Season one of You follows Joe Goldberg, a bookstore manager in New York who becomes
obsessed with aspiring writer Guinevere Beck and begins stalking her and manipulating her
life to court her and develop a relationship.
When Joe first meets Beck, it’s a creepy love at first sight.
He fantasizes about being in a relationship with her and justifies all of the horrific
things he’ll eventually do for love as necessary.
Joe breaks into Beck’s apartment to snoop around and learn more about her, and follows
her throughout her day to keep tabs on her.
When a drunken Beck falls onto the subway tracks, it’s Joe that is miraculously there
to save her.
He even steals her phone so he can monitor conversations she has once getting a new one.
The first major obstacle in Joe’s way of winning Beck’s heart is her on-again-off-again
boyfriend Benji.
Benji’s a bit of a tool, so Joe feels completely justified in attacking him and locking him
up in the book vault of his bookstore’s basement.
Eventually, Joe realizes there’s no good way out of this situation, and kills Benji.
He covers up this act by burning Benji’s body and making it appear that Benji has simply
run off.
Following Benji’s murder, Joe and Beck enter into a relationship, but another obstacle
presents itself.
Beck’s best friend Peach is suspicious of Joe and is similarly obsessed with Beck and
manipulating her to bend Beck to her wants.
A jealous Joe hits Peach on the head with a rock and leaves her for dead, but unfortunately
for Joe, she survives the attack.
Not sure that it was Joe that attacked her, but still very much suspicious, Peach invites
Beck over to her family estate for a getaway with plans to whisk Beck off to live together
in Paris.
Beck turns down the offer, realizing that Joe was correct about Peach’s manipulative
ways, and leaves the estate.
Joe then kills Peach and frames it as self-inflicted due to heartbreak.
With Peach now out of the picture, Joe and Beck are finally free to be together with
no more distractions!
And that lasts...for a few months.
Beck grows secretive and distant, which only further fuels Joe’s jealousy and possessiveness.
He begins to suspect that Beck is cheating on him with her therapist, Dr. Nicky, and
even begins seeing the therapist himself using an alias.
Eventually, Joe confronts Beck about her relationship with Dr. Nicky.
Hurt that Joe doesn’t trust her, she breaks up with him.
Three months pass, and Joe is doing his best to move on.
Throughout the season, Joe has looked after Paco, the young son of his drug addict neighbor,
Claudia.
Claudia’s boyfriend is an abusive parole officer named Ron who is constantly picking
fights with Claudia, Paco, and Joe.
Joe enters into a relationship with Karen, Claudia’s friend, and the two help Claudia
get clean.
But try as he might to convince himself that Karen is right for him, Joe just can’t seem
to get over Beck.
Similarly, Beck isn’t over Joe.
And so, Joe breaks up with Karen and reunites with Beck, making them seemingly stronger
than ever.
But when a spiteful Karen tells Beck that Joe will always be pining for his ex, Beck
begins to look into Joe’s previous relationship with the mysterious Candace.
Beck discovers that Candace was an ex-girlfriend of Joe’s that seemingly went completely
off the grid following their breakup and hasn’t contacted friends or family in years.
Beck grows concerned that something sinister is at play with Joe, and she SHOULD be concerned,
as we learn that Joe had previously killed a man named Elijah after discovering that
Candace was having an affair with him.
Mr. Mooney, the original owner of the bookstore Joe managed and a father figure that mentally
abused him as a child, helped Joe cover up Elijah’s death.
Although Joe is able to come up with an explanation for Candace’s disappearance, all of his
dark secrets are revealed when Beck discovers a hidden box in Joe’s apartment filled with
mementos of all his previous crimes.
Beck’s original phone, Peach’s phone, Benji’s phone, even Benji’s teeth.
His violent ways exposed, Joe is left with no choice but to lock Beck up in the book
vault until he can figure out a way to make their relationship work again.
Beck pleads for her life and release, and eventually even suggests that Joe pin all
of his crimes on Dr. Nicky.
Back at his apartment building, the abusive Ron beats Claudia and puts her in the hospital.
Joe is forced to kill Ron to protect Paco and explains to Paco what must be done to
cover up this murder.
As Joe deals with all of this, Beck uses a typewriter in the book vault to write her
story, detailing all of Joe’s horrific crimes, but attributing them to Dr. Nicky instead.
When Joe finally returns, Beck is able to convince him that she loves him and understands
why he did everything he did.
She lures Joe into the vault and locks him inside.
But her escape plan is thwarted when she discovers the basement door is also locked and a loyal
Paco refuses to help her.
Joe then escapes the vault and finally kills Beck.
Four months later, the book Beck wrote in the vault is a huge success.
It also leads to the arrest of a framed Dr. Nicky, inadvertently exonerating Joe.
But just as it looks like Joe will be able to get away with all of his past crimes, his
ex-girlfriend Candace shows up, very much alive, to confront Joe over their unfinished
business.
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In season 2 of You, we learn the truth about Joe’s past relationship with his ex Candace.
After getting into a fight upon discovering that Candace was having an affair, Joe accidentally
bludgeons Candace’s head.
Thinking he’s killed her, Joe buries Candace’s body and flees.
It turns out, Candace wasn’t dead, and wakes up after having been buried alive.
She goes to the police to have Joe arrested, but they turn her away.
And so now Candace has to get her own justice, by making sure Joe’s life was miserable
and to stop him from ever hurting another woman.
With Candace back in the picture, Joe flees New York City to hide out in Los Angeles.
He locks up professional identity forger Will Bettelheim in a newly built book vault and
assumes his identity, then quickly secures himself a new apartment and a new job working
in the book section of a trendy grocery store called Anavrin.
Proving to himself that he’s a better, changed man, Joe eventually releases the real Will
Bettelheim from the book vault after he promises to keep quiet.
Joe quickly finds a new object of his desire, Love Quinn, a recent widow from the wealthy
family that owns Anavrin.
Unlike Beck, Love is quickly all in on her relationship with Joe right from the start,
and it’s Joe who is hesitant to pursue the relationship due to fearing it will lead Love
to the same fate as Beck.
But Joe eventually succumbs to his desires and engages in a relationship with Love.
Complicating his relationship with Love is her own co-dependent relationship with her
twin brother, Forty.
Forty is a recovering addict and trust fund baby who dreams of being a famous writer and
director, but lacks the drive and talent necessary to succeed.
Soon, Joe has been roped in to helping Forty write his next attempted film project, an
adaptation of Guinevere Beck’s book.
And to make things with Forty even more complicated, Love’s twin brother also begins dating a
woman named Amy, who is actually Joe’s ex-girlfriend, Candace.
Candace gets close to Love and warns her about Joe’s violent nature, but unfortunately,
Love believes Joe when he claims that Candace is just a crazy, spiteful ex-girlfriend.
Meanwhile, Joe also develops a friendship with his new teenage neighbor, Ellie.
When Ellie lands an internship with famous comedian Henderson, Ellie’s older sister
Delilah confides in Joe that Henderson has a history of sexually assaulting minors, including
Delilah when she was younger.
And so, Joe goes into vengeful protector mode, confronting Henderson about his history of
abuse.
This confrontation ends with Joe accidentally pushing Henderson down a flight of stairs,
which kills him, leading to yet another murder for Joe to cover up.
Although the police determine that Henderson killed himself, Delilah’s cop friend with
benefits, Fincher, starts looking more into the case and begins to suspect Joe.
This prompts Delilah to search Joe’s apartment for evidence, which prompts Joe to lock Delilah
up in his book vault.
Joe doesn’t want to kill Delilah and leave Ellie an orphan, so he plans to release her
and flee the country, leaving behind Love.
But when Joe goes to the book vault the next morning, he finds that Delilah has been murdered.
Candace arrives and locks Joe inside, then calls Love to the scene so she can prove once
and for all that Joe is a murderer.
But this plan backfires on Candace, as Love murders her and confesses to Joe that she
also killed Delilah so that Joe’s secret was safe and he wouldn’t need to run away
without her.
And then Love reveals that she also killed her and Forty’s au pair when they were children
AND that all season long SHE has been manipulating JOE to make him fall in love with her, the
same way he did to Beck in season one.
This shatters Joe’s image of Love and he even debates killing her, but Love reveals
that she’s pregnant, so Joe decides to try loving Love again so he could be with his
baby.
And although Love can forgive Joe of his past crimes, her twin brother Forty can not, confronting
the two of them and holding Joe at gunpoint.
And that’s when Officer Fincher arrives, shooting and killing Forty.
The murders of Henderson and Candace are then pinned on Forty, and the Quinn family helps
to cover up the crimes.
Joe then gives the newly orphaned Ellie a stack of cash and promises to continue sending
money as she runs off to start a new life.
Now with all of his roadblocks and issues resolved, Joe is free to be with Love, moving
into a nice suburban house together in which they could raise their baby.
Buuuuuuut finding out Love is a murderer is not something Joe can move past so easily,
and he’s already got his sights set on his next object of desire, his new next door neighbor.
In season 3 of You, Joe and Love attempt to live in peaceful domestic bliss in the Madre
Linda suburbs, but things quickly begin to unravel.
Joe becomes obsessed with their new neighbor, Natalie Engler, and loses interest in both
his wife, Love, and their newborn child, Henry.
When Love discovers Joe’s latest obsession, she murders Natalie.
After helping Love dispose of Natalie’s body, Joe and his wife attempt to cover up
Natalie’s death while also ingratiating themselves into their new community.
Joe is hired by a local librarian named Marienne to restore rare books, leading to her becoming
Joe’s newest obsession.
When Joe discovers that Marienne’s ex-husband, Ryan, was playing dirty to win custody of
the couple’s young child, Joe begins stalking him to figure out a way to help his new love.
Eventually, Ryan catches Joe stalking him, forcing Joe to murder him.
Meanwhile, Love opens her own bakery and builds a new plexiglass vault in its basement.
After discovering a local anti-vax man named Gil had inadvertently caused Henry to catch
the measles, Love frames him for Natalie’s murder.
Love also befriends local mom influencer Sherry Conrad, who proposes that she and her husband,
Cary, enter into a swinging relationship with Love and Joe.
Joe, looking for a way to end his marriage, agrees to the proposition.
As Joe and Love continue their new sexual exploits with the Conrads, they accidentally
expose their involvement in Natalie’s murder.
Joe and Love are forced to subdue the Conrads and lock them in the plexiglass vault, which
the eccentric Conrads find to be arousing.
As Love feels Joe pulling away to focus on his new obsession, she begins a new relationship
of her own.
Love meets and quickly becomes romantic with a young college student named Theo.
Love soon discovers that Theo is in fact the step-son of Matthew Engler, husband of the
murdered Natalie.
Theo confides in Love that Matthew is skeptical that Gil is the real murderer and begins illegally
surveilling the residents of Madre Linda.
Although Matthew eventually gives up on his search, Theo does see video footage of Joe
driving Natalie’s car and races to the bakery to warn Love of her husband’s crimes.
At the bakery, Theo discovers the imprisoned Conrads, forcing Love to knock him out, although
Joe does rescue him and bring him to the hospital.
Love finally confronts Joe about his new obsession with Marienne, prompting Joe to ask for a
divorce.
Devastated by her husband’s actions, Love paralyzes him with a drug known as aconite
and then calls Marienne to their home, where she reveals to the librarian that Joe was
a violent man who had murdered Ryan.
After Marienne flees, Love attempts to kill her husband for his betrayal.
Instead, Joe reveals that he has taken an antidote, and then murders Love, frames her
for all of the Madre Linda deaths, and burns down their home.
As the season comes to a close, Sherry and Cary escape the vault, their marriage stronger
than ever, the estranged Matthew and Theo reconcile, and Joe leaves his son Henry in
the care of his co-worker, Dante, before heading to Paris, France in search of Marienne.