Netflix’s Ripley is the latest on-screen adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s iconic character Tom Ripley, this time played by Andrew Scott.
Originally due to be released on Showtime, the eight-episode adaptation was moved to Netflix in February 2023, where it was released on 4th April 2024. Written, directed, and executive produced by Academy Award winner Steve Zaillian, best known for his work on Schindler’s List, The Irishman, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
The psychological thriller TV series is set in the ’60s and centres around career criminal Tom Ripley after a wealthy businessman hires him to convince his son, currently living in Italy, to return home to America. Ripley’s arrival in Italy causes him to take a thrilling journey around Italy. Alongside Scott, the series also features Dakota Fanning, Johnny Flynn, Eliot Sumner, Maurizio Lombardi and Margherita Buy.
Initially presented as just a forger and lowly criminal, the show’s eight episodes allow viewers to see Tom Ripley’s descent into a more violent criminal. One of the main people who sees this side of Tom is Sumner’s character, Freddie Miles, who confronts Ripley about his crimes. The aftermath of this confrontation left viewers on the edge of their seats, so what happens to Freddie Miles in Ripley?
Warning! There are spoilers ahead...
What Happens to Freddie Miles in Netflix’s Ripley?
From the moment Tom and Freddie meet in Naples, there is an underlying feeling of animosity between the pair.
From Freddie’s side, he instantly mistrusts Tom, claiming to have met him in New York previously at Bob Delancey’s house, to which Tom tells him he’s mistaken. Freddie continues questioning Tom about his past and often talks to him with contempt. From Tom’s side, there seems to be a sense of jealousy around Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf (Flynn) and Freddie’s close friendship and their wealthy lifestyles, particularly after Freddie invites Dickie and Marge (Fanning) to his place in Cortina d’Ampezzo for Christmas.
Freddie and Tom don’t meet again until after Tom has killed Dickie and stolen his identity to live in Rome. In episode five, Freddie makes an unexpected visit to Tom’s apartment after being told Dickie was renting the apartment. Freddie had managed to track Tom down via the telephone, which was in the apartment. While Richard’s name wasn’t in the phonebook, Freddie tells Tom he called the phone company, and they gave him the address.
Similar to their first encounter, Freddie questions Tom not only on Richard’s whereabouts, to which Tom is vague, initially saying he’s out running an errand and then meeting someone at a coffee shop. But Freddie also questions Tom about his plans, what he’s doing in the apartment, and where he bought his clothes, which he says are similar to some he and Richard bought in Florence.
After a tense encounter, Freddie initially leaves to go and see if he can track down Richard at the coffee shop, but in the reception of Tom’s apartment block, he encounters Tom’s landlady Signora Buffi (Buy), who reiterates to him that Richard is upstairs allowing Freddie to put two and two together. He returns to the apartment to confront Tom about his suspicions that he is pretending to be Richard and telling Ripley he will be back with the police. On his way out the door, Ripley bludgeons him to death with a glass ashtray. Tom manages to drag Freddie’s body out of his apartment and down the stairs into Freddie’s car, before he abandons it on the road near the Claudio Aqueduct.
After Freddie’s body is found, a cat-and-mouse game begins between Ripley, still pretending to be Dickie, and Inspector Ravini (Lombardi). When the inspector gets a little too close to the truth, Ripley puts a plan together to make it seem like Dickie committed suicide while he lives out an extravagant life in Rome as himself.
How Is Freddie Miles Portrayed in the Books?
In the books, Highsmith portrays Freddie as an obnoxious American with red hair who, similar to the TV series Freddie, doesn’t warm to Tom at all. Tom’s feelings towards Freddie only get worse after Dickie tires of Tom and gets closer to Freddie and their plans of a ski trip to Cortina, to which Tom is not invited.
In the books, Tom also murders Freddie as he discovers the truth, but Freddie’s death is even more publicised, becoming a key news story across Europe.
In the 1999 adaptation The Talented Mr. Ripley, Philip Seymour Hoffman played Freddie and was much closer to the original character written by Highsmith. But in Netflix’s press notes, the director Zaillian says he picked Sumner because in the auditions for the role of Freddie, all of the other actors "played Freddie as a loud, obnoxious American, which is understandable since that’s basically how Highsmith described him in the book. Instead, Eliot chose to play Freddie as quiet, knowing, and sophisticated, which I found more exciting and more of a formidable threat to Tom than some loudmouth."
Will There Be a Season Two of ‘Ripley’?
The Netflix series has been advertised as an eight-episode limited series, indicating we won’t get a second season. However, Ripley only follows the first of five novels written by Patricia Highsmith about career criminal Tom Ripley. So, if the series does well on Netflix, it could persuade them to renew it. It wouldn’t be the first time that Netflix turned a successful limited series into a multi-season show as they recently renewed Beef for a season two, Ryan Murphy’s The Watcher and in 2017, they ran 13 Reasons Why for four seasons.
