After five seasons,You’s Joe Goldberg finally got what he deserved: consequences. And the face behind the serial killer the internet loves to drool over,Penn Badgley, is speaking out about the condemning and “rewarding” series finale. After all, the actor has not been shy about really questioning and lambasting the audience for the part they play in romanticizing men (real or fictional) like Joe. But would you expect anything less from a show with the sort of meta-edge thatSera Gamble’s adaptation of theCaroline Kepnesnovels likeYou?
In a new interview withDeadline, Badgley — who was also an executive producer on the series — explains how the final season of the show “becomes a meta exercise on: Why are we so obsessed with this man?” He goes on, adding that “apart from the superficial reasons, what is it about a protagonist like this that works? And I think we deliver; it’s a true deconstruction of Joe.” With a new object of his affection, Bronte (The Handmaid’s Talestar Madeleine Brewer) by his side, Joe’s finale moments provided an opportunity for the series to do something “so rewarding” and subversive (even if its receiving mixed reviews from fans).
Joe’s First Victim Finally Gets Justice in ‘You’ Season 5
‘You’ wrapped up its run with the fifth and final season, finally bringing justice to everyone Joe Goldberg harmed.
Curious to know who he thinks was the “avatar for the audience” this season or what Badgley thought of Joe’s ultimate fate? Keep reading to learn more!And please note, there are major spoilers for the series finale ofYouahead!
‘You’ Takes Down Its Audience As Much As It Does Joe Goldberg
When faced with the task of finding a satisfying ending for Joe Goldberg, Badgley admitted that “Every season has been a herculean task for the writers,” and the writers would ultimately work the story backwards in order to keep viewers distracted enough to be surprised by where it was headed, “like a magician’s trick.” Which is exactly what they did to ensure that Joe’s ending wasn’t just his death at the hands of a “final girl” (in this case Bronte), but rather something far more satisfying. No, in the end, Bronte worked tirelessly to ensure that Joe “see” himself for who he really was — even if she was still in love with him a little.
Speaking of the aptly-named, literary-flecked Bronte, Badgley described her as the ultimate avatar for the series' audience. “‘Oh, so she’s me.’ She knows who he is, she knows his name, she knows what he’s done, she even watched him do it in front of her face, Badgley says, “And yet, ‘I still love him.'”
“Some of the best conversations Madeleine Brewer and I had — what I think she did that was really smart and sensitive — is to know that part of Bronte still loved Joe even when she was pointing a gun at his head,” the actor says. But as we all know, Bronte doesn’t kill Joe: she forces him to rot in prison, but not before taking his ultimate driving force away from him. By that, of course, we mean she shoots his genitals off.
It was an aspect of the series finale that Badgley especially loved, explaining it all in animated fasion toDeadline:
“It does become a question of, ‘What do we do with people like Joe?’ It is a carceral question, a question of justice, of transformative justice as it’s referred to sometimes, vengeance, retribution. What is best, not just for Joe, but the person who then has to do it? If somebody was to kill him — and it would be a woman, right — well, then actually now what you’ve burdened her with is having committed murder, like that’s not just, I don’t think. Torture? Uh OK, same thing. Prison? Eh, feels a bit not enough. So what do you do? Take. His. Balls.”
Considering the fact that Joe did some of his worst deeds — the manipulation, the gaslighting, the sexual coercion — in the bedroom during sex, it’s a fitting way to neuter him, both literally and figuratively. Don’tyouthink?
You is a drama-thriller series based on the novel by Caroline Kepnes that follows an obsessive and dangerous bookstore owner known as Joe Goldberg. The show sees Joe meeting women that he becomes transfixed with and goes to terrifying lengths to insert himself into their lives. To accomplish his goal, Joe will remove each obstacle - and person- in his way.
