Every season of the Netflix series “You” leaves a lot of questions dangling in the air as to what our erratic and complex protagonist, Joe Goldberg, would do next. When “You” Season 4 ended, we saw an unapologetic gleam in his eyes, as if he wanted to tell the world that, so far, they had only seen a restrained version of him, but from now on, they would know who he really was. Joe already had the confidence that he could commit any crime and still get away, and with his newfound power, he would definitely be unstoppable. So, let’s discuss in which direction the narrative will take Joe’s character and what the impact of his actions will be on the people who are a part of his ecosystem.
Major Spoilers Ahead
Will Kate End Up Just Like Love Quinn? Will Joe Kill More People?
Towards the end of the fourth season, we saw that Kate Lockwood and Joe became a team, and they promised that they would keep each other sane and not let themselves fall off the cliff. Kate wanted to do some good in the world and savor every moment to make up for the time she had lost due to certain unwanted things that happened in her past. She was finally free from her father’s captivity, and people around her probably didn’t realize what a great relief it was for her. Kate had a poised aura that did not allow anybody to ascertain what was happening inside her. Joe was able to break through that wall, but he still didn’t know the potency of her emotions. The presence of her father really affected her, and her entire thinking process went haphazard when he came in front of her. She was overly-conscious as she knew that her father was spying on her and keeping track of every move she made. She was terrified of him, and often felt helpless when he started exercising his will. She knew that if he became adamant, there was not much anybody could do about it. But Joe killed him, as he saw how demoralized Kate felt when he was around. At the beginning of “You” Season 4, we felt like Joe had changed from within, but soon we came to know that nothing had changed, and he was as complicated and hazardous as ever. He had now learned to dissociate himself from his crimes, but the fact remained that he still murdered people and somehow managed to free himself of the blame through some distorted reasoning.
Tom Lockwood was one of the most powerful men on the planet, and after his death, Kate took over his empire, which made her, if not the most, then extremely influential woman. Joe also agreed that now, because he was Kate’s boyfriend, he had the power to kill anyone and still evade the law enforcement authorities. The power of Lockwoods could be assessed by the fact that they changed the entire past of Joe and curated the narrative in a manner that people believed him to be the victim.
The probability of Kate ending up like Love Quinn couldn’t be denied. But we are very sure that if Joe decides to take that step, he will be very cautious, and he would like to plan each and every move to perfection because he wouldn’t want to give up on the leverage that he had gained because of Kate. We believe that if sense prevailed with Joe, he would try to avoid going against Kate as much as he could because she was not his average fare, whom he could kill in a secluded alley, and nobody would know about it.
As far as the question of Joe killing other people goes, we can say almost for certain that he will continue to do that, even more unabashedly. He already had this confidence that he could get away with murder, and the feeling was strengthened even more because, indirectly, he had the entire system in his pocket.
What Happens To Marienne? Will Joe Try To Catch Her Again?
Marienne was one of those lucky girls who was able to escape from Joe’s captivity. She was courageous, and she was able to keep herself sane amidst all the mental and physical torture that she had to bear, but more than anything, Marienne was extremely lucky. Had Nadia not arrived at the opportune moment, Marienne would have never been able to get out of that dungeon alive. Joe, as we all have seen in the four seasons of the series, never leaves anybody alive if he believes that they could cause him problems in the future. When his victims start feeling that their deaths are near, they start promising him that they won’t utter a word to the authorities. But Joe understood human behavior, and he knew that once the dagger that hung over their heads is gone, they will try to get back at him.
Till the end of “You Season 4, Joe is totally unaware of the fact that Nadia had managed to revive Marienne and that she is in Paris with her daughter now. Marienne is clearly not safe, even if she thinks otherwise. The moment Joe finds out how she tricked him into believing that she had died, he will react, and the repercussions will not be very pleasant. Maybe Joe would not kill her, or maybe he will, but if he gets to know about her, he will definitely go to Paris and stalk her and see what she is up to. What the outcome of that stalking will be and whether Joe decides to leave or kill her would totally depend on what his intuition and impulses are telling him at that point in time.
Will Nadia Take Revenge On Joe?
In the beginning, Nadia seemed like a conspiracy theorist who kept nagging, even when she shouldn’t. Her fascination and expertise in solving a whodunnit made her observe the anomalies, through which she came to know that something wasn’t right with the way her English professor was acting. She could dare to enter the house of her professor, even when she had reasons to believe that he was a sociopath. She found the key and then the abandoned building where Marienne was kept. A similar thing happened when Theo, in “You” Season 3, discovered that Joe and Love had kept their neighbors Sherry and Carry as hostages, but he wasn’t able to act prudently, and ended up getting killed. But Nadia was not like him. Even in such a situation, she could think clearly, and she really took a lot of risks when she gave Marienne an antidote that brought her back to life.
Nadia always knew that if she was found by Joe, then the outcome could be fatal for her, but she still kept going because her conscience wouldn’t let her do anything else. Even Joe believed that Nadia had a lot of potential, and he told her that he was excited to see what she did next. Nadia was still a kid, but she had shown great character and faced every danger like a true warrior. After Nadia went to prison, she didn’t say anything in her defense. The incidents that had happened in her life had definitely shaken her, but Nadia was not somebody who got bogged down so easily. Maybe she was keeping quiet because right now, she didn’t know what to do that would help her cause. But once she gets clarity, she would want to make Joe repent for his sins.
Has Joe Completely Gotten Rid Of His Hallucinations?
We don’t think that Joe is completely free from his dissociative personality disorder, as there are traces of it still present within, though in a very controlled and non-harming manner. Joe had started hallucinating only because there was a conflict between his inherent nature and his acquired conscience. If in the future, that state arrives where there is conflict, then it might be possible that once again he starts hallucinating, though we believe that the potency of it wouldn’t be as great as it was in “You” Season 4. From the point of view of the makers, we think that this angle wouldn’t be explored more as it might become a bit repetitive.
If there is a “You” Season 5, then definitely we need to keep two things in mind: firstly, for the first time, Joe has accepted himself to be the demon, and he will unleash the beast that resides inside him without any doubts or dilemmas; and secondly, there are three women who know Joe’s reality, i.e., Ellie Alves (Jenna Ortega in “You” Season 2), Marienne, and Nadia, and that is definitely not good for our sociopathic killer.
