Summary
Memory of a Killer pulls off a few satisfying fake-outs in “Shoot the Piano Player”, setting the stage for an intriguing finale showdown.
One thing I’m thankful for – and it says a lot about Memory of a Killer’s underlying respect for the audience, I think – is that after the long-awaited reveal of the Ferryman’s true identity, we didn’t have to wait for ages for Angelo to catch up. Episode 9, “Shoot the Piano Player”, has a moment when it becomes really clear what’s going on, and it would have been a terrible shame if Angelo missed it, even taking his worsening mental state into account. Luckily, he caught on, and it leads to some of the biggest developments of the season thus far.
The great success of this episode, which is one of the best ones, is that it also effectively ties everything together, from Dutch’s secrecy to Michael’s safety to Maria’s time on the range. It’s very much a penultimate episode, getting all the pieces in place for what is sure to be an interesting finale, even if there aren’t too many different directions it might head in at this point. The Ferryman has been exposed, made her dastardly move against Angelo, and was foiled on two fronts thanks to some unforeseen circumstances. But even having achieved part of her personal revenge, that thirst still isn’t slaked, so Agent Grant obviously isn’t going to quit it.
Stefanie Gilchrist turns out to be the root of all evil. In the opening of “Shoot the Piano Player,” she tries to kidnap Dutch in his restaurant kitchen, which backfires considerably. I’ve always enjoyed scenes like this; Dutch isn’t the main character, but he has to have something about him for the deadly assassin protagonist to be so subservient to him, and here, we see it. Far from being the kidnapper she intended to be, Gilchrist ends up tied up and tortured for information.
Some revelations follow. In essence, Gilchrist had hired Angelo, through Dutch, to kill Dr. Park for entirely self-serving reasons. Dutch didn’t properly vet her, leading to the present-day mishap where Angelo is being hunted by what we now know to be Dr. Park’s mother. Now, Gilchrist doesn’t know anything about the Ferryman, so Dutch can’t put any pieces together through her testimony, but Angelo can.
Also, a side note, but it’s hilarious that Angelo is seething about Dutch’s dishonesty. He still has a whole secret life that Dutch has no idea about!
Anyway, with the Ferryman’s identity already revealed, Memory of a Killer Episode 9 can reveal a bit more about Linda Grant, which amounts to, essentially, that she’s bonkers. Having been driven mad by grief, she turned to alcohol, and is now in recovery, but has sworn off the AA meetings to instead pore over a creepy shrine of evidence tying Angelo and all of his close associates together. It was also she who flipped Nicky by leveraging her FBI position to threaten her with life in prison over the killing of her abusive husband (in self-defense).
But Nicky comes through for the good(ish) guys in “Shoot the Piano Player”. Grant has decided that killing Angelo isn’t enough, and that his daughter has to bite the bullet too, so Nicky’s role continues to be ingratiating herself into Maria’s life. Her offering to help Maria finish the nursery is one of several rug-pulls that this episode smartly deploys, since we know that Grant has also instructed Hancock to take Maria out. The stage is set.
Angelo tries to prevent this in his own way. When he runs into Grant at a coffee by accident – but really on purpose – Dr. Park’s widow introduces her as her mother-in-law, and the penny drops. Grant realises she’s rumbled, which is what compels her to accelerate the timeline against Maria – and Michael, as it turns out. There’s another rug pull there, since we’re led to suspect a shady nurse who keeps answering the phone and playing dumb whenever Angelo calls to inquire about Michael’s safety.
To try to placate Grant, Angelo offers her Gilchrist on a silver platter. Grant is glad – I’m not sure “glad” is the right word, but you know what I mean – to coldly execute her for arranging the hit on her son, but it doesn’t totally scratch the itch. She tells Angelo that two of his loved ones are still about to die: Maria, at the hands of Hancock, and Michael, presumably at the hands of the new nurse.
But not quite! Memory of a Killer pulls a fast one-two. It turns out Nicky had tipped Maria off about the coming assassination attempt, so she’s able to get the drop on her would-be killer and shoot him thanks to Dave’s patient firearm tutelage. She doesn’t land a killing blow, but Angelo turns up in the nick of time to finish Hancock off, though he’s going to have some explaining to do about that.
Meanwhile, at Michael’s assisted living facility, the shady nurse turns out to have been protection hired by Dutch. So, Michael is safe, too. The Ferryman lost on two fronts. I can only imagine that Linda isn’t going to take that development especially well.
