Warning: Spoilers ahead for Season 5 of “You”
After five gore-filled seasons, Joe Goldberg is saying, “Goodbye, you.”
For Penn Badgley, leading the Netflix thriller “You” has been “profound,” he tells TODAY.com.
“If you stay with any character this long and try to ground what you’re doing and just make it real, new, spontaneous, you’re always going to find new depths,” Badgley says.
The fifth and final season of “You” does just that and shows Joe returning to New York to what seemingly appears to be a happily ever after with his wife Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) and his son Henry. But it wouldn’t be “You” without a new obsession, which comes in the form of Bronte (Madeline Brewer).
As viewers saw midway through the fifth season, Bronte is not who she says she is.
Instead, Bronte, whose real name is Louise Flannery, is an old student of Guinevere Beck who questions her death and catfishes Joe into falling in love with her to take him down for his numerous murders.
Coming to the end of playin Joe Goldberg, Badgley says he’s learned the “iconography” of what does it mean to be a man, a father and husband.
Madeline Brewer as Bronte in “You.”CLIFTON PRESCOD/NETFLIX
“We’re not talking about that obvious kind of awful, aggressive stuff. I just mean the more nuanced way that desire can change love and turn it into something more like possession, manipulation and jealousy,” he says.
So after 10 deadly episodes — with questionable actions by most, if not all characters — here is what happens at the end of “You” Season 5.
What happens to Joe in the finale?
Joe and Bronte are on the run
The beginning of the final episode sees Bronte and Joe running away to a secluded place in the middle of nowhere. Joe believes Kate found a way to send his confession to police and is trying to leave the country.
Bronte continues to lie to Joe about her intentions to be with him — despite having moments where she loves to feel loved by him.
Madeline Brewer as Bronte, Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg in “You.”CLIFTON PRESCOD/NETFLIX
Henry calls out Joe for being ‘a monster’
Joe has been working with a man named Will to somehow connect him with Henry. While Bronte has a gun pointed at him, Joe gets the chance to talk to his son, who is disappointed with him.
“What did you do to mommy?” Henry asks Joe, who denies any wrongdoing.
“Do you remember when you used to tell me there were no monsters in my room?” Henry continues. “You lied. It was you. You’re the monster.”
Henry hangs up on Joe, which in turn infuriates him.
Bronte tries to kill Joe, who then tries to kill her
Bronte puts her plan into action and attempts to shoot Joe, but first, she asks him how he killed Beck. Bronte makes Joe go through Beck’s book and redact every word he added after he killed her.
After Joe gets off the phone with Henry, he turns mad and lunges at Bronte. He shoots her on her side and the chase begins.
Bronte attempts to run from Joe, but then he appears to drown her in the lake. Police arrive on the scene and now Joe makes a run for it, killing an officer in his attempt to hide.
In a plot twist, Bronte is alive and points a gun at him.
“It’s over, Joe,” she says.
“Kill me. I deserve it,” he yells, while Bronte says, “Oh, you would f—— love that, wouldn’t you. No way!”
Instead of killing him, she shoots at his groin.
Joe goes to prison
Joe is arrested by the police, goes on trial and spends his last days in prison.
Joe talks about being lonely for the rest of his life, however, he is seen receiving fan mail from people who are obsessed with him.
Why doesn’t Joe die in the ‘You’ finale?
Among the biggest questions is: Why didn’t Joe die at the end of “You”? Badgley shares his thoughts on the final events in Joe’s life.
“I think because he either would have to do it himself, which … I think, not the right way to do it. I don’t know that that’s fair, I don’t know that’s ever good,” Badgley tells TODAY.com. “If somebody else had to do it, well, then that makes them a murderer, doesn’t it?”
The actor says that even if the act of killing Joe is vengeance or retribution, “Is that justice? Is that good for them? Is that fair for them?”
“You have to saddle them with that kind of a traumatic experience, especially because it would have been Bronte probably, or a woman,” he continues. “So I think he needed to end up alive in some kind of circumstance where he would have to contend with what he’s done — and to do it without his treasured genitalia… That’s a twist.”
Is there a significance to the book Joe is reading at the end?
No, according to Badgley.
Joe is seen in his prison cell reading “The Executioner’s Song” by Norman Mailer.
“I don’t know about that book. At that point, it was my last day, and I was like, ‘You know what, Joe, I’m going to fake read this book. Good day to you, sir,’” Badgley says.
“I don’t even think I was holding the real book … Norman Mailer is amazing, not somebody I’ve read a lot.”
What happens to the other characters?
The series wraps up loose threads on all the characters.
Kate survives the fire. She gives reins of the Lockwood Corporation to her brother Teddy (Griffin Matthews), who turns it into a nonprofit. She goes on to champion Marienne Bellamy’s (Tati Gabrielle) art career and cares for Henry.
Charlotte Ritchie as Kate Lockwood, Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg, Frankie Demaio as Henry Goldberg in “You.”CLIFTON PRESCOD/NETFLIX
Nadia Farran (Amy-Leigh Hickman) returns to writing and teaching, helping other women process their trauma.
Charges against Harrison (Pete Ploszek) for the murder of wife Reagan (Anna Camp) are dropped, while Maddie (also Anna Camp) is tried for arson and her sister’s murder. However, she does not serve time and instead goes to rehab for a pill addiction. She and Harrison are expecting twins.
Bronte goes on to publish the redacted version of Beck’s novel, which becomes a hit.
