There are major spoilers for You season 4 part 1.
Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) is back in season 4 of You, only this time as the brooding literature Professor, Jonathan Moore. While he seems to be settling in quite well with his new identity in the gorgeous, literary city of London, the show’s fans are still excited to know where he stands with Marienne Bellamy (Tati Gabrielle), and more importantly, what he could have possibly done with her.
Marienne was Joe’s obsession in season three. His savior complex prompted him to kill her husband Ryan with whom she had lost custodial rights for her daughter, Juliette. Of course, this didn’t sit well with Joe’s wife and nemesis — Love — who responded to the situation in a quintessential Love manner. That is, after learning about his obsession with Marienne, she paralyzed Joe with aconite and hatched a plan to kill her.
Luckily for Marienne, Love had a change of heart after Juliette entered the scene, leading her to warn Marianne about Joe’s intentions and his past murders. But Joe killed Love instead and went to Paris to find Marienne, who he claimed to be in love with. That’s how season three ended, and ever since fans have been eager to know what happened between them and whether she suffered a similar fate as all of Joe’s past ‘lovers.’ Let’s shed some light on the same.
What happened to Marienne?
The curiosities and questions increased as there was not even a mention of Marienne in the first half of episode one. What happened to her? Was she killed by Joe? Or did he suddenly decide to choose a peaceful life at the heart of London over his old stalking personna? Eventually we get to find out her whereabouts.
At a party with the ultra-wealthy folks in Sundry House, he gets a flashback of why he had chosen to settle in London. We see that Joe followed Marienne all the way to Paris and visited every art fair to learn about her. “I went to every artist haunt in Paris, I visited them over and over,” he said, until luck tilted in his favor. He stumbled upon a painting by her and on further questioning, the seller revealed that the artist (Marienne) traveled to the Acanthus art fair in London.
This explains Joe’s big and adventurous trip to London. Later in the episode, he recalled having spotted Marienne at the art fair, who looked at him with shock and fear. “You changed. The buttoned-up Madre Linda librarian was gone but it was you”, he said after spotting her. Joe continues to track her down to an old building and a brief confrontation between the two ensues. Joe admits to having killed her husband Ryan to save her from losing her daughter to him.
On asking if he killed love, Joe remains silent – thereby confirming her suspicions about him. To prove that he’s not a murderer and that his past actions reflected his concern for her, he lets her leave the warehouse unscathed. However, this isn’t the end of the story. Shortly after, Joe finds out that he is being followed by a detective named Elliot Tannerburg who was sent by Love’s parents to track down and kill Joe.
The Quinn family wasn’t convinced of Joe’s death, with Love as the murderer. Elliot, on the other hand, decides to steer clear of any further murder-for-hire cases. He gives Joe a new identity and asks him to move to Paris and start a new life. Meanwhile, Marienne’s presence appears to be a problem for him since she is connected to Joe’s past life and knows that he is alive.
That would certainly not work well for the Quinn family. So, he hatches a plan to erase every last bit of suspicion about his false identity. We see him following her to the train station and while the possibility of Marienne being murdered seemed imminent, Joe refuses to go through with the plan. Instead, he steals her necklace and sends a snapshot of it to Elliot, telling him that the mission has been accomplished.
By now, the viewers know that Marienne isn’t dead and she hasn’t been either shown or talked about throughout the season. It is not clear if she will appear in the second part of the series that will be released on March 9.
Fans have various questions regarding this character’s possible return. Would she be a significant part of Rhys Montrose’s controversies? Is there any chance she will save Joe from Rhys’ brutal plans? Or like Ellie in season two, has she completely disappeared from Joe’s life? Well, we will have to wait for almost a month to find out.
You is currently streaming on Netflix.