Ghosts of the past take the form of Louise Flannery to punish Joe Goldberg for his harrowing crimes in the fifth and sixth episodes of the ongoing season of You, and finally the larger connection is surfaced, which takes viewers back to the first season of the series. Previously, after being blackmailed by Joe, Maddie ends up murdering Raegan and taking her position in her private and personal life. Kate figures out Joe’s possible involvement in Raegan’s disappearance and denounces him after realizing she can no longer control the violence. Joe gravitates towards Bronte and starts having an affair with her, not knowing she has ulterior motives to take him down for good.
Spoilers Ahead
Did Kate Learn About Joe’s Secrets?
Kate has become suspicious of Joe following the recent string of events, and she calls Lockwood family adviser Cynthia in London to fetch up everything on Joe, which she chose to overlook back during the events of the fourth season. At the same time, Kate finds out about Joe’s affair with Louise, and in her vulnerable state, confides in Teddy about colluding with Joe to kill Uncle Bob. Teddy advises Kate to approach the authorities to have Joe detained, but she is still too afraid of facing repercussions for her actions. Kate herself is so afraid of Joe that she hides a knife under Henry’s bed, which Joe finds. Joe confronts her about it, only to get rightly lambasted by Kate for his recent activities. Kate also finds out what kind of a monster she has chosen to marry in the first place after she finds out Raegan has been killed by Maddie, who has been impersonating Raegan since then—all thanks to Joe’s vile machinations. Kate confesses to more of Joe’s crimes to Teddy, mentioning Rhys’ murder, hinting at Nadia’s predicament, whom she and Joe framed for her boyfriend’s murder, along with the Raegan/Maddie switcheroo—and needless to say, Teddy is freaked out after realizing how messed up his birth family truly is. He implores Kate to speak up without fearing consequences, but a part of Kate is still shackled by her guilty conscience in a way she can’t expose Joe just yet.
Why Did Louise Trick Joe?
Meanwhile, Louise and Joe’s affair gets intense, and just when Joe thinks that, once again, he has found his soulmate, Louise ghosts him. Joe pieces together clues to assume that Louise is back with her toxic, abusive ex, Clayton, and following the trail of breadcrumbs left by her, reaches Atlantic Beach and locates the beach house Louise and Clayton have cooped up in. Louise makes random excuses for getting back with Clayton, and later that night, Joe sees Clayton returning to the residence and raising his hands on Louise following a heated argument. Joe engages in a scuffle and ends up killing Clayton and gets the shock of his life seeing Louise, along with her friends Dominique and Phoenix, recording the incident with the intention of showing the true face of Joe Goldberg to the world.
As it is revealed in Louise’s confession to the authorities, she was catfishing Joe in order to get justice for the death of Guinevere Beck, Joe’s former lover whom he murdered way back in the first season. Louise used to be a good friend of her teaching assistant Guinevere, who supported her literary talents wholeheartedly. After Guinevere’s tragic demise, Louise found discrepancies in her posthumously published book of poems, “The Dark Face of Love,” where Joe had completed Guinevere’s unfinished works. Louise, aware of Guinevere’s deft literary perspective, was able to recognize oddities, and eventually, while searching for possible leads around Guinevere’s death online, she became acquainted with Clayton, Dominique, and Phoenix. As it turns out, Clayton was the son of Guinevere’s psychotherapist, Dr. Nicky Angevine, who was framed by Joe for Guinevere’s murder. Clayton had assumed Joe’s possible involvement in her murder from the recordings of Guinevere’s psychotherapy sessions, and after getting introduced to Dominique and Phoenix, both of whom lost someone close at Joe’s hand, he became determined to bring the psychotic serial killer to justice. Over the years, a lonesome Louise formed a strong bond with her friends. Their investigation on Joe came to an abrupt halt after following the rumor that Joe had passed away, only to eventually learn that he had married the billionaire owner of Lockwood Corporations and was living a peaceful life in New York.
As Louise and her group started investigating Joe from up close, Louise became a bit too daring in her pursuit of seeking justice for Guinevere and ended up infiltrating Mooney’s, which is how she came face-to-face with Joe. There was this enigma of Joe in Louise’s mind, which suddenly manifested after meeting him in person. Louise was obsessed with Joe’s relationship with Guinevere, and even the fake name of Bronte she used to introduce herself was inspired by Guinevere’s conversation with her. As Louise got to learn more about Joe, she, unwittingly, found herself to be trying to assume the position Guinevere had in Joe’s life. See, Louise was a talented yet low-esteemed writer whose youth was spent taking care of her ailing mother. Writing was her only solace, and like Guinevere, Joe’s knack for literature and recognition of her talent allowed her to gain some much-needed confidence in her life. Louise volunteered to catfish Joe, and in the process she started falling for him for real, and the distinction between Bronte, Guinevere, and Louise started blurring real fast. Clayton, whom Louise had presented to Joe as her toxic ex-boyfriend to trigger the psycho’s white knight savior complex, became too driven to get justice for his father and started doubting Louise’s intentions. Louise was supposed to draw Joe to the beach house for the final execution of their plan to expose him, but getting conflicted by her own mental shackles and experiencing the troubles of leading a dual life, she decided to back off. Dominique, as an understanding friend, was supportive of her decision, but Clayton, determined to seek justice for his father, had left a trail of clues for Joe to follow to the beach house—which finally resulted in the mishap.
Shockingly enough, in her statement shared with the police, Louise mentions that Joe’s actions were motivated by his desire to protect her, and he killed Clayton in self-defense. Louise has become deluded enough to truly believe that Joe isn’t the monster she and her friends thought he was, and she goes on to defend him. However, Dominique and Phoenix don’t have the faintest idea about this.
Will Joe Take Revenge On Louise?
Joe gets bail anyway, given Lockwood’s influence is strong enough to motivate authorities to drop the case. Losing his affair, like a shameless coward, Joe returns to Kate, who confronts him about killing Raegan. Kate asks for a divorce, and Joe tries to use her guilt and insecurities to cripple her and decides to part ways by taking Henry away with him. However, Kate, who wants to protect the kid from the influence of his monster of a father, has already tricked Joe by slipping in a form to relinquish Henry’s custody in Joe’s legal paperwork, which he has already signed during his bail. Joe has ruined his marriage and everything he had by his own hands, and like a sore loser, following a heated argument, he decides to express his futile anger at Kate by lunging at her. Kate responds with a timely throat punch, sending Joe wheezing to the floor—a satisfying response indeed. Kate’s security throws Joe out of the Lockwood residence, and he is back in his bookstore upper-floor apartment, where he finds out about the spy camera Louise had installed inside the bookshelf. As the sixth episode comes to an end, the prospect of changing relationship dynamics has made the series more interesting. It will be interesting to see whether Kate manages to bring Joe to justice at the end or whether Louise’s shifting allegiance becomes a hindrance in that.
