Avert your eyes and be on your best behavior; Joe Goldberg and Love Quinn are back, and they are more ready to kill than ever.
Season three of “You” has finally premiered on Netflix, after a long wait time for fans. Though season two ended with a shock, season three’s ending will leave fans wondering what’s next for the show’s psycho killer.
Last season ended with Joe (Penn Badgley) ready to kill his new obsession, Love (Victoria Pedretti), after she killed one of his friends and his ex-girlfriend, Candace (Ambyr Childers). Right as he’s about to end their relationship, and Love’s life, Love tells him she’s pregnant. The two decide to be together, get married and move out to the suburbs of California to raise their child.
This season begins with Joe and Love in Madre Linda: the world’s most ridiculous town of mom-fluencers, fad dieters and not an authentic person in sight. It’s basically Joe’s hell on earth. Right from the start, Joe’s unhappiness bleeds through. They were expecting a girl but ended up having a boy named Henry Forty Quinn-Goldberg, and Joe is convinced they will ruin a boy and Henry will become just like him.
His disdain for the town and for Love’s behavior turns into a new obsession with their neighbor, Natalie (Michaela McManus). After she comes on to him and Love finds out, she murders Natalie in cold blood, right inside of the bakery Natalie had just leased her. Love then must rely on Joe to help her cover up the mess — and that’s just the first episode.
This entire season packs a lot in only 10 episodes. Joe and Love go through several stages of their relationship, from Joe hating Love, then Love hating Joe, to the two of them being on the same page with loving each other, and killing everyone else.
As with the other seasons, the new character additions are what really make the season memorable. Even the characters who we’re supposed to hate are fantastic. Sherry, played by Shalita Grant, and her husband Cary, played by Travis Van Winkle, are so awful it’s incredible. The actors do a great job of making you hate them, while also understanding the way their environment has impacted the character’s personalities.
Another notable new face is Dylan Arnold, who plays 18-year-old Theo. The son of dead Natalie’s husband Matthew (Scott Speedman), Theo takes a quick liking to Love and tries to seduce her frequently. His level of naivety and dedication to a woman he hardly knows, matched with his kindness and goofball nature, make him this season’s “character who deserves all the rights” award winner.
The real star of the season, however, is Pedretti as Love. Undoubtedly one of the best actresses of our time, Pedretti has a certain subtlety that she brings to her roles, making her kind and happy side seep into your soul and bring a smile to your face, and her psycho killer side all the more terrifying.
It’s hard to tackle a character as complicated as Love. She has a dark past, a complicated family dynamic and a dead brother to boot. Mixed with her overwhelming maternal instincts, generosity and care for others, it's tough to embody that when it isn’t necessarily the experience you’ve lived yourself. Pedretti not only accomplishes this task, but knocks it out of the park.
Pedretti is brilliant, in every sense of the word, and there could be a complete review just on her performance in this character for the past two seasons alone. It’s hard not to pay attention to everything she does at the expense of the rest of the show.
And finally, Joe. One controversy with the show is the fact that it glorifies male violence toward women, because even though logically what Joe’s character is doing is sociopathic and malicious, Badgley, an attractive man, is the one portraying him. I’ve struggled myself with watching the show and not being attracted to Joe, despite his horrific acts. However, season three finally changed my perspective.
Once Joe found his new obsession after Natalie, Marienne (Tati Gabrielle), I felt nothing but disgust. To put Marienne and her precious daughter in the dangerous path was the last straw for me. Not to mention the way he so hypocritically abandoned Love.
This is the main issue with Joe: he’s a hypocrite. It’s OK if he kills someone because he can justify it in his head. However, when Love does it, or even when anyone else makes a minor mistake, he is so quick to condemn them. Joe Goldberg is truly an awful person, and if you thought his stalking was attractive before (first of all, seek help), this season ruins any “goodness” about him.
One big piece of the show is the effects. With so many murders — and yes, the kill count was ridiculous this season — it’s important to have pretty good effects with gore. From injecting needles and shooting people with guns to falling off a building or being pushed down a flight of stairs, everything looked extremely realistic. So much so, in fact, that there were certain moments when it was necessary to turn away.
In addition to the gore, the props, cinematography and costuming were all on point. Especially with costumes, which were not only showcased in the envy-inducing day-to-day outfits, but in the Madre Linda library fundraiser party as well. It was Alice in Wonderland themed and gave each character a chance to wear something funky and unique, as well as a costume character choice that was telling about their “You” characters.
After all of this season’s chaos, it’s impossible not to wonder: Where do we go from here? Without spoiling the ending — brace yourself, it’s a doozy — the season simultaneously left behind a lot of storylines while wiping the slate clean for endless possibilities. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next for the characters, and if any of our old friends from different seasons come back for a cameo or main cast appearance.
