After five seasons of romance, obsession, stalking, and murder, YOU has finally come to an end. The story of hopeless romantic and psycho murderer Joe Goldberg, played by Penn Badgley, came to a bloody end that felt both shocking and inevitable. The YOU season five ending finally answered fans’ questions about Joe’s fate, what he deserves, and what happened to the trail of blood he left behind.
Going into YOU’s fifth and final season, Joe was in the most powerful and privileged position he’s ever been in. Now married to Kate, Joe isn’t just rich, he’s come-back-to-New-York-and-pin-murders-on-my-ex-wife rich, and as such, he’s managed to keep his nose relatively clean. No murders in 5 years, what a feat! But, alas, he can only deny his thirst for blood for so long, and before the season is up, Joe has already gone back to his old ways. More murders, lies, and stalking follow; not to mention a brand new obsession: Bronte.
Spoiler alert: This post contains major spoilers for the YOU series finale. Please stop reading if you have not watched YOU season 5 and do not want to be spoiled.
YOU season 5 finale recap:
When the finale begins, Bronte and Joe are on the run from NYC, where Joe has become a pariah after killing Dr. Nicky’s son on a livestream (in self defense, kinda), confessing to killing Love on tape, and leaving his wife Kate for dead in the basement of his burning bookstore.
Joe thinks that he’s finally found his happily ever after, but Bronte has a different ending in mind. Despite originally falling for Joe’s love-bombing and charm, she now knows that Joe is just as evil as she originally suspected—ICYMI, Bronte entered Joe’s life as a catfish hoping to prove that he killed Beck, her old TA, then fell for him. (Don’t worry, girl, you’re not the first!)
Now she’s determined to make him pay for his crimes and confess to killing Beck. So, while she and Joe wait in an abandoned, but isolated, house for their fake passports to be ready so they can cross the border into Canada, she hatches a plan.
Clifton Prescod/Netflix
That night in bed, she holds him at gunpoint and forces Joe to edit all of his contributions to Beck’s book, but her affection for Joe leads her to commit one major mistake. After a particularly harsh phone call with his young son (who informs his dad that he wants nothing to do with him because he’s a monster), Joe appears defeated enough for Bronte to feel safe approaching him to reach for the phone to call the police. He lunges.
Joe gets the gun and shoots Bronte, but he hasn’t killed her. A fight ensues, and though Bronte manages to get the phone and dial 9-1-1, Joe finds her soon after. He drowns her in the lake—or so he thinks—and then runs into the woods when the cops arrive. In the end, he’s shot by Bronte and escorted away in handcuffs.
What happened to the everyone at the end of YOU season 5?
Idris Solomon/Netflix
Joe
After his arrest, Joe was convicted for killing Love and Beck, and those convictions quickly lead to more cases. He was later prosecuted for the murders of Benji (who appears to have decided to remain in hiding in the Philippines), and Peach (RIP).
Bronte
Bronte survived Joe’s attack and spearheaded a rerelease of Beck’s book, this time without Joe’s edits. She decided to stay in New York and live her life.
Kate and Henry
Kate survived the fire, but left the Lockwood Corporation anyways. She’s raising Henry as her own and working as an art dealer.
Marienne
With Joe in jail, Marienne came out of hiding and she now works as an artist.
Nadia
Now free, Nadia has returned home, where she writes and teaches incarcerated women.
Maddie Lockwood
Maddie was tried for her sister’s murder and for setting Joe’s bookstore on fire, but got off with no jail time. She went to rehab, married Harrison, and is expecting twins!
Teddy Lockwood
Teddy got his seat on the Lockwood board and has successfully transitioned the company into a nonprofit.
What does the You season 5 ending mean?
Matt Infante/Netflix
The finale ends with Joe, now serving multiple life sentences, doomed to spend the rest of his days alone with his books and fan mail. “Why am I in a cage when these crazies write all the depraved things they want me to do to them,” he says in his final voiceover. “Maybe we have a problem in our society. Maybe we should fix what’s broken in us. Maybe the problem isn’t me,” he continues, looking directly into the camera. “Maybe it’s you.”
Even now, Joe refuses to take responsibility for his own actions. If Joe is a stand in for toxic men, then his perpetual victimhood shows that it’s not enough to bring one man to justice. You have to change the way he thinks.
