Season 3 of 'You' Is Coming Soon — but What Happened in Season 2?
Published Aug. 30 2021, 8:03 p.m. ET
Dating in the digital age can be difficult — especially if your name is Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley). The meek bookstore owner had a pretty rough romantic history until his chance encounter with Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail), a naive grad student from Nantucket, Mass., with a troubled family history.
Joe’s innocent crush on Beck soon evolves into a full-fledged obsession that proves to be fatal for Beck’s ex-boyfriend, Benji (Lou Taylor Pucci), and her best friend, Peach Salinger (Shay Mitchell). And in the Season 1 finale, Beck also suffers a tragic death at the hands of her once-lover.
After Beck’s murder, Joe skips town and finds love, yet again. But how does Season 2 of You end? Here’s a quick recap ahead of the Season 3 premiere.
How did Season 2 of ‘You’ end?
Soon after Joe trades his home on the East Coast for a new life in California, he assumes a new identity and meets his newest romantic interest, Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), who — aside from her perpetually co-dependant brother, Forty (James Scully) — seems to be perfect. It appears that Joe’s life has finally taken a turn for the better until his ex-girlfriend, Candace, comes to town and threatens to blow his cover.
This turn of events causes a rift in Joe and Love’s relationship, leading them to break up. His plan continues to unravel after his landlord, Delilah (Carmela Zumbado), uncovers information about his crimes and ultimately discovers his cage in his storage unit. But unlike his previous victims, Joe promises to let Delilah live if she allows him to leave town.
Joe is on his way out when he is kidnapped and drugged by Forty, who forces him to relive Beck’s murder by way of his screenplay. After a long night of hallucinations, Joe returns to the storage unit only to find that Delilah has been murdered.
Although Joe can’t remember what happened the night prior, his new partner-in-crime certainly does. And so does Candace, who discovers Joe at the scene of the crime and locks him in his own cage. Candace invites Love to the storage unit to prove that her claims about Joe’s murderous behavior are true, and it seems that Joe will finally be punished for his crimes.
While behind bars, Joe reflects on his crimes and deems himself guilty and undeserving of Love, both literally and figuratively. But in the final moments of the penultimate episode of Season 2, the series took a turn that no one expected.
Upon her arrival, Love murders Candace and reveals that she and Joe are one and the same. Love was responsible for killing Forty’s babysitter, as well as Delilah, and had known who the real Joe was all along. Right as Joe is preparing to kill Love, she reveals that she is pregnant.
The Season 3 trailer of ‘You’ has finally arrived.
Joe and Love ultimately decide to stay together, but Forty isn’t here for it. In the final moments of Season 2, Forty aims his gun at Joe, but before he can pull the trigger, he is shot by Officer Fincher (Danny Vasquez), leaving Love devastated.
The Season 3 trailer of You picks up where Season 2 left off, with Joe and Love welcoming baby Henry, or as Love’s parents would call him, Forty Reincarnated. But it appears that Joe has an eye for someone new — namely, his neighbor, a librarian named Marienne (Tati Gabrielle).
Season 3 of You will be available to stream on Netflix on Oct.15.