Memory of a Killer Season 1 Episode 5 Review: Betrayal

Memory of a Killer‘s biggest issue is that it keeps promising so much and always falls short. While every episode does eventually deliver a bit of information that makes the viewer want to come back the following week, it still feels as if the show hasn’t really started.

Memory of a Killer Season 1 Episode 5, “Betrayal,” gives us a look back at when Angelo’s brother started showing symptoms of Alzheimer’s. The five-year time jump allows us to see how deep Dutch’s evil streak runs and how this has repercussions in Angelo’s personal life.

But what truly gets viewers excited is that Angelo slips and confesses to killing his father and someone else in front of Joe. His confusion is such, and his mind is so stuck in that time five years ago, that he cannot control what he is saying. What Dutch feared Michael would do back then is what Angelo is beginning to do now, which tells us this won’t end well.

Up until this point, all we knew about Michael was that he was Angelo’s brother and he had Alzheimer’s. But everything changes when we take a look back and see that he used to work with Dutch and Angelo. Even though he isn’t a hands-on hitman, he works as an accountant, and that, in Dutch’s eyes, is even more important.

Michael keeps his struggle a secret for as long as he can, but when Angelo opens the door to his office, he can tell how badly and for how long his brother has been struggling. Hundreds of post-its cover the walls of his office, and an uncountable number of receipts are lying on his desk, chair, and floor. Just like we are seeing Angelo do now, Michael chooses to navigate these symptoms in silence.

Watching Angelo help Michael navigate his new reality shows us how much he truly cares about his brother. Even though all we knew until now was that he visited Michael from time to time, we now discover that Michael is truly the center of his world.

Angelo is willing to risk everything to keep his brother safe. He puts his retirement, the move to Montana, and his wife’s wishes on the back burner to guarantee that Dutch doesn’t kill his brother. He orchestrates Dutch’s brother’s death, setting him up as the thief, in order to take the blame away from Michael.

Angelo’s secret life (or is it his real life?) is so dangerous that he keeps his wife and daughter a secret from his own brother. Nevertheless, when it looks like Michael’s life is in danger, he introduces him to his secret life. Michael, however, chooses not to bring him down with him and introduces himself as a friend.

But when Michael tells Angelo that he knows he killed their father after he beat Michael up, we come to understand that Angelo’s desire to protect his brother might have led him down the wrong path. Could it be that he is comfortable working with Dutch because he killed his father?

While trying to protect his brother and doing everything he can to achieve that, Angelo has pushed his brother not to feel safe around him. As much as Michael fears Dutch, he has come to fear his own brother.

Toward the end of the episode, when Angelo tells Leah that they are not moving to Montana, we realize that she might have been scared of her husband for years, too. She says she knows he is hiding something, and he is no longer the man she married.

This leads us to wonder how reliable Angelo really is. How good is the hero of our story when he’s been hiding so many bodies in his closet?

There are two things viewers are left thinking about after watching Memory of a Killer Season 1 Episode 5, “Betrayal.” The first one is, was Leah really killed by a drunk driver? Or is there something we don’t know about her death?

She mentions right before Angelo tells her they aren’t moving that she will go play tennis with Maria, and we know that is when she dies. But could it actually be related to Angelo’s big secret?

The second one is regarding Joe and everything Angelo says to him in the car. As we look back on Joe’s life five years ago, it is thanks to Angelo’s little hint that he got on Dutch’s good side. This leads us to believe there might be some loyalty toward Angelo.

However, is Joe willing to hide something from Dutch when he knows what this means? Or is that confession in the car the beginning of the end for Angelo?

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Memory of a Killer airs Mondays at 9/8c on FOX.

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