You Season 5 Brings Back an Important Character to Engineer Its Endgame

This article contains spoilers for You season 5.

For five seasons, Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) in You has literally gotten away with murder, and his list of victims has only continued to grow. In the show’s final season, however, the past finally catches up to Joe as Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail) ends up being the key to putting him behind bars. So, how does that work, considering she was heartbreakingly killed by Joe at the end of season one? Well, it’s thanks to his new love interest, Bronte, whose real name is Louise (Madeline Brewer), and help from some familiar faces.

It’s revealed in season 5 episode 6 that Louise actually knew Beck and has been catfishing Joe under the name Bronte with her friends in hopes of catching him, seeking justice for her and Dr. Nicky, who was framed for her murder. The only problem is that while getting to know Joe, she has fallen under his spell and is now questioning her previous suspicions. With it being the last season, it’s only fitting that one of Joe’s survivors helps Bronte see who Joe really is. What makes it feel more final is who they chose to give this task to: Marienne Bellamy (Tati Gabrielle). Considering all that the mother has to lose if she gets involved with Joe again, her coming back alongside Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman), who freed and helped her trick Joe in season four, shows the audience just how close to the end we truly are.

In what is one of the most powerful and important scenes of the entire series, Marienne speaks at her most vulnerable about how men like Joe catch you off guard, expressing how when the “bad stuff happens” you force yourself to believe “they’re not actually bad” because “if you got fooled by this guy, you are not as smart as you thought you were. You’re one of those women,” who you “deep down, think you’re smarter than.” Her speech hits Bronte and the audience hard, especially as she begins to list off the names of Joe’s past love interests, herself and Louise included. But she then insists that Bronte is not stupid and that “as long as you are alive, it’s not too late.” It’s a message many women need to hear. 

It’s also the push Bronte needs to finish what she started. She goes on the run with Joe, ready for answers about what he really did to Beck, and while holding him at gunpoint, she demands the truth. In a narration, Joe sums up perfectly why it all had to come back to Beck: She’s “the one I can’t outrun.” Bronte forces him to redact himself from Beck’s book, pointing out that him finishing and rewriting her words meant that he not only took her life but her voice as well. 

As expected, when he realizes that Bronte has turned on him, he attempts to kill her too. While he is chasing her, she manages to dial the police, who hear the entire struggle, including him saying, “You want to know how I killed Beck? I’ll show you,” before strangling her, demonstrating to the audience just how full circle this entire story has been. While Beck’s murder happened off-screen, Joe did have a vision in the second season of her with bruises all over her neck that seemingly confirmed he strangled her to death. 

When Bronte fights back and gets away, he then tries to drown her, but she manages to survive that as well. She later finds him in the woods, Joe begging her to kill him as the police grow closer and closer. She refuses, and while she does shoot him, it’s not fatal, and he is arrested. Bronte reclaims the name Louise, concluding that her life “doesn’t boil down to before and after” Joe and that she cannot wait to find out who she wants to be now. She is no longer simply Joe’s “You” of the season. 

According to Louise, Joe Goldberg was “made to see all of himself.” She shares that “the trial was messy, the evidence horrific, and the truth undeniable.” He was convicted for the murders of both Love and Beck, but that’s not all. Allegations then turned into more convictions, including Benji and Peach. He will never be free again. Louise pulled all of Joe’s “contributions” out of Beck’s book and published the redacted version, honoring her, even though Beck will never “get the chance to make what she wanted to make of her life.”

This final season goes beyond getting justice for Joe’s victims, it makes them the source of his downfall. Bringing back Marienne and Nadia to say their piece directly to Joe is necessary because not all of his victims could do so, Beck being a prime example. Thankfully, they found different ways to include the majority of them, ensuring justice was served, and while every single one was important, it all needed to come back to Beck to be a satisfying ending for those who have watched since the beginning. As for Joe’s ending, he will now live the rest of his life alone in a cage. What’s more full circle than that?

All 10 episodes of You season 5 are available to stream on Netflix now.

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