Ripley – Season 1 Episode 5 “V Lucio” Recap & Review

V Lucio

Episode 5 of Ripley begins with Dickie’s body finally surfacing. Tom does his daily checking of the newspaper for news on Dickie’s body and doesn’t find anything. He finally gets an apartment but there are more stairs as the elevator is broken. The landlady is a keen observer who likes him once he says he is single and rich.

Things look up as the elevator is fixed, he continues to write to an oblivious Marge as Dickie while a lady at the post office fancies him. He starts painting and he is pretty good. Freddie suddenly shows up as he finds him because of the apartment phone registered to Dickie. He too keeps catching Tom in a lie but lets it go and leaves. However, downstairs, the landlady insists that Dickie is in the apartment and it all clicks for Freddie.

He comes back to the apartment and confronts Tom. Turns out, Freddie called Bob who revealed that Tom is a con artist who provides forgery services such as fake IDs. While Marge thinks Tom and Dickie are having an affair, Freddie is on the right track. He notices that Tom is wearing Dickie’s clothes, shoes and even watch and realises that he has stolen Dickie’s identity. He goes to call the cops but Tom beats him to death with his new ashtray.

And begins Tom’s panicking, worrying about the wrong things like cleaning up the blood that has dirtied up his painting and prepping on what to tell the cops. He goes down to find Freddie’s car but a neighbour and the landlady spot him.

Back up, he pours alcohol into Freddie, puts a hat on him and tries to take him downstairs as his very drunk friend. The elevator stops working halfway and he has to take him down the stairs. A neighbour hears the noise but doesn’t investigate.

Someone else is on the street and Tom kisses Freddie to cover up. However, a man walking his dog stops by to offer help. Tom gets rid of him and finally drives off in Freddie’s car. He leaves Freddie and the car in a desolate place and takes a taxi.

He gets home only to find blood on the stairwell and in the lift and starts cleaning. Realisation hits and he heads to the car to get rid of Freddie’s wallet and passport. He finally gets home and has a drink at the end of Ripley Episode 5.

The Episode Review

Yeah, remember when we said Tom has the best luck, Ripley Episode 5 would beg to differ. Even though he has gotten better at it, he is not used to it. He doesn’t mind killing Freddie, hinting at psychopathic tendencies, but he does mind that he has to clean up after. That he has to do things to cover his track.

This is what makes it so fun to watch Tom and his misadventures. He is like a little kid who wants to go on a rollercoaster but hates it when he gets dizzy. There is nothing methodic about his cleaning up, it is just sheer logic and luck. And he seems to be running out of the latter.