‘You’ Season 3: Does New Character Theo Survive?

As You fans know, the crossing paths with Joe (Penn Badgley) or Love (Victoria Pedretti) can be a deadly proposition… so, does Theo die in Season 3? After all, this is a college kid who gets himself snarled up in Joe and Love’s dysfunctional marriage, so the odds are stacked against him.

We’ve got the answer, but beware: Season 3 spoilers ahead!

In the Netflix thriller’s third season, Dylan Arnold plays Theo, described by Deadline as a college student who “is wise and perceptive, but vulnerable and troubled, with a propensity to get tangled up in his loved ones’ problems and to drown his own in controlled substances and dangerous behavior,” the description added.

So, does he make it out of Season 3 alive?

Throughout Season 3, Joe and Love are both unfaithful to each other, with Love sleeping with Theo.

And in the penultimate episode, Theo snoops around Love’s bakery and finds his neighbors Sherry (Shalita Grant) and Cary Conrad (Travis Van Winkle) locked in a glass cage in the basement. They try to convince him that it was Love who murdered his stepfather’s girlfriend, Natalie (Michaela McManus), but he doesn’t believe them.

Nevertheless, Theo searches for the key to the cage so he can free the couple, and that’s when Love returns to the bakery, walking in on him with the key in his hand. Theo tells her what the Conrads said, but he’s still convinced Joe killed Natalie. “I found footage from the day that she disappeared,” he says to her. “It was Joe. I know what he is. You don’t have to protect him anymore.”

But Love tells Theo to “leave Madre Linda and never come back.” Theo tries to get her to come with him, but she declines.

“I can’t,” she says. “It’s my family. We can never see each other ever again. You have to promise. Theo, I need you to promise me.”

Love also has Theo give her back the key, assuring him that she’ll free the Conrads as soon as he leaves. But Theo doesn’t make it to the exit: Love hits him with a fire extinguisher, and as he collapses, he tumbles down the basement stairs.

Later, Joe finds Theo at the foot of the stairs and prepares to dispose of the body. “You poor dumb kid. I’m so sorry,” he says via narration. “This will be the last ugly thing I ever have to do.”

To his surprise, however, Theo is still alive. And because he promised to live a better, less murderous life, Joe spares Theo’s life. In fact, he even takes Theo to the hospital.

And later, after Joe kills Love and flees the country, we see Matthew (Scott Speedman), Theo’s father, picking up his son from an outpatient medical facility. “Killed physical therapy, walked 75 yards, did some intermittent dancing,” Theo tells him. “Yeah, we should sign up for a 5k.”

He should consider himself lucky!