WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for Ripley.
There are several major deaths depicted in the new Netflix limited series Ripley. Tom, who assumes many identities and places of residence throughout Ripley, is drawn to murder once his true identity of being an elaborate con man becomes threatened of being exposed. 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. Ripley’s cast is led by an exceptionally chilling Andrew Scott (Fleabag, Black Mirror, All of Us Strangers) as the titular treacherous protagonist. 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 has received rave reviews from critics upon its April 4, 2024 release exclusively on Netflix.
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 in the final moments of Ripley, he does not seem satisfied, only aware of what it feels like to wear Dickie’s clothes, flaunt Dickie’s ring, and stare at Dickie’s artwork while ultimately feeling nothing at all.
Tom’s murder of Richard ‘Dickie’ Greenleaf in Ripley episode 3 “Sommerso” sets up the entire rest of the series. Tom had originally been sent by Dickie’s concerned father, Herbert Greenleaf, to retrieve Dickie from Italy and convince him to come home and start facing his life’s responsibilities. Tom persuades Dickie into thinking they were friends back in New York, which Dickie is too aloof or disinterested to look into. Tom recognizes that people like Dickie don’t anticipate people taking advantage of them or live in suspicion of people’s true motivations. They already have everything they could possibly want and are used to things generally being easy and going their way.
Tom weasels his way into becoming Dickie’s right-hand man in Atrani, Italy, which Dickie doesn’t really seem to think too much about. Marge, on the other hand, senses Tom’s manipulative tactics from the start and, rightfully so, is immediately suspicious of Tom’s intentions. She too, however, is also living through Dickie’s extravagant lifestyle, which is the basis of the novel she is working on. Dickie’s house is notably much more lavish than hers, and when Dickie and Tom plan a trip to San Remo without her, Marge is left bored with herself in the absence of her and Dickie’s quaint lifestyle. Dickie’s biggest mistake, however, is not having the ability to see what Marge sees in Tom, but not taking her advice about him.
Dickie’s blind faith in Tom is the main reason why he made himself so vulnerable for Tom to fully take advantage of him by murdering him in San Remo. Naturally, Dickie couldn’t imagine that someone as sinister as Tom existed, which is how Tom was able to get so close to him in such a short period of time. Dickie naively thought he could break the news to Tom that he was essentially ending their friendship on a small boat in the ocean with no witnesses. Dickie realized that Tom had taken advantage of his father and was trying to respectfully settle the dispute, asking without coming out and saying for Tom to leave Atrani.
Thrust into a hole he couldn’t climb out of, Tom was unwilling to let go of this golden opportunity to live lavishly like Dickie in Italy and determined that the only way to keep this dream alive was to kill Dickie in cold blood. Tom grabbed an oar and bludgeoned Dickie to death, cleaning the blood of Dickie’s valuables and ultimately sinking Dickie’s lifeless body into the bottom of the ocean. Tom took the boat to shore in a remote and rocky area and submerged it in water with rocks. Eventually, the boat was found, but Dickie’s body was never recovered. Tom then checked out of their hotel in San Remo without Dickie and fled for Rome that night.
The second murder that Tom commits in Ripley is of Dickie’s wealthy playwright friend, Freddie Miles. Tom and Freddie had met briefly once before while Tom and Dickie were having a coffee in Naples. Tom recalls instantly not liking Freddie at all, elaborating later in the series that he didn’t like his face, voice, or money. Freddie doesn’t seem very happy to meet Tom and is focused intensely on Dickie throughout the brief conversation, insisting that Dickie spends Christmas with him and his friends in the French Alps. Dickie casually agrees to attend, which makes Freddie happy. Freddie asks Tom a series of investigative questions before leaving.
It’s clear that Tom’s dislike of Freddie has to do with how suspicious and dismissive Freddie was to him from the start. Freddie made eyes at Dickie that indicated how unimpressed he was with Tom during their brief conversation. Not liking Freddie was certainly not the reason why Tom ultimately killed him, though. Freddie had spontaneously arrived in Rome after discovering where Dickie’s, or rather Tom’s, new apartment was located. Freddie had located the apartment through the phone book, one of the few parts of Ripley in which Tom does not cross all of his T’s and dot all of his I’s. Freddie arrives at his doorstep and insists on coming in.
Tom explains that Dickie is out on an errand and should be back soon, which encourages Freddie to stick around and take a look at the place. He deduces that Tom is staying at the apartment with Dickie, as evidenced by the horrendous burgundy robe that Tom had picked out for himself back in New York that was intended to be given to Dickie by his parents. Freddie cuts to the chase and asks what’s going on, which Tom is able to deflect, before finally leaving, only to return moments later after the landlady insisted that “Dickie” was upstairs. Tom realized that if Freddie pushed any further, he would be forced to kill him, which is exactly what happened after Freddie threatened to call the police.
As Freddie goes to leave again, Tom bludgeons him with a glass ashtray, killing him. He soaks up some of the blood and locates Freddie’s car, waiting until nightfall to drag Freddie’s body out to it. Tom tries to use the elevator but it breaks again, forcing him to drag Freddie’s body down the stairs, making a mess. Tom is approached by a man walking his dog who later goes to Ravini, but in the moment, Tom explains that his friend has just had too much to drink. Tom gets Freddie in the car, drives him out to a remote location, and leaves him and the car parked on the side of the road. He makes it back to his apartment, cleans up the mess, realizes he forgot to get Freddie’s passport and wallet, goes all the way back, retrieves it, and remarkably gets away with murder once again.
The famed Italian painter Caravaggio is depicted in Ripley episode 8 having just killed a man in the year 1606. While the event has nothing to do with the plot of Ripley, it’s evident that Tom views himself as a modern Caravaggio by the end of the series. One of Caravaggio’s paintings, “David Holding the Head of Goliath”, is visually referenced after the death of Freddie in episode 5, creating another extended motif as to the high regard Tom views himself in as well as his “life’s work”. In the final moments of Ripley, Caravaggion is seen sipping a drink after just committing murder and staring blankly at a work of art. Tom also does this with the Picasso once he successfully transports it to England under the new identity of Timothy Fenshaw.
The real-life Caravaggio truly did murder a man in Rome after getting in a fight, which forced him to flee the city, much like Tom after killing Freddie. Caravaggio, despite being a brilliant and groundbreaking painter, had a life that was filled with violence and hardship. Tom apparently took inspiration from Caravaggio’s lifestyle and incorporated it into his own life in a more subtle and indirect way. Caravaggio’s death is debated by scholars today, but some support the notion that he was murdered, while others believe that he died of lead poisoning from his own paints or, most likely, died by an infected wound (via The Collector).
Very little is known about Tom’s Aunt Dottie in Ripley besides she resentfully raised him after the death of his parents by drowning in Boston Harbor when Tom was 5. Tom mentioned in a letter to his aunt that she always thought very little of him and viewed him as a weak man, which had evidently affected Tom deeply since his childhood. When Marge makes a joke in Ripley episode 8 asking “who died?” to allow Tom to live so lavishly in Venice, a subtle note of her unspoken suspicion about Tom killing Dickie, Tom explains that his Aunt Dottie actually died. Marge apologizes and regrets making the joke as Tom feigns sorrow for the supposed death of his estranged aunt.
It’s not entirely clear in Ripley whether Tom had something to do with Aunt Dottie death, or if she even died at all. There is a brief, vague scene of Aunt Dottie receiving some painful treatment at the dentist, but there is never visual or verbal confirmation that she is actually dead or that Tom is even aware of how she’s doing. The most plausible reason why Tom would announce her death to Marge was to help justify him living in such an amazing house in Venice. His plan works and Marge feels embarrassed, dropping the subject of how Tom could afford the house. Whether or not Aunt Dottie is truly dead in Ripley, it’s evident that she is at least figuratively dead to Tom by the end of the series.