Warning: SPOILERS ahead for You season 5, episodes 1-10.end of You season 4 sees him marrying Kate Lockwood and wiping the slate clean, allowing him to go back to New York and start his life anew.
However, as the You season 5, she eventually realizes exactly what kind of person he is. Thanks to Marienne Bellamy and Kate, she's able to accept that he's a killer.
And it's thanks to Bronte that Joe gets a more satisfying ending than burning to death inside of Mooney's. For a moment, it looks like Joe is going to perish alongside Kate Lockwood in a bookstore fire that Maddie Lockwood starts. While death isn't the worst imaginable fate for him, Joe going out in such a blaze would prevent people from learning the truth about his crimes. Fortunately, Bronte ensures Joe Goldberg is exposed and punished. After years of waiting for him to get caught, viewers will be content with what becomes of him.
What Happens To Joe Goldberg At The End Of You: Does He Finally Get What He Deserves?
His Season 5 Fate Is Fitting After Everything He Has Done
Those hoping to see Joe Goldberg get what he deserves in You season 5 are in luck: the series ends with its lead in prison for his crimes. Bronte manages to get Joe Goldberg out of the Mooney's fire in You's penultimate episode, and she agrees to marry him outside the burning building. The two go on the run together, as Kate sends evidence of Joe's crimes to the police, prompting him to "lay low while the noise dies down." Bronte agrees to go with him, but she has a plan to take Joe down — one dependent on him remaining alive.
Bronte's Plan In You Season 5's Finale: Why She Doesn't Let Joe Die In The Fire
She Wants Him To Face What He Has Done & Knows A Life Alone Is Worse For Him
Joe Goldberg nearly dies in the fire at Mooney's in You season 5, episode 9, but Bronte saves his life — and it's not truly because she wants to be with him. Bronte makes a decision in the penultimate episode of You, opting to play the long game rather than give Joe an easy way out. Bronte wants Joe to confess what he's done, and she wants the world to see him for what he truly is. She knows this won't happen if he's the victim of a fire, so she saves him and pretends to be in love with him still.
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When the two of them go on the run, Bronte devises a plan to confront Joe at gunpoint. It's not the most solid setup, as is evidenced by their struggle later on, but Bronte does manage to walk away from their confrontation alive. And she successfully gets Joe arrested and imprisoned for the things he has done, so her plan works out in the end, even if it puts her in danger temporarily. Joe begs Bronte to kill him as the cops close in, but Bronte refuses. The reason she won't let Joe die is twofold.
Bronte also wants Joe to survive so that he'll be forced to face everything he has done.
For one, Bronte rightfully assumes that Joe being lonely in prison will be a fate worse than death for him. "You are gonna live the rest of your life alone," she tells him, and he does complain about loneliness when he's locked up. But Bronte also wants Joe to survive so that he'll be forced to face everything he has done. Going to trial means he can't look away from his crimes, and he'll have to face the people he has hurt. As Bronte says, "They are all gonna see you, Joe, and you are going to have to see yourself."
Since Joe denies what he really is and justifies the crimes he commits, Bronte knows that being forced to contend with the truth will be difficult for him. It doesn't seem to completely change his perspective at the end of You, but it's a more fitting fate than the one he nearly gets in episode 9.
Every Death Joe Is Held able For & The People Whose Names Are Cleared
You Season 5 Reveals Some Of The Crimes Joe Is Sentenced For
With Joe being held able for his crimes, the truth comes out about several of the deaths he initially gets away with — something that results in multiple sentences for him, as well as a couple of characters' names being cleared. Bringing the series back to the beginning, Joe is finally found guilty of killing Guinevere Beck. He's also convicted for killing Love Quinn, though Bronte notes that these are just the first two murders he's sentenced for. She says that "allegations snowballed, turned into more convictions."
Among the other crimes Joe is punished for are Benji Ashby's and Peach Salinger's murders back in season 1. And given that Nadia's name is cleared, and she's able to go back to work, we can assume Joe is recognized as Edward's true killer in You season 4. Nadia isn't the only person whose name is cleared at the end of the show, either. Dr. Nicky, the therapist Joe frames for Beck's death, is finally able to walk free. And Harrison's charges for killing Reagan are dropped, while Maddie Lockwood gets off fairly easily considering her role in her sister's death.
It's a promising conclusion for most of You's characters and a surprisingly uplifting ending for the show.
Marianne is also able to fully pursue her art career, as she's no longer worried about Joe finding her. And after getting justice for Beck, Bronte — who reclaims her true name, Louise, in the finale — commits to finding herself and leaving Joe behind. It's a promising conclusion for most of You's characters and a surprisingly uplifting ending for the show.
Why Bronte Makes Joe Redact Beck's Book
She Wants To Erase Him From Beck's Narrative
Before Joe and Bronte get into the physical altercation that results in his arrest, Bronte makes Joe fix Beck's book. She tells him, "Redact yourself. Take out every f***ing word you added." Bronte only starts looking into Beck's death in the first place because she realizes that parts of her book don't sound like her. Spotting that her work has been tampered with, Bronte sets out to understand why. She's enraged to learn that Joe altered Beck's work after murdering her. "It wasn't enough that you took her life, you had to take her f***ing voice, too?" she asks.
You season 5 makes a sad point about victims here, highlighting the extent to which many of them are erased in death.
You season 5 makes a sad point about victims here, highlighting the extent to which many of them are erased in death. Their stories either don't get told, or they become completely warped by the people recounting them. This is precisely what happens to Beck, making her fate at the end of You season 1 even more devastating. Bronte sets out to right this wrong, allowing Beck's truth to be shared. And it's a satisfying detail that Beck's redacted book is even more successful than Joe's version.
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As Joe notes, this isn't just about Beck, either. Bronte realizes that Joe "has been erasing" her throughout their relationship — a sentiment that Marianne Bellamy also shares during her conversation with Bronte. When Beck tells Joe, "The least that I can do is erase you," she's getting justice for herself and all of Joe's victims. She's rendering his perspective meaningless, removing him from the narrative. By prioritizing Beck and only Beck, she's putting the experiences of Joe's victims first.
What Happens To Henry Goldberg At The End Of You?
Kate Lockwood Gets Custody Of Joe's Son
Joe's relationship with his son, Henry, is a significant subplot of You season 5, which raises questions about whether Henry will end up like his father. This nature vs. nurture debate isn't totally settled in the series finale, but Joe's final conversation with Henry offers hope for the boy. With the help of Joe's , Will, he's able to get in touch with Henry one last time before he's supposed to leave with Bronte. But Henry isn't happy to hear from his father; he asks what Joe did to his mother, revealing that Uncle Teddy told him the truth.
Henry proceeds to call Joe a "monster" before disconnecting from him, suggesting that the boy will try to do better than his father.
Henry proceeds to call Joe a "monster" before disconnecting from him, suggesting that the boy will try to do better than his father. And in her monologue at the end of the You series finale, Bronte notes that he'll "have to decide what kind of man he wants to be." She specifically says this isn't because of his relationship to Joe, with the show seemingly coming up on the nurture side of the debate.
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And given that Henry winds up in the custody of Kate Lockwood — who manages to survive the Mooney's fire — there's hope he'll learn to be a better person. Kate certainly seems committed to that end for both herself and her adoptive son. But given Henry's behavior earlier in You season 5 and Kate's own demons, there's no guarantee. You intentionally leaves this question about Henry open-ended, allowing viewers to come to their own conclusions.
Why Joe Goldberg Is Receiving Love Letters In Prison
What You Season 5's Final Scene Really Means
After Bronte reveals the fates of You's remaining characters, the show's final scene brings us back to Joe Goldberg one last time. He's lonely and frustrated with his imprisonment, but that's not the most interesting part of the series' ending. The final moments of You season 5 reveal that Joe is receiving love letters while in prison, with people telling him "the depraved things they want [him] to do to them." This is a reference to the fact that real-life killers sometimes get such correspondence, despite the horrible things they've done.
You calls out the ways in which society often glamorizes such men, along with the questionable obsession with true crime as a genre.
Through Joe Goldberg's final monologue, You calls out the ways in which society often glamorizes such men, along with the questionable obsession with true crime as a genre. "Maybe we have a problem as a society," Joe says as he reads the letter. "Maybe we should fix what's broken in us." He then goes further, referencing the series' title one last time, while suggesting that maybe the very viewers who immersed themselves in his story are a symptom of the issue: "Maybe the problem isn't me. Maybe it's you."
All 10 episodes of You season 5 are streaming on Netflix as of April 24 at 3 a.m. ET.
Of course, as You season 5 highlights repeatedly, Joe is very much the biggest problem in his story. But it's worth recognizing how the responses to Joe's crimes — and the willingness to overlook his worst behavior — allowed him to get away with them for so long. He's right that this is part of the problem, but so is his continued insistence on playing the victim.
- 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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