It’s that time of the year to relearn Joe Goldberg’s new name once again, because he simply can’t commit to an identity, a city, or a woman. On February 9th, the first five episodes of the anticipated European Season 4 of ‘‘You’’ were released on Netflix. Although, I considered myself one of the loyal ‘‘You’’ watchers since Season 1, I felt definite about not watching the new season, if Love Quinn– portrayed by the incredible Victoria Pedretti–was actually dead.
Well, admittedly, I spoke too soon. Even though the first episode of Season 4 makes no promises of a potential Love Quinn return, I still find myself getting sucked into Joe’s non-stop, delusional voiceover with a hint of comedic self-awareness and his classy new lifestyle in London.
Joe is now a university professor named Jonathan Moore, has a lovely flat with the perfect setup for his voyeur adventures and a murder mystery to solve. As always, Joe wants everyone to understand that he is hopinh for a fresh start and he is a good man, who had to do bad things.
Season 4 introduces a new twist for both Joe and the audience: an unknown killer and stalker. Yes, the iconic stalker gets stalked. In the first 3 seasons of the Netflix hit series, the thrill didn’t come from a whodunit scenario. It fueled from not knowing what Joe would do next to make sure he inserted himself into the lives of the women he was obsessively intrigued by. Besides the uncertainty that came from Joe’s unstable personality, the audience always had the answers to who killed who, why, and how. Whether it was Joe killing Marianne’s ex-husband to ‘‘protect’’ her or Love killing the suburban parents who lied about measles, there’s always been murder in ‘‘You’’, but never a mystery surrounding it for the audience.
So, an unexpected dead body and an unknown killer stalking Joe instead of Joe doing the stalking or killing (so far) is not common in the You universe. Up until now, Joe’s always been in control as the charming villain leading the plot. The only ones trying to solve a mystery were the unaware characters in the show– the victims or those who knew the victims. The new season turns the tables and puts Joe and the audience in the role of ‘‘detective’’, decoding murder mystery– a genre despised by Joe, probably because he has more experience covering murder tracks than uncovering them.
Joe’s new identity, Jonathan, also comes with a new friend group of wealthy artists, respected academics, and the nepo babies of London. Almost instantly, Joe accidentally befriends his wealthy neighbor and colleague Malcolm, despite his efforts to remain isolated to avoid attention. Malcom invites Joe to attend a party at an exclusive elitist club in Soho with his high society friend group, referred to by Joe as London’s douchebag contenders. The wild night starts with Joe doing what he does best, observing every single persona in the room after conducting a detailed background check on all of them.
During the party, the anticipation builds up every time Joe comes across a new woman– raising the question of which unlucky woman will he be transfixed by and turn into his new fixation. But, as he still isn’t over Marienne, he despises almost everyone he meets instead, gets too drunk, and wakes up in his flat with a dead body lying on the dining table. Shocking enough, the dead body is Malcolm, the wealthy colleague.
Joe being Joe, he quickly cleans up the murder scene and disposes of the body. Of course, considering his past actions, he assumes he must have killed Malcom after the party, while drunk– and yet, it’s soon revealed that it was someone else. A new murderer, who is Joe’s own personal nightmare.
With the show’s iconic line ‘‘Hello, you.’’ directed at Joe for once, the pilot episode of Season 4 promises an exciting rival for Joe Goldberg, mysterious and entertaining new characters, and a tiny bit of hope for Love Quinn’s possible return for revenge (fingers crossed) for optimists like myself.