Who Plays Bronte on Season 5 of ‘You?’ Joe’s Final Love Interest May Look Familiar (SPOILERS)

Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for Season 5 of You.

After five seasons of briefly making us all seriously reconsider our digital footprints, You debuted its fifth and final season on April 24, 2025. The Netflix series starring Penn Badgley as everyone's favorite serial killer, Joe Goldberg, has given us the icks and scaries for the last time, and fans will miss all of its twists and turns.

Although Season 5 was You's last, it made sure to go out with a bang. The season forced Joe to finally look at what he'd done, (if only for a moment), through the lens of, you guessed it, a damsel in distress.

Joe's final shot at finding his "one," whom he affectionately (and creepily) calls You, came in Season 5 through a new character, Bronte. Here's the rundown on the actor who plays her and how she became his ultimate kryptonite.

Bronte's role was portrayed by actor Madeline Brewer. Before taking on the role of Joe's love interest, she appeared in recurring roles, including her breakout role as Tricia Miller in Orange Is the New Black and as Janine Lindo in The Handmaid's Tale. The latter role earned her several Emmy nominations throughout the show's run.

Horror fans may also know her from the TV series Hemlock Grove, Black Mirror's "Men Against Fire" episode, or Shining Girls. In terms of films, Brewer has appeared in Hustlers, Space Oddity, and Separation.

While Madeline has played several terrifying ones, she said playing someone attracted to someone of Joe's background was particularly challenging. Still, she added she ultimately knows Bronte wanted to be with Joe, as he brought something out of her that hadn't been revealed until they met at his bookstore, Mooney's.

"Bronte is drawn to Joe because, as he feels a bit of himself in her, I think she feels the same way," she explained to Radio Times. "She sees someone who may have struggled and is trying to reinvent themselves."

"They love the same things — they're both avid readers, writers, creators, and investigators, in a way," Madeline added. "He's been in the news, and she finds that captivating and wants to know more."

Bronte and Joe's connection was a set up for Joe to finally get what he deserved after years of stalking — and killing — anyone who got in his way at finding his You. Per Tudum, in Season 5, Episode 5, he discovered his mistress was a catfish when he rushed to defend Bronte from an angry Clayton (Tom Francis) and killed him in the process. To Joe’s surprise, Bronte’s friends rush in and live-stream the whole aftermath, exclaiming: “We got him!”

Later, in Episode 6, Bronte reveals that her real name is Louise Flannery and that she was Joe's Season 1 girlfriend, Beck's (Elizabeth Leil) TA, having lost touch with her after she moved from their school in New York back to Ohio. While in Ohio, she read Beck's book, The Dark Face of Love, and discovered there were blatant discrepancies, including a quote from A Doll's House, that made her real killer was still out there.

Bronte eventually discovered Joe was the culprit after looking into his other murders. Grieving the loss of her mother, she becomes obsessed with making Joe pay, which he ultimately does with a life prison sentence, which Penn told Tudum was ultimately a better outcome than someone killing Joe to seek justice.

Madeline said she didn't know her character's backstory initially. However, she knew something was amiss with her character and her sudden, strange attraction to Joe.

"I knew that there was a twist, but I didn’t entirely understand to what degree it was until I read Episode 6,” she explained. “I knew Bronte was a constructed character. She’s been invented for a very expressed, very clear purpose. I just wasn’t sure what that purpose was when I started.”

Stream You on Netflix.