Season 3 of YOU ended with Joe Goldberg adopting a new identity, and a new country, as he relocated to Paris, France. But if you’re confused about how exactly he made the move from Madre Linda to Paris, then read on.
Now, as was clear from the last episode, Love and Joe had a lot of secrets, but not nearly enough love, or even attraction, left in the marriage.
Both of them cheated on each other, and Joe was ready to leave Quinn behind, only she discovered about him and Marienne. And of course, Quinn was not going to let it go.
Thus Love poisoned Joe–after confirming that she did, indeed, kill her first husband James when he asked for divorce–and called over Marienne to kill her.
However, even though Joe is discovered by Mathew, he is left to die. And Marienne is saved by her daughter. Oh, and Theo, who Love left to die, is actually saved by Joe.
It’s certainly ironic how both Love and Joe end up saving each other’s love interests.
Love, after delivering a speech that reminded me eerily of Gone Girl’s Amy Dunne, is all set to strike the killer blow when Joe reveals he was never poisoned in the first place. And that’s the surprise, or rather shocking, twist that no one was prepared for.
Personally, I was convinced Season 4 might just be about Love’s misadventures!
But Joe reveals that for all his attempts at being a better husband and father, his core identity never changed – a cautious psychopath. And thus, he was already aware of how Love was growing poison in her garden, and through meticulous research, and the unexpected stash of drugs left by Cary, Joe ‘poison-proofed’ himself.
Of course, after killing Love, Joe proceeds to draft the ultimate cover story – akin to the kind he created after killing Beck in Season 1.
In this case, he allows his child to be raised by Dante and Lansing, chops his toes to make it appear he was murdered and releases an e-mail where Love takes the blame for everything. Joe is nothing, if not a killer writer!
And then he pulls the ultimate escape by moving to Paris, in order to shake off any suspicious leads in the USA, while also searching for his ‘love’, Marienne, who he presumes to be in Paris.
All images are screenshots from Netflix.