What is Joe Goldberg planning as his ultimate sinister act?
You can keep your lies and mysteries bundled up beneath a string of cover-ups, but your past has a way of catching up to you… especially when you have a few untied loose ends.
Ever since the critically-acclaimed crime drama series hailed on Netflix on 9th September 2018, we have watched in suspense and awe as Joe, an ordinary bookseller, who is obsessed with crime fiction and illusional prose, began stalking a woman after an introductory monologue explaining why she was The One.
There began a series of stalking episodes, lies, and mysteries, ultimately leading to the death of the woman Joe claimed to love. Joe’s old habits could not die hard even when he cleaned himself up as he moved from one destination to another, changing his identity and roles to cover up and escape his sins. It looks like we came full circle when Season 4 ended, saying Joe would be back in New York, where it all began with his original name Joe Goldberg intact.
Ever since Part 2 of Season 4 dropped on Netflix in March 2023, fans have been pondering over when the fifth and final Season will be back for Joe’s ultimate plan. Looks like you have come to the right place, as we have all the necessary updates for the upcoming and final season of this critically acclaimed crime drama series that has had viewers in a chokehold since its inception.
Keep reading.
You Season 5: Renewal Status
It seems like Joe is returning for his final round of escapades as Netflix renewed the fifth and final Season of You on March 23rd, 2023. Even though Joe had managed to cover up all his tracks throughout the four seasons, it looks as if there are some loose ends he never tended to. They are coming back full throttle in the final smackdown of this epic series.
Goodbye… YOU. Joe Goldberg will return for the fifth and final season of YOU in 2024. pic.twitter.com/1PIP0pRizK
— YOU (@YouNetflix) March 24, 2023
In context, the fourth season has an approval rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 53 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website’s critical consensus states, “The hunter becomes prey in You‘s London-set fourth season, which shows some wear as this premise begins to outlive its believability—but Penn Badgley’s sardonic performance continues to paper over most lapses in logic.” Whereas, on Metacritic, the fourth season received a score of 73 based on reviews from 20 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews.”
A plot so riveting and sinful that Joe’s heinous crimes never seemed to surface because every time the water bubbled for him to get caught, he somehow managed to drown the person back in. However, after the series was renewed, the You fandom has grown incessantly impatient over its release date. It also does not help our case when there is an industry-wide strike, causing entire productions to shut down and go into hiatus.
We have some updates regarding the release date for You Season 5 despite the strike situation. Continue reading to find out.
You Season 5: Expected Release Date
Before the strike and after the renewal status, fans were either hoping for the final season to show up by the end of 2023 or the first quarter of 2024. But it looks like good luck has not favored us in this matter. With the WGA and SAG-AFTRA on a double-strike mode, it provides a damper on any plans of a late 2023 release.
welcome (back) to New York, Joe. see you in S5. pic.twitter.com/WuwScVKbe3
— YOU (@YouNetflix) April 10, 2023
Additionally, creator Sera Gamble, who recently stepped down as showrunner for season 5, as mentioned previously, shared certain photographs on Instagram from the picket line. This leads us to assume that writing for You season 5 is currently ceased. While we know viewers are growing impatient and weary over all their favorite shows being canceled or pushed into a hiatus due to the strike, we urge you to take into consideration the rights of the writers and actors who are the source of our very important. Unless their demands are met and they are provided with adequate protection against modern technology like AI, they will find it difficult to deliver their services for our entertainment. In other words, we sincerely hope their demands are met sooner than later, so they can all get back to work and our favorite shows can get back on schedule.
It looks like You Season 5 will not reach us in 2023. Assuming that writing for the final season has ceased, it will be long overdue before we can view the final season on our screens. Our calculated prediction points us to a 2024 fall release.
Before the show was renewed for a fifth season, the showrunner Sera Gamble hinted at the possibility of the show having more future while engaging in a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter. She said:
“We have an idea for season five that we’re excited about.” Be that as it may, it did not come without a condition:
“It was never anyone’s intention to run this one into the ground. When we’re done, we’ll be done. And we’ll pack it up. Even in the early conversations with Penn, the idea was not to crank out episodes forever; it’s to feel like we have told the complete story. And though I feel like tonally, we’re very different and we are not trying to sell Joe as any kind of a hero with a straight face. This is a show that is in the tradition of these single-lead shows with a guy who does increasingly bad things. The beautiful thing about it is that when his arc is complete, so is the show.”
In a conversation with IndieWire in 2023, Badgley revealed his thoughts on the show’s future, saying You need “to do another season.” He said:
“It feels to me like Joe needs to get what’s coming to him, and now he has further to fall because he has all this power and wealth. But of course, that’s not up to me. I don’t know where it’s going. But to me, with this concept and with this character, we always wanted to be responsible and it’s not just the kind of thing we can let keep going because it’s doing well.”
He further added,
“I know the creators of the show always had this next season in mind as its last, should there be another one. And then it will probably be a spectacular resolution because it feels to me like something is in the works by the very end of this season.”
Well, it looks like we are not the only ones who are eager for You Season 5 to release.
You Season 5: Cast
Netflix has confirmed that the fifth season of You will be set in New York City, where the first season also took place. Interestingly, this brings the series to a full circle after Joe escapes to various places, including Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and London.
Apart from Penn Badgley, Charlotee Ritchie will also reprise her role as Kate, now Joe’s official girlfriend, will also be back for Season 5.
Post Wednesday, the series that took the internet by storm, Jenna Ortega’s return to You seemed to be under a lot of speculation. She could not be a part of the crew in Season 4 due to her being Wednesday Addams. Season 5 may or may not see her back as Ellie.
With season 4 end, fans find Marienne, played by Tati Gabrielle, escaping the clutches of Joe, thanks to Nadia ( Amy-Leigh Hickman). They both will probably be back for Season 5 since they have some matters to resolve with Joe, like getting sweet revenge. Speaking of Tati, she said,
“I would love to come back again. I feel like she hasn’t gotten her piece yet, and I do think she deserves that. She’s had a hard life, man. She just needs a break. I would love to see more of Marienne. If she’s not part of taking down Joe, I just want her to be able to witness it.”(via Digital Spy)
Despite being imprisoned for Joe’s crimes, Amy Leigh-Hickman is optimistic about Nadia’s return. In a conversation with Digital Spy, Hickman said:
“I would love to come back and play her again. I think that if she can pull off everything she did in season four, there’s not much she can’t do. So I wouldn’t put anything past her, I wouldn’t past Joe as well. I think that’s something they have in common, weirdly.”
Other characters who are to reprise their roles in Season 5 include:
- Dylan Arnold as Theo
- Scott Speedman as Matthew
- Shalita Grant as Sherry
- Travis Van Winkle as Cary Conrad
- Robin Lord Taylor as Will Bettelheim
Since we have New York in focus for the final season again, there are guaranteed to be a few cast shake-ups of which we do not have any formal knowledge. When we do come across updates for the same, we will be sure to update you.
You Season 5: Possible Plotline
*Spoiler Alert*
Recently TUDUM released a video with Penn where he teased about what the plot for You Season 5 may comprise of. In the video, Badgley revealed that there would be “many loose ends from Joe’s past,” and that could mean several characters he just left behind in the earlier seasons, including his toddler son, Henry. It is safe to say Beck and Love are in the past, although their cameo in Season 4 Part Two sent chills down our spine as they asked Joe to confront himself for the murderer that he was.
Penn Badgley just gave #TUDUM a super-early tease about what fans can expect in the final season of YOU! pic.twitter.com/moLWHYHbG9
— YOU (@YouNetflix) June 17, 2023
When Joe Goldberg was washed with disillusionment about being portrayed as a killer, he took the imaginative patronage of a clean, polished man called Rhys (running for the mayoral campaign). It was safe to say that he was obsessed with the good image Rhys managed to keep. Season 4 Part 1 saw the initiation of a new name, “Eat The Rich Killer,” which was floating around London for the murders of the core elite group which flourished off of the labor of the lower classes. Joe never fit into this elite class, but his love interest Kate did. Joe (or Penn) did a great job in making us believe that he was innocent and Rhys was the killer! We were confronted with the truth in Part 2 of Season 4, where Joe was imaginatively having blackouts after killing the rich one by one and convinced himself that Rhys was the one that did it, although the actual Rhys never even knew who Joe was.
In the end, Joe was almost caught by his student Nadia, but he was five steps ahead of her. He killed her love interest and pinned the murder on her. By the very end, Joe had accepted his killer side and embraced it with zeal. Now that he had the all-rich and powerful Kate by his side, he had nothing that could block him from doubling his body count. Right?
Well, not really. He did leave out some loose ends over the years of him, leaving a pile of bodies in his wake. Season 5 will probably make Joe pay for all his sins by people who knew what he was and had unfinished business with him. But it won’t be easy, given his power and status.
A loaded, respectable serial killer is far more sinister than a poor serial killer.
Check out the official trailer for You Season 4 Part 1 here:
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in February 2023, Gamble said,
“You’ll know what the next season would be when you see the end of this season. We tell you what the idea is.”
Commenting on the season 4 finale in the previously-mentioned IndieWire interview, Badgley said that if the show ends with that conclusion, it would be “somewhat satisfying.” However, he adds,
“But I think what’s particularly dystopic or chilling about it is he has effectively won. You have taken this man and shown him going out on top. In that sense, I don’t think it’s the conclusion that anybody wants.”
Talking about Joe’s intentions, Gamble told Elle,
“In many ways, when you’re not in denial about your intentions, you can plan better. So it’s less that we think he’s going to cut a bloody swathe in New York City, although we also wouldn’t put it past him. It’s more that he is just more conscious of this side of himself and he’s less likely to be like, ‘Oops, I totally didn’t think I was going to shove that guy down the stairs. Now what am I going to do?’”
Gamble added,
“He looks and sounds like Joe Classic. He has regained his name and now he is much more in the circles that he used to watch from afar and just judge. He can have all of that access, all of those resources, and none of the anonymity that he used to have in New York.”
Sera Gamble stated that the plan is for Joe to suffer through some consequences of his actions because that would be the perfect ending for You. She said:(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
“The conversation we have among the writers, between Greg and I, and a lot with Penn is about the fact that it would be nice to end his arc with some form of justice. Guys like this don’t usually see a lot of justice from the world. That’s challenging to plot. How does Joe Goldberg go down in a world where he’s been branding people with bricks in broad daylight for years? And he’s cute! And he gets away with it. The deeper question that we frequently pitch in the writers’ room is, ‘What’s real justice? What would hurt him the most?’”
“I think it sets us up to actually have a really great finale season,” said Badgley in an interview with Tudum ahead of Season 4’s debut. Further adding, “Can his inner monologue evolve some now? What does it mean for him to accept himself?”
“We intend to bring her every idea we can from our company for years to come,” they said before revealing that telling Joe’s story in five seasons had always been the plan. “Ever since our friends at Alloy shared Caroline Kepnes’ fantastic book, we have always conceived it as a five-season journey. We are excited to continue our relationship with Mike and Justin as they take over the reins as co-showrunners and prepare to bring Joe Goldberg home.”
“You became an instant sensation on Netflix with a resounding cultural impact that has grown season over season,” said Peter Friedlander, Netflix’s VP of Scripted Series. “We’re excited — and a bit terrified — to see how it all ends for Joe Goldberg, but one thing is for sure: You are in for an unforgettable ending.”
Going through these statements, we realize that Season 5 will not let Joe Goldberg go into the night silently. His swansong needs to be bloody, and he needs to pay for his sins.
Nevertheless, as more plot stories creep up, we will be sure to update you along the process. So keep a close eye on this space.
You Season 5: Official Trailer
As you know, the dates for the release of You Season 5 are not out yet, so we do not have the official trailer in possession yet. However, when we do come across it, we will update you.
Meanwhile, check out the official trailer for You Season 4 Part 2 instead:
For more updates, stay tuned to Web News Observer. Also, comment below on who you would want to see from Joe’s past in Season 5.