"The murder mystery was a turn off to some viewers, but it still kept a lot of people hooked."
The viral phenomenon known as You came back for its fourth season with a twist. Our favorite stalker Joe Goldberg came back and was made to be the prey instead of the hunter for the first time.
At the beginning of the season Joe is dead after the house fire covering up the murder of his wife Love Quinn. He’s now Jonathan Moore, English professor at a university in London. The new identity was a gift from the Quinn family fixer. Joe faked killing Marienne to save his own life. As a professor he lives alone, has no love interest, and barely a social life to speak of. A colleague, Malcolm Harding, invites him to an exclusive club one night where Jonathan is in the presence of London’s wealthy young elite. The trust fund and influencer type of rich.
While at the party, Joe meets a kindred soul in Rhys Montrose. He went from rags to some riches after writing about his tough upbringing that was similar to Joe’s. Neither are interested in the drugs and speak for a while on before Lady Phoebe, a famous influencer, grabs Joe to join the others and he’s given a shot of absinthe. When he awakens in his apartment Malcolm is dead on his kitchen table. In typical Joe fashion he disposes of the body without a trace. Malcolm’s girlfriend Kate calls the police while Joe receives anonymous texts from the real killer. He uses one of his students, Nadia, to bounce theories off of and uses the cover of writing a murder mystery.
As the season progresses the group of rich kids are killed one by one, and Joe is steadily trying to clear his name and learn the identity of the actual killer. During a retreat in an attempt to isolate themselves away from the killer, another member of the group who accuses Joe of being the killer ends up dead. Kate, this season’s new love interest, finds the body and Joe does his best to protect her from accusations of being the Eat the Rich Killer. The group throws accusations around until landing on the new guy Jonathan Moore and one of the rich kids Roald ends up hunting him with a gun in the woods of the property. Both Joe and Roald end up knocked out in a barn where Rhys is revealed to be the killer. Kate manages to find them and save them before a fire consumes them.
The second half of the season is Joe trying to expose Rhys while also being blackmailed by him to frame someone for all of the murders. Joe manages to pin everything on a stalker of Lady Phoebe after she’s taken captive. He also still attempts to protect Kate from everyone including her own ruthless businessman of a father who knows Joe’s real identity.
Joe begins researching Rhys’s life further and being manipulated by Kate’s father. He wants Rhys gone and gives Joe the excuse he needs to go after the killer ruining his life. While dealing with Kate’s father, Nadia is looking into Professor Moore’s life only to find clues leading to him being the Eat the Rich killer as well as discovering a hidden Marienne in the signature glass cage. It’s revealed that when Joe found Marienne he went about his usual forced love method, holding her captive and drugging her out of love. She made attempts to escape leading to her being thrown in the cage. While trying to convince her of his love Joe becomes obsessed with the real Rhys Montrose which causes his psyche to create a figment version of her after Joe has a mental break.
It was responsible for all his dark choices, all the violence. He had an imaginary scapegoat to help him feel better in his new life as Jonathan Moore. His split mind fabricated all the mysterious texts and hid evidence from himself. Nadia and Marienne make a plan to free her and fake her death, but no good deed goes unpunished. Joe catches Nadia and her boyfriend snooping in his apartment then makes Nadia the scapegoat for the murder of Rhys Montrose. Kate accepts all of Joe’s darkest parts and takes him in even after learning he killed her father.
This season was a wild ride because I thought it’d end up being Joe’s karma for all the horrible things he’s done in the previous seasons. Finally, he was going to be the victim and get what was coming. The manifestation of Rhys was always a suspect for me because no one else besides Joe could possibly justify the murders. Having to solve a murder mystery where you’re the killer was an interesting look at what a mind can do to protect itself. Also it’s crazy the lengths Joe will go to in order to paint himself as the good guy. He has to have a way to make it feel like he’s the hero. That premise is why he’s everyone’s favorite stalker. The justification process he goes through has you agreeing with his actions.
This season was a little slow in the love interest department for me. Kate was very boring in comparison to Joe’s previous relationship. She barely expressed much interest in him during the season except for having sex. The thing that made the previous seasons better to me was how Joe was still painted as a romantic. There was barely any effort with learning about Kate, they just kept running into each other. She didn’t stand out and it was missing that spark that always drew Joe in. Maybe it was the similarities in their dark sides. Both of them were in denial but ultimately embraced their dark sides. Joe seeing Rhys’s reflection in the window in the final episode shows Joe is done justifying his madness and has embraced his psychotic nature for what it is.
"You" was another hit this season though some didn’t think so. The murder mystery was a turn off to some viewers, but it still kept a lot of people hooked. It’ll be interesting to see where next season goes. There have been rumors about season 5 being the last season and Joe finally getting what’s due to him, arrested or killed. What were your thoughts on the season? Are you excited to see what’s next?
Erin is a social commentator, influencer, and content reviewer at Head Nerds In Charge Network.
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