You season 4 part 2 spoilers follow – including its ending.
If you think Netflix’s You went more “You” than ever in the first half of season four, you have another think coming because part two went well and truly off the rails. And yes, even if you were one of the few who predicted that Joe might be the killer all along, there were still plenty of other surprises lurking in store.
From Marienne’s journey and the Rhys reveal to that ghostly reunion and Joe’s suicide attempt, there’s a lot to unpack in these last five episodes, so we asked Penn Badgley to take a stab at explaining it all for you. Yes, for you. So join us as here at Digital Spy as we unravel the darkest corners of Joe’s mind with the help of Joe Goldberg himself.
After it’s revealed that Joe’s been the killer all along, we see a glimpse of this “Evil Joe” from Marienne’s perspective, and it’s chilling to say the least. Was it challenging to play this different Joe after channeling his charm all this time?
I thought about that the least, oddly. You know why? Because in a way, it was like he was not the star of those things. It was Marienne. It’s her cage and it’s her experience, her perspective. We’ve seen vignettes with Love and Beck where they have their voiceover going, but we’ve never actually seen their perspective of Joe. And actually, we get that with Marianne in a really vital way. The show has never done that.
To me, it’s one of the best episodes of the whole series. So I was just there to support. I wasn’t even really playing Joe in my mind. I was just doing what was required, which is this miserable, awful stuff and just kind of giving that some reality. Really, it’s Tati’s stage at that point, which I really like.
“I was so stretched in many different directions that I wasn’t giving the acting that much thought.”
Also, any time off I had in that episode, I was prepping to direct the next episode. I was so stretched in many different directions that I wasn’t giving the acting that much thought, which I think works. I haven’t seen the final cut of that episode though, so maybe I’m wrong [Laughs].
Later on, Joe’s dead exes come back in a vision where they confront him with all the terrible things he’s done. Can you talk us through why it was important to include that scene at this point?
In some ways, we have that every season. But this season? We just have more of it.
What I personally think is happening is that every season, the things that work, the writers are always thinking: “How can we do more of that? How can we bring that back?” Like in the second season we had the acid trip episode.
In the third and fourth season, we’re always finding new ways to get Joe into some kind of state of mind that’s manipulating his consciousness and just all those boundaries of perception, which I think is very cool. It’s not that it’s going into completely new territory, but it’s got to get into new ground in the same territory.
With Joe, he’s a very troubling leading man, and a very unreliable narrator, so you need to be hearing from his victims. I think that’s what it comes down to. It’s more interesting and then also, I think, a bit more responsible. There’s a bit more of a moral safety net, an emotional safety net as well, hearing from the victims… Otherwise, there is a lot of charm and there is a lot of smoke and mirrors. We don’t want to give him too much of that time.
Things get too much for Joe after this, which leads to that moment on the bridge where he tips Rhys over, and then himself. What’s your perspective on how this all plays out?
What we’re seeing on the bridge is technically a suicide attempt, but the way this show plays with things, that’s not what I see it as. What he’s actually trying to do is kill someone else. He’s actually trying to problem solve and save people, weirdly.
He’s not saying: “I’m so miserable. I can’t go on.” That’s actually not what he’s saying at all. So much in the vein of this show, it’s not actually what it is. It’s always about the subtext, and actually about love because what does Rhys say on the bridge? He says, “I love you. Why can’t you love me?” And who is he but Joe? In a way, Joe’s inner child, you know? So really, he’s asking himself, “Why can’t you love yourself?”
“What he’s actually trying to do is kill someone else.”
The solution he’s coming to isn’t about himself, actually. It’s about other people. Because I’m pretty sure what he says is like, “But look at what I’ve done to other people.” So even in the end, Joe is not able to self reflect profoundly in the way that people need to to grow emotionally. That’s what makes him such an interesting leading narrator character.
So I think the bridge scene is very poignant. I know that it stirs up all this really sensitive stuff around mental illness and suicide. But to me, that’s not actually what is happening. It’s first of all, it’s an allegory and metaphor, but he is again, trying to kill somebody in order to save people. And because he’s Rhys, that’s what he was seeing.
It’s a very strange, metaphorical and comic way to take those things on, which I think the show always managed to do in this very deft, surprising way.
You seasons 1-4 are available on Netflix now.
Source: digitalspy.com