YOU - (A Netflix Original series) S5 thoughts (***SPOILERS***so look away)...also what I thought was the funniest/biggest gaslighting part of the entire series
I binged the entire the final/fifth season of You on Netflix last night and here are my thoughts. After Season 4 (which I stopped watching halfway), I was relieved that this would be the final season. But this season was hella interesting. I was metaphorically on the edge of my seat! Literally, I was in the middle of my bed. This season was like a redemption from the previous one. It kept me on my toes. The character of Bronte was a good edition because I kept wondering,
Who is she and why is she here? What's her motive? What is she going to do next?
They played her mystery very well because I never trusted her or accepted her as just another naive girl that falls for Joe and randomly starts and affair with him. And even with that distrust, the twist still blew me away.
But first, I need to get this out of the way:
In the very last episode of the last and final season, after Joe has gone on the biggest and most violent rampage, and he's looking more and more like his innermost demon on the surface, the show decided to throw in Guilty as Sin by Taylor Swift as a soundtrack. I laughed so hard, I worried that I woke the neighbors.
Are we supposed to think this is romantic? Is the show trying to gaslight us into thinking that during the final part to this series, when Bronte's eyes are about to pop out of her head with fear, that they are about ride off into the sunset together? And we still had several minutes left to go. Was it supposed to be "ironic"? The song title is Guilty as Sin but it's about daydreaming about a guy. Not about being guilty for murder or an accomplice. It just felt like an odd choice of song. But it gave me a moment of laughter. Probably the most I laughed while watching the entire series.
Joe has moved back from the London, England to Brooklyn, New York with his new wife, Kate. Kate has taken over her old company like her dad wanted and has gotten Joe his son back. You know, the one which he left with the couple in Madre Linda in Season 3. Yup, they just took him back from after leaving him.
As the flow of the show goes, things are going well for Joe in the first 5 minutes of the first episode but (we all knew) that wouldn't last. He still has that gnawing feeling of wanting to kill someone and does so by the end of the same first episode.
Kate has twin half sisters and a half brother. The twin half sisters are both played by Anna Camp (love her). Loved her performance in Pitch Perfect and I LOVE her performance in this series. More on her later.
One of the twins is focused, driven, bitchy, lashes out at people constantly with words, pretty unlikable overall. Her name is Raegan or Reagan. I think it's Raegan Lockwood. (right in black).
The other twin clearly has self-esteem issues, is a party-girl ish, but is still intelligent, resilient and she's the nicer, kinder, sweeter one between the two, but she still has her issues. Her name is Maddie Lockwood. (left in pink)
Both of Kate's half-sisters are on the board of the company along with Kate's uncle, Rob.
Her half brother, Teddy Lockwood, is kind, and the most normal person in the entire season. And by normal, I mean that he isn't blood-hungry, or murder-prone. And he's also a good guy but he's overlooked and looked-down-on because Kate's father slept with his mom who was the maid.
Teddy is part of the company but not on the board but Kate is trying to get him on the board.
At an event, Kate blind-sides the entire board of her company, against her uncle's advice, but publicly announcing that they would donate a quarter of their profits. Because she didn't listen to him, Uncle Rob leaks her dirty secret to the news. The one where she covered for her Dad.
I say apparently because I was so unfocused watching the first half of Season 4.
Joe kills Rob — first in writing, and then for real. Both times, Kate is horrified. She sees, for the first time, how unhinged he really is. His bloodlust feels psychotic to her, and she expresses her fear with clarity and diplomacy, but her reaction is still too much for Joe to handle. Her feelings are valid (any sane person would feel the same), but Joe can’t tolerate anything that challenges his inflated, delusional view of himself. To him, the woman he once "loved" (who helped him kill and cover it up) no longer exists. He’s now fully embraced this violent version of himself - which to him is "romantic" - and expects Kate to do the same. When she doesn’t, he might feel a flicker of shame — but instead of facing it, he twists her fear into rejection. In his mind, if she doesn’t accept all of him, then she doesn’t really love him. That’s when she becomes a problem to him — an obstacle, a critic — and that’s the excuse he leans on when he starts cheating.
Love was really the right girl for him. She was too emotional for his liking but she saw that sick part of him and accepted him for who he was. But at that time, he hated that part of him so, he hated her. And now, he's all about embracing his dark side. To think, he only he had met Love Quinn later on. Right person, wrong timing. They both deserve life imprisonment but they were right for each other on paper.
Raegan is the main antagonist-ish in the beginning. She goes after Kate because she wants the board's votes and she crosses a line - she goes after HENRY, Joe's son. She got a child involved. So Joe wants to kill her, not that he needs the excuse. And Kate says no, causing a further drift between them. She expresses herself clearly, and her feelings are very valid. He expresses a psychotic, cold-blooded need for murder and she's scared. She has every right to be. I'm sitting here yelling at the screen, "DIVORCE HIM AND RUN." But she stays and keeps expressing herself. Of course, there's also the guaranteed mutual destruction because he knows a lot about her. She's complicit.
He starts romanticizing about Bronte/Louise who presents herself to be someone in need of protection. HIs superiority and hero complex LOVES what he sees and starts fantasizing about her. Call back to season 1. (you'll know when you see it)
I feel like the showrunners maybe wanted to do a full-circle. It started in Brooklyn, it ends in Brooklyn. I liked that. This season also had the same kick as the first season.
Season 1 was a great start. It was new, fresh and exciting. I loved Elizabeth Lail and Shay Mitchell. The dialogue was witty. The way season 1 was shot in Brooklyn, it felt very warm and inviting. I felt very sad when Guinnevere Beck died. I really liked her even though her character was effed up. I also really liked Peach. - as a character to watch, not as a person. But I was sad when those characters were killed off because they brought so much zest to the series.
Season 2 was still kinda good, mainly because it has an amazing cast with Jenna Ortega, Victoria Pedretti, and Ambyr Childers - they really carried the season aside from Dan. It felt less cozy. The show progressively got colder with each season until the final one. Season 3, I kind of blocked out.
This was the season I really, truly started to hate Joe. He was always a psycho but there was a sweet side to him. I was able to detach and see him as a character and the confused side that wanted to do good made me not hate him as much. It was like, he deserves to be put away but he's also so confused. He's pathetic and I feel bad him. However, Season 3 turned him from confused killer with a twisted reality to every douchebag that cheats on their wife and rationalizes it ON TOP of being a murderer. And I stopped detaching and started seeing him as a character I wanted dead. I was like fuck him.
Season 4. I don't know where to begin. I'm not sure what it was about season 4. It felt like the end of every tv series that had been on the air for a little too long. The point where the actors seem sick of it. It felt that way to me. At that point, I was sick of seeing Joe wrestle with his inner demons. It was more outlandish too the way Kate was involved in killing as well and covering up for Joe, and being so nonchalant about it. I was like wtf. I didn't like her. In fact, I hated her as much as Joe.
Season 5 felt like the redemption after season 4. Joe was peak douchebag. He sheds his past confused self. Now, he is sure of himself. He did the work, and after his brief moment of self-hatred, he came out the other end of that self-reflection not as a better man, but as a worse one. He represented every serial killer, and rapist in real life. He was appalling. I mean, hats-off to Dan Humphrey. He gave a solid performance. It was amazing. I couldn't wait to see him caught, put away, or tortured. I would have loved to see him try to lie in court and lose. Just like a worm hit by salt.
The reason I say that season 5 was so good was because of the momentum of the plot and how it builds overtime. The reveal of Bronte's identity, her confusion and relapse, it was so well-executed. However, when Bronte pulled a gun on him, it was frustrating. She was a bad actress. Bronte. Not Madeline Brewer.
I have a lot more to say but I'll leave it as this for now. I just had some word-vomit to write down before I forgot. I'll update more later. I still want to talk about Anna Camp's performance. I want to delve more into the plot point and Bronte's character. And a lot more other stuff. But I have to get back to my project.
I really enjoyed this last season. I'm still glad the series overall is over. It's an interesting concept showing us how the mind of a psycho works and how twisted his truth is. But perhaps because of the dark theme of the show, I felt like 5 seasons was way too long. I mean I can watch 10 seasons of B99 and it doesn't feel enough. I feel as though seasons 2 to 4 or maybe 3 and 4 could have been 1 season? I can see what they were trying to do.
Season 2 = further delusion + rude awakening
Season 4 = self-acceptance
Season 5 = taking it too far + consequences
I see what they were going for but it was emotionally and energetically draining watching seasons 3 and 4 mainly. It got too dark and really heavy.