particularly well for Angelo or indeed his secret family. Linda Grant is circling the case like a shark, and finally tells Dave outright that she suspects Angelo on account of his military background and shady photocopier alibis. Dave isn’t buying it, but he’s so attached to Maria he can’t see the forest for the trees. Meanwhile, Jeff’s private investigator uncle finds the missing button from Angelo’s swanky Italian jacket. The walls are closing in. There’s a vague chance the gun Maria is trying to illegally procure might be turned on her own father.
Perhaps not, though, since Maria’s focus on her own safety implies it’s going to be threatened at some point, and it’s pretty likely that it’ll be Nicky, or at least someone connected to her, who’s going to need shooting. Angelo tries to set a trap for the Ferryman at the end of this episode, but instead, we see Nicky threatening his doctor until he hands over his medical records. I’m pretty sure Angelo mentioned having a daughter during this consultation, so are we now to assume that information is public knowledge?
The implication is that Nicky is the Ferryman, though I suspect that’s a red herring. Either way, though, her knowing Angelo’s deepest secret probably isn’t a good thing.
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