How do you know the difference between true love and obsession? And how far are you willing to go to protect the people you care about? Those are two of the questions Netflix’s dark thriller You has asked for four seasons. This month, Netflix is dropping the fifth and final season of You. And we may finally find out if our anti-hero is going to get caught by law enforcement for all of his past crimes, or if there’s another, darker kind of karma in store for his ending.
Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) is many things at the beginning of season 5: husband, father, budding philanthropist. And he’s hoping that all of those things are enough to keep his more murderous instincts at bay. Back in New York where the show began, Joe has accepted his dark side and is prepared to use all the tools at his disposal to help his wife Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) run her late father’s multi-billion dollar business. Kate’s siblings (new cast members Anna Camp and Griffin Matthews) aren’t going to make that easy, as we see in the official trailer. Plus, it’s going to be hard for Joe to rely on his usual tricks when he has the spotlight of the entire world shining on him. Complications are sure to grow as another new woman enters Joe’s life, Bronte (Madeline Brewer).
Here’s everything you need to remember about You and when you can expect season five to drop. A brief content warning: You is rated TV-MA (mature audience). The series deals with themes of abuse, violence and suicide.
You season 5 release date and time
All 10 episodes of season five will premiere on Thursday, April 24, at midnight PT (3 a.m. ET) on Netflix. You can catch up on the show now with any Netflix subscription.
You is exclusively available on Netflix, so you’ll need a subscription to watch the show. You can grab the ad-supported plan for only $7 per month, or you can upgrade to the standard plan ($15.50 per month) or the premium plan ($23 per month) for additional features. You can check out our full review of Netflix to see why it’s ‘s top choice.
You season 4 recap
You don’t need to rewatch the entire show to understand season five, but there are some important things you need to remember. Beware: There are major spoilers in the season four recap below.
Joe Goldberg has been infatuated with many women throughout the series: Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail), Candace Stone (Ambyr Childers) and Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), but it’s his obsession with Marienne Bellamy (Tati Gabrielle) that sends him across the pond at the beginning of season four. Single mom Marienne met Joe in season three at the San Francisco library where she worked. But after learning Joe killed her ex-husband, she flees the country and heads for Paris. Joe eventually catches up with her on a work trip in London, but he surprises her by letting her leave unharmed.
Joe is still presumed dead in the US, so he adopts the name Jonathan Moore and gets a job as an English literature professor. Joe quickly falls in with a group of wealthy socialites, including art gallery director Kate who captures his attention. Things get messy quickly as members of the group are targeted by the “Eat the Rich” killer. That’s made even worse by the fact that Joe has a stalker of his own, who threatens to frame him for all the murders.
Joe suspects that the killer is Rhys Montrose (Ed Speleers), a popular politician and friend of the group. When Joe confronts Rhys, we learn that the Rhys that Joe has been talking with all season is actually a figment of his imagination, a stress-induced hallucination meant to represent all his darkest urges. After fighting with the imaginary Rhys — and killing the real guy — it’s revealed that Joe is behind the “Eat the Rich” murders. He actually didn’t let Marienne return home to Paris; instead, he locked Marienne in a cage, and Joe believes he left her there to die. Luckily, one of Joe’s students, Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman), catches onto his plan and teams up with Marienne to fake her death. Marienne gets one of the few happy endings in the show, returning home to her daughter in Paris and out of danger with Joe thinking she’s dead.
Joe’s psychic split, as Netflix calls it, is his breaking point. Imaginary Rhys taunts Joe, urging him to give into his murderous desires, which he momentarily does when he kills Kate’s billionaire father. But he’s convinced that he is ultimately the biggest threat to her well-being, and he attempts to take his own life. He survives, and in the hospital with Kate, he reveals some of his past. (His real name and that he’s killed people. He omits that he killed her father.) Kate is no stranger to ethical quandaries and still feels guilt from her work at her father’s company. She still wants to be with Joe, saying they could keep each other honest and try to do better. Joe’s take on that promise is to embrace his dark side. He frames Nadia’s boyfriend for Rhys’s murder, then frames Nadia for her boyfriend’s death. The season ends with Joe and Kate together in New York, newly empowered by Kate’s family money and power — and more dangerous than ever.
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