7 Ways You Season 5 Brings Joe’s Season 1 Story Full Circle

Warning! Spoilers for You season 5 ahead!

You season 5 brought an end to Joe Goldberg’s story by poetically paying off several big aspects of season 1. It’s officially been seven years since the Netflix series premiered back in 2018, and Joe’s murderous adventures have gone in several different directions since. From season to season, his location and subject of obsession changed. Joe’s desperate search for love only ever led to more violence, and it was only a matter of time before his crimes caught up with him. You season 5 delivered this perfectly, all the while establishing intriguing parallels with the start of Joe’s story.

You season 5 took an almost tongue-in-cheek approach to the end of Joe’s story. This character has gone through a lot between moving to California, marrying and murdering Love Quinn, having a son, following another obsession to Europe, murdering through dissociation, and then, finally, falling in love with the powerful Kate Lockwood, whose money could keep him protected. However, despite all this, the Netflix series demonstrated how Joe hasn’t changed since You season 1. He’s the same, despicable stalker and predator he has always been. By reflecting aspects of his original story, You brought Joe’s back to the beginning.

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You Season 5 Brings Joe Back To Mooney’s Bookstore

The Place Where It All Started

With such a powerful wife like Kate Lockwood, Joe was free to move back to New York City and reclaim his identity. This also meant buying back Mooney’s Bookstore, where Joe committed many of his terrible crimes in You season 1. Everything here was just as Joe had left it, including the cage full of rare books (and memories of prisoners past) in the eerie basement.

Perhaps the most important way that You season 5 could have brought things back to the basics was by returning to Mooney’s bookstore. This location easily allowed this final installment to reflect the tone and mood of season 1, making the big moment when Mooney’s burned down even more meaningful. Joe’s bookstore was not only where he had tortured so many, but also where he himself had been a victim. The place had to go.

6

Bronte’s Character Parallels Beck (But With A Twist)

Bronte Brings Joe Back To His Roots

There has been a mixed response to Bronte’s character after You season 5. Many have complained that she was difficult to like, and her wishy-washiness between loving and hating Joe was a bit difficult to swallow. However, Bronte was more of a concept than an actual character. Even her name isn’t real, and is, instead, a reference to Charlotte Brontë, author of Jane Eyre.

Bronte—or Louise Flannery—serves as You season 5’s replacement for Guinevere Beck. These two characters have a great deal in common, and from Joe’s point of view, they might as well be the same person. Bronte is intelligent and loves literature, but she is terrible at making decisions for her life, especially regarding men. By design, she reflects Beck’s behavior as Joe pursued her in season 1. This meant that, in the end, Bronte was able to act as Beck’s voice from beyond the grave.

5

Reagan & Maddie Resolves Peach’s Old You Season 1 Story

Joe Could Never Handle The Mean Girls

Every season of Netflix’s You carried over a handful of reliable tropes from the first season. Just as there is always an object of obsession and a douchey guy Joe feels he must protect her from, each season of You features a mean girl he inevitably harms or murders. This character serves as proof that Joe isn’t the feminist that he thinks he is. Any outspoken girl he can’t romanticize quickly ends up in his cage (literally or figuratively).

Related

You Season 5’s Twin Swap: Joe’s Plan For Maddie & Reagan Lockwood Explained

Anna Camp plays a set of twins in You season 5, and these characters prove themselves to be rather troublesome for Joe Goldberg and his schemes.

Back in You season 1, the mean girl was Peach. She could be pretty terrible to Beck, and Joe absolutely hated her for it. The irony was that Peach wasn’t nearly as dangerous to Beck as Joe. This story was carried over to You season 5, where Reagan was the one Joe became determined to kill. Interestingly, this character was juxtaposed by her twin sister, Maddie, who represented the better side of Peach. Thankfully, Maddie managed a happy ending in You season 5, ultimately resolving Peach’s old season 1 story.

4

Joe Repeats A Key Season 1 Line In You Season 5

Joe Reminds Us That He Has No Limits

By the events of You season 5, we know that Joe Goldberg will continue going through the same cycle over and over again. He will meet a woman, fall madly in love with her, do terrible things in the name of protecting her, and then inevitably turn on her when she doesn’t appreciate his protection. We saw it with Candice, Beck, and Love, and Joe attempted this same cycle with Marienne, Kate, and Bronte.

You season 5 used Joe’s cycle to emphasize the fact that no one was ever really safe from his violence. Anyone who didn’t appreciate Joe for protecting them would end up injured or dead, and that would have included his own son, Henry. In You season 5, Joe said, “There isn’t a line I wouldn’t cross to protect this family.” This is almost exactly what he said to Beck in You season 1—”There’s not a line in the world that I wouldn’t cross for you.” As this moment comes full circle, we are left with the chilling reality that, if free, Joe would grant Henry the same fate as Beck.

3

Beck’s Book Is Finally Fixed After Joe’s Season 1 Changes

Bronte Gave Beck Her Voice Back

At the end of You season 1, following Beck’s off-screen murder, Joe reveals to audiences that he had published the works Beck had written while trapped in his cage. He saw this as a way of paying tribute to her, even calling it the last thing they would ever do together. In truth, it was a gross violation. Joe took the words that Beck wrote while she was suffering his abuse, altered them to fit his own idea of truth, and published them in her name.

Beck’s book was barely referenced throughout the following seasons of You, but season 5 placed it at the center of Bronte’s deception. Through this book, Louise Flannery realized that something wasn’t right about the story surrounding Beck’s murder. In the end, she held Joe at gunpoint and demanded that he cross out all his additions. Bronte restored Beck’s voice in You season 5, finally bringing this character some peace.

2

Joe’s Relationship With Henry Reflects His Original Connection With Paco

Joe Loves His Own Reflection

Joe Goldberg has always had a soft spot for kids. It’s been considered a redeeming quality, but there is a darker truth behind Joe’s tendency to treat children with kindness. Back in You season 1, Joe took a special liking to his neighbor, Paco, whose mother’s boyfriend was abusive. Joe saw himself in Paco and, therefore, connected with him. This dynamic has often been used to defend Joe’s morality. Sure, he’s a killer, but he fights to protect and save kids, right?

You season 5 put a definitive end to this argument using Joe’s son, Henry. The dynamic between the father and son is profoundly similar to that of Joe and Paco back in season 1. Henry is as precocious as Paco was, with a love for literature far beyond his years. In both cases, Joe’s affection was rooted in the fact that these children reminded him of himself. It wasn’t real love, but evidence of Joe’s narcissism.

1

Beck Foreshadowed Joe’s You Season 5 Fate

Joe Finally Got Exactly What He Deserved

Joe’s obsession with Beck is what started it all in You season 1, and she came back to haunt him in season 5. Bronte was the person who finally forced Joe to face the consequences of all his violence, but she only did this because she had been friends with Beck. Ultimately, it’s fitting that Joe’s fate in You season 5 is precisely what Beck said it would be, and that it was Bronte who delivered on it.

Bronte had several chances to kill Joe in You season 5, but she instead put her own life at risk to ensure his fate was exactly what Beck had said it would be back in You season 1—“You’re gonna spend the rest of your life in jail.” Beck knew that this would be the worst possible punishment for Joe, who wanted nothing more than to be loved and cherished. Bronte couldn’t have known that Beck said this line, but You season 5 brought the moment full circle regardless.

You

7/10

Release Date

2018 – 2025-00-00

Showrunner

Sera Gamble, Greg Berlanti

Directors

Marcos Siega, Lee Toland Krieger, Cherie Nowlan, DeMane Davis, Kellie Cyrus, Marta Cunningham, Martha Mitchell, Victoria Mahoney, Erin Feeley

Writers

Justin W. Lo

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  Penn Badgley

  Joe Goldberg

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  Elizabeth Lail

  Guinevere Beck