You season 5 ending explained: Here's why Joe Goldberg gets the fate he 'deserves'

The hit Netflix show has finally come to an end and Joe Goldberg has been (metaphorically) laid to rest. But why did he get that ending?

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You is over! The beloved and bemoaned Netflix series has come to a definitive end, with murderous, misogynist protagonist Joe Goldberg finally meeting his fate.

Viewers have long wondered what would be a fitting form of penance for Goldberg’s crimes, which include obsessive stalking and the murder of not one but three of his ex-girlfriends (alongside many forgettable side characters). Would it be enough for him to die? Should he rot in prison, or would that be disappointing? Could he end up locked in a glass cage of his own making?

This is the question that You season five seeks to answer — after it spends nine episodes messing about with Kate Lockwood and her devious twin sisters, Maddie and Reagan.

Spoilers ahead

In episode ten, Joe goes on the run with Bronte, the “catfishing” Mooney’s shopgirl who fell in love with him while trying to expose him for the murder of Guinevere Beck, her former university tutor.

Bronte is Joe’s final chance at love. He believes she can love him despite all his murders because she keeps coming back to him despite her reservations. She believes she is seeking justice for Beck’s murder, but she also harbours a fondness for Joe that clouds her judgement. It’s a classic Ross and Rachel will they/won’t they situation — except this time the options are kill/die instead of get together/break up.

Madeline Brewer as Bronte and Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg in You

CLIFTON PRESCOD/NETFLIX

The episode comes to a head when Joe goes “peak romance” in an attempt to fully win Bronte over. Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish kicks in, the pair stargaze in a sailboat, Joe pulls her in for a New Girl season two episode fifteen-level kiss and then they go upstairs to have sex.

But just as things get going, Bronte pulls a gun on Joe and makes him erase his edits from Beck’s memoir. There’s a physical fight, then a chase scene where our antihero runs through the woods hunting for Bronte with the intensity of the bear from the film Cocaine Bear, and then another fight.

Then, at long last, Joe Goldberg gets his comeuppance. He is shot in the penis, imprisoned, and made into a laughing stock online by the general public. Also, by Cardi B (an easter egg; the rapper is a longtime fan of the show and once had an image of Joe Goldberg as her Twitter profile picture).

So, is it what he deserves? Penn Badgley thinks so. In an interview with The Guardian last month, he said he thinks “we reached truly the best resolution for him”.

And it’s not just about Joe’s fate, but the show’s fate too. The series has long faced criticism over the portrayal of violence against women, with many questioning why audiences enjoy seeing a murderous psychopath fall in love/kill/maim/repeat season after season, when there is an actual epidemic of violence against women going on in real life.

Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg and Charlotte Ritchie as Kate Lockwood in You season five

COURTESY OF NETFLIX

At one point, the character of Bronte appears to directly address this, telling Joe as she points a gun at him: “The fantasy of a man like you is how we cope with a man like you.” A good reasoning, but slightly nonsensical when said by a character in the series. Joe isn’t a fantasy to her, he’s literally stood right in front of her. Show, don’t tell, guys.

And then there are the female characters, who get their respective happy endings: Bronte lives, Beck’s revised manuscript is published and more successful than the first, Kate makes her company completely non-profit, and Marienne becomes a celebrated artist.

The show then signs off with its final note to the audience. Joe is sitting in prison, miserable, when he receives a piece of fan mail. Reading the graphic, sexual letter, his internal monologue concludes: “Maybe the problem isn’t me. Maybe it’s you.” Joe looks at the camera, daring the audience to question why they’ve been so invested in a violent woman-killer for five seasons’ worth of television.

It’s a neat little ending, passing the guilt onto the viewer and finishing the series with its trademark three letters. But is it really the viewers’ fault for feeding the beast and funding characters like Joe Goldberg? Well, that’s up to you.

Streaming now on Netflix

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