Warning: Contains Spoilers
If you’re anything like me, you’ll have binge-watched every single episode of You season two before the new year and will have lost all track of what day it was.
That’s what Christmas is all about – no judgment please.
Now that it’s over though, nothing remains but a Joe Goldberg-shaped hole in our lives and a need to know what the bloody hell that ending was all about.
That ending being (spoiler alert) Love finding out Joe, played by Penn Badgley, is a serial killer and a stalker before we the audience find out Love is also a serial killer and stalker. Yey!
We then discover Love, played by Victoria Pedretti, is pregnant with Joe’s child, before the two decide to settle down as a happy/dysfunctional family in the suburbs. Don’t worry though because it’s not too long before Joe’s stalker-ish antics are back in full force as he finds a new obsession in his neighbour.
Disclaimer: none of that happened in Hidden Bodies, the book by Caroline Kepnes on which the Netflix show is based. In fact, the book had a completely different ending for Joe than the one we see in the TV series.
In the book, Joe doesn’t end up in the suburbs. Nope, he ends up in a prison cell for his many crimes, with justice finally catching up to him.
Joe and Love do end up together expecting a baby prior to his arrest, but there’s no twist that Love is a serial killer as in the Netflix series.
Instead, Joe murders Delilah himself and, rather than Forty being shot by the police, Joe takes him to the desert in Nevada and drowns him in the hot springs. As you do.
Love does find out about Joe’s escapades (minus the murder of Forty) but rather than confess to similar crimes she just… accepts it. Yep, Joe tells her all about murdering Beck, Peach, etc… and Love just decides to stay with him because she loves him. Oooookay then.
Their happy little bubble is soon popped though when Dr Nicky gives the police a tip about a mysterious patient he believes framed him for Beck’s murder. They then realise Joe murdered her and collect evidence that connects him to his many killings.
The book finishes with Joe in jail, believing Love’s rich family will help get him off without punishment. His last thought is: ‘I’m one of the rich people now, the untouchables. These fuckers can’t nail me.’
Hmmm okay, nice to know his arrogance extends to when he’s sitting in a prison cell for multiple murders. At least Netflix decided not to end season two that way, or we might not have been blessed with a third season.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).