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YOU Review – She’s Not There (409)
The previous episode of YOU may have been the turning point of the season, but YOU Season 4 Episode 9 documented Joe’s inner turmoil to the point of annoyance… which was likely the point so that the audience could feel how tiring and exhausting it must be inside Joe’s mind.
Rhys is like the devil on Joe’s shoulder, trying to talk him into throwing caution to the wind and embracing the darkness tucked away inside. He’s the personification of every bad thought and desire that Joe has ever had, and while we know Joe is twisted, hearing it laid out like that is deeply disturbing. Joe fights his darkness at every turn, though as the episode progresses and the obstacles mount, it becomes increasingly more difficult for him to do the right thing.
And yet, he still attempts. He’s horrified by the things he’s done to Marienne and the pain he caused a woman that he loved, so he promises to fix it. Unfortunately, everyone around Joe already knows how this is going to end, except for Joe for some reason. He’s optimistic that there is a way to undo the damage, so he desperately looks for solutions by trying to secure a last-minute passport to flee the country with the goal of setting Marienne free. However, his plan hits a bump in the road when he texts Juliette’s babysitter and realizes that the damage has already been done as everyone is convinced she relapsed, leading Juliette’s grandmother to seek sole custody.
This sets Marienne on a destructive path as the thought of reuniting with her daughter was the only reason she was still holding on and fighting.
As a side note, I’m genuinely curious how her phone was still charged after all of that time. And why has no one tried pinging her location if that’s the case? Anyway.
As Joe goes back to the drawing table, Nadia promises to help free Marienne, but she too runs into a few hiccups along the way as she’s arrested after getting caught trying to smuggle a blade onto public transport. When she finally gets the requested ketamine from Edward—which she promised Marienne she’d secure in their effort to kill Joe—she makes a mad dash for the glass cage, and my guess is that she’ll come face-to-face with Joe soon enough, who arrived to free Marienne only to find her unconscious on the ground.
It’s a heartbreaking turn of events since she held on for so long, but the reality is that there was a very slim chance that Joe would ever follow through on his promise and let her go. She knew too much.
Of course, Marienne’s overdose changed everything, so there’s no telling how Joe will handle/ react to the situation. Is Marienne actually dead? Will he be able to resuscitate her? If he tries to get help from the public, it would only confirm everyone’s fears that she did, in fact, relapse, so that doesn’t seem to be a possibility. Will he blame himself for her death? These are uncharted waters for Joe, so I’m really intrigued to see this pan out, especially since his problems are far from over with Nadia completely in the know.
There’s also a bit of a dynamic shift following Joe’s vivid dream where he was visited by Gemma, Beck, and Love, his former paramours who served as a reminder that he was in severe denial about the situation at hand, making it even harder to predict Joe’s reaction.
This is the first time where Joe hasn’t thought about himself first but considered stopping himself. Time and time again, he’s shocked by his behavior when there’s a clear pattern that always ends with the woman he’s obsessed with dead in a cage. We’ve been here before, Joe…. we know how this goes. You’re not fooling anyone but yourself.
The dream helped Joe understand there’s only one way to break the cycle, and it involves removing himself from the narrative entirely. Rhys as Joe’s subconscious tried to convince him that he’s not suicidal, but I’m not entirely sure Joe believes it, especially since he thinks there’s no other way to ensure change and wants to protect the only other woman who has his heart—Kate.
Joe realized that his European getaway was ruined—by himself—so he treated himself to one last evening with the love of his life. Kate has been different than all the other women he’s ever dated, and I do believe that she was his purest love, but I also believe he’s incapable of change, so the relationship is doomed no matter what. Eventually, Joe’s biggest fear would come true and Kate would be the one in the cage.
Will Kate be the one to walk away from it all in the end? One of the most dangerous things about Joe is that even I’ve found myself falling for the charms he put on with Kate, despite knowing everything he did. It’s hard to imagine it wouldn’t work on someone who isn’t aware of his murderous tendencies.
Kate is also dealing with her own nightmare of a father, who is almost as maniacal as Joe, he simply doesn’t get his hands dirty. He pushed for Kate to finally join the company and when she rejected the idea, informing him that she likes the life she’s built for herself independently, he managed to destroy it all within seconds by revealing that he’s the reason behind all of her successes. What a way to tear a woman down and make her feel so small. Tom truly is a monster.
Kate was more upset by the chokehold her father has on her than the fact that he was the person responsible for Adam’s murder. The guy went out in dominatrix style, which was fitting, but it was a little shocking that Joe wasn’t the one to take him out. Adam would’ve been the Eat the Rich killer’s perfect next target if the killer wasn’t so preoccupied with trying to clean up his messes.
Adam was a terrible person, so his death isn’t surprising or upsetting to anyone, especially not Kate. After marrying Phoebe, he didn’t care at all about her, her psychotic break, or that he played a huge role in it—all he basically cared about was her money and the financial security the relationship provided. Phoebe deserved better.
Also, if Tom Lockwood has hitmen on speed dial, why did he need Joe to kill Rhys? This connection is still so mind-boggling… just as mind-boggling as Joe’s inability to remember huge chunks of his time in London. He walked into the glass cage for the first time utterly shocked to see it there as if he had no recollection of the immense undertaking it was to recreate it in the first place.
We’re in the penultimate episode, but there’s still so much left to explore when it comes to Joe, his alter-ego Rhys, his decision to save the world from himself, his relationship with Kate, and his partnership with Tom.
This might be the trippiest season to date—and though it’s been entertaining and kept me clinging to the edge of my seat, it’s also my least favorite because it’s so complex and hard to follow. The line between reality, hallucinations, psychosis, and split personalities is very, very blurred.
What did you think of this episode? How will it all end? Do you think Joe Goldberg will die?
As YOU wrapped up its fourth season run on March 9, fans couldn’t help but wonder whether a fifth season was in the works.
The good news is that on March 24, Netflix announced that YOU Season 5 is happening.
Unfortunately, the fifth season will also mark the drama’s final season. No premiere date has been announced, but new episodes are expected to arrive in 2024.
Brace yourself for Joe Goldberg's final chapter.
You will return for a fifth and final season in 2024! pic.twitter.com/rbQBOnQPSJ
— Netflix (@netflix) March 24, 2023
The fourth season of the Lifetime-turned-Netflix thriller basically hit reset, throwing audiences for a loop with a murder mystery format surrounding Joe’s new life in London as Professor Jonathan Moore.
The action really ramped up in the second half of the season as Joe’s lies and secrets began to unravel and catch up to him, threatening his “European getaway” and any shot at happiness.
It’s actually quite amazing what the writers have been able to accomplish. They’ve managed to keep Joe’s character consistent yet provide several unique seasons that continue to keep audiences in suspense and shock with numerous well-executed twists.
And it definitely seems that there’s much more where that came from in terms of a fifth season, which will now gear up to wrap up the storyline, provide closure (will we see Dr. Nicky and Ellie make a return?) and hopefully, serve justice where justice is due.
Spoilers below—stop reading if you’re not caught up on the most recent season of YOU!!
By the end of season 4, Joe managed to come out on top, eliminating Nadia by forcing her to take the fall for Rhys Montrose and Edward’s deaths. He thought his Marienne problem was taken care of when he carried her lifeless body to a park bench, but little did Joe know, she was actually alive. He fell for the elaborate and insane escape plan that she concocted with Nadia.
And after a failed suicide attempt, Joe managed to silence the voices outside of his head, personified by the hallucination of Rhys, embraced his darkness, and found a kindred spirit—sort of—in Kate, who he believes is the love of his life.
The two promised that they’d keep each other on the straight and narrow, though for Joe, that meant simply accepting his desires to kill as normal. And with Kate’s protections in place, he’ll be able to continue on as Joe doing what Joe does.
And thus, Joe is more powerful and dangerous than ever. It would be a shame if the streamer didn’t let writers, and audiences, explore this new side of Joe—the one that’s completely content with himself and no longer running from the darker parts.
There are so many unanswered questions that benefit from another season. Can he really be the man Kate wants him to be? Will he be content with Kate and tame his obsessive nature? Can he cover up additional murders? Does having Kate on his side make it easier or will she eventually begin to pry and wonder? What if he can’t control his temper? Will Kate end up in a glass cage just like the rest of them eventually?
Then there’s Marienne, who is a loose thread since she’s alive and well. I don’t think she’d actively risk her safety to take down Joe, but she does owe Nadia, who risked everything and went out of her way to help free Marienne, only to get caught in the crosshairs herself.
There’s a lot of story left to tell when it comes to Joe Goldberg’s new lease on life, and while I’m not exactly sure how much more audiences can stomach or how much more blood needs to be spilled, Netflix clearly knows it has a duty to the people to end this series the right way—with Joe hopefully meeting his match and dying an excruciatingly painful death just like all of his victims.
That didn’t happen on YOU Season 4 as he once again got away with murder, so it just means that we’re hoping to see it on YOU Season 5.
You can check out all of our YOU coverage in the meantime!
YOU Season 4 introduced a plethora of new characters as it revamped the series with a murder mystery format.
*Warning – stop reading if you haven’t finished YOU Season 4 – Spoilers Ahead *
The shakeup made sense considering Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) uprooted his life following the fiery events in Madre Linda that killed Love Quinn and started over in London, assuming the identity of Professor Jonathan Moore.
Rather quickly, he got pulled into an elite group thanks to his co-worker and neighbor, Malcolm Harding (Stephen Hagan), who was the season’s first victim. Joe/Jonathan naturally despised Malcolm’s group, though he did find Rhys Montrose (Ed Speleers), an author running for Mayor of London, to be a bit of a kindred spirit. They came from the same broken background and shared many of the same views.
As the first half of the season unraveled, Joe sought out advice from Rhys on a handful of occasions, engaging in plenty of long heart-to-hearts with him, so it was kind of shocking when it was revealed that Rhys, as audiences have come to know him, was never real.
Rhys Montrose existed, yes, but he was never friends with Joe, nor was he the Eat the Rich Killer. The version of Rhys that Joe bonded with was a hallucination conjured up by his subconscious to protect himself and eliminate his darker, more deranged thoughts.
You. (L-R) Ed Speleers as Rhys, Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg in episode 410 of You. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2023
For much of the season, we saw Joe desperately trying to set himself free from Rhys’ grasp. At first, he saw him as public enemy #1, who somehow figured out Joe’s real identity and roped him into a murder spree by threatening to frame him for the deaths if Joe refused to participate.
However, once Joe realized that Rhys was a figment of his imagination, he began to look for ways to silence the evil little voice forever, while also trying to figure out a plan to cover up the death of the real Rhys Montrose.
Joe was tasked with killing the mayoral candidate, who he assumed at the time was the Eat the Rich Killer, by Kate’s (Charlotte Ritchie) father, Tom Lockwood. When he arrived at Rhys’ secret countryside hideout and tied him up, he was infuriated that Rhys claimed not to know who he was, nor would he admit to kidnapping Marienne (Tati Gabrielle). Eventually, Joe’s rage and anger took over, and he “accidentally” killed Rhys, which is when fake Rhys showed up and revealed that Joe was having a semi-psychotic break.
In the end, Joe’s suicide attempt ensured that his hallucinations were forever gone, though he did embrace the darkness he was trying so hard to snuff out, making him more dangerous than ever.
As for the real Rhys Montrose’s killer, he pinned it all on poor Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman), a fan of Rhys’s from the beginning, who flew too close to the sun in her attempts to bring down Joe Goldberg. If only she just listened to Marienne’s advice.
A huge congrats to the YOU team for pulling off yet another jaw-dropping twist, and to both Badgley and Speleers for completely immersing themselves in their dual characters.
It all comes up Joe Goldberg…. yet again. But are we even surprised at this point?
How is it that men like Joe continue to find ways to get away with murder? And not only did he get away with it—he flourished. Joe is untouchable now, and that kind of power and protection in the hands of a soulless monster is more dangerous than anything we’ve ever seen before.
Joe went through plenty of emotions during YOU Season 4 Episode 10, and honestly, part of me wishes that when he jumped into the water, convinced that the only way to break the cycle is to kill himself, he succeeded. There’s no other way to stop someone like Joe—and that became clear to everyone around him, including himself. The devil on his shoulder, personified by Rhys, kept trying to convince Joe that he wasn’t the problem, but when he found Marienne lifeless in the glass cage because of what he’d done to her, he realized that there was no reality in which he could protect the women he loved. Eventually, a woman’s body was going to end up in his trunk.
It was actually big of Joe to come to the realization considering his constant desire for self-preservation. He was ready to do the one thing that was necessary to make the world a better place… and then he got a second chance. From a writing perspective, it makes sense. If there’s no Joe, there’s no YOU. And while the series has become pretty far-fetched and wholly unbelievable, I’m watching to see how far the creative forces—and Joe—can take this thing. I’m on board till the very end. How many twists can they conjure up that will leave audiences in a state of sheer shock?
Despite Joe’s problematic actions and behaviors, audiences still found themselves continuing to root for the antihero (thanks a lot, Taylor Swift) simply to see how far Joe can actually go.
The Love Quinn twist was undoubtedly the best one, but season 4, though not as enjoyable, did redeem itself in the second half with some unexpected bombshell reveals that made my head spin. We, and Joe, know he’s the problem, but I never imagined that Kate would turn out to be so problematic—she’s an enabler, turning a blind eye to Joe’s crimes because of her need for love and her desire for power.
She made a pact with Joe that they would keep each other on the right path and accountable, but I don’t think she realized she was making a literal deal with the devil. And this coming from the woman who thought her dad was bad. She flat-out said she likes broken and tortured souls, and her willing alliance with Joe proves it.
Joe went from a suicidal murderer to a hero in the eyes of the public in a matter of minutes, and with Kate by his side, they became a power couple. While it’s absolutely cringeworthy, it presents so many opportunities for coming seasons.
For starters, how much does Kate really know? How much did Joe confide in her?
Surely, she can put two and two together and figure out that her father was murdered right before her boyfriend confessed to being a murderer, right? And when he later framed Nadia for Edward’s death, faking the DNA results found on Rhys’ body which linked back to him, did she know she was framing an innocent girl? Or is she just that naive and desperate to believe that this relationship is what she wants it to be?
What’s even viler is that Joe came out to the public claiming to be a victim when he killed so many innocent women because of his obsessive tendencies. And what’s to say he won’t do it the same to Kate eventually? Though honestly, that’s on her at this point.
Following his failed suicide attempt, there was a turning point for Joe. He didn’t kill himself, but he killed Rhys, or rather, embraced himself fully—he’s no longer hiding and running from those dark parts, nor is he actively trying not to murder people.
Since the first season, we learned that Joe has always wanted acceptance—to love and to be loved—and he got that wholeheartedly with and from Kate. He opened up to her, divulged his deepest darkest secrets, and it brought them closer together, thus making him feel as though he wasn’t a bad person for his desire to murder. He fought so hard against them, but unfortunately, the inner battle was for nothing as, in the end, he’s just accepting and coming to terms with the fact that he is a murderer. And as mentioned before, and briefly seen in action, with Kate’s protections in place, it’s going to be a hell of a lot easier to get away with his crimes.
In what’s seemingly a full-circle moment this season, Joe shot up the ranks and became one of the elites that he so passionately despised.
However, that’s not even the most shocking part of the episode.
First off is the fact that Marienne is very much alive as she and Nadia somehow managed to pull one over on Joe. That’s a first… and likely a last.
Marienne was lucky in the sense that Joe cared about her deeply, so when he saw that she overdosed on pills, he was so distraught and immediately assumed the worst. His brain wouldn’t even let him consider another possible as the guilt washed over him.
While he was definitely onto Nadia in the end, I don’t think he ever pieced it together that Nadia helped Marienne devise an insane escape plane. The two of the pulled it off after realizing that if they can’t kill Joe, they have to kill Marienne. When Joe found her unconscious, she swallowed enough beta-blockers to slow her heart rate down and make it look convincing. And then once Joe moved her body to a park bench, Nadia ran up and gave her a dose of what I’m assuming was adrenaline to wake her up.
The moral of the story is that Marienne may be one of the few women to have escaped Joe! Though, I have no idea why she didn’t move far away with her daughter once she was finally free. What if Joe decided to check in on Juliette randomly and saw Marienne, realizing that she is, somehow, alive and well? Why risk it now?
Marienne and Nadia’s bond was so strong, I’m hoping that Marienne returns the favor and attempts to help Nadia in some way now that the poor girl fell victim to Joe, who forced her to take the fall for Edward’s death and Rhys’ demise.
The truth is, Nadia should’ve stopped while she was ahead because, as she said herself, Joe was an obsessive. It’s not entirely clear how he caught onto her—though she was super jumpy around him toward the end—though I’d guess it probably had something to do with the secret camera he placed in his apartment. Or maybe she just misplaced a few items which alerted him to an intruder.
Either way, Nadia’s caring nature got the best of her as she’s now spending life in prison. And there’s nothing she can say to plead her case as no one is going to believe a word she says about Joe, especially after he planted evidence—damning proof—in her apartment and became an international hero.
No matter what, Joe always finds a way to nab a clean slate.
He lives to see another day—but who will be his next victim?
We briefly touched upon what happened to Phoebe, and it turns out Adam’s death may have been the best thing for her as she moved away to teach and lived a fulfilled life. We don’t know what happened to Roald, and I’m kind of disappointed he didn’t play a larger role in the second half of the season considering the hell he created for Joe in the first half.
Did you enjoy YOU Season 4? Did you like the revamped vibe? Are you happy that we’ll see more of Joe’s shenanigans in the future or do you think the series should just end? Do you think we will see Nadia and Marienne again in the future? And are you more or less excited about the future now that he has Kate as a sidekick?
