‘Memory of a Killer’: Patrick Dempsey Warns Tension Between Angelo & Dutch Continues to Build

Can Angelo (Patrick Dempsey) trust his own mind right now on Memory of a Killer? That’s what he sets out to figure out in the Monday, March 16, episode.

With Joe (Richard Harmon) with him, Angelo retraces his steps for the Dr. Parks (Damon McLean) assassination, at the same time that he’s grappling with just how fast his Alzheimer’s may be progressing — and what treatments he can do. TV Insider spoke with Dempsey about that and much more. Warning: Spoilers for Memory of a Killer Episode 7 ahead!

In order to figure out what Parks meant when he said he was being lied to, Angelo returns to the scene of his crime and recalls the subsequent chase, Parks bringing up Gilchrest as the one who sent him, and the scientist’s death. But, as Angelo notes to Dutch (Michael Imperioli), his best friend and the one who gives him his hits, the news is painting Parks as a hero. Dutch’s response? Don’t ask questions. But later, he meets Gilchrest, who was in the middle of a congressional hearing. She warns that she and her people will handle his man who’s asking questions if it becomes a problem, and Dutch, in turn, tells her Angelo is the solution and if she comes after him, she’ll find out why he’s kept him around for 30 years.

Angelo, meanwhile, decides it’s time to flush out the Ferryman, the name he’s been given in his pursuit to find out who ordered a hit on his daughter, Maria (Odeya Rush). But the person he enlists to put a tracking device in a shipment for the Ferryman is killed, with a note left for Angelo on his body. And, as we learn, Angelo’s love interest, Nicky (Michaela McManus), is working for the Ferryman, getting close to Maria in a yoga class and using the information she learns there to make Angelo think he’s told her about his daughter because of a debt she owes.

Elsewhere, Dave’s (Peter Gadiot) investigation into the Bloch (Billy MacLellan) murder leads him to Angelo, thanks to fibers and a button pointing to an expensive jacket that Maria tells him her father owns.

Christos Kalohoridis / Fox

Below, Patrick Dempsey breaks down this episode, Angelo’s trust issues, and more, including how the season ends.

Angelo is willing to do whatever it takes treatment-wise, but how much is he willing to push himself there and what can you say about what’s coming up? Because there’s such a risk with that.

Patrick Dempsey: I think there’s so much going on right now, and this has been the thing I’ve been studying recently. If we do do a second season, which we’re still waiting to hear, and hopefully our numbers keep improving and people follow the show that give us an opportunity to even dive deeper into that. I think that’s what drew me to the character is that character flaw, the humanity of that, the vulnerability of that. And how does that affect his work? Will it affect his work in the fear of that? And the fact that he comes through and realizes he does in fact need help. What can I do? How does he get out in front of it? And I think this will be an ongoing journey for him. What are the treatments that are available? And I think this hits home to a lot of people and why the show is doing so well is because Alzheimer’s and dementia has affected, like cancer or any other disease, a family so deeply that it hits a raw nerve in people of all generations. And it’s an opportunity for us to help, I think, instruct and guide and bring light to this terrible disease.

I agree. But something that’s noticeable about Angelo is he doesn’t have a support system with him through this because he’s not telling anyone.

Right. And that’s another big factor, too. He is his brother’s [Richard Clarkin] caregiver, and in [Episode] 5, we understand that Dutch is supporting him in that and Dutch has also had impact with this disease as well. So who will be that person? And by saying he has a problem then opens up another problem, which is what he really does and that shows his vulnerability. Who will betray him? Will he maintain his existing life or is his life immediately going to end? Will he himself be assassinated? And that’s what we will find out through the course of the rest of the season.

That kind of leads into my next question because near the beginning of Episode 7, as he’s mixing up memories, there’s one point where he sees himself in Parks’ place. So how much does Angelo wish he could get rid of one side of himself, the hitman or the suburban dad? And does that change based on who he is at the time?

Well, I think this was what [Episode] 5 set up, is that he realizes that he’s sort of at the end of his — it’s time for him to change. It’s like, what is more important to you … your family or your job? His job is a high-risk job, and if he’s losing his ability to think clearly and to be one step ahead, he puts everyone’s life in jeopardy. And this is the conflict. Does he have enough resources and enough financial support to be able to cover the cost and the burden, not only for his daughter, but for himself to be treated and his brother?

Which life is easier for him?

That’s a great question. I think they’re both becoming increasingly harder and harder as it goes on. Before, I think he can compartmentalize. And what’s happening now is it’s much harder for him to be able to do that. Those lines are blurred because his personal life has been penetrated, it’s become much more emotional for him. Prior to that, he was very clear emotionally and detached as an assassin and slightly detached enough to be able to lead a different life, but he could put them into two different silos and be able to function. But now that’s kind of breaking down.

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And along that, it feels like he could kind of escape into the other life if he needed to if something was going on in one of them, but now he can’t do that because of that.

There is no escape, no.

Angelo and Dutch’s relationship is so intriguing to me because we know they go back a long time, but there’s always this question of how much they trust each other because Angelo hasn’t told Dutch about his family, which is a big deal. How much does he really trust him? There was that whole matter of, could he actually leave this life in Episode 5, and we saw how that went.

Right. And I think there is mistrust between the two. Each one has their own suspicion. You can feel the tension between the two because each one is finding out a little bit about the other. So they’re always walking on eggshells together, and that tension continues to build through the season.

But there’s always that question of like, would Dutch really have had Angelo killed? But then there’s also a question of, if it came down to it, could Angelo kill Dutch?

Well, it’s business, right? So, there’s going to become a point where they’re going to have to make that decision.

In this episode, Angelo brings his concerns about Parks and then the threat of the Ferryman to Dutch. Is that a test?

I think it’s a test, definitely.

Then we have Nicky approaching Maria and then using that information to make Angelo think that he told her about Maria and the baby. So, now, is Angelo suspicious of Nicky at all at that point, or is he thinking, “This is just my mind slipping”?

I think that’s the conflict within himself, is that he’s not sure what is real and what is not anymore. Is it his memory or is she someone he can’t trust? You don’t know until the end.

How does he feel about her? Because we know that he’s still wearing his wedding ring in his suburban life, but … Does he have true feelings for it? Is it all the business?

Well, I think it’s like anything. I think at first it was his business, but once the intimacy is there, I think you can’t help but feel something. So it’s a battle within how much you allow yourself to surrender into that relationship where he’s desperate to have someone that he can communicate with. He’s losing that one person, which was his brother, and now he wasn’t really fully honest with him. We discover in Episode 5 that he was withholding. So there’s no one he can really talk to. So he is really this man who is so isolated and desperate to have someone to talk to. He’s learned how to just be his own man, but I think at the same time, now more than ever, wants someone that he can go to and get the support emotionally that he needs. So, that’s really conflicting for him with Nicky.

Christos Kalohoridis / Fox

So, does that also play into what we’re seeing with him and Joe? Because that was an interesting exchange that Angelo had with Joe’s father in this episode and we’re seeing that it seems like he may trust Joe.

Well, I think it also taps into his dynamic with his own father and the abusive nature that he grew up in, that he starts to gain much more respect for Joe and much more understanding for Joe and sees him as a younger version of himself where he wasn’t — It’s certainly a connection with his brother, Michael, in that sense of an abusive relationship, but he’s also tough love, right? He’s tough love in order to teach him, to learn. And then when he does well, he lets him know, which his father never gives him, and his father never gave him that.

At the end of the episode, we see Dave is kind of getting onto Angelo’s path. He’s noticing some things aren’t adding up. He’s suspicious. But how worried is Angelo about Dave?

I think he’s worried about everybody at this point. There’s no one he can fully trust.

There was that very interesting conversation back in the beginning of the season in Episode 2 in the hospital hallway with Angelo and FBI Agent Grant (Gina Torres). So how much is she still on his radar?

Oh, he’s very much wondering what’s going on with that, with the amount of crimes that he has committed. He doesn’t know where that’s coming from. And is Dave involved in that and not telling him?

How would Angelo feel about Maria being armed?

I think it would be devastating for him.

Because it’s almost like the two parts of himself overlapping in the last way he wants. But at the same time, there’s this threat. So is he torn because of that?

Absolutely. Because the thought of your child being — that’s the most vulnerable part, right? He’s been trying his whole life to be able to protect her. I think going into this, he wasn’t really prepared to be a father, but now that he is, the responsibility of that and family is very important. And that’s the theme throughout the entire show, is your immediate family and then your other family. So, he’s torn between two families, his blood family and then his professional family.

What can you say about where the season leaves Angelo to set up hopefully a Season 2?

It will open up new doors and new problems. It comes down to the very last moment of the season that you realize something that — you don’t expect it coming. It’s fascinating to see and hear everyone has their own sort of theory of who the Ferryman is, which is great, which is what we wanted to do. The guys have done a great job [developing this series], and it’s just been, for me, a lot of fun to do. I love playing Angelo. It’s such a different character and to be able to have this opportunity has been really enjoyable.

Memory of a Killer, Mondays, 9/8c, Fox