Warning: The following article contains spoilers for You season four.
Joe Goldberg — or should we say, Professor Jonathan Moore — is back and so is the murderous tornado that tails him everywhere he goes with You season four’s first part. Yes, our dangerously unhinged stalker has a new set of objects that demand his disdain and yes, in one particular case his pure obsession. But what caught our attention — when we were not staring transfixed at Joe’s glorious beard — is how he is on the receiving end of a very Gossip Girl–like experience. Now, this is called irony at its best.
Spoilers ahead.
From the very first episode, Joe has his personal stalker and admirer who has become a fan of how he can swiftly dispatch a dead body. As someone who loves to know others’ business so he doesn’t have to get curious about it, Joe spends a substantial portion of season four in the dark, getting taunted by an invisible spectre whose hatred for the elite is apparent, seems to know every one of their dirty little secrets, and finds amusement in their misfortune
This anonymous threat drops him messages via an app that deletes the correspondence the second they have been read and makes sure to let Joe know that he has a shadow he can’t shake. This person knows what Joe is doing, where he is going, what he is planning, and even unearths his bloody past. The killer is eager to see him fumble publicly, is having fun mucking up his life, and threatens to expose his secrets.
If you have been as interested [read: obsessed] with Penn Badgley’s career trajectory as we have been, surely this rings a bell?
In case the overly obvious headline didn’t give it away, allow us to remind you of the time when the actor played a character who exhibited stalkerish — though with considerably tamer tones — behavior i.e., when he played high school student Dan Humphrey in the popular teen drama series, Gossip Girl.
Throughout the six seasons of the show, every one of its teen characters is plagued by the anonymous ‘Gossip Girl’ who does away with the word “privacy” by airing everyone’s dirty laundry as a public spectacle. Over the years, many were suspected of being Gossip Girl, but in the end, it was revealed that Dan, the outsider from Brooklyn, was the one running the blog.
The revelation in the final episode of You season four part one — that Rhys is the Eat-the-Rich killer – only further echoes the Dan Humphrey vibes. Rhys was the outsider, with humble beginnings, who ingratiated himself amidst the high society folks and appeared to be this non-threatening individual who had no interest in gossip or thinking ill of his so-called friends. Just like Dan, Rhys would be the last person anyone would point fingers at.
Yes, unlike Dan aka Gossip Girl, Rhys didn’t flaunt his knowledge publicly. But again, it wouldn’t make it much of a whodunit if the messages were shared publicly, now would it?
It is as if the universe Joe exists in has a multiverse of its own and Mr. Goldberg is facing the karma of the sins his variant Dan committed. Yes, yes, here we are, dragging Joe and his never-ending list of ‘Yous’ down the MCU rabbit hole. Well, you can take the fan out of the MCU but you can’t take the MCU out of the fan.
So, until next time i.e., until Part two drops on March 9…XOXO!
