Hello there, You. It’s been a long time. Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), the neighborhood serial murderer with a taste for baseball hats and pompous literature, returns for the new season of You, but with a new identity, new place, and new goal. Surprisingly (and luckily), Joe’s next prey isn’t another helpless woman. Instead, in Season 4 of You, Joe is the one on the defensive as he desperately seeks to discover the identity of the “Eat the Rich Killer,” a mysterious stranger who murders members of the Oxford circle of affluent snobs in which Joe finds himself. Oh, and the murderer is also aware of Joe’s actual identity and complete violent history. So much for Joe’s pleasant holiday in the United Kingdom.
Joe was on the run at the end of Season 3 after murdering his wife Love (Victoria Pedretti), faking his own death, and abandoning their newborn baby. Joe arrives in London at the start of Season 4 with a new identity: Professor Jonathan Moore, a college instructor of American short fiction. He is surrounded by a fresh ensemble of strange people, a group of buddies he met as an Oxford undergraduate. Joe despises the Oxford group because they are filthy wealthy elitists who received fame and money without having to work for it.
Up to this moment, each season of You has been set in a different place, with its own distinct cast of caricatures. Season 4 is no exception. Season 4 digs into the realm of the wealthy and royal, much as Season 2 nailed the caricature of granola LA hipsters and Season 3 highlighted the poisonous wasteland of momfluencers. Charlotte Ritchie’s character Kate, who may be a member of the elite, but has an emotional history that balances out her initial “ice queen” performance, is one of the standouts in You’s new supporting ensemble. Tilly Keeper is a joy as Lady Phoebe, a member of the royal family who lacks the brutality and inhumanity of her affluent contemporaries. Keeper’s comic timing is impeccable, but she also delivers a particular emotional touch as a lady who, behind all the luxury, feels terribly alone and misunderstood. Ed Speleers also shines as novelist Rhys Montrose, the surprise member of the Oxford club because of his low birthplace.
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Overall, the new supporting cast works well against Joe, but they frequently go too far into the hyperbolic. You have always had an outrageous array of characters, but there may only be so much you can do with royalty before it loses its hilarious charm. The Oxford bunch is simply not as memorable as Sherry (Shalita Grant) and Cary (Travis Van Winkle) Conrad (real Season 3 MVPs), or even Artisanal Soda Bro Benji (Lou Taylor Pucci) from Season 1. And, of course, no one compares to Love Quinn. Pedretti’s stunning, haunting performance as Love infused fresh life into You, so when she died unexpectedly last season, it was difficult to envision how the show would exist without her. And here’s the truth: with Love, Joe’s ideal mate, you let go of its pounding heart, and her absence is felt in Season 4. There is a sensation that something is lacking without Pedretti. Having said that, Season 4 established that You Can Still Be Good Without Love for one important reason: it finally violated its tried-and-true pattern.
Aside from Pedretti’s memorable performance in the previous two seasons, Love’s arrival to the series worked so well because she provided Joe with his first genuine enemy – his mirror image. She flipped the script on Joe and sabotaged what we imagined would be another Beck (Elizabeth Lail) 2.0 situation: stalk, charm, murder. With the Season 4 video showing Joe following Marienne (Tati Gabrielle) through the streets of a new city, it was easy to believe we were returning to fundamentals. Was Marienne similar to Beck (but much cooler and less whiny)? Will Season 4 consist of Joe relentlessly chasing the same woman in every episode?
Season 4 avoids this by making Joe the intended victim. His typical narrative, which drives the program, is no longer given with twisted “adoration” for a lady, but with a smoldering disdain for a stranger who is hellbent on getting his hands dirty by succumbing to his violent instincts.
This not only adds a new twist to an established formula that You has followed for three seasons, but it also allows us to delve further into Joe’s skewed concept of self. Throughout the season, Joseph is outraged by the “Eat the Rich” murderer’s activities, evidently believing himself to be morally better – despite the reality that the killer is only repeating what Joe has done for the prior three seasons. How dare someone follows him around and discovers every element of his life? Joe is incensed by the stranger’s bravado, underscoring Joe’s complete delusion and highly skewed view of himself as the “tragic hero” who only acts for “love.”
Season 4’s second half is undeniably stronger than the first. Part 2 (coming out on March 9) focuses on what You do best. Just when you’re thinking, “This is excellent, but it’s missing something,” you give it to yourself. You are the king of surprises, and Season 4 is no exception. While the first half of Season 4 is definitely entertaining, there is a sense that something more is going on. You have never settled since Season 2; it constantly finds a way to pull the rug out from under its audience. We learned at the end of Season 2 that Love is not who Joe believes she is – and certainly not who we thought she was. Did it beg the hard question: is Love as evil as Joe? Is she rehabilitable? Then, in Season 3, you did something completely unexpected. At the end of Episode 1, just when we thought there was a new “You” with Joe’s new neighbor, the mystery woman over the fence (Michaela McManus), Love gave her the axe (literally). You turned the main story on its head just when we thought we understood it.
Part 1 of Season 4 continues the story, concentrating mostly on the overarching mystery: who is the Eat the Rich killer? And, although it’s entertaining (and frequently humorous, considering the Oxford gang’s blasé attitude towards the death of their so-called buddies), there’s the urgent matter of how You’ll keep it intriguing once the mystery is revealed. Yes, it’s entertaining to watch Joe try to track down his own mystery stalker, but it lacks the spark that had us on the edge of our seats for the previous three seasons.
Then there’s Part 2, which is a doozy. Once again, You turn the tables on us and leave us reeling. Your Season 4’s final five episodes include Badgley’s most stunning performance to date. Badgley portrays Joe’s thoughts, actions, and tornado of emotions with such delicacy that you are reminded of why you enjoy watching this show in the first place. This season of You took a chance by taking its tried-and-true narrative in a new way – and it paid off. Season 4 of You is daring and surprising, with cruel twists and turns. Joe Goldberg has accomplished an increasingly difficult task in Season 4 – he continues to wow us.
