Joe Goldberg is a monster. We know this. Yet, for some reason, millions of us sat huddled over our laptops when You Season 4 dropped on Netflix, watching a serial killer try to convince himself he’s the hero of a murder mystery. It was a massive pivot. Usually, the show follows a very specific, almost rhythmic pattern: Joe finds a girl, Joe stalks the girl, Joe kills people who get in the way, and eventually, Joe kills the girl. Rinse and repeat. But London changed things.
By the time we hit the fourth outing of this blood-soaked saga, the writers clearly realized they couldn't just do "Joe in a new city" again without it feeling stale. They had to break the machine. Honestly, the shift from a psychological thriller to a "Whodunit" slasher was the only way to keep the character from becoming a caricature of himself. It was a gamble. Some fans hated the departure from the gritty realism of the first season, but if you look closer at the narrative structure, the London setting provided the perfect playground for Joe’s deteriorating psyche.
The Jonathan Moore Identity and the London Shift
In You Season 4, Joe isn't the predator. At least, not at first. He’s "Jonathan Moore," a bearded, corduroy-wearing university professor who just wants to read books and be left alone. It’s hilarious because we know Joe is incapable of peace. He’s a shark; if he stops moving, he dies. The show creators, Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble, leaned hard into the trope of the "Eat the Rich" mystery, throwing Joe into a circle of insufferable, ultra-wealthy British socialites.
Think about the contrast. In New York, Joe was the invisible observer. In LA, he was the cynical outsider. In Madre Linda, he was the suffocating suburbanite. But in London, he’s the one being watched. The "Eat the Rich" killer starts picking off his new "friends," and suddenly Joe is playing detective. It’s a brilliant bit of gaslighting—not just for the characters, but for the audience. We actually start rooting for him to solve the crimes, momentarily forgetting that he has a literal trail of bodies stretching across two continents.
The pacing of the first half of the season felt different. Slower. It was more about the atmosphere of the high-society clubs and the tension of Joe trying to fit into a world where he clearly didn't belong. He’s a guy who judges people for not reading "real" books, now surrounded by people who own the publishing houses but haven't read a page in a decade. The irony is thick.
Why the Part 2 Twist Flipped the Script
Netflix did that thing where they split the season into two parts. Usually, that’s just a marketing ploy to keep people subscribed for another month, but for You Season 4, it actually served the story. Part 1 was a mystery. Part 2 was a psychological collapse.
The big reveal—that Rhys Montrose was actually a figment of Joe’s fractured mind—was the moment the season went from "fine" to "essential viewing." It wasn't just a Fight Club rip-off. It was a commentary on Joe’s inability to accept his own nature. He had compartmentalized his "darkness" so thoroughly that he literally projected it onto another person. Rhys represented everything Joe wanted to be: powerful, respected, and "honestly" murderous without the guilt.
When Joe realizes he’s been the one killing people all along? That’s when the season gets dark. Really dark. We see the return of the "cage," but this time, it's not just a physical box; it’s a mental trap. The sequence where Joe is hallucinating his past victims—Guinevere Beck and Love Quinn—wasn't just fan service. It was a reckoning. It forced Joe (and us) to acknowledge that there is no redemption for him. He isn't a "good man who does bad things." He’s just a bad man.
The Problem with the "Rich Kids"
If there’s one legitimate gripe about this season, it’s the supporting cast. The group of socialites—Phoebe, Adam, Simon, Gemma—were almost too annoying to care about. When Simon got murdered, did anyone actually feel bad? Probably not. They were caricatures of the 1%.
However, Lady Phoebe was the exception. Tilly Keeper played her with a vulnerability that made her the only person in that circle worth saving. Her friendship with Joe was bizarrely sweet, mostly because she was the only one who didn't look down on him. But the rest? They were cannon fodder. This is a common trope in the slasher genre, but for a show that usually prides itself on complex side characters (think Delilah in Season 2), it felt a bit thin.
Examining Joe’s Evolution (or Devolution)
By the end of the season, Joe Goldberg is more dangerous than he has ever been. Why? Because he’s finally stopped lying to himself. He’s back in New York, he has millions of dollars thanks to Kate’s inheritance, and he has a powerful PR team to scrub his past. He’s no longer the "underdog" stalker. He’s the establishment.
The final scene, where Joe looks at his reflection and sees Rhys smiling back, is chilling. It signals the end of the "romantic" Joe Goldberg. Throughout the first three seasons, Joe's internal monologue was filled with justifications. "I'm doing this for you." "I'm protecting you." In You Season 4, that delusion finally breaks. He accepts his shadow self.
This sets up a terrifying premise for the final season. A Joe Goldberg who doesn't feel the need to hide his tracks because he has the resources to make them disappear is a much bigger threat than a guy with a glass cage in a basement.
Practical Takeaways for Fans Re-watching Season 4
If you’re planning a re-watch or just catching up, here are a few things to keep an eye on that change the entire experience once you know the ending:
- Watch Rhys’s interactions: Pay close attention to whenever Joe is "talking" to Rhys Montrose in the first five episodes. You'll notice that Rhys never actually interacts with anyone else in the room at the same time as Joe. It’s classic "imaginary friend" cinematography, hidden in plain sight.
- The Bookshelf Clues: Joe’s apartment is filled with literature that foreshadows the split-personality twist. The show has always used books as symbols, but here, the themes of duality are everywhere.
- Kate’s Role: Kate is the first "You" who isn't a damsel in distress or a fellow psychopath (well, mostly). Her coldness is a shield, and her acceptance of Joe’s "past" (or what she thinks is his past) shows how much power can corrupt even the most cynical people.
What's Next?
The journey of You Season 4 was about stripping away the lies. Joe tried to be a better person in London. He tried to "do the right thing." And he failed miserably because you cannot outrun who you are. The season effectively murdered the "sympathetic serial killer" trope that the show had been flirting with for years.
Going forward, the stakes are higher. Joe is back where it all started, but the world is different. He isn't the creepy bookstore manager anymore. He's a titan of industry with a dark secret and a bottomless bank account. The ending of this season wasn't just a conclusion; it was a transformation.
If you want to prepare for the final chapter, go back and watch the pilot episode after finishing Season 4. The contrast between the scrawny guy stalking Beck and the polished man standing in the Manhattan penthouse is staggering. The mask hasn't just slipped; it's been replaced by a much more expensive one.
Next time you watch, don't just focus on the kills. Focus on the internal monologue. Notice how the tone shifts from self-pity to cold calculation. That’s the real story of London. It wasn't a vacation; it was a graduation. Joe Goldberg has finally graduated into the monster he was always meant to be.
