Warning: The following article contains major spoilers for You season four, part two.
Penn Badgley’s least favorite character, Joe Goldberg, has had a long string of romances — if we can even call them that — in You, but even when a new obsession comes along, it’s hard to let go of the past. Despite how many times Joe tries to start anew, he simply seems incapable of it and constantly ends up stuck in his old ways.
In season three, Marienne Bellamy (Tati Gabrielle) was the focus of Joe’s attention, getting away from him after Love exposed her husband’s secrets to her. Of course, this turned Marienne into a loose end in the protagonist’s new life; one he followed to Paris… then to London… but ultimately, allowed to go free in part one of You‘s fourth season. At least, that’s what the audience was led to believe.
Is Marienne dead in You?
As it turns out, Joe did not actually let Marienne travel back to Paris after their confrontation in part one. He merely convinced himself that he did, by disassociating while slipping a drug into her coffee, and locking her in his new glass cage. Apparently, he cannot travel anywhere without it, not even overseas. Thus, with Marienne as his prisoner, Joe continued to live his new life as Jonathan, the university professor — that is, until he finally realizes what he’s done.
In episode nine of season four, “She’s Not There,” we see Joe making a plan to free Marienne from the cage in a way that doesn’t land him in prison. As proof of good faith, he texts Marienne’s friend, Beatrice, to check up on his victim’s daughter but learns that the child’s custody is being taken from her. The news seems to shatter Marienne’s heart, and having nothing left to live for, she begs Joe to kill her once and for all. Despite this, Joe sticks to his plan.
The next morning, when Joe brings his prisoner breakfast, and after taking a sip of coffee, she immediately appears to go into anaphylactic shock. Joe is confused, certain that Marienne isn’t allergic to peanuts, but starts to panic nonetheless, attempting to open the cage door but unable to. We ultimately learn that this was all a dream, in which Joe also sees Love, Gemma, and Beck, all former victims.
As the protagonist makes his way back to the cage — this time in the waking world — he is determined to put an end to his cycle of terror. However, when he arrives at his destination, he finds Marienne on the floor, presumably having overdosed on the painkillers Joe had left her with. The very least Joe can do, then, is honor the written request of his victim, and leave her body someplace in which she will be found, so her daughter won’t have to wonder what happened to her. Fortunately, this is all an elaborate trick, and Marienne remains alive.
How did Marienne survive?
Before Joe recalled where his new cage was located, Nadia found her way to it and had enough time to come up with two plans to help Marienne. Naturally, the plan to kill Joe fell through as soon as Nadia was detained by the police for carrying a knife, but luckily, she made it out just in time to execute plan B.
During their last meeting, Nadia switched the painkiller pills in the cage for some tranquilizers and changed Beatrice’s number for her own on Marienne’s phone. Thus, while Joe thought he was texting Beatrice, Nadia was actually the one replying and making up a story about Marienne’s mother filing for custody of her child. The sole purpose of this was to make Joe believe Marienne’s apparent overdose later on.
With all the elements in place, Marienne took the tranquilizers and entered a state of deep sleep — enough for Joe to consider her dead. After he left her unconscious body on a park bench, Nadia injected her with a stimulant, waking her up. Finally free, Marienne made her way back to Paris, reuniting with her daughter.
Marienne was the first of Joe’s victims to escape him alive in You. Let’s just hope she lives the rest of her life far, far away from him.