Warning: The following contains spoilers for the You season 5 finale.You’s showrunners reveal how they decided on Joe Goldberg’s (Penn Badgley) fate at the end of season 5. Following a turbulent season 4, the final season takes Joe back to New York with Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) by his side, but when Kate’s company is threatened, Joe decides to take things into his own hands. Meanwhile, his karma is catching up with him in the shape of someone new. Instead of letting Joe off the easy way, theYouseason 5 endingsees him tasting his own medicine by landing in, essentially, a cage when he’s put in prison.
In an interview withTV Insider, co-showrunners Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo talked about how they came up with Joe’s endgame. Foley explained that the final chapter was always going to “bring him back to New York” and that they had decided a long time ago thatJoe “will face some of those people whose lives he ruined,“and the idea of Joe dying in the end was one of the possibilities. Check out Foley’s comments below:
Michael Foley:That went on in a really loose way for multiple seasons. We always thought that, in success, we would get to complete the story, that we would likely bring him back to New York, bring him back as a different person than the person he left as. Coming into Season 1, we started to zoom in and discuss, and we found ourselves on the same page with the creator Sera Gamble, Greg Berlanti, and all the writers just in terms of some bigger ideas. Which is, Joe’s going to get his comeuppance.We are not going to redeem Joe. Joe is not going to get away with it. Joe will face some of those people whose lives he ruined. When it came down to, will he die? Will he be captured? Will he be on trial, in prison, and whatnot? That was later in the season, when it was time to make those decisions, a specific shape of it. But the overall ideas were known throughout the season. This was going to be the end for Joe Goldberg.
When asked whether there was a debate about Joe dying in the end, Lo confirmed thatthey had the idea in mind “for a few months"before changing to Joe being isolated in a maximum security prison. He also touched upon whether Joe could escape from prison, shutting the door on the possibility. Read his comments below:
Justin W. Lo: Yes, that was definitely one of the options. And I would say we operated with that option in mind for a few months before we decided to change it at the very end. So yeah, that was definitely on the table.
I think in our minds, yes, he is [in maximum security]. I don’t think we want people thinking he could get out.We want people thinking he is there, trapped for the rest of his life, without the opportunity to have love or touch or to project his thoughts onto someone else, anyone outside of the people who are giving him these letters, or the guard he sees for a flash of the day. We wanted to isolate him because we knew that would be his greatest punishment.
What The Showrunners' Comments Mean For You’s Ending
Joe Got What He Deserved
Joe being irredeemable has been fully demonstrated in the previous seasons, following the blood trails he left and exploring the lives that he has destroyed. While Joe seems to be in a position of power and control at the beginning ofYouseason 5, what he cannot escape is his karma. In the same interview, the showrunners also talked about the idea of Bronte molding herself after Joe to catfish him, which essentially translates toJoe falling in love with himself.
Despite the fact that the antagonist doesn’t die in the end, the showrunners' comments clarify thatYou’s season 5 ending is about making sure Joe gets what he deserves, which is isolation and captivity, some of the worst things he has done to his own victims. This also means thatit’s unlikely for the series to follow up with a sequel in which Joe escapes prison. He is where he deserves to be at the end of his story, and there is nothing further to explore with him.
Our Take On Joe’s Fate In The You Season 5 Finale
Exposing Joe Is A Team Effort
It’s been clear since the reveal ofMarienne’s captivity inYouseason 4that Joe won’t get a happy ending. What Marienne and Nadia failed to achieveessentially paved the way for what later would be Joe’s downfallin the final season, because it created a demand for justice at the hands of those whose lives he has destroyed.
The ultimate capture and imprisonment of Joe is a group effort, coming from the women who were and are in his life. Furthermore, the season also strips away his Prince Charming pretense to reveal the monster beneath and the true degree of his illusions, which makes the last couple of episodes powerful moments of clarity. Similar to the women in Joe’s life, viewers have been under his spell in previous seasons as the story inYouis told through his eyes until the very end. By keeping him firmly in prison,the show makes it clear that he is not someone to be respected.
