By Maxine Bass
The journey of murderous stalker Joe Goldberg comes to a chilling conclusion in the fifth and final season of You
The journey of Joe Goldberg began back in 2018, when You first premiered on the Lifetime network. Shifting to Netflix after its first season, the series — starring Gossip Girl alum Penn Badgley as Joe — shifted from New York to Los Angeles and then London, as his obsessive nature turned dark and deadly.
The fifth and final season begins three years after the previous season. Joe returns to New York City alongside wife Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) and their son, Henry. “I do think that the show is best in New York City,” Badgley tells Netflix’s Tudum. “It’s where it started. It’s where it’s ending. It’s fitting.”
Back in NYC, Joe soon begins to zero in on his next obsession: Bronte (Madeline Brewer of The Handmaid’s Tale), an enigmatic and free-spirited playwright who has come to work at Joe’s bookstore. But there is one major snag, of course. Last season Joe vowed to be both an upstanding husband and a key voice in the Succession-esque dynamic of Kate’s wealthy family, the Lockwoods, which includes her sisters, a set of polar-opposite identical twins (both played by Anna Camp, in a dual role). “There’s a little bit of a reset and a recalibration,” adds Badgley. “So he’s compartmentalized fully again.”
According to co-showrunner Justin W. Lo, Joe’s life has become so great that he’s been able to keep his dark compulsions buried. “Kate and Joe are adulting in a way, and he’s accepting of that,” says Lo. “In some ways, he’s existing at the margins of the Lockwood ecosystem, and you would think that wouldn’t be enough for Joe. And yet he loves this current life so much that he’s willing to resist any impulses that might rock the boat and threaten the life he’s made for himself. Most importantly, we’re really keying in on the life that he’s providing for Henry.”
Added Badgley: “Joe doesn’t feel great about anything, really. He’s trying to stomach being one of the 0.01 per cent, a billionaire, which is exceptional. He’s fooling himself, but he’s doing a pretty good job, as he always does. He believes he’s changed so that it can be enough for him.”
All bets are off, however, when Joe discovers Kate’s siblings are planning to push her out as CEO of the family company. Will this be the tipping point to resurrect his old bag of tricks?
As Lo explains, it’s that push and pull that’s at the heart of You’s final season. “Can he be the old Joe and the new Joe?” says Lo. “It’s the essential question of the season.”
Complicating everything is the high public profile Joe now holds. “One of the most fun things about this season is the Prince Charming aspect, that Joe is actually famous,” says Lo. “All the other seasons, he’s been really under the radar. That’s how he is able to move from season to season and place to place, because of his anonymity. Now that he is well known in New York, social media is on him. That’s something fun for us to explore.”
For Badgley, saying goodbye to the seductive, manipulative character he’s played for nearly a decade is something of a mixed bag. “It’s bittersweet, as anything is,” he says. “It’s probably a lot sweeter than it is bitter. You’re in this same space and doing this same work for just about seven years and you love it, but you’re happy to move on. It’s time for him to lay down, to stop, to put that knife down.”
The season premiere of You begins streaming Thursday, April 24, on Netflix