Ripley – Season 1 Episode 3 “III Sommerso” Recap & Review

III Sommerso

Episode 3 of Ripley begins with Tom hoping to travel in Europe with Dickie. But Dickie and Marge plan to buy a fridge and their excitement confuses him because he sees it as a millstone, something to tie them down. At that moment, Herbert Greenleaf writes a letter to Tom, saying he is dismissed since he has been in Italy for 2 months and has failed to convince Dickie to return.

Greenleaf also sends a letter to his son which Tom is not able to get his hands on. But he does overhear Marge telling Dickie that Tom is up to no good. Tom jokes to himself that Marge probably wants to kill him by drowning him as he can’t swim.

As a farewell, Marge suggests Dickie to take Tom to San Remo. The journey is awkward and tense as Tom keeps eyeing the Greenleaf heirloom ring while Dickie makes fun of some gay gymnasts at the beach.

Dickie hires a boat and Tom can’t help but recall his joke about Marge drowning him. They stop in the middle of nowhere and Dickie tells him to leave. Herbert wrote to him about Tom saying he will have Dickie home by Christmas and finds something off. Dickie doesn’t want any hard feelings and Tom agrees only to beat him to death with the oar. 

Once dead, Tom takes all of Dickie’s things like his heirloom ring and the perfume meant for Marge. Chaos ensues as he tries to throw Dickie overboard and he almost drowns. He succeeds and heads to a hidden cove only for the boat to stay afloat when he tries to submerge it. He burns it to get rid of the blood and rushes to his hotel room.

He checks out successfully even though the hotelier is suspicious about missing Dickie. Tom feels like someone is following him and is on red alert as he rushes past the boat owner complaining about his missing boat to the cops. Once Tom is on the train, he puts on Dickie’s heirloom ring at the end of Ripley Episode 3.

The Episode Review

Ripley Episode 3 finally picks up the pace and it has us hooked. It is chilling how meticulously Tom goes about his plan without any hesitation. It is as if killing Dickie was always an option for him even if he had not been caught by Herbert and Marge. However, he does need to finesse his plan of action. Man has simply coasted by with luck and luck only. It is surprising that he has lasted so long without getting caught.

It is funny though how Tom keeps getting frustrated when he is in a situation made from his own actions. But we also cannot help but notice his smug smirk of satisfaction when he pulls off his latest daring acts as if he himself cannot believe it. We definitely need a showdown between him and Marge who we doubt would give him any time to breathe.