By Sienna Thompson, Second Year, English
The return of the infamous Joe Goldberg has made its way back to Netflix user's screens as we dive into a fourth season of the obsessive, hopeless romantic, serial killing book lover. But for this season, we’ll have to wait to see it in two parts…
Season Four of YOU (2018-) follows up with Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) as he leaves the United States in the perusal of Marienne (Tati Gabrielle) throughout Europe. After leaving things on a bad note, he reluctantly enters a new life under a different identity as a professor in London.
Here, it is where he ends up grudgingly befriending a group of pompous, arrogant, elitist upper-class group of people. Might I add a scarily accurate portrayal and definitely annoying one too.
Where this season takes on a refreshing new turn is that it turns into more of a murder mystery after the murder of Malcolm (Stephen Hagan) uproots Joe’s entire secret cover.
In addition to this, Joe is the one being watched as he is sent anonymous and eerie messages - a bit like A from Pretty Little Liars (2010-2017) - blackmailing him into being blamed for Malcolm’s death and that of the others that follow.
What I personally love about this season so far is the new perspective the show is taking entirely. Sure, Joe is still a serial killer and has some issues he needs to work through, but there isn’t his usual blind obsession with a woman.
Joe seems to possess a lot more self-awareness this season, constantly trying to prove to ‘you’ that he’s different, imminent to move on from his past, as he argues that he no longer needs to kill people- though he inevitably keeps finding himself cleaning up dead bodies this season.
In fact, with the character of Kate (Charlotte Ritchie), there seems to be more of a pure admiration, as if he did fall in love with her deeply. This seemed to be missing from all the other women he’s obsessed over.
At first, I was hesitant if a fourth season was needed for this show. However, this seems to be the type of show that, each time I say that, I’m always surprised, and this season has been no exception so far.
The character of Joe is a very complex and delicate one to handle. But I believe that Penn Badgley, also aiding in producing the show, has been of massive assistance to ensuring his character is not burnt out or portrayed wrong.
I also think his job as an English professor at Royal Holloway was such a great character arc to make, and so interesting to see him thrive in this environment.
As far as the ending of Part One goes, I was surprised to find out who the ‘Eat The Rich’ killer was. I did feel disappointed with this revelation as I had hoped for someone almost more outrageous.
My hopes for the second part are first having Joe’s son Henry return to him somehow. He is in a better position not being in Joe’s care at the current moment, but besides a few mentions of his name, he seemed to have been pushed aside.
In relation to this, I hope for some form of the return of Love (Victoria Pedretti). The Part Two teaser trailer showed a flash of her face in what could be some hallucination or her actual return from the dead, revealing that she had escaped Joe’s attempted murder and house fire last season. Either way, she was such a unique and engrossing character that it would be interesting for her to be added to the current equation.
Overall, I was very impressed with the enjoyment level of this season, and I have very high hopes for part two. I’m hoping to see the return of some characters and to find out how this will all end for the infamous Joe Goldberg.
Featured Image: Courtesy of Netflix on IMDB
Have YOU watched the fourth season of You (2018-) yet?
