Season 2 of You has proven that the show is more than a one-hit-wonder, and part of the reason is due to Penn Badgley's representation of Joe, a serial killer who wants to fall in love but keeps on being disappointed. While Joe is downright scary, there are moments where he does come across as charming. Badgley in a recent interview with Stephen Colbert talks about the fine line between creepy and charming, and how the character of Joe was built to toy with that fine line.
No doubt, Badgley had practice in playing that fine line when he played Dan Humphrey in Gossip Girl. While Dan is charming, for the most part, the season finale showed a potentially creepier side of Dan, which makes fan question the previous charm he had in earlier seasons.
How does You take advantage of the Gossip Girl/Dan Humphrey connection, and how does Badgley channel Dan in his representation of Joe? While our list could be long, these are the top 10 that stand out the most.
Brooklyn
Both characters are from Brooklyn. In Gossip Girl, this is a key part of Dan's identity, and he's ridiculed for it by his wealthier friends. In Season 2 of You, Joe is actually called/nicknamed Brooklyn by one of the people he meets in L.A. This is the show making use of the Brooklyn connection.
However, Badgley channels Dan in Joe by showing the disdain that Joe has for L.A. Joe sees L.A. as superficial, which is something that Dan would have done as well.
Frustrated with Girlfriend's Friends
The first season of You shows Joe very frustrated with Beck's friends. He believes that they don't bring out the best in Beck, and he wants better for her. He also seems to think that her friendships aren't sincere. With one of her friends, Peach, he actually believes that Beck needs to be free of Peach's influence.
All of this echoes Dan's initial sentiments about Serena and her world. He's enamored with Serena, but he can't stand her friends. Blair, her best friend, is a friend that he finds hard to take. He ires her intelligence, but he would prefer it if she weren't so important to Serena. She gets in the way, which is something that Peach does as well for Joe.
Loner/Lonely Boy
Dan coins himself--lonely boy. Indeed, aside from his family and his friend, Vanessa, he seems to have a very limited social sphere. He embraces the solitary artist type, which changes over the seasons, but, initially, Dan is both a loner and a lonely boy. This makes him hyper-observant of others.
Badgley uses this loner/lonely boy identity in his portrayal of Joe. Also, Joe is hyper-observant of others, but in a way that comes across as both insightful and incredibly creepy.
Literature Fan
Dan was a literature and film fan to the point that he could be snobby. He often understood the world in of books, which is something that the ending of Gossip Girl acknowledges, stating that Dan did what he did in order to experience life and not just read about it.
That said, Dan references books and films often in his dialogue. Badgley's Joe also does the same thing to a further extreme. Joe understands the world through literature (partly), and Badgley's Joe references classic works of literature in his everyday speech/monologues, just like Dan does.
Engages in Public Displays of Intimacy
Dan would do anything for his love interest and for ion, and so he engages in public displays of intimacy or indecency. We see this especially in his relationship with Blair when they are intimate in an elevator, and later in an alleyway. Of course, he also does it for the risk and to have exciting sex.
Joe is willing to do anything for his love interests, including showing a more risky side, too. This comes across in Season 1 when he attempts to be intimate with Beck at a mattress shop.
Hyperverbal and Uber-Intellectual
In Gossip Girl, Blair calls out Dan on his hyperverbal tics. While Joe is often less verbal than Dan, he still has some of the same tics. Even the way that Joe expresses himself, saying things like, "note to self," is amazingly similar to Dan.
Gossip Girl has Dan often saying things like, "If I didn't know any better," which is echoed in Joe. Even when the dialogue is slightly different, the sentiment is the same. Both have meta and uber-intellectual moments that cloud their dialogue and thoughts.
Gives Advice
Dan is the ultimate giver of advice. Even those who don't like him seem to listen and consider his words. Serena actually sent him to talk to Blair once in order to give advice. People listen to Dan, seeming to think that he has just a little more wisdom than they have, that he can see their situation with greater clarity since he's an outsider.
Badgley channels Dan's sincerity when Joe also gives advice. Joe has a tender spot for children and those who are marginalized. In both seasons, he gives advice, and people listen to him as well, as if they acknowledge that he possesses greater insight into their lives than they do.
Is Judgmental
On the flip side of giving advice, Dan is very judgmental at times. He's especially judgmental of his leading ladies. No matter what they do, especially Serena, they never measure up to his ideal. He acts like he knows better than those around him, that he's a step above them.
Badgley channels this with Joe. Joe is incredibly judgmental of everything, but especially of his love interests. If they fail to live up to the image he has of them, he can be incredibly judgmental. Even Love Quinn, who is much more like him than Beck, disappoints Joe.
The Charming Good Guy
Out of all of the main characters of Gossip Girl Dan comes across as the good guy, the one who will you, the one that you can trust. This is dangerous ground as the ending of Gossip Girl shows because Dan deceives everyone in order to gain popularity and his love interest.
Does this sound close to Joe from You? It should. Joe also comes across as the good guy, the one that you can trust. He uses this to deceive people and to get his love interest. Joe gets away with a lot due to his good-guy image. He just doesn't seem the stereotypical serial killer type, which is what makes the character all the more clever and all the more frightening.
Writes Himself Into the Lives of Others
Spoiler alert: The final season revealed that Dan was actually Gossip Girl. He wanted to be with Serena and to be in her world, so he literally wrote himself into it. This level of deception also is used with Joe. Joe wants to be in their worlds (Beck and Love Quinn), so he finds ways to write himself into it. For Beck, he literally makes her write and creates a book out of her final writings, leaving traces of himself in there. Additionally, he uses social media to spy on Beck.
In Gossip Girl, Dan used social media as a way to spy on everyone. Like Joe, he becomes a hub of information about his love interest and her world. It's scary how many ways Dan is channeled into Joe, making us see Gossip Girl's Dan in a whole new light.