The Internet’s newest craze is You. Nope not you reading this (sorry to burst your bubble), but Netflix’s original series You. Penn Badgley, American actor famous for his role as Dan on Gossip Girl, now plays the role of psychopathic Joe Goldberg in the thriller TV show, You. 

 Love is something we all pursue in our own weird ways and You Season 2 shows us in a very twisted way that there’s truth to the Jamaican proverb, ‘Every hoe have dem tik a bush’. If you haven’t watched it as yet, well, watch out for spoilers as you read along.  Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) after killing Beck (among others) in season one, moves to L.A. at the start of season 2, to escape his ex-girlfriend, Candace (Ambyr Childers) and to start anew. First, he gains a new identity, and is now known as Will Betelheim. But even with a new identity, he’s the same Joe from season one, who cannot help his insatiable desire to find love in whomever he picks to be his prey. Season 2’s ‘

you‘ is Love Quinn, a twin heir to her parents’ grocery complex- Anavrin, but to our surprise this was a match made in hell. Of course, we see Joe, unable to quell his desires, moves into an apartment where he is able to spy on Love, goes seeking a job at Anavrin and basically inserts himself slowly but surely into the Quinn’s lives. Running alongside his story of love is the growing relationship between his neighbors Delilah and her little sister Ellie. I must admit season 2 had way more twists than expected but let’s congratulate Joe for only murdering two persons: Jasper (out of self defense) and Henderson (by accident).  For the first three episodes, we see a fairly good Joe, apart from locking up the actual Will Betelheim, Joe remains good. I mean he is actually staying clear of Love and enjoying the friendship, but we know this would not last forever. The only stain to his record was him killing the Russian Mafia, Jasper, who came looking for the real Will Betelheim, who owed him ‘fifty large’. (Absurd right, but I mean, it was Joe’s life or Jasper’s). Surprisingly Joe was not the one to be pushing for a relationship, it was all Love, (by this I was like, well whatever she gets, she deserves). Plot twist! She’s the psycho. As the season progresses, Joe realizes that in loving Love Quinn, he has to deal with her very needy twin brother, Forty Quinn. Forty’s neediness, however, is no match for Joe’s Love. As such, Joe justifies accidentally killing Henderson, (a famous actor with paedophilic intentions), who had set his sinful eyes on under aged Ellie, all in the name of Love. 

Love kills Just as everything was getting too good to be true came Candace (Joe’s not so dead ex), just in time for trouble. She shows up as Amy Adam, Forty’s new girlfriend. On a mission to expose Joe for who he really is, Candace eventually convinced Love of Joe’s real identity, but to what end? This was a Pyrrhic victory for Candace, for though it caused a temporary end to Joe and Love’s relationship, it also led to Candace’s death. Yup she’s dead for real this time by an actual murderer, Love. Love kills. (Pun intended) We flashback to Love’s childhood where her first murder is unveiled to us. Love killed the au pair who abused Forty and it gets better, Love pinned the killing on Forty, but money wipes away all wrongs. Love and Forty’s parents being wealthy quickly covered up their ‘son’s crime’. The tables have turned and Love locks Joe in his own cage and explains to him how she killed Delilah and Candace and now no one can get in the way of their growing family. Love is pregnant.  All this is revealed in the season finale dubbed ‘Love, actually’ and if you think that was enough, wait… there’s more. After Candace had hooked Forty onto reading Guinevere Beck’s autobiography, Forty had unraveled the mystery. Though a little too late, and very oblivious to his sister’s capabilities. Forty tries to rescue his sister, holding a gun to Joe’s head, Fincher (police officer) steps in just in time to shoot Forty. Dead. The last moments of season two close with Joe, Love, her mother and her growing baby. Joe, however, is not so much the mature father we were expecting but the same Joe eyeing his new You.  What season 2 taught us? Love kills. What will season 3 bring? Same Joe, his crazy Love, perhaps new deaths, new love and definitely a new you. Whether Love and Joe be Harley Quinn and Joker, Bonnie and Clyde or Romeo and Juliet, killing others or themselves in the name of love, we’ll see it all in season 3. 

–Akeelia Richards