Since Netflix's You debuted, the hit show has always toyed with audiences' expectations. Based on the novels by Caroline Kepnes, the thriller series pokes fun at what romantic comedies have praised as sweet to show the real psychopathy behind some of these pining gestures. Led by Gossip Girl's Penn Badgley, the series has shown nothing is charming about stalking, detailing someone's every moment or spying on them without permission. Odds are, if you're receiving any of these kindnesses from a lovesick Joe Goldberg, he'll likely kill you.
Audiences have seen many of Joe's loves end up in murderous straits in its prior two seasons. However, Season 3 offered fans a glimpse at an alternative path for Joe: marriage.
Season 3 picks up almost immediately from where You Season 2 left off, with Love about to give birth to their son and Joe already becoming listless in suburbia. As it was teased at the tail end of Season 2, Joe starts spying on his neighbor Natalie (Michaela McManus) fairly quickly. To the credit of the show's creators -- Sera Gamble and Greg Berlanti -- this recognizable pattern of Joe's is spotted fairly early by Love (Victoria Pedretti), which helps to wash away any feelings of repetitiveness in the show's plotlines.
As Love plots against Joe, it's easy for the audience to vicariously root for Love's unhinged and yet steely charm. Pedretti makes Season 3 the most gripping version of this show yet as we see how a family and marriage can cripple Joe's nature. While You Season 2 pitted Love and Joe against each other, it's Season 3 that really pushes and pulls at how much the pair resent each other for being so similar.
You's writing is at its best when Love is given a chance to outsmart Joe, as opposed to being just more fodder for him to play with and destroy. Without spoiling the bloody mayhem to come, the You Season 3 finale showcases Pedretti's most captivating performance to date. Co-written by Gamble and Neil Reynolds, "What Is Love?" just might be the tightest episode in the series' beloved run, and it surprises and shocks in equally delicious measures.
However, at the end of the day, this is a show about Joe. This isn't a show about Love, despite how the episodes give almost equal screen time to both leads and their cravings. This isn't to say that Badgley disappoints, as he shows up on the screen as wrathful and cloying and ruthless as Joe is supposed to be. It's just so refreshing to see a new dynamic forming with him and Love that his sideline/murderous dalliances pale in comparison to even such simple questions as, "What do married serial killers talk about over dinner or during sex?" It's wondrous enough to question why the thing that keeps them together is also what drives them apart.
Season 3 does a fine job at showcasing the vapidness of a Silicon Valley-like suburb, where neighbors are mostly concerned with intermittent fasting, drugs and updating their Instagram stories on the hour every hour. Sherry Conrad (Shalita Grant) leads the Mean Girls-like pack of women in Madre Linda and nails her role as a pitch-perfect antagonist to Love. While other neighbors and their subplots blur into the background, Sherry is a charming thorn in Love's side. As Sherry pushes Love, Joe finds his own adversary of sorts in Marienne (Tati Gabrielle), a librarian who is struggling to gain custody of her daughter. Without Grant and Gabrielle, the show's tensions, heart and humor would be severely lacking.
With each new season of You, it's fair to ask, "Why do we keep watching Joe?" It seems almost impossible that Joe can get away with as many murders as he has, but the writers continue to push against that logic by showing just how oblivious people are. Or, for the cynics amongst us, the writers lean into a harsher, colder truth: people will only see what they want to see. By the end of Season 3, it's not entirely clear what road Joe will take next. While the season offered even more glimpses into his complicated and tragic backstory, we remember this is still Joe's narration. Joe will probably never change, but we keep tuning in just to see if he will, because he's leading us by his predatory hands.
Season 3 delves deeply into Joe and Love's dynamic and forever alters what Joe is capable of doing. Going forward, it feels like a fitting time to end Joe's winning streak and invite a "final girl" into the narration. We've seen how Joe has hidden behind crushes, ill-fated love and his own son to evade justice. Now, it's time for someone to confront him in Season 4. Otherwise, the narrative feels dangerously close to wearing out its welcome and becoming the same thing it satirized. After three seasons, we get how Joe is, but now he needs more of a challenge.