Warning: This article contains spoilers.
On April 24, the fifth and final season of “You” was released on Netflix. The show follows Joe Goldberg who is a dangerous, obsessive and manipulative man who will do anything to protect those he loves. The show is an adaptation of Carolie Kepnes’ book series under the same name. The series itself was developed by Sera Gamble and Greg Berlanti.
Audiences first met Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) in New York City working at Mooney’s Bookstore back in 2018. Here, viewers were introduced to his love interest who he becomes deeply obsessed with in the show, Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail). The next stop was Los Angeles, California where he names himself Will Bettelheim and meets Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti) whom he marries and has a child with. Eventually Candance Stone (Ambyr Childers), a past ex, comes back to seek revenge but that does not play out in her favor. Love then stays with us into season three until that whole relationship ends in flames – literally. Towards the end of his California stay he meets Marienne Bellamy (Tati Gabrielle) who he follows to Europe. Season four took place in London, England where he changed his name to Jonathan Moore and fell in love with Kate Lockwood (Charlotte Ritchie) who became his second wife.
Kate and Joe have been together for three years which is the amount of time since Joe last killed somebody. Like every season before we are presented with a whole new chaotic and twisted group of characters: Bronte (Madeline Brewer), Teddy Lockwood (Griffin Matthews), Kate’s sisters, the twins, Maddie and Reagan Lockwood (Anna Camp) and a now six-year-old Henry Goldberg (Frankie DeMaio), just to name a few.
Our fatal romantic lead has returned to Manhattan as Joe Goldberg but in a very different way of life. Due to his marriage to the billionaire CEO of T.R. Lockwood Corporation, he has been able to get by with this “Prince Charming” facade. Protected under the Lockwood empire, Joe is untouchable – or is he?
Personally, I appreciated that the final season ended in New York. It was a nice callback to where it all started. The city of Joe’s terribly traumatic childhood and the place of his first murder. From being thrown into the Mooney’s basement cage to putting people in there himself. Moving away from the darkness of the storyline, the New York aesthetic holds a sort of nostalgia for fans.
The overarching theme of this season was “what does Joe Goldberg deserve?” This is something the “You” team had to grapple with. As said by showrunner and executive producer, Michael Foley, in an interview run by Netflix, “We knew years ago that he wasn’t going to get away with what he’s done, and he wouldn’t be redeemed. It was really just a question of how we were going to get to the end.” In that same interview Penn Badgely added, “I’ve always thought anybody killing [Joe] would mean they’re essentially brought down to his level.”
Joe meets Bronte, whose real name is later revealed to be Louise Flannery. Per usual, Joe becomes utterly engrossed with Bronte whom he can bond over books and writing with; but Bronte has an agenda. Her TA back in college was Guinevere Beck, also known as Beck, who was murdered. Bronte and a group of friends she met online through their collective suspension over Joe want to hold him accountable for Beck’s murder as well as all of the other people he made “disappear”.
Penn Badgley has once again delivered a disturbing and passionate performance. Badgley gives Joe this dazzling charm that makes him appear as the “nice guy” while successfully hiding his dark nature. Joe is such a compelling character since the audience gets to hear his inner monologue all throughout the show and we watch his drastic shifts in personality.
When Kate Lockwood realized just how sinister her husband truly was, she was done protecting him and decided that he must be taken down. Charlotte Ritchie did an incredible job at portraying a strong, independent woman with a mission. Another great performance came from Bronte; Madeline Brewer also had the goal of ending the reign of Joe and she set up an effective trap that he waltzed right into. Episode 10 spotlighted her acting, as well as Badgley’s, due to the intense nature of the ordeal. One more performance that stuck out to me was by Anna Camp who plays the Lockwood twins. Playing two characters at once is impressive and she did a fantastic job with switching between the contrasting sisters.
After Joe kills his first wife and sets their beautiful suburban home on fire to erase all evidence in order to make it look like she tried to murder him, he left his baby son, Henry, on the doorstep of their friend’s house. Kate was able to reunite the father-son pair so that they could play happy family. Once things fall to shambles, Kate hides Henry away in order to ensure the child’s safety. This sends Joe into a rampage.
In the beginning of the season Henry shows signs of being just like his biological mother and father, breaking his cousin’s nose and throwing a butter knife at his aunt. Then, Henry drops the most heartbreaking lines while secretly conversing with his father over the phone: “Do you remember when you used to tell me there were no monsters in my room…You lied…It was you. You’re the monster” (30:54). This breaks Joe. Love Quinn’s dying words were right, he mentions as he is crying while Bronte is holding a gun to his face, “He’ll know what you are” (32:02).
In the end, justice is finally served. As Joe sits in his tiny jail cell reading raunchy and inappropriate fan mail and thinking he does not deserve this fate, he says, “Maybe we have a problem as a society, maybe we should fix what is broken in us,” says Joe, “maybe the problem isn’t me, maybe it’s you” (51:53). This is a jab at viewers and society; the people we root for who sometimes are just terrible people. A lot of the time, we are aware of this but choose to look past it.
Every season has amazed me. Every season finale left me either in tears or staring at the ceiling. These last 10 episodes certainly had me glued to the television screen, mouth gaping open in shock after each plot twist. Candidly, what a great, fantastically done ending.
Victoria Tibets can be reached at [email protected]
