Vi Ebbott '25
Arts and Entertainment Editor
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers of “You” seasons one through four
“Hello, you.” These are the eerie first words spoken by Joe Goldberg, a simple bookstore manager turned serial killer, also known as the main character of Netflix’s psychological thriller series, “You.”
In seasons one through three, Joe stalks and kills several people but somehow still manages to get away. His past haunts him everywhere he hides, from New York to Los Angeles to Madre Linda (a made up small suburban town in Northern California) and finally to London, where season four takes place.
The show is from the point of view of Joe Goldberg, which allows the viewer to hear the scary inner monologue of a murderer. Joe Goldberg is a stalker who quickly becomes enamored and obsessed with women. He follows and tries to control them, killing the people around them so he can have them to himself. This makes the show a fascinating watch for all true-crime lovers out there. I even find myself hoping Joe doesn’t get caught during some tense scenes.
Season three ends with Joe faking his own death after killing his wife, Love Quinn. This was a heartbreaking twist for all the Victoria Pedretti fans out there who hoped that Love and Joe would be endgame. He framed her for his murder and made her out to be a psychopath (which, to be fair, she kind of was). He left their son with another couple, escaping to London while still in love and obsessed with Marienne, a woman he worked with in Madre Linda.
Season four starts out with Joe working at a college as a professor after Love’s family gave him the resources to get any job he wanted. He seems to have started out fresh but as the season moves forward, we find out that his past will follow him wherever he goes. This can make the show suspenseful, keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat as people in every season uncover Joe’s past.
After Joe got settled in and became friends with a fellow professor Malcolm Harding, they went out to drink. Joe loses consciousness and wakes up the next morning confused and disoriented to find Malcolm’s dead body in his apartment. He panicked and disposed of the body, anxious about falling back into old patterns. He then got an anonymous message from the real killer, thanking him for disposing of the body. Joe becomes obsessed with trying to find out who this anonymous killer is.
This twist is very controversial among the fandom. Some fans much prefer Joe as the killer and dislike his detective phase. Personally, I find the show more entertaining when Joe is the one doing the killing as it makes the show more engaging but it varies from viewer to viewer.
As Joe stalks his possible suspects, he narrows down his suspect list through the season, becoming closer with Malcolm’s ex-girlfriend Kate, and learning more about each person in Malcolm’s friend group. He identifies the killer as Rhys, the only one in the group with a background with the working class, giving him the motive of being the so-called “Eat-the-Rich killer.”
Joe ends up killing Rhys only to discover that through the entire season he had been dissociating and Rhys wasn’t the killer at all. In reality, Joe had been murdering people and holding them hostage without any memory of it. This realization drives Joe even more insane than he already was.
The entire series is very binge worthy and even knowing these spoilers, is a very entertaining watch. The mix of Joe trying to keep his past covered while hunting down a fellow serial killer is fascinating.
I highly recommend checking it out especially if you’re a fan of detective stories and psychological thrillers.