Warning: the following article contains major spoilers for the season three finale and season four of You.
You has just come back to Netflix with five brand-new episodes, and to no one’s surprise, Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) is involved in some seriously messed up stuff. The setting, at least, is new. Joe has taken up residency in London, trying to live out his European vacation dream, while proclaiming himself a changed man.
This wasn’t the first time the audience was met with a supposedly changed Joe, attempting to leave his murderous past behind for the sake of a new beginning. It seems like every time the protagonist lays a former lover to rest, he swears to himself it’s the last time, but alas, somehow life forces his hand time and again — or so he claims. In truth, everyone that watches even 10 minutes of You can agree that Joe might just be the most deluded character on television right now. Badgley certainly shares this sentiment.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actor shared his thoughts regarding Joe’s efforts to become a new man:
“I don’t think anything truly profound has changed Joe. I think that part of what the show is doing is showing that he’s never really looking at himself. No matter what happens, actually, he seems to be incapable. (…) He seems to be positioning himself to make a different change, but everybody is, of course, always wondering when the other shoe is gonna drop. Like, it’s Joe. The [way the] whole thing really works, to put him in London and depict him trying to turn over a new leaf, is because we know he’s not really capable of that. So, we’re just waiting with bated breath to see exactly when and how.”
Badgley further claimed that Joe was given “the most compelling reasons that he’s ever had to change” at the end of season three. Surely, having murdered his wife and faked his own death are pretty solid reasons to change, and on a superficial level, Joe has. His identity is new, as are his job and home, but underneath it all, his stalker tendencies always come back up to the surface.
In season four, Joe discovers he’s not the only stalker/murderer in town, and finally gets a taste of his own medicine. Will becoming the prey finally lead Joe on a different path? Will he ever be forced to look at himself as the problem? Seems unlikely, but stranger things have happened. Maybe the second half of the season will provide some answers.
You season four part one is now available for streaming on Netflix.