Memory of a Killer Season 1 Episode 9 Review: Shoot the Piano Player

Memory of a Killer Season 1 Episode 9, “Shoot the Piano Player,” works perfectly to set up the mood for the upcoming season finale. With everyone’s true identities uncovered, Angelo and Grant are playing on the same field but with different intentions.

While Angelo wants to make peace with her because he understands the pain she is in, Grant isn’t ready to let him walk away freely for killing her son. On the contrary, she is pulling out the big guns and coming after everyone he loves.

To Grant’s disappointment, she has underestimated how far Angelo is willing to go for his daughter and how important he is for Dutch to want to protect.

Is Dutch to be Trusted?

From the very beginning, Angelo has known that the Ferryman is coming for him because of doctor Parks’s death. Even though he asked for Dutch’s help to figure it out, he had to handle it on his own, and now it’s coming back to bite Dutch.

The people who originally hired Dutch’s enterprise to take care of Parks are mad that Angelo is digging around, but can they blame him? His family is under attack because he killed an innocent man; of course, he will want to uncover the truth.

The issue is that, as viewers, we sided with Angelo when it came to Dutch. We didn’t know whether we could trust him because Angelo was on the fence. However, Memory of a Killer Season 1 Episode 9, “Shoot the Piano Player,” proves Angelo should have always trusted him and should have done a better job of communicating with him.

The only reason Michael is still alive by the end of the episode is that Dutch hired someone to protect him. And this is something we must applaud Dutch for. Instead of making a big deal out of it, he went behind Angelo’s back and protected Michael. This shows he has been paying attention, just doing things on his terms.

This makes us wonder if Angelo should have told him about his wife and daughter. While it’s understandable that he wanted to keep both lives separate, it might have been beneficial to tell Dutch the truth. Maybe his wife would still be alive if he had done so.

It makes perfect sense that the moment Angelo finds out both Maria and Michael are in danger, he chooses to go to Maria’s house first. That is his daughter, the one person he has been protecting all along. The one person whose protection has gotten him into this mess to begin with.

Surprisingly, Nicky tells Maria what’s coming (more on that later), but unsurprisingly, Maria shoots the man who killed her mom. Maria has spent the entire season at the shooting range preparing for this exact situation.

When the moment comes, she doesn’t hesitate, nor does she second-guess herself. Maria shoots because she knows that is the only chance she has to stay alive and keep her baby safe. Nevertheless, it changes the trajectory of her life.

Even more so when she realizes that the man isn’t dead and it is her father who walks through the door and shoots him, saving her life. Now, Angelo will have a lot of explaining to do because, knowing Maria, she won’t stay quiet about the events of that night.

Grant Can’t Hide Anymore

When Grant’s sponsor pays her a visit because she has been skipping meetings and mentions that addicts usually find another obsession when they can’t drink, every detail of her personality starts to make sense. Not only did she become the Ferryman to avenge her son, but also because she had no other coping mechanism. As an alcoholic, she could no longer turn to the thing that helped her escape. Instead, she became a killer.

The twist is that she has a new obsession, but she is also drinking again. If we are honest, chances are she started drinking again when her son died and before she decided to become the Ferryman and hunt Angelo down.

As much as she has done a great job of keeping her identity a secret, Angelo is quick to put the pieces of the puzzle together when he finds out she is Parks’s mother. Showing up in her territory, Angelo tries to unsettle her, but he is the one who leaves the coffee shop unsettled. Not only does Julia Parks reveal his identity to Grant, but he also discovers in that precise moment who the Ferryman is.

Her strong façade falls the night she calls him, but Angelo smartly tries to use this to his advantage. Even though he gives her the person who hired him to kill her son, Grant isn’t backing down. She wants him to suffer as much as he has suffered.

What’s interesting from this interaction is that Angelo states there are lines he won’t cross, and he wouldn’t have killed her son if he had known the truth. While we understand why he is saying this, it absolutely doesn’t erase Grant’s pain.

Nicky’s Truth

Viewers have known Nicky works for the Ferryman for a very long time, but it is great to see the reason behind this “partnership” before the season ends. Nicky was put in a terrible position after having killed her ex in self-defense.

Grant took advantage of her vulnerability and exploited Nicky. However, Nicky proves to have a heart and soul when she calls Angelo to apologize for everything. Even though he doesn’t understand the extent of that apology, the viewers do, and we get that when she says she will fix everything before she leaves, she is going to help Maria survive.

And she does, but at what cost? Certainly, Grant won’t let her leave town as easily when she finds out Nicky betrayed her. This can only make for an even more interesting Memory of a Killer Season 1 finale.

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

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