You - 5th, Final Season (Netflix 2025)
Let us now finally bid a fond farewell to Joe Goldberg, bookish sociopath serial killer who's slashed, stabbed and bludgeoned his way across America and the European continent......all in his neverending search for the 'you' of his life. His one true soulmate, worthy of his eternal adoration.
As created by novelist Caroline Kepnes and deftly portrayed with morbid deadpan humor by Penn Badgley, Joe always remained the hero of his own story, constantly smitten by some woman who obsesses him and then unfairly (he believes) driven to murder all those who stand between him and his ideal of perfect romantic bliss.
His quests invariably backfire on him, leaving behind a pile of collateral damage bodies, including the very apple of his eye who set his blood racing to begin with.
But Joe, leading perhaps the most charmed life a serial killer has ever led, always manages to elude justice and capture. As indestructible as 'Halloween's Michael Myers or 'Friday the 13th's Jason, Joe lands on his feet in an all new location, with an all new girl he's crazy in lust with......(who usually doesn't realize until it's way too late that Joe's not just crazy in love.....he's just plain crazy.
The 5th and final season brings Joe back to where it all began, the New York City musty bookstore where he started as a clerk and finished as an owner....(using the rare books glass cage in the basement as his holding cell for captive victims).
We will NOT go into laborious details about all the baggage Joe brings with his him back to NYC.....which include his beloved young son Henry and his wealthy corporate powerhouse wife (and current 'you' du jour).
The pure nasty fun here (for both us and the episode writers) is watching Joe once again go on a blood soaked path to eliminate all people who stand as obstacles to either his wife or himself. The series' team of writers take enormous glee in contriving impossible situations for Joe to squirm (or kill) his way out of and somehow stay out of an eventual lifetime prison sentence he so richly deserves.
The twists thrown at Joe become increasingly ridiculous and never believable for a minute, but c'mon now......nobody's watching this show for its attention to gritty realism.
Penn Badgely well knows he snared the role of a lifetime and with the aid of a wicked, internal monologue narration, he makes Joe a conflicted, multi-faceted monster for the ages.....part Romeo, part Uriah Heep, and even part Donald Trump in his ability to win people over with a river of lying bullshit.
Many fans of this series expressed outrage and contempt for the 5th season finale....(much like the invective that greeted the ends of "The Sopranos", "Seinfeld" and "Lost"). As for BQ, honest to blog, we didn't have any real big problem with it and found it inevitable, but satisfying.
We do agree with the complainers about the groan-worthy use of the worst, most tiresome, worn out horror movie tropes......people surviving catastrophic wounds and other obvious death? Really? What were you folks smokin' in the writers' room?
But Joe's ultimate fate, after all these years and accrued corpses, sit well enough with us. And we credit the show's producers and writers for not succumbing to the lure of an off-the-rails twist to make everyone feel like we'd wasted our time watching any of it at all......
New to "You"? By all means, dive in for a good time. Longtime fan who took issue with the wrap-up? BQ'd love to hear from you at thebeachedquill@gmail.com.....
BQ's Jury of One has arrived at a verdict, your Honors.....
4 stars (****).
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