*This article contains season five You spoilers*
The most explicitly creepy protagonist in years, Joe Goldberg from You, has finally met his end. Now that the fifth and final season of the hit Netflix thriller has landed on the platform, long-term fans of the show are rushing to find out what happens. Is Joe (Penn Badgley) still with Kate Lockwood? Are they truly reformed? Will he return to Mooney's bookshop, and if he does, will the terrifying Perspex cage be there to greet him?
Charlotte Ritchie, of Fresh Meat and Ghosts fame, joined the show in season four and this season we see her return as the CEO of the Lockwood Corporation. 'This series has been such a delight because we only saw her slightly thaw at the end of series four,' Ritchie tells us, 'and opening her up has been really fun.'
'It's fun to step into the shoes of a person who's comfortable operating on that level,' she continues. 'Who has that kind of power. She's in charge of a company – it's amazing to pretend to be someone capable of that when I can barely get my day sorted.'
In season five we find the couple back in New York with Joe's son Henry, and it doesn't take long for things to unravel, or for the dark, twisted character we've known since 2018 to make a stealthy return. It turns out Kate is not as supportive of Joe's evil ways as he had hoped and he quickly turns his attention to someone else – newcomer Bronte (Madeline Brewer), an impudent student who has been secretly breaking into Mooney's at night to admire his book collection.
'Sometimes it's hard to be friends with the person you're doing this stuff with because I know Penn is not like his character, obviously, and he knows I'm not like Kate,' she jokes. 'There's a self-consciousness that comes from friendship when you're playing a "power couple" and you know neither of you are like that.' Despite some insane storylines and plenty of dices with death, Ritchie has found a lasting friend in her co-star. 'I just love Penn. He really makes me laugh, which is nice because he plays such a serious character.'
Given Joe's penchant for slaughtering women he is romantically involved with, it was always unlikely that Kate would have a happy ending. However, in many ways, she gets one. Despite being shot in the side by Joe and locked in a burning Mooney's bookshop, at the end of the season Kate is saved from the fire by Bronte and with a new lease of life she decides to turn her family company into a non-profit.
If that's not enough to get you to press play, hear it from Ritchie herself. 'Fans can expect a really, really good series that is constantly unfolding to become more and more twist and turny and interesting. All the characters are brilliant and shine, the writing is super sharp and we'll see a tying up of certain threads and plenty of nods to the rest of the series.'
'If you're a fan, it will be very satisfying and a real treat,' promises Ritchie. 'I'm already excited to see who's binged it.'
She might have developed a fear of Perspex cages from her time on the show, but Ritchie is glad to have overcome her imposter syndrome to accept the part. 'I had a big think about how it might feel and the level of scrutiny and the opinions that were out there, but also the scale of the show and how exceptional everyone is who has been in it before, so it felt like big shoes to fill,' she explains. 'All that stuff comes with imposter syndrome, but I'm learning that it's such a waste of time because you get in the way of yourself.'
As for her next role? She's open to offers - but something in comedy wouldn't hurt.
What happens to Joe? The ending of You explained
Of course, anyone who has binged the show already will know that Joe survives his very worst crimes. Despite begging to be shot by Bronte – who duly shoots him in the penis – Joe's fate comes in the form of law enforcement instead.
Much to some fans' dismay, he does not die at the end of the season, instead he is sentenced to life imprisonment where he will have to face the weight of his crimes alone. Except, he doesn't, because that wouldn't be very 'Joe' – he turns it back on the audience. 'It’s unfair putting all of this on me. Aren’t we all just products of our environment? Hurt people hurt people. I never stood a chance,' he says in his final voiceover.
'Why am I in a cage when these crazies write me all of the depraved things they want me to do to them? Maybe we have a problem as a society? Maybe we should fix what’s broken in us? Maybe the problem isn’t me. Maybe it’s you.'
Speaking to Netflix, Badgley admitted that he thinks Joe dying at the end of the show would have been unsatisfactory. 'I always thought somebody killing Joe wouldn’t be justice. It would be vengeance. Anybody who kills him would be brought down to his level, which is not justice for them,' he said. 'He’s a quandary in a way. What would justice for him look like? I think we get as close as we can.'
Is this really the final season of You? Will there be a season six?
Naturally, a living, breathing Joe is a Joe who can escape from prison and reinvent his identity again, surely? We know what he's like.
Despite Badgley vowing that this is his final season, that the last take 'really felt like the last take', and that he's tired of straining his muscles in rage, Ritchie agrees. ‘Well listen, he’s not dead, right?’
‘This guy has gotten himself out of the most unbelievable scrapes,' she admits. 'I think probably as far as Penn is concerned this is the close of that character, but you never know...’
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).