Diksha Sundriyal
The final season of Netflix’s ‘You’ brings Joe Goldberg back home to New York. He skipped town at the end of Season 1, following which he moved to LA, then the suburbs, and then London. No matter how far he went, his demons travelled with him. In the fifth season, he comes back to the Big Apple following the reinstatement of his reputation and the return of his son. Another beloved thing that comes back to Joe is Mooney’s, the bookstore that he practically grew up in, which molded his personality, and which is also where he kept Guinevere Beck before killing her. Interestingly, fans can visit the actual bookstore. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Fictional Mooney’s is Filmed in a Real Bookstore in New York
Mooney’s is a fictional bookstore that appears in Caroline Kepnes’ ‘You,’ on which the Netflix series is based. The show brings the place to life in the first and fifth seasons by using the exteriors of the Logos Bookstore, part of a national franchise called the Logos Bookstore Association, located at 1575 York Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Owned by Harris Healy, the bookstore offers all sorts of genres, like fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books. What it is mostly known for is its collection of Judeo-Christian books and Bibles, making it the largest such collection in Manhattan. The cat-friendly store also offers the readers a chance to socialise through various events, like book readings and book clubs, among other things.
The crime thriller series used the exteriors and the front interior of the Logos to create the facade of Mooney’s. However, the scenes featuring the basement where Joe has his signature cage were filmed in a separate location, as the real-life bookstore does not have a basement. Apart from this, to give an authentic experience to the fans, a pop-up of Mooney’s was opened at 489 Broome Street in New York ahead of the final season’s premiere. The pop-up appeared only for two days, April 22 and 23, and gave the fans a chance to indulge in literary scavenger hunts and other stuff to get a taste of Mooney’s.
The bookstore, owned and operated by Joe, belongs to Ivan Mooney, who served as a father figure for Joe and heavily influenced his formative years. It has a major presence in the first and fifth seasons of the show, bookending the serial killer’s story by bringing it full circle. The place is an important part of Joe’s identity, as it represents his love for books as well as his compulsion to control and kill people, aided by his delusion that he is saving them. This is why it made sense for the character to be brought back home in the final season as his story wraps up for good.
Read More: Where was iHostage Filmed? All Filming Locations of the Netflix Movie
