If you’ve ever dated a narcissist, you’ll probably love You. If you’ve ever dated a narcissist who’s also a prolific killer, you’ll definitely love You.
Netflix‘s soapy, satirical thriller ended on a satisfying note this week, with the sins of five seasons finally catching up to Penn Badgley‘s Joe Goldberg, the murderous bibliophile convinced he knows what’s best for the women in his life.
One of those women, Beck (Elizabeth Lail), comes back in a big way this season. After killing her (and mangling her book manuscript) in season 1, You‘s final season paired Joe with Bronte (Madeline Brewer), a young writer who, it turns out, used to see Beck as a mentor.
After learning of her boyfriend’s involvement in Beck’s death, Bronte concocts a plan to get revenge and expose Joe’s true self to the world. Pulling it off, however, involves accepting his marriage proposal and joining him for a drive out of the country.
That leads us to the You series finale. If you’re interested in how it came together, check out Entertainment Weekly‘s interview with co-showrunners Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo about the finale, Joe’s fate, and the storylines that didn’t make it into the final season.
Penn Badgley as Joe in the season 5 premiere of ‘You’. Clifton Prescod/Netflix
No, Joe does not die in the You series finale, though not for lack of trying.
After Bronte pulls a gun on Joe in bed and reveals she knows he killed Beck, the episode spirals into a struggle between the former lovers that leaves both wounded as the cops close in.
When Bronte gets the upper hand on him, a gun pointed at his chest and police flashlights in the periphery, Joe begs her to kill him. “I deserve it,” he pleads. “You know you have it in you. Please. You’re more like me than you want to admit… For all the lives I’ve taken, and you get to be the one that kills me, Bronte. This is how our story ends!”
She refuses, however, declaring that Joe deserves to be exposed for his crimes and live the rest of his life alone. “They are all gonna see you, Joe, and you are going to have to see yourself,” she says.
Joe rushes Bronte, surprising her so that she pulls the trigger. Her bullet, though, goes not into his heart, but his crotch. That’s right — she shoots off his penis.
Some might call it a fate worse than death.
Penn Badgley’s Joe Goldberg gets arrested in the ‘You’ series finale. Clifton Prescod/Netflix
Yep, Joe is slapped with enough life sentences to ensure parole isn’t ever a possibility.
As we see a handcuffed Joe led through a courthouse to the tune of Elton John‘s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” Bronte narrates, “In the end, Joe Goldberg was made to see all of himself. The trial was messy, the evidence horrific, and the truth undeniable.”
She continues, “After his conviction for the murders of Love Quinn and Guinevere Beck, allegations snowballed, turned into more convictions. One thing’s clear: Joe Goldberg will never be free again.”
Tati Gabrielle as Marienne in ‘You’ season 4. Netflix
While no one can resurrect Joe’s victims, justice arrives for both the survivors and those he killed.
It’s revealed that Joe isn’t just booked for the murders of Love (Victoria Pedretti) and Beck, but also season 1 victims like Benji (Lou Taylor Pucci) and Peach (Shay Mitchell). Remember Dr. Nicky, the therapist played by John Stamos who was framed for Beck’s murder? Well, he gets his sentence vacated.
After Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) helped get Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman) out of prison earlier in the season, Joe’s former student finds salvation by returning to teaching and, per Bronte, “[using] her gifts to help other women process their own trauma.”
Marienne (Tati Gabrielle), too, enjoys some karmic retribution. Though she was able to elude Joe’s grasp in season 4, the painter finds an unlikely benefactor in Kate, who helps raise her profile as an artist.
It’s basically the “mega happy ending” from Wayne’s World, but that was intentional, according to co-showrunner Lo. “Ultimately, we felt it would be important to hold Joe accountable,” they told EW. “We could have been real cynical and let him get away with it, but I think we want to live in a world where someone like him does get his comeuppance and his victims get justice.”
Charlotte Ritchie as Kate Lockwood in ‘You’ season 5. Clifton Prescod/Netflix
Surprisingly, yes — aside from Reagan (Anna Camp), of course, who was previously killed by her twin sister, Maddie, due to Joe’s manipulations. The rest of the Lockwoods, though, get endings perhaps happier than they deserve.
Kate, for example, survives the fire that appeared to kill her in the penultimate episode. She allows her half-brother, Teddy (Griffin Matthews), to turn the Lockwood Corporation into a nonprofit, and leaves the C-suite to pursue her passion for art. (Let’s be real, though: She should be in prison, too.)
Anna Camp as Maddie Lockwood burning down Joe’s bookstore in ‘You’ season 5. Clifton Prescod/Netflix
Maddie (also Anna Camp) also gets a happy ending, despite, you know, killing her twin sister and burning down Joe’s bookstore. She goes to rehab, gets cleared of all charges, and throws a $2 million Viking funeral for Reagan.
A similarly positive fate is true for Harrison (Pete Ploszek), who Joe had also framed for Reagan’s death. He and Maddie live happily ever after, and we learn she’s pregnant with his twins.
Madeline Brewer as Bronte in the ‘You’ series finale. Clifton Prescod/Netflix
Bronte, a.k.a. Louise, survives Joe’s final assault, but just barely. Joe does everything in his power to kill her and shatter her will.
After she pulls a gun on him, Joe goes into gaslight mode, telling her that she was “lost” before she met him, that she has a “deep fear of being nobody,” and she’s most scared of “the absence of me.”
“I think I love you more than you love yourself,” he says.
But she overcomes both his physical and emotional attacks, and ends the finale feeling more self-assured than she’s ever been. Joe, she says, will eventually “just be some asshole I dated.”
Madeline Brewer as Bronte in season 5 of ‘You’. Matt Infante/Netflix
Something we learn halfway through season 5 is that Bronte idolized Beck, who championed the younger Bronte’s writing in college. She also figures out that Joe crammed a bunch of his own (substandard) writing into Beck’s book, The Dark Face of Love. She not only wants to make him pay, but also to rid the book of his contributions.
“I could spot your clumsy rewrites before I even met you,” she says after confronting him about Beck’s murder. “You took what was hers and made it yours.”
Gun in hand, she throws him a copy of The Dark Face of Love and orders him to cross out every word he added with a marker. He acquiesces.
During the epilogue, we learn that Beck’s book was republished without Joe’s words. “The newly-redacted version is more popular, more praised, more cutting, more imperfect… more Beck,” says Bronte.
Frankie Demaio as Henry in the ‘You’ series finale. Jocelyn Prescod/Netflix
Fear not, Henry (Frankie DeMaio) is in good hands at the end of the finale. Well, so long as you consider Kate “good hands.” And even he gets to tell Joe off.
Joe spends a good chunk of the finale trying to get in touch with the son he shared with Love. “I need to tell him that whatever he hears, I am not abandoning him,” he asserts. With the help of fixer Will (Robin Lord Taylor), Joe is able to hack into Henry’s gaming headset without anyone knowing.
After Joe tells him he loves him and that he had to go away for a few days, Henry implies that he knows his father’s secrets by asking, “What did you do to Mommy?” It appears Teddy spilled the beans to the boy, but he’s handling it better than most grade-schoolers.
“Do you remember when you used to tell me there were no monsters in my room?” Henry asks. “You lied. It was you. You’re the monster.” Damn.
This drives Joe over the edge, yet he still manages to make it entirely about him. “I try to love, and every time it falls apart,” he laments. “It’s me. I’m unlovable. Is this what I deserve?”
Thankfully, Joe’s not able to get his mitts on Henry, who, as mentioned, lives happily ever after with Kate and the Lockwood clan. As the episode closes, Bronte envisions a future in which Henry falls in love. Then, she says, he’ll “have to decide what kind of man he wants to be.”
Penn Badgley’s Joe Goldberg in prison in the final scene of ‘You’. Clifton Prescod/Netflix
You ends with a strikingly short-haired Joe reading Norman Mailer‘s The Executioner’s Song (subtle!) in a prison cell. He narrates that, yes, his punishment is “even worse than I imagined” while indulging in some curated, self-serving therapy-speak.
“The loneliness. Oh my god, the loneliness,” he intones. “No hope of being held. Knowing this is forever. It’s unfair, putting all of this on me. Aren’t we all just products of our environment? Hurt people hurt people. I never stood a chance.”
He has fans. Letters arrive in which women fawn over him. But their words offer little comfort. From his cell, he can’t control them. So he blames them. “Why am I in a cage when these crazies write me all the depraved things they want me to do to them?” he narrates. “Maybe we have a problem as a society. Maybe we should fix what’s broken in us.”
He breaks the fourth wall, then, staring right into the camera. “Maybe the problem isn’t me,” he says. “Maybe it’s you.”
We must admit — that’s a pretty perfect note to close on.
“It was a lot about Joe having to face what he is,” co-showrunner Foley told EW. “He gets close, but of course in the end he can’t do it. He has to blame us.”
Penn Badgley as Joe in ‘You’ season 5. Clifton Prescod/Netflix
All five seasons of You are streaming on Netflix.
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