Joe Goldberg’s Final Chapter Turns The Mirror On Us In You Season 5
It’s a full circle moment as Joe Goldberg returns for his final turn in New York City in You season 5. Spoilers ahead.
Each season of You has allowed us to explore Penn Badgley’s fan favorite character of Joe on a deeper level. In season one, he seemed like a “nice guy” who was revealed to be a serial killer, while the second season gave him more of a anti-hero energy. It seemed like we finally found someone Joe could connect with when it came to Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti) in season 3, but he saw himself as the white knight and villainized her for doing the same things he did. Then the fourth season found Joe lying — to both himself and us as viewers — as he slowly lost his grip with reality, only to come face to face with his darker side. Could he finally accept himself for who he truly is? The fifth and final season takes this journey a step further as they balance the dual sides of Joe that he has finally embraced as what makes him special and even explore what that says about us as viewers to be rooting him on.
Now with Kate Lockwood (Charlotte Ritchie) and her wealth by his side, it seems like Joe’s finally found his happily ever after, right? Where have we heard that one before? While Joe has typically stayed under the radar in favor of anonymity and secret identities, this season puts him squarely in the spotlight. There is constant media coverage of him and Kate and her rich family, which ultimately finds people digging into his dark past later on in the season. While they have made a pact to keep each other good, temptations arise for Joe in numerous ways as people close to Kate’s business threaten her reputation and new “manic pixie book girl” Bronte (Madeline Brewer) catches his attention. To his credit, he does try to fight his instincts, even going so far as to tap into writing to channel his darker impulses. It works, for a little while at least.
While the first half of the season is sluggish, it’s far more cohesive than season 4, which took eight episodes out of 10 to find its footing. Joe worries about his son Henry’s (Frankie DeMaio) potential to follow in his footsteps, Anna Camp brings double trouble as Kate’s rivaling twin sisters Maddie and Reagan, and Kate realizes that she probably should’ve done some deeper digging into Joe before wiping his slate clean. Things kick into gear halfway through the season when a bomb drops: Bronte isn’t who she says she is. She’s a catfishing social media sleuth who has been manipulating Joe the whole time to discover the truth about what happened to her former TA… Beck (Elizabeth Lail). That’s right, it all ties back to the events of season one. This circles back to bring Dr. Nicky’s (John Stamos) son Clayton (Tom Francis) into the mix, while characters like Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman) and Marienne (Tati Gabrielle) make their return and partner with Kate to take Joe down.
The most intriguing aspect of the story to me is how they blur the lines around Joe even further as the public weighs in. When a journfluencer does a tell-all with Joe, it brings back some familiar faces and sparks mixed reaction online. People begin to question: Is Joe a serial killer? Was it self-defense? Is Bronte the real villain for manipulating Joe into violence? Even she finds herself conflicted, confusing love and manipulation. The final showdown leads to peace for the women in Joe’s life, while he ends up in jail. While locked up, he receives fan mail from women who adore him. “Why am I in a cage when these crazies write me all the depraved things they want me to do to them? Maybe we have a problem with society,” Joe muses in the final moments of season 5. “Maybe the problem isn’t me. Maybe it’s You.” This isn’t just a callback to the show’s title — it’s a chilling commentary on parasocial relationships, shifting public perception, and society’s fascination with dangerous men.
All in all, Penn Badgley delivers a compelling final performance as Joe Goldberg. While You has sparked debates since its first season about romanticizing violence and morally gray men, the show ends with a finger pointed right back at us: maybe we’re the real problem.
The fifth and final season of You is streaming now on Netflix.
