There was always something chilling about Joe Goldberg. A man with a cap pulled low, quietly observing, weaving himself into strangers’ lives, reading through their very skin, and crafting monologues incorporating lines from famous books by famous authors, inside his mind. Joe was never just a lover or a protector; he was a stalker in disguise, a predator cloaked in a hopeless romantic’s delusion. Netflix’s hit thriller You delivered this chilling character study season after season. And now, with its fifth and final chapter, Joe’s twisted saga has finally come to an end.
The final season of You premiered last week, concluding the dark and twisted journey of Goldberg, portrayed masterfully by Penn Badgley. Joe’s story, rooted in a traumatic childhood, centres on his belief that love means protection at any cost — not even stopping at murder. Throughout the series, Joe justifies his killings as acts to protect the women he obsesses over, from Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail) to Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), both carrying their respective dark complexities, mirroring Joe’s troubled psyche. The glass cage in Joe’s basement, a chilling symbol of self-confrontation, underscores the series’ exploration of identity and consequence.
In Season 5, Joe returns to New York, seemingly living a respectable life with his wife Kate Lockwood (Charlotte Ritchie), a wealthy CEO with her own dark past involving unethical business dealings that harmed children. Their life, plastered across magazine covers as an ideal family, conceals secrets that threaten to unravel them. The season’s tagline: ‘What goes around comes around’ aptly captures this final chapter as Joe’s past sins and victims resurface, forcing reckoning.
The season builds intrigue through family power struggles involving Kate’s sisters, Reagan and Maddie, whose intertwined betrayals and secrets deepen the drama. Joe’s old protective instincts erupt violently when his son Henry becomes entangled in conflicts initiated by Kate’s family, and a critical plot twist involves Joe mistakenly imprisoning Maddie and manipulating her into killing Reagan. While these storylines add tension, they sometimes slow the narrative, compounded by the introduction of less compelling new characters.
Past figures like Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman) and Marianne (Tati Gabrielle) return, rallying those affected by Joe and amplifying his public infamy through social media, especially after the event involving Bronte, whose actual name is Louise Flannery (Madeline Brewer). She is an old friend of Guinevere, who initially approached Joe with a hidden motive — to avenge Beck’s death, suspecting Joe as the real killer. However, in a chilling twist, she became the very thing she feared, falling for Joe before ultimately realising the horror through Marianne’s revelations.
Bronte embodies the show’s meta-commentary on audience fascination with Joe, though her neurotic personality divides opinion. A defining moment in the season is Joe’s confrontation with Henry (Frankie DeMaio), whose blunt accusation: ‘You lied... It was you. You’re the monster’ forces Joe into rare vulnerability and echoes earlier warnings from Love Quinn. Despite mounting consequences, Joe remains trapped in self-pity and denial rather than remorse, highlighting the psychological turmoil driving his actions.
The climactic finale is both symbolic and brutal — after a violent encounter in the woods, Bronte shoots Joe in the groin, stripping away his power in a moment dense with metaphor. Joe’s imprisonment, isolated and powerless, is portrayed as worse than death. Yet even behind bars, receiving disturbing fan mail, Joe voices chilling indignation, blaming society for creating him and challenging viewers with: ‘Maybe the problem isn’t me. Maybe it’s you.’ Behind bars, Joe is seen reading The Executioner’s Song, Norman Mailer’s famous and controversial account of Gary Gilmore’s life, where the criminal is portrayed through a multifaceted, almost tragic lens, rather than pure condemnation.
It is a fitting choice for Joe Goldberg, whose own narrative blurs villainy and victimhood, and the show’s creators deserve credit for this thoughtful, symbolic detail. In interviews, Penn Badgley had emphasised the importance of showing Joe’s true nature as a sexual predator and wanted the ending to reflect Joe’s worst self outside his usual “box,” underscoring the complexity beneath his manipulative charm. The actor also reflected on the character’s appeal and the difficulty of portraying such a disturbing figure sympathetically.
Critical and fan reactions to Season 5 have been mixed. Some have praised its reflective themes and dramatic closure, while others have criticised it for predictable plotting, slower pacing, and for diminishing the sharp satire, intensity, chaos and mess that fuelled earlier seasons. The return of past characters and the focus on family drama has divided viewers, with some longing for a deeper psychological exploration of Joe’s remorse.
Bronte’s character, though central to the meta-narrative, is sometimes seen as grating, despite the nuanced portrayal. Ultimately, many viewers feel the season missed an opportunity for a more intense, immersive look into Joe’s psyche while still acknowledging and punishing him for his crimes.
You Season 5 brings Joe Goldberg’s story full circle with both triumph and imperfection. However, no matter how it ended — messy or otherwise — at least it ended, and we finally got closure from Joe Goldberg’s twisted tale. For years, we waited for him to stop the murders, stop the mind games, stop hiding behind a cap and stalking with unsettling ease. And yet, despite everything, one thing is certain — we are going to miss hearing that chilling, fateful line: “Hello, You.”