Now That It’s Over, Here’s The Problem With ‘You’

*Spoiler alert*

Season 4 of Netflix’s “You” is officially complete and I am here to let you know what went down. I reviewed the first half of this final season and I felt like this season was refreshing. It was a different story being told this time around. A whodunit pitting Joe Goldberg against the elite. It had me glued to the screen wanting to know what was next.

The second half revolves around Joe’s quest to bring down Rhys Montrose, the “Eat the Rich” killer. There is just one little detail regarding Rhys … he’s not real. Technically, he exists as a character in the show, but not in the way he is presented. In fact, Rhys is legitimately a mayoral candidate in London. The difference is, Joe has taken the idea of Rhys and combined his image with the evil nature of Joe to cope with his sadistic acts. People were murdered at the hands of a serial killer in the show. The truth is, Joe was the one who did it. He was not being framed at all. It was all in his head.

Another key part of the plot was finally addressed in this part of the season: Marienne. She was essentially the catalyst to Joe’s emergence in Europe at the end of Season 3. Season 4’s first half did not really conclude anything with the Marienne story other than the fact that Joe met with her and they parted ways. In this half, it is revealed that Joe had actually held Marienne captive in that good old glass box from previous seasons.

By the end of this season, Joe commits a few more devilish acts in order to tie up loose ends. He kills Kate’s father, Tom Lockwood, in an effort to set Kate free from his influence. Joe also takes care of the Marienne problem, which involves Joe’s student named Nadia.

After coming to the realization that he is perhaps a terrible human being, Joe tries to rectify his wrongdoings by attempting suicide. He survives a fall into a river and Joe decides to start anew alongside Kate. Joe and Kate move to the United States and with Kate’s elitist influence, use the media to put on a fraudulent image of philanthropic effort and being victims. Joe does not use a new identity this time, rather he tells the media with manufactured evidence that he was never dead. He puts on an act that he was being used by his ex-wife, Love Quinn. Joe becomes the one thing he was seemingly against: an elitist.

The show is left rather open-ended, neither concluding the lore of Joe nor setting up a new plot. I find this kind of ending to be less than satisfactory. The show seemed to have been working in the first half of the fourth season. There was a clear conflict with proper storytelling. In the end, the story was never even real. There was no way for the initial problem to be solved because the show was written to reveal that Joe was producing all of the issues. I find these kinds of tropes to be lazy and dull. All the engagement from the first portion was forgotten because of how dumb the resolution felt. It’s one of those “woke up from a dream and none of it was real” things. Inevitably, there was a moment of connecting the dots from part one, which was somewhat cool. 

It just felt lackluster, which is why the second half of “You” Season 4 receives a 5 out of 10.