SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for the series finale of “You,” now streaming on Netflix.
The popular Netflix series "You" has finally come to an end, with its series finale providing a satisfying conclusion to the story of Joe Goldberg, played by Penn Badgley. According to an interview with Variety, the show’s co-showrunners Justin Lo and Michael Foley, the writers had a clear plan for Joe’s demise from the beginning.
In the series finale, Joe is finally brought to justice by his former victims, who join forces to put him behind bars once and for all. As Variety reports, "Joe putters along trying (yet again) to enjoy married life, using a new vampire novel he’s writing as an outlet to excise his violent impulses." However, his world is upended when he meets Bronte, a beautiful young woman who is not what she seems.
As Variety notes, "Bronte is a catfish named Louise, who created the ‘Bronte’ identity to attempt to find out what really happened to her friend and mentor, Guinevere Beck." Despite Louise’s efforts to take Joe down, he is able to escape justice once again, thanks to Bronte’s testimony in his defense.
However, Kate, Joe’s wife, and Marienne, one of his ex-girlfriends, team up to take matters into their own hands. With the help of Nadia, a brilliant former student of Joe’s, they are able to trap Joe in his own cage and record confessions that implicate him in several murders.
In an interview with Variety, Foley explains that the writers decided on a prison sentence for Joe because "death was too easy, that we needed Joe in a cage. Not just for the image of it, the strong visual, but also we wanted him to not know the feeling of a lover’s touch."
The finale also explores Joe’s literary tastes, with him working on a vampire novel throughout the season. As Variety reports, "Joe’s turn into genre writing, he’s doing it at the beginning of the when he’s having these fantasies about murder — writing about murder instead of doing it."
The show’s use of pop music was also a highlight of the finale, with Taylor Swift’s "Guilty as Sin?" featured in the final episode. According to Foley, the song was chosen because it "matched the moment" and provided a fitting conclusion to the series.
In an interview with Variety, Lo and Foley discussed the importance of centering Guinevere Beck in Season 5. As Foley notes, "We asked the most of the audience when Joe kills Beck, and we asked everybody to return for Season 2. Nothing against Peach or Benji, but ultimately, that was the original sin that we, the audience, became complicit in by sticking with the show and rooting for Joe."
The finale also saw the return of several characters from previous seasons, including Nadia and Marienne. As Variety reports, "We really wanted to let these women, these victims of Joe, have a chance to have their voices heard. For them to be able to stand outside a cage with Joe in it, and tell him what he did to them and to see if he would take any accountability for it."
Overall, the series finale of "You" provided a satisfying conclusion to the story of Joe Goldberg, bringing him to justice and providing closure for his victims. As Variety notes, "It was such a wonderful group of writers. It’s a very touchy-feely writers’ room. As dark as the show was, it was a room filled with love and kindness and really thoughtful writers, extending to the producers and actors and crew."
