Did the main character in "Memento" kill his own wife (albeit accidentally)?

Question

Was Guy Pearce's wife diabetic. And isn't it possible he, like the Sammy story he clings to, gave his wife too many injections?

There's a scene where we see him give her a shot. Later, this is brushed aside with another shot of him playfully pinching her. But it seems as if the first is a "real memory" and the second is his attempt to cloud the fact so as to avoid psychological pain.

So, like some French mysteries, the protagonist is really searching for himself.

Answer 1

Leonard was an insurance investigator and one of his cases was of a man named Sammy Jankis, who suffered from anterograde amnesia. Leonard investigates Sammy's case and determines that Sammy's condition is not physical, rather it is psychological, and is therefore exempt from any insurance coverage.

According to Leonard, Sammy's wife, a diabetic, believes that Sammy's condition is psychological and that he could snap out of it. She becomes more and more exasperated with him and decides on some drastic action. She repeatedly asks Sammy to administer her insulin shot, hoping either he will snap out of his condition or if not, she will basically commit assisted suicide. Sammy, unable to remember his actions after only a few minutes have passed, repeatedly injects his wife, happily assuming that it's "time for [her] shot" each time. His wife goes into a coma and dies from severe hypoglycemia as a result of the excess insulin, and Sammy is unable to understand what has happened to his wife, despairing as she collapses in his arms.

According to Leonard's narrative over the phone, one night there was a break-in at Leonard's house, during which his wife was raped and murdered. Leonard woke up and got into a fight with a masked man. He shot the person but suffered a blow to the head from a second intruder and fell victim to anterograde amnesia. Soon after the attacks, Leonard encountered Teddy who was assigned to investigate the death of Leonard's wife. Leonard teamed up with Teddy to find his wife's murderer: a man who was allegedly named 'John G.'
Later on we find that that Leonard's wife survived the assault, that it was she who needed the insulin shots, and that it was Leonard who accidentally overdosed her. By Teddy's account, Sammy Jankis... was actually a faker who was not even married. He asserts that Leonard's wife survived the assault, that it was she who needed the insulin shots, and that it was Leonard who accidentally overdosed her.

Answer 2

Hi, just wanted to say, I liked this discussion. Very inspiring replies

Answer 3

Can you give more details?