Ripley's ambiguous, scam-filled ending, explained

At one of the parties he's been invited along to, Tom encounters a man named ‘Reeves’, and the pair introduce themselves as art dealers - a knowing wink that they're both conmen flying under the radar. Reeves is played by John Malkovich, which is a fun final-act easter egg as he famously played Tom Ripley in the 2002 film Ripley's Game, the adaptation of Highsmith's third Tom Ripley novel where our hustler is living a new life of scammery in France.

Ripley. (L to R) Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley and John Malkovich as Reeves Minot in Episode 108 of RIPLEY. Cr. Stefano C. Montesi/NETFLIX © 2022Stefano C. Montesi/Netflix

When Marge finds Dickie's rings in a drawer in Tom's apartment, Tom thinks the jig is up and prepares to murder her with an ashtray. However, she sees him having the rings as proof that Dickie gave them as a gift knowing he was going to kill himself. We then flashback to a few months before when, posing as Dickie again, Tom writes a letter to his landlady in Rome (where he had been adopting that identity) implying that he wasn't planning to return. The assurance from Marge, the letter to the landlady and the piecing together of a fake story from Tom to Dickie's father closes the case on Dickie Greenleaf, painting him officially as a murderer who offed himself with guilt and shame.

Is the Ripley ending the same as the novel?

Yes and no. The series keeps the ambiguous ending of the novel at its core, but it switches out a few details. In the book, Tom flees to Greece as a free man but one who is forever plagued by the paranoia that the police could close in on him at any moment.

As the series closes, we don't see where Tom ends up, although he adopts another new identity with the help of Reeves, who has secured him a British passport under the moniker Timothy Fanshaw. We see him surround himself with the tokens of his scam – the ashtray he used to kill Freddie and the Picasso he stole from Dickie. The shot cuts to the Italian painter Caravaggio sitting bloodied in the same position, looking upon his own work. The painter, his violent and paranoid work, and Tom's kinship with them are ongoing themes throughout the series. Caravaggio led a life of tumultuous life of near-misses before killing the son of a noble family and being sentenced to death. He finally led a life of exile, dotting himself around Italy to escape his fate.

The finale scene of the series sees Inspector Ravini receive a copy of Marge's Atrani that she's been writing throughout the series. She dedicates the book to Dickie along with a picture of him. Ravini then realises the Dickie he thought he met was actually Tom, and the show closes on him saying his name as Tom looks into the camera.

Will there be a Ripley season 2?

Highsmith's novel leaves Tom's fate paranoid but open, but we know, thanks to the four books she wrote (known as the ‘Ripliad’) afterwards, that he maintains a life of bougie swindling.

The series leaves a more immediate cliffhanger, but Ripley's life is one of many people cottoning onto his schemes while he's just out of reach. While it's unlikely we'll get a second season, we wouldn't say no to seeing Andrew Scott scam his way around the rest of the continent like a nefarious travel show.