Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for the final season of You.You has never been a show to linger too long on any one moment: any ex, any kill, or any place. Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) always seems to be one step ahead, and is ready to cut all ties for a clean getaway – that is, until now. The fifth season of You, released April 24, has marked the end of smooth, sly bookworm serial killer Joe’s 7-year killing spree. The series wrapped up many of its loose ends, revisited old fan-favorite characters, and undoubtedly went out with a bang, but something (or someone) was missing from the final episodes of You. Victoria Pedretti’s Love Quinn may have passed away in the finale of Season 3, but she should’ve haunted the narrative far longer than she did. After all, Love may not have been the person to take down Joe Goldberg, but she may have been the only ex to truly impact his psyche.
Revisiting Joe and Love’s Relationship
Joe has a lengthy list of exes and kills, but Love Quinn may be the most interesting on his list. Following his Season 2 escape to LA to evade consequences for the murder of Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail), Joe met Love in a grocery store and, despite his efforts, quickly fell into old patterns of becoming obsessed with her. Though their connection began on a romantic note, Joe and Love’s relationship quickly descended into the kind of chaos You is known for. When Joe’s ex, Candace (Ambyr Childers) re-enters the picture, she’s set on taking Joe down. Soon, however, Love revealed her own capacity for violence, murdering Candace and Joe’s captive landlord, Delilah (Carmela Zumbado), to prove her undying love for Joe. When Joe considered killing Love, feeling as though their relationship had been tainted, the season ended with the shocking reveal that Love was pregnant.
Season 3 saw the murderous couple trying to settle into suburban life in Madre Linda, but soon enough, Joe became fixated on Natalie (Michaela McManus). Love, now fully embracing her killer instinct, settled into her murderous tendencies and ultimately killed Natalie. The two then wound up in couples therapy, where they promised to never kill for each other again. Still, Joe just couldn’t get enough, and wound up obsessing over Tati Gabrielle’s Marienne. In a truly killer stand-off, Love attempted to poison Joe to his death – but Joe prepared by taking an antidote and ultimately poisoning Love in a staged suicide. Love may not have been Joe’s final victim, but she was the mother of his son and the only woman he was honest with.
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Love Haunted Joe, but She Should Have Been Around Much More
After Joe escaped to the UK to evade Love’s murder (and follow Marienne), Season 4’s “She’s Not There” saw Love haunting Joe in a drug-induced hallucination, urging Joe to end his life and his murderous cycles with him. Still, her cameo was relatively unsatisfying. Sure, Joe is pretty remorseless and is largely a sociopath, but Love was the only person Joe ever got to be his true self around. Love knew and embraced Joe in spite of his obsessive tendencies, and was even willing to look past his affairs and murders to build a happy marriage together. She was willing to kill for Joe, which made her different from every one of Joe’s subsequent lovers.
It’s true, the series likely couldn’t have continued if Joe had one consistent lover. The best part of You is seeing Joe’s antics as he falls into his classic pattern of really, truly thinking he’s found a perfect romance, and eventually getting caught or murderously bored. Love’s presence would’ve broken the cycle for Joe, so it’s obvious that she could not survive past Season 3. Still, though, Joe’s world is very insular, one filled with flashbacks and classic inner-monologuing, and his refusal to think of Love or what she would do in a scenario undermines just how important the character was to him. Love was his true foil, and his lack of emotions around killing her even seems out of character for the murderous Joe.
Season 5 Just Wasn’t the Same Without Love
Season 5 of You operated on a scale unlike any other season of the show. After all, it was the finale of the series, and a show as twisty and compelling as You has to stick the landing. The series returned after a three-year skip from the finale of Season 4, and saw Joe back in New York and attempting a fresh start as a bookstore owner and philanthropist alongside his wife, Kate (Charlotte Ritchie), who has scrubbed Joe’s murderous past and allows him to once again be Joe Goldberg. However (as always), his past catches up with him when he becomes infatuated with Bronte (Madeline Brewer), revealed to be Beck’s student, Louise Flannery. Bronte manipulates her way into Joe’s life, gathers evidence, and eventually confronts him about Beck’s murder. In a final confrontation, Bronte triggers a psychological and moral reckoning, leading Joe to admit his crimes. The series ends with Joe convicted for his crimes against Beck, Love, and all his other victims.
The final season contained many cameos and call-backs to earlier seasons, as young neighbor Paco (Luca Padovan), Love’s mother Dottie (Saffron Burrows), former friend Sherry (Shalita Grant), and more all weigh in on their pasts with Joe. Excluding Love from Season 5 entirely, with no flashback sequences, hallucinations, or tributes, felt like an odd choice when the series seemed very committed to coming full circle. Love Quinn was undeniably Joe’s most multi-faceted love interest, and the only person who ever truly served as a mirror for Joe. Finding a way to include Love in some capacity would’ve helped the show to truly stick the landing because you can definitely feel her absence in the series.
All episodes of You are now available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.
