Warning: major spoilers of season two ahead.
Joe Goldberg travelled to the opposite coast in escape from his crimes. Candace, his ex who lived to tell the story of her seemingly charming killer boyfriend tracked him down. She threatens to expose Joe for who he really is but doesn’t want to make it too easy for him. She wants to make him suffer in the way she and Beck did.
In escape of his past, Joe takes on the name Will Bettelheim. And knowing Joe, it would be too simple to assume he acquired fraudulent papers and a fake name. No, he imprisoned the man who could produce those fake papers in his newly built replica glass box. Then, he takes on his entire identity. Total Joe move.
Despite a brief internal resistance to fall for yet another girl, Joe– uh sorry, Will, “runs into” Love at the grocery store. Love, played by Victoria Pedretti, who also starred in the excellent series Haunting of Hill House, throws us for a complete loop.
When Joe rambles through his hazy LCD induced memories to figure out who killed Delilah, his landlord and neighbor, he never considers the possibility that Love was the culprit. When Candace finally thinks she’s trapped Joe in his lies as she shows Love his secret glass box with Delilah’s dead body laying next to him.
For a moment, the viewers think Love is going through the unimaginable- finding out her boyfriend is a murderer and stalker. But when the final reveal is made- that Love knew all along who Joe was, and she was the one who killed Delilah. In a sick, twisted way, Joe met his match. Fans lost their minds at this last minute plot twist. My jaw dropped when Love killed Candace and admitted to Delilah’s murder. While I didn’t expect that, I’ll be honest, Love seemed off from the start.
She seemed incredibly receptive to all of Joe’s odd behaviors and always matched him in signs of affection. This felt odd considering how little they knew each other. I can’t say I knew Love would turn out to be a killer, but her complete openness to a pretty suspicious stranger raised some flags. Interestingly, the book series You is based on did not include this plot twist. In Caroline Kepner’s book Love was never a killer, but she did accept Joe for all his murderous flaws.
Nonetheless, this isn’t enough for Joe. Season two of You ends with Joe pining after a faceless neighbor despite finally meeting his match and finding a sick version of love. Murderers and sociopaths never rest.