Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘You‘ follows the story of Joe Goldberg, a man who believes himself to be a romantic at heart, but in reality is a misogynist and a serial killer. No matter how good life is for him, he always finds some flaw in it and starts looking for his “true love” somewhere else. In the fifth and final season of the show, while married to Kate, he meets Bronte and falls for her. She, too, seems to reciprocate his feelings, but there is much more to the story. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Joe’s Hypocrisy Rears Its Head in the Form of Cheating
In the first season, when Guinevere Beck is in a relationship with Joe and she cheats on him, he loses his mind as if the worst thing in the world has happened to him. However, since then, Joe himself has cheated on his wives. First, he cheated on Love with Marienne with the excuse that his wife was a murderous psychopath he couldn’t love anymore (which highlights another of his hypocrisies). Now, when he is married to Kate and has everything he could want, he still finds reasons to get away from this normalcy and jump back into the life he had before. He confesses that he misses killing people and all the dark things he did before he married Kate, and this is what eventually leads him to cheat on her.
Joe claims that Kate can never accept his dark side, but there is someone out there who can, and he thinks that “the one” he has been looking for could be Bronte. When Kate reads his murderous fantasies on paper, she is horrified to see what is going on in his mind. However, when Bronte reads his story, she encourages him to keep writing and gives him appropriate feedback to strengthen his writing. This support, which he does not receive from his wife, draws him to Bronte and convinces him that he should be with her. Still, he has a family, especially a son, so he tries to keep a distance from Bronte as much as possible. Even though he loves spending time with her, he refuses to engage in anything that could lead to an affair. But that doesn’t last.
Bronte Unintentionally Falls for Joe
Everyone has a secret in ‘You,’ and Bronte’s secret is that she not only knew Beck, but also idolised her. This was when she came to New York to become a writer, but had to return to Ohio to care for her ailing mother. Beck championed her like no one else, which is why, when Beck was murdered, Bronte decided to champion her by exposing Joe for his crimes and bringing justice for Beck. Or at least, that’s what she intended to do initially.
Over time, as she makes Joe fall in love with her, she also falls for him. The more she is ensnared in his charm, the more she starts questioning whether she was wrong about him all this time. She even tries to walk away from him, but he is fixated now and won’t let her go. Then he kills a man, whom he believes to be her ex, and that turns things in a whole new direction. No matter what her friends say, she cannot convince herself that a kind and caring person like Joe could have killed someone, especially Beck. If the law didn’t find him guilty, how could she?
Of course, there is so much to the story that she doesn’t know. And when it comes to light, she has to accept that she made a massive blunder by trusting Joe and returning to him when everyone told her to stay away from him. There comes a point when she is practically living with him and is looking forward to living with him in a remote Irish castle with moss. But truth comes to her in the form of Marienne Bellamy, when Bronte realises her mistake, calls her friends, and tells them that she will do whatever it takes to bring him to justice. And she does just that, even at the cost of putting her own life in danger. She frees herself of Joe by sending him to prison and being free of his charm and whatnot, which kept her chained to him.
Read More: Does Bronte Die in You Season 5?
