After five seasons of obsession, murder, and internal monologues, Netflix’s You has finally come to an end—and no one’s more ready to talk about it than Joe Goldberg himself, Penn Badgley.
SEASON FINALE SPOILERS AHEAD
In an exclusive interview with Caitlynn McDaniel, Badgley reflected on the long, twisted journey of playing one of TV’s most charming (and horrifying) antiheroes. And when it came to the finale’s self-aware twist—where Joe is finally seen not as a misunderstood romantic but as an abuser—Badgley didn’t hold back.
“To me, I think it is as close to a perfect ending as it could be,” he said. “You think of any show ever, it’s hard to land the ending. I think this one, there was a demand to end it better than most because it’s been a specific kind of journey. Joe’s not every protagonist. He’s so awful in a lot of ways.”
Season 5 finds Joe back in New York City, with a new identity and a new partner: his London-born wife Kate (Charlotte Ritchie). But true to form, the cycle begins again when Joe becomes infatuated with Bronte (Madeline Brewer), a passionate young writer who soon becomes the next “You.”
The final episode leans heavily into the meta—calling out viewers who romanticized Joe despite his crimes and exposing the very real dangers of misconstrued love.
“For the first time, we are seeing [his behavior] as abuse and truly predatory… not seduction,” Badgley explained. “You don’t want them to be together. And that’s the point.”
While Joe’s crimes—stalking, murder, and a deeply unhealthy relationship with glass boxes—have always been front and center, Badgley believes the show’s true subject is even darker and more universal.
“What this show is about is actually more about the relatable aspects of misconceptions of love that we all engage in—possession, jealousy… the way that desire can influence love and change it,” he said. “Joe is a construct… he’s not really a serial killer. Yeah, he’s a serial killer, but he’s not really.”
That layered nuance, Badgley explained, is what made Joe both terrifying and familiar. “We have to control ourselves in ways that are important to be a fully reciprocating, consensual, engaged partner. And I don’t just mean physically—I mean in all the ways.”
The final moments also shine a light at the audience’s complicated relationship with Joe, who some fans have romanticized over the years. In the end, we see Joe reading a letter from a fangirl who wants to be his next victim. “Maybe the problem isn’t me,” Joe muses. “Maybe… it’s you.”
But even with all of Joe’s reflection and delusion, could anything have changed him? Not even fatherhood, Badgley said—especially not if Joe had been raising a daughter.
“I’ve always thought that it shouldn’t take having a daughter for a man to be like, ‘Oh, I see women differently,’” he said. “For us to see women as people, it shouldn’t take that… I think the ugly truth is that he would be a horrific father to a girl. It’s like, no.”
As for whether we’ll ever see Joe again? Badgley seems ready to close that book for good. “End the show now,” he laughed. “No, I don’t want to see that hypothetical world.”
