Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for Memory of a Killer season 1
Memory of a Killer has been a surprise sleeper success for Fox. The series follows Angelo Flannery (Patrick Dempsey), a man with two lives. To his daughter, Maria (Odeya Rush), he’s a simple family man often away for his salesman job. In reality, he’s a hitman working for Dutch (Michael Imperioli), who doesn't know about Maria. Angelo’s dual lives are threatened when he learns he has early-onset Alzheimer's, a very harsh diagnosis for a hired killer.
The season followed Angelo as he kept his secrets while facing threats, including FBI Agent Linda Grant (Gina Torres), who had personal reasons to take him down. He also bonded with Nicky (Michaela McManus), who was being blackmailed by Grant to trap Angelo.
The first season finale brought the various plot threads together as Angelo managed to kill Grant. However, this came after Grant arranged for Nicky to be murdered, with Angelo helpless to save her.
Speaking to TVLine, co-showrunner Aaron Zelman touched on Nicky’s death, which was always in the cards for the character. In fact, there were even discussions about the death happening earlier in the first season before it was decided that Nicky would be killed in the finale.
"Actually, it was one of those things where [death] was the plan for her from the beginning, but there was a plan to kill her off earlier — as early as Episode 8. And we felt that she was such an interesting character foil for Angelo, but also a wonderful actor, and we liked the idea of carrying it through to the last episode. People enjoy seeing some romance with Patrick, they're so used to seeing him as a romantic lead, and that's for good reason. But also, how do you have any kind of genuine connection with someone when this is your life, and this is your job? It was something we wanted to explore a little bit deeper, so we actually extended her until the end."
The timing is funny as McManus was just cast in the pilot for NBC's reboot of The Rockford Files, so she likely would have been written out anyway. Yet it’s striking to know her character was always doomed.
The episode ended with Dutch getting a clue about Angelo having a daughter, while Angelo’s memory issues became worse as he briefly couldn’t remember Maria’s name when he came to see her after she gave birth. The cliffhanger had Maria receiving a file from Grant that included the address of Angelo’s secret apartment and confronting her father about his secrets.
Thankfully for fans, Fox has renewed the show for a second season, so we’ll see how this unfolds. It was a dramatic finale that sets up a bigger season 2, as Memory of a Killer had a very memorable finale.