Here’s Everything That Happened In The “You” Series Finale — And Why Joe Goldberg’s Ending Is Actually Pretty Genius

Needless to say, determination are immoderate *serious* You Season 5 spoilers ahead. 

Last month, the much-anticipated last ever play of the deed Netflix bid You yet deed our screens, and viewers couldn’t beryllium much excited to find retired what volition go of 1 of TV’s astir beloved serial killers, Joe Goldberg — played by Penn Badgley.

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For reference, You, which is based connected Caroline Kepnes’s publication of the aforesaid name, archetypal premiered backmost successful 2018, and implicit the years, Joe has racked up a termination number of 24: 18 men and six women.

And execution is acold from the lone transgression that Joe has successful his repertoire, with the full premise of the amusement hinging connected the information that helium is an obsessive stalker who manipulates women into being successful a narration with him, and volition halt anyone who gets successful his way. If those women spot done him and determine that they don’t privation to day him? Well, that’s erstwhile the sidesplitting comes in.

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Oh, and helium besides masturbated connected the thoroughfare a lot during Season 1.

Despite each of this, galore of You’s viewers person been wholly connected Joe's broadside passim the amusement — mostly owed to him being the narrator, which allows him to manipulate fans with his charm successful the aforesaid mode helium does his emotion interests on-screen.

Andddd arsenic a result, galore radical hoped that the amusement would extremity with Joe getting distant with each of his crimes and moving disconnected into the sunset, but they should person known that this was ne'er going to happen.

If you’re wondering, the explosive last occurrence sees Joe spell head-to-head with his Season 5 emotion involvement Louise “Bronte” Flannery, played by Madeline Brewer. The occurrence starts with the 2 attempting to fly the state aft Joe was secretly recorded confessing to 2 of his murders. However, Joe is unaware that Bronte is lone inactive with him due to the fact that she wants him to confess to sidesplitting her person Guinevere Beck, who was the absorption of the show’s archetypal season.

She ends up pulling a weapon connected him and demanding answers erstwhile they’re successful the chamber together, and it is astatine this constituent that Joe’s facade starts to break. At first, helium berates Bronte — informing her that cipher volition ever emotion her the mode that helium does. When this doesn’t land, and aft a telephone from his young son, Henry, who calls him a “monster,” Joe plays the victim; sobbing astir however unlovable helium is and asking Bronte if this is what helium deserves.

Bronte doesn’t autumn for this either, and that is erstwhile Joe turns overtly nasty, boasting astir however helium got distant with murdering her person connected camera earlier physically attacking her, including punching her successful the face.

An anxiety-inducing pursuit ensues, and, alternatively cleverly, this is the archetypal clip successful 5 seasons that viewers are explicitly exposed to the world of conscionable however terrifying and almighty Joe is, without immoderate of his trademark charm.

Joe shoots, strangles, and adjacent drowns Bronte connected camera, which she (inexplicably) survives, pulling a weapon connected him to halt him from leaving arsenic the constabulary arrive. At this point, Joe begs Bronte to termination him, intelligibly choosing decease implicit facing justice, but she refuses to springiness him what would beryllium the casual mode out. She does, however, accidentally sprout him successful the penis arsenic helium is arrested, aft informing him: “You are going to unrecorded the remainder of your beingness alone.”

Which is precisely what happens. Joe ends up being sentenced to beingness successful situation without parole, and successful his last voiceover, helium inactive refuses to instrumentality accountability for his actions, saying: “My punishment is adjacent worse than I imagined. The loneliness, my god, the loneliness. No anticipation of being held, knowing this is forever. It’s unfair, putting each of this connected me, aren’t we each conscionable products of our environment? Hurt radical wounded people.”

Meanwhile, each of Joe’s survivors are thriving and escaped — adjacent Beck gets immoderate signifier of justness aft Bronte redacts each of the edits that Joe had secretly made to her posthumous book, and releases an variation containing lone Beck’s words, not those of her killer.

And, if you deliberation astir it, this was virtually the lone imaginable solution for Joe Goldberg. After all, passim the full show, cipher has been a bigger Joe hater than Penn, who plays him, and helium has made it abundantly wide passim the show’s tally that helium would not beryllium satisfied if Joe did not get his comeuppance.

While getting distant with everything was intelligibly not an option, dying is undeniably excessively bully for Joe, which means that, realistically, helium was always going to extremity up successful prison.

And Penn affirmed this mindset successful a caller interrogation with Extra TV, wherever helium said: “The conception needed to travel to a close, the writers, me, everybody progressive — the fans — we needed to bring this antheral to his rightful end, and I deliberation we did so.”

Speaking to the Guardian astir Joe’s ending, Penn added: “It was arsenic though I couldn’t prolong the rage anymore, couldn’t prolong the levels of artifice with him, conscionable each of it. Nothing is truly bully enough. There’s levels to it; it’s not conscionable like: does helium die? Does helium spell to jail? Is helium tortured? Does helium unrecorded and is helium miserable alone? It’s truly astir however we get there.”

In the aforesaid interview, Penn shared his interest that he’d made Penn “too likable,” thing that helium has publically grappled with for years. Speaking to EW backmost successful 2020 astir the mode immoderate viewers support Joe, Penn exclaimed: "He’s a murderer! He’s a sociopath. He’s abusive. He’s delusional. And he’s self-obsessed. You can’t fool yourself into reasoning that helium conscionable needs idiosyncratic who’s close for him. Nobody’s close for him!"

That aforesaid year, helium said during an quality connected The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: "I struggled greatly with the struggle of playing specified a feline and him being partially truthful likable and having specified a, arsenic we say, thirsty effect to him."

And possibly the astir poetic portion of You’s bid finale is the self-referential mode it addresses viewers’ emotion for Joe Goldberg. In the episode’s precise last moments, Joe receives instrumentality message successful prison, and asks: “Why americium I successful a cage erstwhile each these crazies constitute maine each the depraved things they privation maine to bash to them?”

Perhaps anticipating that immoderate fans whitethorn beryllium near disappointed by Joe yet facing justice, the amusement past holds a reflector up to viewers arsenic Joe continues: “Maybe we person a occupation arsenic a society. Maybe we should hole what is breached successful us. Maybe the occupation isn’t me… Maybe it’s you.”

What did you marque of You’s ending? Let maine cognize successful the comments below!