While the creepy, steamy, tense, and ever-popular television adaptation of Caroline Kepnes’ novels has long left its source material behind, the fourth season of You continues to freshen up the nail-biting narrative we’ve come to expect. The setting has taken the leap across the pond, and the script has been flipped on series star Penn Badgley’s hopelessly romantic but murderous character, Joe Goldberg.
You season four, part one picks up where the climactic events of season three left off. Joe, (who goes by Jonathan Moore nowadays) has once again managed to evade scrutiny from the authorities. His relentless infatuation with Marienne (Tati Gabrielle) takes him to Paris, then London shortly thereafter, where he continues his search.
Along the way, Joe lands a cushy new gig teaching a literature class at a university. He also finds himself in the midst of what is perhaps the series’ most psychotic and pretentious social circle yet, which Badgley’s fellow cast members (Charlotte Ritchie, Lukas Gage, and Ed Speelers, among others) execute marvelously. Never before has You had such a vile group of sociopaths to help paint Joe (who by this point has more than a few kills under his belt) as the good guy.
Despite Joe’s apparent new lease on life, the bodies of people nearest to him start piling up, as always. However, in a fresh twist, he receives an encrypted message from a mysterious individual who seems to know a thing or two about his past. As expected, blood starts spraying as Joe tries to track down his new fan, all the while doing his best to not sink into his ‘old habits’ of falling head over heels for the women around him.
As such, the first half of You’s fourth season upturns what we’ve come to expect, and steers into whodunnit territory, turning Joe from predator into prey. Despite the extremely self-aware shift to this genre (no thanks to Badgley’s staple voiceovers), the essence of what enraptured audiences. It’s just as macabre, sexy, and absurd as ever – with Joe continuing to find himself in such ridiculous predicaments and conversations, which more often than not you can’t help but laugh at.
Joe spends much of his time using his prowess with literature to examine the genre he unwillingly finds himself in, both for himself and for the audience, as he tries to pin down the identity of his mysterious stalker. Fortunately, his hatred for whodunnits makes for some amusing moments for the character as he exasperatedly sifts through the motives of his suspects. Given its high degree of self-awareness, it’s a shame that You’s big reveal in the mid-season finale failed to shock, instead opting to stay on the rails of the formulaic – although inevitably proving Joe’s point about it.
While You has always thrived on the absurdity of how Joe and his co-conspirators continue getting away with murder, there’s a number of points at which things get a little too unbelievable and convenient. There’s a number of character motivations and body disposal methods contained in this outing which may lead to an audible, “come, on – really?.” Still, these minor gripes don’t take away from the overall enjoyment of the show’s latest arc, which does plenty to keep its audience happy, and contains easily the biggest budget cinematic sequences in the series so far.
Despite a predictable outcome for folks who are overly familiar with whodunnits and a number of way-too-convenient developments, the stakes have never been higher for Joe and his peers by the time the credits roll on the first half of the season. It will leave viewers titillated and aghast as to how exactly the charismatic killer is going to be able to worm his way out of his biggest and most high-profile predicament so far. March can’t come soon enough.
