Netflix’s favorite murderous psychopath has returned as the fifth and final season of You premieres, bringing an end to Joe Goldberg’s bloody saga. After gallivanting across the globe, stalking and killing people while sugarcoating the motive as love and whatnot, Joe has finally decided to settle with his wife, Katherine Lockwood and his son with late Love Quinn, Henry. Joe and his family have returned to New York, as a completion of a journey motif for Joe as this is where everything began in the first place. And no matter how much Joe wants to leave his sordid past behind, like clockwork, his true instincts emerge once again after every possible excuse, causality falls in place to send him back to the dark path. Let us take a look at the first two episodes of the season, which starts off remarkably well.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did Joe Kill Uncle Bob?
It has been three years since Joe is living a happy family life with his wife, Kate, chief of Lockwood Corporations. Kate has arranged for Henry to be reunited with Joe, and she has also accepted him as her own son. Being the husband of one of the most powerful business tycoons, Joe is enjoying some fame lately, and as ironic as it can get, is being labelled as an ideal, loving husband figure. Putting their past demons behind, Joe and Kate are all about making a fresh start, when a problem arises out of nowhere. Kate is trying to atone for her past sins, the Alberta pipeline incident where she falsified the toxicity port for her father’s sake, which resulted in children being affected by cancer. Kate announced the Lockwood literacy initiative to ensure proper education of children in foster systems and to fund that, a quarter of the company’s annual profit will have to be used. Kate’s decision blindsides the board members of Lockwood Corporations, which includes her advisor, Uncle Bob, the COO of the company, and her half-sister, Raegan, CFO of the company, who considers Kate to be her rival and shares an estranged relationship due to their late father choosing Kate over her to entrust with the company’s responsibilities. Raegan’s twin sister, a free-spirited fashionista Maddie, is kind of a neutral figure in the midst. Teddy, Tom Lockwood’s only son, who faces persecution by his family due to his birth heritage out of wedlock and also due to being a gay person of colour, is Kate’s only supporter, as Kate always treats him as equal.
Teddy brings the troubling news to Joe that the pipeline incident has been leaked to the media by an insider of the company, and knowing that it can ruin his family and Kate’s life in an instant, Joe gets busy finding the culprit. Using his sharp observation skills, stalking tendencies and intellect, Joe is able to deduce that Uncle Bob is the one responsible, and in futile anguish, he resorts back to his tendency of writing murder fiction while fantasizing about killing Bob. Kate discovers what Joe is up to, and shares her disappointment, but eventually, she herself approaches Joe to take care of the situation when Bob not only confesses to leaking the intel to the media as an act of revenge against Kate for acting on her own, but also threatens her to expose Rhys Montrose’s murder – which can ruin her family in an instant. Backed to a corner, Kate has no other way to sort things out, and Joe’s inner killer was itching to get an opportunity to let itself out anyway, as he relishes murdering Bob and covers the incident up as suicide. Additionally, Joe ensures Kate’s secret remains hidden by sending mail from Bob’s PC to retract his statements as false allegations.
A New Visitor At Mooney’s
Joe is back at his old base, Mooney’s bookstore, once again; the place has lots of memories attached, which he can’t get rid of just yet. From getting abused by the former owner of the bookstore at the secret glass vault in the basement during his younger days, to treating his lovers and targets with similar and worse treatment, to meeting Guinevere, a part of Joe resides in the bookstore. As Kate has bought the bookstore, Joe decides to sell off Mooney’s for good to put a lid on the past, but that changes, after he comes across broke playwright Bronte, who occasionally sneaks into the store to borrow books and also to spend the night, possibly due to financial difficulties, have made it impossible for her to afford rent. Joe is intrigued by her personality and affinity for literature, and he ends up offering her a job at the store. Not knowing his past, Bronte considers Joe to belong to the upper strata of society, judging from his social circle. However, things become a bit shaky between the duo as Bronte discovers the glass vault in the basement and gets herself trapped inside it. Joe fires Bronte after rescuing her, and as she calls him out for his privileged status, Joe’s emotions get the better of him, and he reveals his past sorrows in the heat of the moment. However, Joe decides to reassign Bronte soon enough and offers her to stay at the upper-floor apartment. Bronte appears to be a mysterious addition in the final season, and there is a strong possibility that her character has some prior connection to Joe, which will be revealed later in this season.
Did Joe Trap The Wrong Lockwood Twin?
Uncle Bob’s death was obviously just the beginning, as it triggered a series of miseries for Joe’s family. At school, listening to Raegan’s daughter, Gretchen, mentioning his mother being a murderer, little Henry ends up breaking her nose, which results in Raegen threatening Kate with severe consequences. To sort things out, Kate invites Raegan and her family for dinner, where Maddie and Teddy are present as well. Joe considers Raegan’s allegations to be directed at Henry’s birth mother, Love Quinn, but in reality, as revealed by Raegen, she considers Kate to be a murderer, responsible for Bob’s inexplicable demise right before he was about to vote for no confidence to dethrone Kate from the CEO position. Teddy, who knows that Kate’s position at the top of Lockwood Corporations is needed for him to not get sidelined, steps up and falsely mentions having seen the video recording of Bob’s final moments of taking his own life. Raegan is not fully convinced, and she pledges to make Kate and her family’s life a living hell. The dinner scene comes to a hilarious end as an angry Henry, who was overhearing the family argument, hits Raegan with a utensil – creating a scene. Joe considers Raegen to be a threat that needs to be eliminated and proposes to Kate to subject her to the same treatment as Bob, but Kate refuses to do so. Joe goes on his own to abduct Raegan by infiltrating her office, and witnesses her engaging in a weird act of fetish with her husband, Harrison. Covering his tracks, Joe abducts Raegan and holds her captive in the glass vault.
Kate is understandably concerned about Henry’s mental health, given the kid experienced troubling initial years, but Joe translates her concerns as an attack on his own self – given he was a victim of childhood abuse, which twisted and broke his moral, ethical code and worldview in the first place. Joe has this fear that, as his son, Henry, has become a product of the so-called bad seed; he wants his son to be a compassionate, decent individual and have a well-functioning, normal life. This might be the only redeeming quality Joe has, that he wants his son to never turn out like the monster he is. Anyway, Joe feels troubled after realizing Kate will not fully accept him for what he truly is, and decides to keep Raegan’s abduction a secret from her. However, after learning that Raegan is still threatening Kate and apparently back at her office, it doesn’t take long for Joe to realize what has happened. Still, he goes to the bookstore to verify his suspicion and confirms that he has abducted Maddie, Raegan’s twin, who was apparently having an affair with her brother-in-law, Harrison. The situation is as ludicrous for the viewers as it has become for Joe, who will need to come up with a valid excuse to cover this mess up. Possibly he will feign deriving some sort of forbidden pleasure by keeping Maddie abducted, given it is hinted that she might have some feelings for him, which makes it easier for Joe to manipulate her.
