Netflix dropped the final five episodes of You Season 4 on March 9, and we can wholeheartedly admit we were not expecting…all of that.
You proved it was capable of reinventing itself in Season 4, Part 1 by setting the show in London, introducing Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgely) as Professor Jonathan Moore, and assuring viewers that all of this season’s murders weren’t committed by him.
The first half of the season, which premiered on February 9, laid groundwork for an elaborate setup. A mystery murderer, revealed as renowned author Rhys Montrose (Ed Speleers) in Episode 5, knew about Joe’s damning past and was blackmailing him via text. In the final minutes of Part 1, Rhys locked Joe and Roald in a burning basement to die. Then after the two escaped, Joe watched Rhys give a speech on TV, announcing that he’s going to run for mayor of London. “I know who you really are now, Rhys,” Joe said in a voiceover. “And I’m coming for you.”
Despite the seemingly clear-cut cliffhanger, You Season 4, Part 2 challenges everything you thought you knew about Joe, Rhys, the Eat The Rich Killer, and reality as a whole. In perhaps its biggest twist of all, the series reinvents itself AGAIN, delivering a wild, mind-boggling batch of episodes that will leave fans wondering WTF just happened.
Curious how You Season 4 ends? Wondering who the real Eat The Rich Killer is? And who dies in the final five episodes? Read on for Decider’s You Part 2 ending explained, but be mindful that massive You Part 2 spoilers lie ahead.
You Season 4, Episode 6 picks up where Part 1 left off: Joe is out to get Rhys Montrose. We open with Joe attending one of Rhys’ speeches in the park, and as Joe’s watching Rhys, a mystery woman is watching Joe. When Joe gets home from work, the author is waiting in his apartment and admits he’s been killing friends who were liabilities to his campaign. Joe tells Rhys he’s sick, then Rhys threatens to pin all the murders on Joe unless he can find a scapegoat.
Later at a Sundry House event, the same woman who was spying on Joe at the park ushers Phoebe to a safe room under the guise of police questioning, but once the two are alone, we learn she’s a stalker/kidnapper who’s obsessed with Phoebe. Luckily, Joe swoops in to save Phoebe, then uses a severed ear Rhys planted in his freezer to frame her stalker as the Eat The Rich Killer. Convenient! After the chaos, Phoebe (who finally knows Adam is broke) denies his proposal, while Kate and Joe decide to date. Unfortunately, for Joe, Rhys orders him to kill Kate’s father, Tom Lockwood, who also knows Joe’s real identity. If you think your head is spinning now, just wait until we tell you that TOM asks JOE to kill RHYS, too. Chaos.
After Rhys reveals he has Marienne locked up in a cage, Joe feels compelled to harm him. So he heads to Rhys’ house, ties him up, and tortures him for info. When Rhys claims he doesn’t know who Joe is, Joe loses control and kills him. But an imaginary Rhys appears beside the real Rhys’ dead body, proving that Joe is having some sort of psychotic break. Meanwhile, Nadia — now properly suspicious of her professor — breaks into Joe’s flat, finds a mysterious key, and unlocks a door across from Joe’s favorite restaurant. There, she finds Marienne alive, locked in Joe’s glass cage in a dark basement. Here we go again!
Turns out, Joe never let Marienne leave London. He drugged, kidnapped, then forgot about her after slamming his head against the glass box and wreaking havoc on his psyche. We see everything play out through flashbacks and learn that Joe hallucinated his interactions/text messages with Rhys. That means Joe — not Rhys — killed Malcolm, Simon, and Gemma. Yikes. Nadia and Marienne furiously plan her escape. Then Joe finds Marienne and vows to let her go, but once Marienne learns she lost custody of her daughter Juliette, she says she has nothing to live for.
In the spirit of mess, Phoebe marries Adam, then has a mental breakdown and is committed to a treatment facility. And Kate gives Joe a peek into her monstrous past, learns her father has been secretly running her entire life, and finds out he had Adam killed. After a hallucinatory dream that featured surprise visits from Beck and Love, Joe tries to save Marienne. But when he goes to free her from the cage, he finds she overdosed on a bottle of painkillers.
Season 4, Episode 10 kicks off with Joe leaving Marienne’s body on a park bench and Nadia finally filling Edward (aka Eddie) in on their professor’s real identity. She brings him to the basement to find Marienne, but she and the cage are gone.
Joe has every intention of killing himself, but after Kate vents about her father, he decides to make a pit stop and kill Tom Lockwood and his bodyguard Hugo. The next morning, Joe heads to a bridge, throws his imaginary frenemy Rhys into the water, and jumps in after him. We’re SURE he’s dead this time, but he wakes up in the hospital after police rescued him, and Kate comes in to comfort him.
Joe decides if they’re going to date he must come clean about everything. He tells her he’s done horrible things, and she knows her father convinced him to murder Rhys. Kate forgives Joe, then suggests they keep each other good and take over her father’s company and empire. “So what do I need to know about your past?” she asks. “To start, my name is Joe Goldberg,” he replies. And just like that, another woman is totally fine with dating a dude who murders people!
Back at the library, Nadia and Eddie realize Joe’s an obsessive, so he’s likely kept items belonging to his victims. Before they break into his apartment again, Nadia reveals that she and Marienne faked her death and made Joe believe she’d lost custody of Juliette. In reality, Marienne took pills to slow her heart rate down, and Nadia revived her in the park. At Joe’s flat, Nadia finds a box of Rhys’ things, takes photos of the evidence, then flees. But Joe corners her outside, swipes her phone, and deletes the photos. He promises he won’t hurt her and says he will “make this work for all of us.” Nadia swears she won’t say anything about him or his past to anybody, but before we learn her fate, we cut to a montage of Eat The Rich Killer survivors set to a perfect Taylor Swift needle drop.
In a voiceover, Joe explains that Blessing (Ozioma Whenu) and Sophie (Niccy Lin) bought Sundry House after Adam (Lukas Gage) died. Roald (Ben Wiggins) returned to London after a hunting trip in Germany where he accidentally killed a close friend. (But don’t worry. His parents buried the scandal.) Phoebe (Tilly Keeper) tied up business in London and now teaches English to elementary school kids in Thailand. And though he still doesn’t know it, Marienne (Tati Gabrielle) is safe at home with her daughter Juliette reading an article from The Cut titled, “A Brush with Death, A New Life of Philanthropy: How Joe Goldberg Escaped Killer Love Quinn.”
“Tom Lockwood was right. You can come home again,” a clean-shaven Joe says as the camera shows him, Kate, and a reporter sitting in a swanky office with a view of New York City. “All you need is Kate, plus a cybersecurity team, a squadron of publicists and Cynthia. Scrub search results, hack news archives, bribe the Madre Linda chief of police — all to support the simple true story of Joe Goldberg.” Thanks to a creepy window reflection of Rhys, we know that Joe hasn’t killed his compulsion to kill just yet, but he and Kate are intent on “changing the world.”
As for Nadia and Eddie, we flash back to her confrontation with Joe post-apartment search to learn that Joe murdered Eddie, framed him for Rhys’ murder, then framed Nadia for Eddie’s murder. Nadia is in prison and hasn’t said a word about Joe. UGH!!!!!
All 10 episodes of You Season 2 are now streaming on Netflix.