Spoilers ahead for the You series finale for anyone who hasn't yet watched with a Netflix subscription.
After five seasons, stalker drama You has finally come to an end on Netflix’s 2025 schedule. The fifth and final season of You took things back to New York, where it all began, as those closest to Joe were plotting to finally take him down. Penn Badgley previously explained why Joe’s ending was an appropriate one, but I just found out it could have been completely different, and I’m so glad they changed it.
At the end of the series finale, Joe was found guilty of the murders of Guinevere Beck and Love Quinn, and he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in jail. Truly, the darkest ending he could have gotten, knowing that he is going to be alone. He won’t see his son anymore, he won’t set his sights on someone new. However, co-showrunner Justin W. Lo told The Post that his relationship with new love interest and Beck defender Bronte could have been a lot more fatal:
We went through many different options, one of which being that he did die at the hands of Bronte. I was even remembering a version where he was shot. And [the audience] didn’t realize that he shot until the very last episode, and then he realizes he’s a ghost.
Lo did add that the ghost ending was a “very early iteration,” but it is interesting to hear what could have happened. How early in the show Bronte could have killed Joe is unknown, as it wasn’t discovered until about halfway through that she’s only been catfishing him to get Beck justice. Whether it could have happened during their standoff in the woods in the series finale is hard to tell.
Even though it would have made things completely different, I’m glad it didn’t happen since Joe definitely deserves to be alone for the rest of his life. Killing him off would just be too easy. Surprisingly, though, the ending that stuck didn’t come about until much later, as showrunner and executive producer Michael Foley shared:
We hadn’t landed on [his ending] until very late in the season. Throughout the series, there was a shared belief among the writers and the creators that Joe wouldn’t get away with his crimes. We came into the season knowing that we didn’t want to redeem him, that he would get his comeuppance, that he was going to face some of those whose lives he ruined. And most importantly, we knew he was going to be made to face himself.
Foley also explained that they thought the death would be “too easy” of an ending, and I can’t say I disagree. He added that they liked putting him in a “veritable cage [in prison]” and “now knowing the tough of a lover.” Anyone who has seen You knows that Joe craves attention and touch. He’s locked several people in the big glass cage, ahd has been locked in it himself. It really only makes sense that he winds up in a cage by the series’ end for the rest of his life. At the very least, Joe was getting letters from psychotic fans of his in prison, so not all is lost for him.
While some people may have mixed feelings about You’s final season and how Joe’s ending came to be, it was certainly an entertaining one. And despite the book-to-screen adaptation not really following the Caroline Kepnes books after the first season, it certainly kept viewers on their toes, and I already want to rewatch the show in its entirety.
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