WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for Ripley.
Tom Ripley used several different aliases in the new Netflix limited series Ripley. Tom, who also acquires many places of residence throughout Ripley, is a master of disguise and deceit. He is drawn to murder once his true identity of being an elaborate con man faces the threat of being exposed. Throughout the thrilling series, Tom has conned his way from a lowly life of scamming and thievery in New York City to becoming incredibly wealthy in Italy thanks to a supposed old friend, Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn). Ripley’s cast is led by an exceptionally chilling Andrew Scott (Fleabag, Black Mirror, All of Us Strangers) as the titular treacherous protagonist.
Ripley has received rave reviews from critics upon its April 4, 2024 release exclusively on Netflix. The psychological thriller is based on the renowned 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley by celebrated novelist Patricia Highsmith, the first of her 5-part “Ripley” series that also includes Ripley Under Ground and Ripley’s Game. The Talented Mr. Ripley has been adapted several times for film and television, but none have been shot completely in monochrome until Steven Zallian’s Ripley. Zallian, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Schindler’s List, American Gangster, and The Irishman, wrote and directed the entire 8-episode miniseries.
By the end of Zallian’s Ripley, Tom has orchestrated a way to frame his murder of Dickie Greenleaf as a suicide, successfully convincing Dickie’s concerned girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning) and a determined Inspector Ravini (Maurizio Lombardi). Ripley brings to light the lengths that monsters like Tom will go to in the name of self-preservation, using chilling methodology and calculation to be seen as significant by means of material wealth and social access. Even after Tom escapes to England and assumes a new identity in the final moments of Ripley, he does not seem satisfied, only aware of what it feels like to wear Dickie’s clothes, flaunt his ring, and stare at his artwork while ultimately feeling nothing.
At the beginning of Ripley, Tom is shown in the thick of his life of petty scamming in 1960’s New York City. Under the alias George McAlpin, Tom runs an elaborate scheme of fraud and theft under a fabricated organization he calls the McAlpin Collection Agency. Basically, Tom steals the mail from specific doctors, specifically a chiropractor in Ripley episode 1, that he detects has checks inside of them. These are payments from patients for services done by the chiropractor, which “George McAlpin” intercepts and opens illegally. He then contacts the patients claiming to be the sole employee of a debt collection agency that he has made up.
Tom is forced to destroy his George McAlpin identity once he faces suspicion at a bank when trying to cash the checks addressed to his fake agency. In Ripley episode 1, Tom is dressed in disguise as a serious, traditional-looking businessman of some sort, giving off a very plain and safe impression. He admits he doesn’t have an account with the bank but is able to provide identification in the form of a chauffeur’s license with George McAlpin’s information on it. This is a precursor to Tom’s ability to change his identity and acquire fabricated forms of identification throughout later episodes of Ripley.
Once Tom faces heat under his George McAlpin name, he has no choice but to burn all the checks and the fake stationary he had made as part of his scam. This turns out to work out perfectly fine for Tom, however, who is on his way to Italy to meet with Dickie right after destroying all evidence of the George McAlpin agency. Fortunately for Tom, the George McAplin business never came back around to haunt him, but if he had been stuck in New York, it’s likely that the bank he failed to convince would have pursued legal action against him. Dickie becomes Tom’s saving grace as he leaves George McAplin and his old life in New York behind for good.
Tom’s next big scam and identity theft begins after he kills Dickie on the boat in San Remo. Dickie confronts Tom rather foolishly, on a small boat in the ocean far away from shore with no witnesses around, which reveals how unsuspecting Dickie was of Tom all along. Dickie politely tells Tom that it’s time for him to move on with his life and leave Atrani. He also reveals that his father believes that Tom had been taking advantage of him and the generous access to his money while on a mission to bring Dickie back home. Tom immediately sees where this is going and saves Dickie the trouble of having to bluntly tell him to pack his things and leave.
Tom is unwilling to let go of this golden opportunity to live lavishly as Dickie did in Atrani and resorts to murder as the best option for him to keep his fantastical dream alive. The only reason why Tom kills Dickie is so that he can become him, eeiriy wearing his clothes and taking ownership of everything Dickie owns like an insidious parasite. Pretending to be Dickie in Rome allowed him to justify living so luxuriously and also provided a track record of evidence that Dickie was still alive. Checking into hotels, writing letters on his typewriter, and all the other intricate ways that Tom covered up Dickie’s murder maintained suspicion for long enough so Tom could buy enough time to get away for good.
Tom murdering Dickie, covering it up, and assuming his identity is the narrative spine of Ripley. It alludes to the main drive within Tom’s character that he wished to be someone bigger and better than what he is as well as his lust for material wealth and special treatment that comes with status. Tom is also innately motivated to validate his worth as evidenced by his deep resentment towards his Aunt Dottie, who berated him as a child. By assuming Dickie’s identity, and eventually making it his own, Tom could basically shove his wealth and status in the face of his Aunt and anyone else who questioned his significance and ability.
The true Tom Ripley is hardly seen in the series despite it being named after him. All the audience can gather about who Tom truly is on the inside is a cold, callous, dangerous monster that is out to take everything he wants from others by any means necessary. Tom is deeply hurt by his Aunt Dottie’s mistreatment of him, and is, of course, affected by the sudden death of his parents when he was just five years old, which undoubtedly left a dark cloud over the young Tom’s head throughout his life. Regardless of his traumatic childhood experiences, Tom is unquestionably a sociopath who views murder as a viable option to acquire what he likes.
Tom Ripley hides beneath the people he pretends to be, even his own personality. The Tom Ripley that he convinces Marge and Dickie to be is certainly not who he actually is. Tom comes off as naively agreeable, innocently forgetful, intentionally vague, and forcefully relaxed, which some people see as strange in the way that it is calculated, as if by design. Tom’s own identity is a creation because he hides his the dark monster within him at all times. Tom Ripley is truly a shapeshifter with an unsettling ability to adapt, mirror, and transform himself to fit his objectives, which are typically seedy and dishonest.
What makes Tom Ripley so disturbing is seeing him in the quiet moments when he is alone. He has a reptilian-like coldness about him, as if he is functioning only at a base psychological level of survival. Human emotions are used as tools of manipulation to get what he wants and to make people like him. Rather than simply existing as a human being, Tom crafts attitudes, opinions, interests, and personality traits in order to gain advantage on the path to achieving his goals. Tom’s one goal is clearly to be wealthy and to be respected because of his wealth, which perfectly exemplifies how immensely hollow he is at his core.
After essentially getting away with the murders of Dickie Greenleaf and Freddie Miles, Tom is able to shake off Marge without killing her, although he was just seconds away from doing so. He also avoids the detection of Mr. Greenleaf, the American investigator, and Inspector Ravini, who have all collectively bought Tom’s angle that Dickie must have taken his own life. He also reaffirms the notion that Dickie could have killed Freddie. Once Tom successfully gets all the suspicion off his back, he resigns from using the Dickie Greenleaf alias altogether and allows everyone to believe that Dickie died by suicide.
Tom Ripley, living in Venice, understands that his plan had only worked because of some very lucky circumstances. Remarkably, no one had caught him when he was living a double life in Rome, despite all of the attention from the press. Now out of the crosshairs, Tom was still determined to own everything that Dickie had to do whatever he wanted with it, including the Picasso. Tom leaves Venice and assumes a new fake identity of Timothy Fenshaw with the help of John Malkovich’s “art dealer” character Reeves Minot. This new identity allows him to retain all the wealth he has stolen from the Greenleafs and hang Dickie’s Picasso with ease under his new Fensahw name.
Tom’s preemptive measures end up saving him in the end when Inspector Ravini discovers that Tom had completely fooled him throughout the Freddie Miles investigation. Marge had finished her novel about Atrani and got it published thanks to Tom’s sincere notes and sends a copy to Ravini. In the final moments of Ripley, Ravini is stunned to see a printed photograph of Dickie in the first few pages of the book that looks nothing like him. In truth, Dickie looked nothing like Tom, and Ravini was left humiliated. Tom, however, has already assumed the new alias Timothy Fensahw in England and will be much harder for Ravini to find at the end of Ripley.