The ‘You’ Season 4 Finale Finally Proves Joe Is a Villain, Not a Hero
Joe Goldberg may fancy himself the anti-hero, but this season's big twist reminds us he'll always be the villain.
Shows like You, Netflix's absurdist drama about a love-addled serial killer trying to break bad (and always failing, to violent results), run a particular risk. People tend to root for main characters—that's what makes a story with a protagonist compelling—but what happens when the main character is also the bad guy? Penn Badgley, who plays Joe Goldberg, spent one memorable press tour for the show running interference against fans attempting to daddy-fy his character and romanticizing the notion of being locked in a climate controlled aquarium by an obsessive maniac. Joe's past, present, and likely future as a cold-blooded killer, he reminded us, is kind of a red flag.
The first five episodes of the fourth season, however, seemed to veer away from that notion, reintroducing Joe, or, rather, Jonathan, as the moody tweed-clad London-dwelling literature professor of our dreams. He falls in with a group of wealthy socialites who are being picked off one by one by the "Eat the Rich" killer, and, always trying to redeem himself, attempts to solve the murders while keeping his new lover Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) alive. Okay, so Joe's the hero now, kinda. He's still weird, and he still killed people, but I guess the show is finally done with reminding us that we shouldn't be rooting for him.