Netflix’s The Serpent depicts the horrifying true crimes committed—in some capacity—by Charles Sobhraj (“Alain”), Marie‐Andrée Leclerc (“Monique”), and Ajay Chowdhury. Lead by Sobhraj, the group befriended, poisoned, stole from, impersonated, and killed at least a dozen western tourists traveling through Thailand, India, and Nepal in the 1970s. Of the group, Ajay—consistently referred to by his only his first name—feels more literary than real. Ajay is something of a Faustian figure whom Charles Sobhraj meets somewhere in Asia and, at least in the show, entices to commit progressively violent crimes. One of these acts is the stabbing and then burning of American backpacker Connie Jo Boronzich and Canadian tourist Laurent Carrière. Those murders were committed in Nepal and were real. In the series, they act as something like Ajay’s christening. The night before, Ajay is shown having a psychedelic experience with a western tourist before Sobhraj confronts him and questions his loyalty. Killing Boronzich and Carrière become, in the series at least, his initiation act, his deal with the devil.