YOU Review: Candace (Season 1 Episode 9)
Oh. My. God.
YOU Season 1 Episode 9, “Candace,” can best be described as a rollercoaster of emotions. The series does a fake-out like no other, and the penultimate episode of the season is chock full of them. One minute you’re sure Joe is done for; the next, he’s successfully convinced Beck of his innocence; then, it seems certain they’re over once the Dr. Nicky affair explosively comes to light; but, lo and behold, Beck’s heartfelt apology wins Joe over. It’s a total whirlwind.
But of course, in the end, none of it matters. As I expected from the near beginning, Paco is inadvertently the cause of Joe’s downfall. And what a swift, drastic downfall it is.
“Candace” picks up shortly after where YOU Season 1 Episode 8, “You Got Me, Babe,” left off: with Joe and Beck basking in the happiness of their big, romantic reunion. Unfortunately, what scorned Karen said to Beck is still weighing on Beck’s mind. As it should be! Basically everything Karen said, whatever the motivation, was an enormous red flag.
In an interesting and sorta poetic turn of events, Beck gets her “stalker” on to delve into Joe’s past and Candace’s whereabouts. At first, she seems to only think that Joe is still in love with his mysterious ex — which, while that would be terrible, isn’t inherently dangerous.
But as Beck gets further into her search, she realizes there are a lot of holes in Joe’s story about Candace’s whereabouts. And as the audience already knows, she’s right.
Beck speaks first with Ethan, then with Candace’s friend Maddie, whom she and Joe previously met at Peach’s party several episodes ago. Weirdly, Maddie doesn’t seem overly concerned about Candace, despite the fact that she ghosted all of her friends and jetted off to another country. Candace had some sucky friends if none of them bothered to insure she was okay and just accepted that she up and left them all!
Elizabeth Lail’s performance is great all throughout the episode, as Beck unravels more and more when it becomes clear that she doesn’t really know Joe (or what he’s capable of) at all. However, she makes a few inexcusably dumb choices.
For example: Say you hypothetically think that maybe your boyfriend is a serial killer who killed his cheating ex. You, knowing that you also cheated on him, go to his apartment, alone, to confront him about these alleged crimes in person. Girl, what? Use your brain!
But I digress; and alas, by the end of “Candace,” it’s far too late for Beck to grow a brain and use it to save herself.
This hour is full of incredible moments, but a few in particular deserve to be spotlighted.
One is the reveal of the origin of Joe’s murderous tendencies. His first victim, it appears, is Ethan, the label rep who signed Candace and was sleeping with her as she cheated on Joe.
This first murder is particularly interesting, because Joe only shoves Ethan once he continues on insulting Candace. Candace has just betrayed him, but in Joe’s mind, she’s still somehow pure. He looks for every possible reason why she may have been coerced into cheating. But in the end, she just did it because she wanted to. And unable to face the reality of her cruelty and her lack of love for him, Joe snaps when Ethan calls Candace out (in a more-derogatory-than-necessary manner).
In a panic, Joe flees and goes to Mooney, the man who both raised and abused him. In essence, this episode makes clear that Mooney is responsible for the man Joe has become — his warped sense of honor and of morality. “Some people deserve to die,” Mooney assures Joe, infecting him with this bizarre sense that they two are qualified to be judge, jury, and executioner of those who are “lesser.”
Another great moment is the first confrontation between Joe and Beck. This comes about after Beck brings up her concerns about Candace and Joe manages to convince her that what she’s thinking is insane. Unfortunately, despite getting over the Candace hurdle, there’s still the small matter of Beck’s affair with Dr. Nicky.
What’s so engrossing about this show is how it twists and turns your feelings about Joe.
He’s an incredibly nuanced, complicated character. The egregious acts he’s committed are truly heinous… yet there’s an undeniable sense of satisfaction when his suspicions about Dr. Nicky and Beck are proven true. He’s devastated, sure, but at least he knows he wasn’t being crazy! About that bit, anyway.
Penn Badgley completely knocks it out of the park during this scene, oscillating wildly between devastation (when Beck admits the affair) and ecstasy (when Beck says exactly what Joe wanted to hear from Candace, an assurance of her love for him). It’s bizarre how much Badgley’s performance forces you to feel for Joe and almost kinda-sorta root for him, despite all he’s done.
But in the end, Joe’s earlier disregard of Paco proves to be his undoing.
Feeling betrayed by his former mentor and friend, Paco accidentally gives away Joe’s secret hiding spot to Beck. And surprise! Joe still has all his secret stalker-murderer stuff hidden up above the toilet, including Beck’s underwear, Benji’s teeth, Benji’s phone, Peach’s phone, and Beck’s phone.
Gotta admit, Joe, keeping all that stuff in your apartment is a major oops. The stupidity of keeping all this in his apartment (where Beck frequently stays) and not, say, the locked book vault is so egregious it borders on being a plot hole.
Regardless, the final moments are fantastic, as it dawns on Beck exactly what she’s seeing and what this all mean (i.e., that Joe is an insane, obsessive murderer). She’s too stunned and not savvy enough to get out of the apartment and away from Joe before he realizes that she’s onto him. She (and we) wind up right back where we started: with Joe looking in on one of his hostages in the book vault.
Except this time, it’s Beck, not Benji.
I’m so excited to see how this all plays out in next week’s finale. And I’m preemptively excited for Season 2 as well.
Stray Thoughts:
- I’m still a little confused about Candace. Is she really not dead? I was sure Joe had killed her, and I’m still pretty certain those “Italy pics” from her Instagram account under her “new name” are just Benji-style fabrications by Joe. I suppose we’ll find out one way or another in the finale.
- Speaking of which: Candace is disappointingly bland. For having been such a major part of Joe’s past, I wish she’d been a little more interesting. Then again, perhaps that’s the point. Joe is projecting onto these ordinary women things that aren’t really there.
- Did Joe also kill Candace’s brother, or was that death just a helpful coincidence?
- Similarly, is Joe responsible for Mooney’s stroke, somehow? Is this part of his larger cover-up?
- I’m so grossed out even asking this, but is one of the items in Joe’s box of creepiness an old bloody tampon?! Just… why?! All of the other items have a “logical” (albeit sinister) sort of necessity, but a used tampon? Bleh.
What did you think of this episode of YOU? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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YOU airs Sundays at 10/9c on Lifetime.
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Caralynn Lippo
Caralynn is a freelance writer and editor, but most importantly, she is a diehard TV addict. A few of her current favorites are Mr. Robot, You're the Worst, iZombie, and The Vampire Diaries. She also writes about TV for Romper, The TV Junkies, and TV Fanatic.