‘You’: Everything to Remember Before Season 5

You never forget your first… love? Victim? Kill? Joe can probably say yes to all of the above, as season one of You is where Joe’s twisted tale all started. Though he initially appeared as a sweet, friendly man working as a bookstore manager in New York City, viewers started to learn the real Joe throughout season one, thanks to a narration of Joe’s inner thoughts (Hello, you).

In the first season, Joe becomes obsessed with aspiring writer Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail), who also works at the bookstore. He begins to stalk her, checking her social media and watching her outside her apartment. He even manipulates her life just so he can be with her, however, Beck remains unaware of Joe’s obsession and believes she’s in a normal romantic relationship with him.

As he removes any obstacles and people standing in his way, thinking he’s protecting Beck, his own extreme possessiveness also becomes a hurdle, leading him to ultimately kill Beck. And he ends up framing Beck’s therapist, Dr. Nicky (John Stamos), for her murder.

In addition to Beck, Joe’s other victims in season one included Benji (Lou Taylor Pucci), Beck’s initial toxic partner; Peach (Shay Mitchell), Beck’s best friend; and Ron (Daniel Cosgrove), Joe’s neighbor. He also seen killing Elijah (Esteban Benito) in a flashback after he learned he slept with Joe’s ex Candace.

After fleeing New York City for Los Angeles after murdering Beck, Joe — who attempts to suppress his violent tendencies under his new identity Will Bettelheim that he stole — finds himself quickly back to his killer and obsessive ways in season two.

While adjusting to his new life, Joe meets his 15-year-old neighbor Ellie (Jenna Ortega) who lives with her older sister, Delilah (Carmela Zumbado). After noticing Ellie appears to have little parental guidance, Joe takes it upon himself to look out for her. At the same time, he starts to be infatuated with a woman named Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti) and must navigate her complicated wealthy family, including her brother Forty. As he falls deeper for Love, he starts to reveal his dark past while also learning Love is much more like him than he realized. In the end, it’s safe to say Joe wasn’t the only killer that season.

Love ultimately kills Delilah after finding her trapped in Joe’s box in an attempt to protect Joe’s secrets. She also murders Candace (Ambyr Childers), Joe’s ex, as she knows too much about him. In the second two, Joe also adds to his list of kills, including Jasper (Steven W. Bailey), a debt collector looking for the real Will; and Henderson (Chris D’Elia), a comedian who is also a rumored pedophile. In a flashback, viewers also learn a young Joe killed his mother’s abusive boyfriend.

Once Joe learns of Love’s similar killer ways, ruining his fantasy of her, he plots to take her out the first chance he gets. However, he’s thrown a curveball when she reveals she’s pregnant with his baby.

While Joe and Love are anything but ordinary, in season three, they try their very best to be a “regular” suburban family in a small California town. But to no one’s surprise, things get messy and murderous quit quickly.

While the pair raise their newborn baby, Henry, in their new neighborhood, a peculiar Joe takes an interest in neighbor Natalie (Michaela McManus). All while he has Love looking over his shoulders, trying to prevent Joe from pursuing Natalie, as she works to maintain their fake perfect family image. That’s when Joe ends up becoming obsessed with Marienne (Tati Gabrielle), a local librarian. However, when Love discovers Joe’s affair, Marienne narrowly escapes being killed by Love and ultimately flees to Paris with her daughter, Juliette. And an angry Love later confronts Joe, leading to a violent night that sees Joe kill Love.

Shocker… it wasn’t true love after all.

Season three also saw Joe kill Ryan (Scott Michael Foster), Marienne’s ex-husband, while Love kills Natalie. Gil (Mackenzie Astin), who gets trapped in Joe’s glass cage after Love learns his unvaccinated child gave their son, Henry, measles, ultimately dies by suicide due to overwhelming guilt and is framed for Natalie’s murder.

In season four, Joe really says new country, new me. After faking his death following Love’s murder and fleeing California to London, he starts working as a university professor under the alias Jonathan Moore. But he quickly realizes that he can’t escape his past just because he changes his identity.

While Joe initially tries to find Marienne, who he was obsessed with in season three, he eventually lets her go and moves on. He then turns his attention to a wealthy woman named Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) and completely centers himself in her circle, trying to connect with her friends and lifestyle. Not only is Joe infatuated with Kate, but he also sees an opportunity to create a new public persona, one with status and power, while he continues to hide his dark past.

However, Joe’s past will always haunt him, even when he doesn’t realize it. Throughout season four, Joe — as well as viewers — takes a deeper dive into his psyche and constant inner battle as he navigates his new identity and violent tendencies. This also leads Joe to believe at the beginning that there’s another killer teasing him with bodies showing up, however, it’s actually a fictional person inside his head, who is a manifestation of his own dark impulses. He eventually realizes that he’s the one committing the murders and that his interactions with a man named Rhys Montrose (Ed Speleers) are hallucinations.

In the fourth season, Joe kills several more people, even ones he didn’t realize he was responsible for at first, including the real Rhys Montrose; Malcolm (Stephen Hagan), a fellow college lecturer; Simon (Aidan Cheng), an artist; Vic (Sean Pertwee), Lady Phoebe’s driver and bodyguard; Gemma (Eve Austin), Kate’s friend; Tom Lockwood (Greg Kinnear), Kate’s father; Hugo (Craig McGinlay), Tom Lockwood’s driver; and Edward (Brad Alexander), Joe’s student. As for the latter death, Joe frames his other student Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman) for Edward’s murder and she goes to prison. Joe also thinks he killed Marienne, however, she escapes.