Penn Badgley’s Joe Goldberg has worn many different hats, but he hasn’t changed much since he first formed an obsessive attachment in You Season 1. Instead it’s the world around him that shifts, bending almost to his will as he runs from one relationship to the next, leaving countless bodies in his wake. It’s no different in the next (and final) chapter of his twisty life story. You Season 5 brings Joe back to his old stomping grounds, and face-to-face with the same problems he’s spent years running from. There’s a sense that Joe’s story has come full circle... and that makes this conclusion feel more like a remix of You’s greatest hits.
You Season 5 picks up after what may be Joe’s most daring (and ridiculous) escape yet. Some years have passed since Joe first fell in love with reluctant billionaire Kate Lockwood (Charlotte Ritchie) across the pond. After surviving a vaguely homoerotic/semi-Freudian struggle with his dark alter ego (Ed Speelers), Joe came clean about most of the crimes he’d committed, pledging to keep his murderous urges in check to live happily ever after with the woman he unironically calls “my queen.”
With his misadventures across the pond swept under the rug with Lockwood family resources, Joe is now settled in New York again with Kate and his son Henry (Frankie DeMaio). He’s a long way from his grungy past life in Brooklyn, now enjoying the comforts of a cushy ivory tower and a small army of PR fixers. Mooney’s, the used bookstore where he grew up — and murdered his first girlfriend, Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail) — is his only tether to the life he once lived. But the pull to the Dark Side may be inescapable, especially once the skeletons in Kate’s closet threaten the good work she’s doing as the Lockwood Corporation’s new CEO.
Kate notably inherited her family company and fortune after her father, the slimy, sociopathic Tom Lockwood (Greg Kinnear), bit the bullet in Season 4. She has no idea that Joe was actually the one who took Tom out, in an attempt to quell his malevolent micromanaging. Again, You loves some Freudian irony, so Joe immediately assumes the role of Kate’s unsolicited protector, however unconsciously. And though he vowed to stop murdering the toxic people in his love interest’s lives, Kate’s extended family is making it really, really hard to keep that promise. Her twin half-sisters, Reagan and Maddie (both played by an excellent Anna Camp), are each determined to undermine her power at Lockwood Corp. Then there’s Kate’s uncle, Buffalo Bob (Michael Dempsey), whose kindly cowboy demeanor betrays a suspicion that sets off Joe’s internal alarms.
You Season 5 is at its most intriguing when interrogating Joe’s worst habits. Our hero tries valiantly to keep his instincts at bay, even pouring his murderous fantasies into dangerously speculative fiction. But the longer he resists, the more he starts to feel like a caged animal — a feeling that’s only affirmed by Mooney’s new manager and the latest “You” in Joe’s life, Bronte (Madeline Brewer).
Bronte is the kind of manic pixie dream girl who grew up on the seediest corners of Tumblr, and she’s every bit the Belle to Joe’s Beast. When Joe instructs her to stay out of Mooney’s basement — where the cage he uses to slaughter people now dwells — she naturally can’t resist exploring, even if it means learning to pick a lock via YouTube tutorial. She even reads Joe’s murder-fic, oblivious to the truth behind it, and suggests he make his narrator a bit more interesting. She doesn’t flinch when his fantasies start to include her, either. The “delulu” in Bronte matches the “delulu” in Joe, making for the kind of tryst that’s impossible not to groan at.
Despite his best efforts, Joe is a miserable creature of habit. That reflects his impulse to “protect” vulnerable women as much as it does his wandering eye. At this point, it’s probably unwise to wish a better Joe: no matter where he goes, he’ll always find a way to blow up his life. But it’s admittedly frustrating to watch him abandon what he has with Kate, arguably one of his most interesting love interests, for Bronte. His dynamic with Kate is the gift that keeps on giving, especially as his dark urges bubble to the surface. Joe wants to embrace this side of himself, the part of him that spins murder as a romantic, chivalrous act. “Let me be your knight,” Joe begs, crystallizing one of the show’s strongest themes. “Let me be of service.”
That Kate will ultimately reject this twisted brand of love shouldn’t be much of a spoiler — but there’s always a chance Bronte could finally be the one to accept every part of Joe. If only their forbidden romance didn’t feel quite so contrived. It feels like You has regressed on a few levels, and since this is the last chapter of Joe’s story, this may be the worst time to backslide.
Fortunately, You isn’t all about romance. The series has always created compelling side plots with its supporting cast, and Season 5 is no different. Camp steals every scene as twins Reagan and Maddie, executing a dark riff on The Parent Trap that makes Camp this season’s MVP. Ritchie also gets plenty of time to explore Kate’s struggles as she plays the corporate game. And then there’s Joe’s own journey through fatherhood. However delusional our hero is, he’s forced to reckon with the legacy of bloodshed in his family, and how it’s affected Henry. Whether he can break the cycle remains one of You’s most consistent mysteries — not unlike Bronte, though, we’re still somehow rooting for Joe.
