Hello, You β¦ I know you’re dying ( π ) to get my hot take on the latest season of Netflix’s epic stalker series but be warned that I am dropping killer spoilers like they’re hot. If you haven’t obsessively watched Joe Goldberg’s every move, now would be the time to let yourself out of his cage. Thanks!
Our favourite bad boy with a voyeuristic nature ,Penn Badgley, is back as the charismatic, murderous and obsessive Joe in a thrilling new season of YOU:
Recap:
Things looked dire for our favourite stalker at the end of Season 3 of YOU and so we pick up where we left off… kind of. Joe is now a professor in London, banished there to create a new identity and establish a life for himself since his fraught reunion with Marienne (Tati Gabrielle) did not quite go as he thought it would (but we all did). She ran for her damn life and didn’t look back.
Joe as his new persona ,Professor Jonathan Moore, is still a Lonely Boy (where are my OG Gossip Girl fans at?!) but eventually falls in with the uber rich, snobbish elite socialite set which includes Charlotte Ritchie as Kate Galvin, a mercurial gallery manager and Joe’s unlikely love interest after she screws him at her boyfriend’s funeral; Tilly Keeper as Lady Phoebe, a sweet socialite who immediately adopts Joe as her new male BFF; Ed Speleers (Outlander and Star Trek: Picard) as Rhys Montrose, an author whose memoir inspires Joe since their stories are so alike; and Lukas Gage as Adam Pratt, Phoebe’s gold-digging and emotionally manipulative boyfriend.
As Joe struggles to find his footing with these rich kids, they start dropping like flies, one by one, at the hands of an unknown killer dubbed the “Eat The Rich Killer”and in the most gruesome of ways. Pretty soon, Joe finds himself at the centre of a Murder Mystery of note and he leans on his favourite student Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman)’s expertise to help him solve the case.
But… Plot twist incoming!
Joe is receiving mysterious, disappearing texts from his very own stalker. With some great snooping and a grandiose monologue, our anti-hero unmasks the mysterious mayoral candidate Montrose as his tormentor. Montrose promises to pin the Eat The Rich murders on him if Joe doesn’t go through with killing his new girlfriend Kate’s insidious American tycoon dad Tom Lockwood (Greg Kinnear).
Joe, in a rare display of putting the happiness of the one he loves above his own self preservation, hunts down and kills Montrose (with some nudging from a sly Tom) β¦ except Montrose, before he kicks the bucket, insists he does not and has never met Joe. As it turns out, the Montrose that Joe thought was blackmailing him was really a manifestation of Joe’s own inner killer! That’s right, our guy is having a mental breakdown/ split personality episode.
Joe did, in fact, kidnap Marienne, and has held her hostage in his infamous glass cage in an abandoned building in London for months! After violently hitting his head against the cage, Joe’s mind split into two and Rhys emerged. A deadly combination between Joe’s base instincts and Montrose’s suave persona, gleaned from hours and hours of obsessive stalking as only Joe can do it, the imaginary Rhys/Eat the Rich Killer has none of Joe’s softer, slightly more humane traits. He doesn’t care that Marienne has all but abandoned her daughter, that her friends and in-laws think she has relapsed or that she needs medical assistance after he breaks her arm.
As we race to an exhilarating finale, Joe kills Tom who wants to pay him off to stay away from Kate while Nadia finds and helps Marianne to escape the cage with a dangerous plan that only ends up getting her framed for all of the Eat the Rich killings by a once again “sound” minded Joe.
Yep, after attempting to commit suicide so that Montrose/Stalker Joe will also cease to exist, the Gods smile upon our bad boy once again and he is saved from the Thames. Reunited with Kate, whom he finally tells the truth to (well, everything except how he killed Daddy Dearest), Joe frames Nadia and moves back home to New York with his new love. Her money and influence means Joe’s sordid history is scrubbed clean and he can return to the US with his own name as well as maintaining an elaborate lie about how he was the victim of spousal abuse at the hands of his deceased wife Love Quinn (so much for “I wolf you”) which lead to him escaping to London to spare his life.
Being bad really does pay, huh, Joe?
Impressions:
I’ll admit that over the past four seasons, Joe has lured me into a false sense of security. BadgleyΒ is so good at playing Joe that I have started to soften towards him, feel sorry for him and at times, I’ve even rooted for him. Blame it on my deep rooted love for misunderstood loners which was fueled by my love for the Beast in Beauty and the Beast and the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera in childhoodbut I get Joe. That beard is also really doing it for me.
Then, the finale happened and well, here’s how I feel:
Speleers as Joe’s alternate ego Rhys is fantastic! Having Joe’s subconscious show up as different actor makes for an enjoyable dynamic onscreen and is a great red herring plot device. Even Joe is as revolted by what he is capable of as we are. Welcome to our world, Joe!
Kate certainly isn’t the usual damsel in distress or crazy hot chick that Joe normally targets and perhaps the lack of intensity is because she isn’t the object of his obsession this season. Having said that, it was quite nice to have Joe fall into an unexpected relationship and have this part of his life be a Four Weddings and a Funeral setup. The fact that she bankrolls his return to glory and the US at the end was unexpected. Is she hiding her own Love Quinn within, perhaps? One never can tell with that stiff upper lip.
Kinnear stole the few scenes he was in as Kate’s overbearing dad. Since he usually plays these sweet yet totally helpless characters, seeing Kinnear here as a dirty, ruthless mob type tree hugger is a good surprise. More of this, please!
Gabrielle continues to delight as Marienne. The way she conveys Marienne’s endless determination to get back to her little girl and imbues her performance with such compassion for Nadia, a stranger she just met and whom she needs to help rescue her, is incredible. Since her character has made it out alive, without Joe’s knowledge, I hope we’ll see more of her soon.
We had a few returning faces this season, during Joe’s reckoning with himself: Victoria PedrettiΒ asΒ Love Quinn and Elizabeth LailΒ asΒ Guinevere Beck. They both nailed their scenes as they reminded us just why they made such compelling objects of obsession for both Joe and us, the audience. Compared to Kate and Marienne, both of these characters edged very close to Joe’s core personality and it is that which got them killed. Joe doesn’t like being confronted with his true nature.
Hickman as Nadia was an obvious replacement for Jenna Ortega’s Ellie from the second season. Nonetheless, I enjoyed her dogged determination to get to the bottom of the Jonathan/Joe issue and I am mad about her imprisonment. This isn’t like John Stamos’s Dr Nicky from the first season, dammit! Nadia deserved better.
Speaking of Joe’s old foes β¦ now that our murderous Peeking Tom is back Stateside, does this mean we can expect some awkward reunions in Season 5? With Netflix recently announcing that the fifth season will be the stalker drama’s last one, we can certainly hope so!
YOU Season 4 is streaming on Netflix.