Ripley is a sleek black-and-white Netflix thriller about a New York swindler taking on the opportunity of a lifetime. An adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, when a shipping magnate employs Tom Ripley to travel to Italy and convince his wayward son, Dickie, to return home, he couldn’t have foreseen the trouble this would unleash. Tom becomes obsessed with Dickie and his lavish lifestyle, so much that he wants it all for himself. Here’s a recap of everything that happened in Ripley.
Ripley Season 1 Recap
Episode 1 – “I A Hard Man to Find”
Tom Ripley is a down-on-his-luck scammer living in New York City in 1960. When we first meet him, he’s running an illicit and unsuccessful operation pretending to be a collections agency for the chiropractor’s office.
Desperate, Tom agrees to meet with the wealthy Mr. Greenleaf, who has an interesting employment offer. The man’s son, Dickie, abandoned his stateside responsibilities and is living a selfish life of debauchery in southern Italy. As Tom was once a friend of Dickie’s, Mr. Greenleaf is willing to pay him a generous salary to travel to Europe and bring the vagabond back home.
After a bit of a bumpy ride, Tom arrives in Atrani, the quaint coastal town Dickie now calls home. While unhappy about going up and down the town’s stone steps, Tom finds Dickie and his girlfriend, Marge Sherwood, who invite him for lunch
The episode ends with Tom in his luxury hotel room impersonating Dickie in front of a mirror.
Episode 2 – II Seven Mercies
In the second installment, Tom earns Dickie’s trust by confessing the true purpose of his arrival in Italy. Surprisingly, Dickie warms up to Tom for it and even encourages our grifter to keep the money Mr. Greenleaf gave him. As Tom expresses interest in staying on the Amalfi Coast, Dickie offers to let him stay in one of his spare rooms.
The budding friendship between Dickie and Tom concerns Marge, who’s suspicious about the latter’s motive. Marge’s relationship with Dickie starts to fumble after he spent all day with Tom and forgot to meet her for dinner.
Things take a turn when Tom brings home Carlo, a member of the local mafia. Carlo wants Tom and Dickie to travel to Paris and deliver a suitcase. While Tom is excited about the opportunity, Dickie wants nothing to do with it.
To win Marge over, Tom claims experience as a book editor and offers to look over her manuscript. She seems to appreciate his input.
Later that day, Tom secretly opens and reads through Dickie’s bank statements before dressing up in his clothes. Dickie catches Tom impersonating him in an imaginary break-up with Marge. While disturbed, Dickie lets the matter go instead of immediately throwing Tom out of his villa.
Ripley | Image via Netflix
Episode 3 – III Sommerso
Tom receives a letter from Mr. Greenleaf dismissing him from his “employment” with them. Greenleaf also sent a letter to his son warning him about Tom’s less-than-legal endeavors. Tom spies on Dickie and overhears him making it clear to Marge that he wants Ripley out of his house.
Without knowing of Tom’s suspicions Dickie suggests he and Tom go on a trip together to San Remo. Upon arrival and after checking into a hotel, Dickie and Tom rent a boat and go out to sea. Dickie uses the opportunity to gently suggest Tom moves out of his villa to travel to other parts of Italy.
At first, Tom seems to take the news quite well. He then proceeds to bludgeon Dickie to death with an oar, rob him of his prized ring, sink his body with a cement anchor, and dispose of the boat.
After the murder, Tom checks out of the hotel room and catches the first train back to the Amalfi Coast. The episode ends with him placing Dickie’s ring on his finger.
Episode 4 – IV La Dolce Vita
Tom goes back to Dickie’s villa to pack his things before heading to Rome for a fresh start. Before he can start impersonating Dickie, Tom tries to convince Marge that her boyfriend is staying in Rome indefinitely and dismisses the housekeeper. He gets Carlo to broker the sale of Dickie’s boat and tries to get a local hotel to buy the villa’s furniture.
In Rome, Tom has to switch hotels once out of fear of Marge showing up. He assumes Dickie’s identity for all his day-to-day expenses and even withdraws money from the bank on his behalf. Tom exchanges letters with Marge and Mr. and Mrs. Greenleaf on Dickie’s behalf to avoid them becoming suspicious. However, he includes compliments to himself in each letter and reiterates what a good friend he is to the man he just killed.
Ripley | Image via Netflix
Episode 5 – V Lucio
After weeks of hotel living, Tom rents out a luxury apartment from a landlady who likes Americans but isn’t too keen on the English. Among the unit’s perks is a fully-functioning telephone. Unfortunately for Tom, the landlady listed the phone number under Dickie’s name, which led to his friend, Freddie Miles, showing up unannounced. Freddie got concerned after Dickie and Marge failed to visit him for Christmas, so he started sleuthing.
Tom tries to blag his way out of the situation, but Freddie eventually figures out he’s been using Dickie’s identity. Left with no other choice, Tom strikes Freddie in the head with a newly purchased glass ashtray and kills him.
As this murder didn’t happen in the middle of the sea, Tom has a harder time getting rid of the body. With great difficulty, he drags poor Freddie out of the apartment and drives his car outside the city. A dogwalker spots Tom while he’s struggling to load Freddie into the car.
Episode 6 – VI Some Heavy Instrument
Tom Ripley’s web of murderous deceit gets even more tangled after Freddie’s body is found. The death of a rich British tourist attracts national media attention and Inspector Pietro Ravini takes a keen interest in Tom (masquerading as Dickie) as the last person to see the victim alive. Making matters worse, the small rowboat Tom tried sinking after killing Dickie is uncovered, which raises further questions about Tom Ripley’s whereabouts. As far as the police are concerned, Tom is missing.
On the Amalfi coast, Marge is shocked to hear about Freddie’s death and the out-of-character sale of Dickie’s boat. Desperate for answers, Marge boards a train to Rome to see Dickie. Of course, she only encounters Tom, who feeds her a tall tale about Dickie leaving Rome to head to Palermo. According to Tom, Dickie was overwhelmed with grief following Freddie’s death and had to get out of the city. Marge doesn’t buy it, but she’s left with no choice but to return to Atrani.
After escorting Marge to the train station, Tom goes back to his apartment, packs up, and heads to Palermo.
Episode 7 – VII Macabre Entertainment
The walls are closing in on Tom. While in Palermo he’s being hounded by the press, as police suspect “Richard Greenleaf” had something to do with the disappearance of Thomas Ripley. The dog walker who spotted Tom on the night of Freddie’s murder comes forward with his account. This means Tom is a suspect in both Freddie’s case and in “Tom Ripley’s” disappearance.
Even worse, Dickie’s Trust Fund manager and the Italian bank put a hold on his accounts as they suspected Tom’s fraudulent signature was, in fact, fraudulent.
Poor Marge is also being treated with suspicion by Inspector Ravini as he’s under the impression that Tom Ripley is missing and her boyfriend is involved. Marge’s attempts to explain what kind of man Tom is do little to dissuade the inspector. He forces her into going to Rome for an interview and forbids her from leaving the country until the investigation concludes.
To avoid the reporters, Tom moves to a cheap hotel. It doesn’t take long before the police find him and demand he travel back to Rome the following day to speak with Inspector Ravini.
After the police leave, Tom checks out of the hotel but not before heavily implying to the receptionist that he’s about to book a ferry to Tunis. Instead of leaving the country, Tom grabs a ferry to Naples, then a train to Rome stops at his apartment to pick up his typewriter and he makes his way into Venice.
Episode 8 – VIII Narcissus
In Venice, Tom retakes his identity and rents out an opulent mansion. As his supposed disappearance is in the papers, he goes to a local police station to declare himself alive and well. Inspector Ravini visits to confirm his identity and ask more questions about Richard Greenleaf, who he believes left the country. Strangely, Ravini doesn’t recognize Tom, who is wearing a fake beard for his meeting with the inspector.
Marge visits Tom in Venice and just about escapes being murdered by him when she finds Dickie’s ring at his house. Tom claims Dickie gave him the ring and Marge assumes it was the actions of a suicidal man.
When Dickie’s father and his private investigator talk to Tom, they believe his carefully crafted story. Tom placed breadcrumbs in all his correspondence and actions to create the impression that poor Dickie was in love with him, and spiraled into murdering Freddie before taking his own life while on the ferry to Tunis.
Both Mr. Greenleaf and Marge are satisfied with this version of events. Marge returns to the U.S. where she publishes a picture book about her time on the Amalfi Coast. She sends a copy to Inspector Ravini, who is shocked to finally see a picture of Dickie and realize Tom tricked everyone.
As for Tom, he got himself a new fake passport and retrieved the priceless Picasso he stole from Dickie’s villa.
You can read a more in-depth breakdown of Ripley’s final episode in my ending explained article, and check out my thoughts on the limited series overall in my spoiler-free review.
