Kate Lockwood In ‘You’ Season 4, Explained – Did She Marry Joe Goldberg?

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The moment Joe Goldberg moved to London in the fourth season of the Netflix series “You” and set his eyes on Kate Galvin, we knew two things were inevitable: firstly, that Kate was not what she was pretending to be and she had a lot of things hidden underneath her snobbish persona; and secondly, that she was doomed because the man who was spying on her was infamously known (not exactly as he hid his tracks well) for ruining the lives of the people he got obsessed with. Kate, on the surface, was this mean and condescending woman who belonged to the extremely privileged class. She stayed in her cocoon, socialized with others who were just as mean and rude as her, didn’t like strangers infiltrating her close-knit circle, was protective of her friends, wasn’t somebody who could get impressed easily, and always played “hard to get.”

On multiple occasions, Joe Goldberg had been brutally mutilated by her curt attitude and piercing words. She left no chance to tell him that she considered him as a lowly creature and was bearing with him only because her best friend, Lady Phoebe, gave him a lot of respect because of something that he had told her the first time they had met at the Sundry House. Kate liked to be in charge, and not even once did she put herself in a vulnerable position from where others could peep at her true self. But still, there was something off about her, and though there was no substantial proof, it did feel like she, too, had twisted sensibilities, though maybe not to the extent that Joe did.

After Malcolm’s death, Kate felt like her veil was lifted, and people were able to see that she too, was capable of feeling something. Those who knew Kate well, like Lady Phoebe, knew how she functioned and how she minced her words and pretended to be unaffected. A lot of times, her condescending nature was merely a defense mechanism to protect herself from being exposed, but what she didn’t know was that there was a man around her who would feel more intrigued by her secretive nature, as he had a habit of getting obsessed by people who seemed like a riddle, because he loved ascertaining their behavioral patterns and playing around with them.


Why Did Kate Hate Her Father, Tom Lockwood? Is He Dead?

There is a very thin line between being protective and taking away a person’s freedom. Every parent wants their children to be safe and successful, but that doesn’t mean they have to always have the reins in their hands. Sometimes love can be best expressed by letting a person go and leaving them to do as they deem fit and showing trust in their judgment. Kate had always hidden the fact that she was the daughter of a man who was not only the most influential person in the corporate world but also someone who any CEO or board of directors was petrified of. Tom was a corporate raider, and Kate told Joe how her father had his hands in almost every sector and how his malpractices had affected the lives of hundreds of people. She later revealed to him that it was she who had built the pipes that had caused cancer in hundreds of kids, and that is why she felt burdened with guilt. Joe knew that Tom Lockwood was the one who had pushed her to do things that made her look like a monster.

Kate was Tom’s favorite child, and he wanted her to act and behave just like he desired. In order to keep tabs on her and mold her into his deserving successor, Tom went overboard and did things that could be termed a gross violation of privacy. Kate, while growing up, felt that she was cursed as every boy she got interested in ran away or vanished for some reason or another. Later she found out that it was her father who interfered behind her back under the pretext of keeping her safe. Now, we don’t mean to imply that Tom didn’t want to protect his daughter or had ulterior motives, but the fact is that he became so excessive in his approach that it all became a rather toxic practice more than love or care. In the 9th episode of the series, Kate, came to know that her entire life had been “created” by her father, and whatever professional achievement she had felt proud of up until then were not actually hers. From her first internship to her first job as an art curator, it was all thrown in her lap by her father.

It cannot be denied that, at times, Kate did seek her father’s help, and she had her ways of making it known to him without saying it, but nowhere did it imply that she was signing up to be controlled by him. Kate had started feeling claustrophobic, and that is why she removed the Lockwood surname and built a different life for herself in London. Tom was of the opinion that Kate needed saving from herself, and had he not been there, she would have ruined her own life. Kate, on the other hand, craved freedom. She just wanted to escape all this facade and lead a life where she didn’t feel that her father was keeping an eye on her. Phoebe wanted a similar thing, but still, there was a stark difference in the mindset of both girls. The capitalist sentiment, which at times seemed to fade inside Phoebe, still strongly clutched Kate, and she had no qualms accepting the fact that she wanted a privileged life, though not at the expense of being spied upon and controlled. Maybe that’s why, when Tom was killed by Joe, Kate took over his empire without batting an eye. It was the best possible recourse she could have asked for, and Kate knew that too, but maybe she felt guilty about accepting it.  


Why Did Kate Marry Joe Goldberg At The End Of ‘You’ Season 4?

The first proper conversation that Joe has with Kate is in the third episode of the fourth season of the series, “You”, when he follows her to a bar. They finally broke the ice, and Kate told him that she had always been told by her mother that showing emotions was a sign of weakness. She said that she didn’t allow herself to cry after Malcolm had died, and now that backlog of emotions was getting too much to handle. That day Kate and Joe shared an intimate moment together, and we realized that even the former had a crooked and aberrant core because she could overlook all the red flags and still fall for him like he was some pure-hearted die-hard romantic. After that day, Kate only kept coming close to Joe, and he tried his level best to keep her away, knowing the consequences she could face by staying with him. But Joe was also a creature of habit, and no matter how much he told Kate to stay away from him, he started becoming obsessed with her. He had told her that they couldn’t be together, but that resolution didn’t stop him from giving Kate extremely mixed signals. Kate got confused and told him upfront that his actions were not aligned with his words, and he was making her confused.

In Episode 6 “You” Season 4, Joe, finally accepted that he wanted Kate, and though he had tried, he was unable to keep himself aloof and not get affected if she saw another man. Kate saw Joe as a man who was running from his past and who might have done terrible things back in the day, but she wasn’t affected by it so much because she didn’t think that whatever he had done could even come close to the catastrophic impact her father’s action had had on the lives of innocent working-class people. The way Joe had been there for Kate when her father had come down to meet her gave her a lot of hope that she wouldn’t end up being so miserable all the time if Joe was standing alongside her. Kate tried her level best to distance herself from Joe. She confessed her crimes in front of him and told him that she was no less than a perpetrator who had the blood of innocent people on her hand. What she didn’t know was that she was talking to a man who had seen things that she could never imagine in her wildest dreams. Kate came to know eventually that Joe had killed people, but somehow, she managed to see him as a victim of the circumstances and not a sociopath whose passion was to ruin the people who came into his life.

In the finale of “You” Season 4, Kate told Joe that she had started believing in herself because of Joe. Otherwise, she could never dream of that kind of life, and now she wanted to live with him. We think that Kate still doesn’t know with whom she is dealing. Joe was like a zone-tailed American hawk who pretended to be harmless and timid at first, but as soon as the prey was within his reach, he showed his true colors and grabbed them by the neck. Kate might have done terrible things in her life too, but she couldn’t ever touch the bar of insanity that Joe had reached, and that too, not once but many times in his life. Kate and Joe are now the new power couple in town, and Joe was right when he said that having a partner like Kate meant that he could go about his business without fearing that the authorities would catch him. Kate had asked him to make a promise to keep each other good, but we believe it would just be a matter of time before he started having an issue with her, too, and made himself believe that he would benefit more from her death than her life.


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Sushrut Gopesh
Sushrut Gopesh
I came to Mumbai to bring characters to life. I like to dwell in the cinematic world and ponder over philosophical thoughts. I believe in the kind of cinema that not necessarily makes you laugh or cry but moves something inside you.

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