All About Joe’s Final Stand (Mar. 2025 Update)

You emerged on Netflix with a solitary season six years ago to bingewatchers’ delight, and Penn Badgley was both so seductive and scary that the show was an instant streaming hit after wasting away on Lifetime. Joe Goldberg’s overnight status as a trending object of affection did disturb Badgley, who continues to walk a fine line in articulating how people should stop elevating famous serial killers and still convincingly portraying one on TV. The difference between You and other crime dramas, however, is that the show is frequently flat-out funny, and Joe is now ready to return to his killer roots, where he will ideally fall victim to his own hubris.

Signs are pointing in that direction, so let’s piece together the forensics on what to expect for You‘s fifth and final season.

Trailer

As noted already, Joe returns to his former Manhattan stomping grounds, which (from the looks of the show’s newest teaser trailer) will offers an improvement on those dreary London vibes. Joe does refer to himself as “the luckiest guy in New York,” which sets him up for the ultimate fall.

A previous trailer took viewers back to Joe’s love of specially-crafted cages.

Finally, Joe is thanking “you” for being there for him since the beginning.

Plot

Seriously, who returns to the scene of the crime(s) and expects to get out alive? Such behavior and risk-taking from the generally cautious Joe suggests that he might actually want to get caught. That could very well be why Penn Badgley’s violent criminal has been spotted in the above footage while returning to Mooney’s bookshop, which of course still must hold DNA evidence in the basement that would put him behind bars for life. Netflix has already revealed that Joe will be tangling with an NYPD detective portrayed by Baby Reindeer‘s Nava Mau, so the walls could finally close on him for good.

The question then becomes whether Joe would let himself be taken into custody alive or if he will ensure his death upon the threat of imprisonment. There’s also been a ticking hand grenade lurking for several seasons, and that would be Dr. Nicky (John Stamos), who has been languishing in prison after being framed for killing Benji (Lou Taylor Pucci). Do not count out a revenge scheme that would be executed by Nicky, who has all the time and motivation in the world to do so.

Overall, Joe has thus far spent three of his four existing seasons touring sunshiney Los Angeles, oppressive suburbia, and gloomy London. His conscious choice to return to New York does guarantee some degree of comeuppance, and Netflix doesn’t deny that this is coming with their brief description: “In the epic fifth and final season, Joe Goldberg returns to New York to enjoy his happily ever after… until his perfect life is threatened by the ghosts of his past and his own dark desires.”

Those desires will not include any major sexy time, however, since Badgley previously took sex scenes off the table. Not incidentally, this happened after a palpably uncomfortable third-season “partner swap” scene while he was married to Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti). Prior to that, the show actually didn’t get too R-rated with sensuality and mainly earned the TV-MA label through the show’s graphic violence. So again, this show is going back to basics.

Cast

Penn Badgley is bringing his stalker era to a close as Joe Goldberg, but to be fair, he’s been nursing that vibe ever since Gossip Girl, so maybe it’s never truly over for him.

Madeline Brewer will be on hand as a bookseller and one of Joe’s employees, and of course he might blur the line between work and murder. If so, then perhaps Nava Mau will be all over the crime as that detective.

As usual, expect Joe to be haunted by past victims. Possibilities include Beck (Elizabeth Lail), Love (Victoria Pedretti), and Candace (Ambyr Childers). Those who have lived to survive but could still emerge onscreen include Marienne (Tati Gabrielle) and Dr. Nicky (John Stamos).

Release Date

You bids farewell on April 24. Watch your back, Joe Goldberg.