One of the most surprising shows of the last few years is You, which ran one season on Lifetime before being snapped up by Netflix. Now in its fourth season, Netflix is splitting the batch of episodes into two halves, a release strategy it saves for its most popular shows like Stranger Things. But while Stranger Things is firmly entrenched in the world of big-budget, genre television, You is a different beast entirely.
You is trashy. That’s not an insult—in fact, I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what everybody involved is going for. It follows Joe (Penn Badgley), a truly psychotic serial killer, as he travels around America trying to avoid suspicion while racking up as many kills as possible. In the first three seasons, Joe killed a whopping 16 people, and nobody seems to raise an eyebrow, despite Penn Badgley channeling every evil thought directly into his character’s eyes.
But the fun of You has always been that it’s thoroughly ridiculous, and it wears its absurdity as a badge of honor. We keep watching because we can’t wait to see it careen off into nonsensical directions and shlocky plot twists. The writers clearly have a lot of fun being certifiably wild. Sure, if you took a step back and really thought about things, it wouldn’t really make any sense, but it’s a blast to watch something so self-aware. I don’t know if You has ever been good, but it sure is entertaining.
With the arrival of Season 4’s first half, I’m astonished to say that You has never been better. It’s still schlocky and nonsensical (especially if you have any geographic knowledge of London, the show’s new location), but the show is now at its most exciting. The biggest reason why this is the best season of You yet is because it’s finally leaning into the fact that its serial killer lead is actually really hot.
Now, if you’re unfamiliar with the show, you might read that and wish to call the authorities at. But for fans of the show, Joe’s sexiness has long been a topic of discussion. Twitter is regularly aflame with declarations of desire for Joe, which has absolutely baffled actor Penn Badgley. It’s weird. And yet, it kind of makes sense. Yeah, Joe is really scummy, but Badgley is hypnotically hot. He’s got such a command that you kind of can’t resist him, and that’s something that befalls a number of Joe’s victims.
There’s something deeply uncomfortable about finding Joe attractive, but there’s a bizarre thrill underneath it. It’s also something that’s been a by-product of having someone hot in the lead role. But Season 4 fully embraces how much we’re all into Joe, so much so that it reframes his criminal behavior. This time, Joe is our hero.
(Spoilers for You Season 4 ahead.)
We should have seen this coming. Badgley debuted on TikTok with a video of him opening his door to face his own self dressed as Joe, soundtracked to the Taylor Swift song “Anti-Hero.” What was a very funny video was actually a hint—Joe is no longer a vicious demented killer. Now he’s an anti-hero. Simping for a sadistic killer? Decidedly unsexy. Having the hots for an anti-hero? Now we’re talking.
After the events of Season 3, Joe, presumed dead, has made his way to London, where he’s assumed the identity of Jonathan Moore. He now teaches literature at a British university. He may be Jonathan to his new acquaintances (or Professor Moore, if you’re nasty), but he’ll always be Joe to us, so I’ll continue to refer to him that way.
Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg in You.
Netflix
But here’s the big difference in this season’s plot: Joe is no longer the killer. This time it’s someone dubbed as the “Eat the Rich” killer. In fact, Joe’s being stalked by the killer, who uses a mysterious app whose messages disappear once they’ve been read. They start to kill people that Joe is getting to know, and instead of trying to hide his own secrets, he’s in a desperate bid to keep everyone else alive. That’s right—Joe has gone from doing the killing to doing the protecting.
One of Joe’s most troubling characteristics has been how he manages his relationships with women. This time, things are different. Joe has been a creepy stalker, slowly but surely convincing women that they should very much be in love with him. This time around the women are throwing themselves at Joe. Stripped of his killer status, Joe finds himself having to practically keep the women at bay with a bat. The key difference here is that Joe isn’t doing any pursuing whatsoever. Instead, in Season 4, You’s characters see Joe exactly as we do: irresistibly sexy. It’s no longer concerned with trying to tip-toe the line of whether Joe is hot or not, instead bungee jumping right off the line in a full embrace of Joe’s desirability.
Because Joe isn’t bloodthirsty this time around, his interactions with women are charming, sometimes even heartwarming. He’s always been something of an intellectual, particularly regarding his passion for literature. In previous seasons, he used this interest to help manipulate and murder women. This time around, he’s a professor, and it’s a perfect avenue for Joe to use his wisdom for good. His relationship with his student Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman), for instance, is somehow … cute? It’s a bit weird at first to see Joe so warm and non-predatory when speaking to a woman, as we’re so programmed to expect him to be absolutely obsessed with them, driven to kill them, or both.
Tilly Keeper and Penn Bedgley.
Netflix
With Nadia, things are different. Joe makes it clear through his inner monologue (providing the show’s narration) that he has no desire to be with her. There’s a woman in front of him, and Joe doesn’t want to kill her. Progress! But there are a number of moments where Joe actually imparts valuable wisdom upon Nadia, taking on an almost father-figure role, particularly when Nadia is reeling over the death of a professor she was having an affair with. It’s moments like these that practically make me want to throw myself at Joe, a thought that makes my skin crawl. Therein lies the sickly, tantalizing appeal of You.
This is still You, so it doesn’t take long for Joe to get back to his creepy ways—but they don’t feel nearly as creepy this time. When he starts watching Kate’s (Charlotte Ritchie) every move, red flags practically leap from the screen. But this time, Joe is stalking so he can protect—not murder or control—Katie. In fact, in Joe’s first interaction with her, he manages to save her from being mugged.
Another way the show gets us to actively root for Joe is through its portrayal of everyone else on screen. You has dealt with annoying socialites and suburbanites before, but they’ve never had the kind of obscene wealth and power that the people Joe’s surrounded himself with now. And wow, this show really hates rich people. Joe’s new circle is full of people that haven’t worked a day in their lives, complaining about how they are inconvenienced by those with less. In one scene, one earnestly suggests that typical civilians should be drawn and quartered.
These people are brutal caricatures, as if the writers watched Triangle of Sadness and Parasite and thought those representations of the wealthy were infinitely too kind. That makes them awfully fun to root against. As Katie warns Joe, “When you have the means, you have to decide not to be the absolute worst”—and it’s clear that nobody besides her has made that decision.
Seriously: These people are so bad, it’s like You is deliberately poking and prodding at its audience to shout at the screen “Joe, kill these people already!” But Joe isn’t going to hear your calls now, because he’s just a sweet professor trying to protect people from harm.
The most relentless critique of Joe’s new “friends” comes in the fourth episode, titled “Hampsie.” It’s named after Lady Pheobe’s (Tilly Keeper) summer home, which is so large, it’s basically a castle. They’re the kind of people to say things like “The bastard gave me ‘gonor-rona’ in the Seychelles. No one had a worse 2020 than me.” Yeah, the comically wealthy people, who went vacationing during the pandemic, obviously got COVID because of it, and earnestly believe they were the ones that truly suffered aren’t exactly the kinds of people you root for.
In a heated dinner party sequence, You takes pride in turning Joe into a legitimate hero. Joe is questioned about whether he’s resentful of everyone else for their incredible wealth. When he responds that he’s happy with his life, he’s mocked by everyone, and gets called a “low-rent Colin Firth” and “a nobody.” It’s worth remembering that Joel has killed more than a dozen people, but when he’s put in a room with these sleazeballs, he comes off like a knight in shining armor.
Things get exceptionally complicated in the finale. Joe gets thrown in front of his peers, accused of being the Eat the Rich killer. Now, we know full well that for the first time, Joe isn’t actually the killer. But while Roald (Ben Wiggins) lists the victims of the killing spree, we see images of Joe doing the killings.
Again, he didn’t actually kill these people. But You can’t resist showing Joe pulling off some gnarly kills. It’s odd to see Joe depicted as so brutal since he’s been gassed up as someone heroic this season, but it’s a perfect moment. You stabs the audience with an ugly reminder that Joe is indeed a vicious, brutal killer. While Joe didn’t kill these people, it’s entirely plausible that he could have. It’s at this moment that the show takes great delight in that chill running down your spine, reminding you that the man you’ve fallen head over heels for this season is actually your worst nightmare.
It’s a scene that ties the season together in a malicious bow—just like how Joe plays with his victims, You has been toying with our perceptions of Joe over these five tantalizing episodes. By turning Joe into a sort of martyr, before devilishly reminding us that he can never escape the monstrous truth of his reality, You delivers one thrill after another, cementing its best season yet. “At least they know I’m innocent now,” Joe says at the end of the finale. That may be true, but for how long?
