All his life, Joe Goldberg believed himself to be invincible. You see, Joe had always been a deluded, narcissistic serial killer so full of himself that he never thought that anyone could manipulate him and beat him at his own game. But then there came Bronte, who not only catfished Joe but also made him believe that she truly loved him and would do anything to be with him. In the ending of the fifth and final season, Bronte finally exposed Joe’s true face and got him arrested for the gruesome murders he’d been committing for years. In You season 5’s ending, Kate, Bronte, and many other victims helped the authorities cage the monster, thereby making the world a much better place in his absence. And judging by the nature of Joe’s crimes, I think he would be spending the rest of his life in prison. Well, it wasn’t the kind of happy ending Joe had pictured for himself, and I’d imagine he would do anything to escape, and I mean literally anything.
In the closing shot of the season 5 finale, Joe was seen reading one of Norman Mailer’s most celebrated non-fiction novels, The Executioner’s Song, which centered around Gary Gilmore, who was the first person to be given the death penalty after the reinstatement of capital punishment in the country in 1976. But what does that have to do with Joe? Well, for some context here, Joe’s trial took place in New York State, which abolished capital punishment in 2004 (though the federal court has the power to issue the death sentence even if the state itself doesn’t have the provision). In the season 5 finale, Joe was convicted in the state court, which means he won’t get a death penalty and will be locked inside a box forever. The reason why Joe despised the cage so much was because it triggered his childhood trauma, making him vulnerable to the world. Throughout season 5, there have been numerous instances where Joe broke down and started howling like a kid whenever he entered the glass cage placed in the basement of a bookstore called Mooney’s. And there was a reason behind it. After Joe’s mother, Sandy, abandoned him, he was adopted by a former Soviet prison guard named Ivan Mooney. I guess this was the worst time in Joe’s childhood, when he was subjected to mental abuse, when his adoptive father would lock him inside the glass dome to help Joe overcome his demons so that he wouldn’t turn out like his father, Raphael Passero. Well, Ivan worked in a prison his whole life, so he had his own ways of correcting a person’s flaws, though it wasn’t something someone should have inflicted on a kid, and instead of helping Joe, it made the matter more complicated.
Joe started using the same glass dome to cage his victims, which he believed had a psychological impact on their minds. It triggers their survival instinct, forcing them to reveal their true self to their captor. Joe would later use their weakness against them to control them and manipulate them as per his own desires. Well, long story short, Joe never wanted to go back to that vulnerable space again. This was also the reason why he never shared his childhood trauma with anyone, because even thinking about it made him vulnerable, and ever since his mother left, Joe always wanted to be the person in charge. Joe knew he would lose control over his life if he ever got arrested, which was why he begged Bronte to shoot him in the woods. But Bronte didn’t want to give Joe an easy death. She wanted to see him suffer for all the lives he had destroyed and therefore waited for the police to find them so they could arrest Joe immediately. Joe even ran towards her, believing Bronte would kill him. Well, she did pull the trigger, but it hit him in the most awkward of places, turning Joe Goldberg into something of an internet meme. So, life came full circle for Joe. The cage, which he had been running away from his whole life, ended up being his final destination, and it seems like the most fitting punishment Joe could get. I guess he might try to kill himself in prison sooner or later, as he isn’t strong enough to spend forever behind bars.
The thing is, Joe had always been a prisoner of his own mind. He never actually revealed his real self except to Love Quinn, at least for some parts. Growing up with two abusive fathers made Joe a product of his own environment, or at least that’s what he believed. He started hurting people like his father hurt him—mentally, physically, and emotionally. It also traumatized him so much that it convinced him that the world would never accept the real him, which was why he needed to be an imposter, someone who pretended to be a good person so that the world would validate his existence. But it only made Joe lonely, and therefore his entire life, he had been looking for that one woman who would love him for who he was, not for the mask he had put on. I mean, it’s quite a fantasy, because no sane woman would love a man who gets frequent urges to kill or hurt people, right? So, it was a doomed crusade to begin with. However, in the season 5 finale, Joe does come to find his flock. Some crazy fans wrote him letters telling Joe how much they loved the monster inside him. It once again puts Joe in a moral dilemma, still convinced that it isn’t he who is at fault here, but the society that creates monsters like him and then celebrates their existence. I mean, he does try to comment on people’s obsession with serial killers and toxic men, but he chooses not to go into another monologue and let the demon rest for now because he knows his bickering isn’t going to change the world nor the state he is in right now. The demon in him finally decides to take some rest so that Netflix can explore some real-life serial killer figures and make money making shows around them.
