You Season 4 Part 1 Review: What Happens When the Tables Are Turned?

(Warning: This review contains spoilers!)

Can Joe Goldberg really set aside his old ways once and for all? You Season 4 Episodes 1-5 ask that question as Joe tries to prove that he’s not a murderer (anymore) and that he can be redeemed.

Thanks to that question, this first half of the season is as intriguing as ever, and it provides more insight into Joe’s character and his compulsions while shifting the narrative in an entirely new way. 

Through flashbacks, we learn that after finding Marienne in Paris, he realizes how afraid of him she’s become. He sets out to prove that he’s not what she thinks, and it seems like he might finally even have a chance at redemption. 

There’s less of Marienne than you might expect considering how things were left at the end of You Season 3, yet her impact on the story so far this season is really key. Joe even goes to great lengths to avoid hurting her, despite the fact that doing so would be in his best interest as he prepares to take on the new identity he’s given.

It’s with that new identity — Professor Jonathan Moore — that Joe tries to live a different kind of life. He marvels at London and fits in well as an academic. His narration reveals that he’s still as condescending and judgemental as he always was, and his commentary on everything London and his new career in academia have to offer is perfectly witty.  

This place, and this career, suit him almost too perfectly. It’s great fun to see Joe getting to teach literature and do it so well. The new look fits him too.

He dresses like a cliché picture of a professor and is now sporting a thick beard, which suggests age and wisdom, and could be symbolic of change. (It’s also a way to have a very different appearance, of course.) 

Really, it’s too bad that we don’t get to enjoy seeing Joe the professor more than we do. Instead, You Season 4 Episode 1 manages to pull him right back into mischief and disposing of dead bodies. Much like last season, he’s unable to escape that life no matter how hard he tries.

His colleague and neighbor, Malcolm, is murdered on the same night he gets wasted hanging out with a group of wildly elite snobs. After blacking out, he wakes up to find a dead body in his flat. Considering his history, he figures he must have done it, and so he’s back to his old habits without much of a choice. 

There was no way Joe Goldberg was really going to be able to start fresh, and now, he finds himself in the middle of a whodunnit mystery with a stalker of his very own. 

It’s a fascinating place for the story to go, to have Joe become the person with a stalker. That’s something the series has always done well. It’s never stood by any one formula, and instead, it continues to offer deep character development for Joe.

There’s a reason we root for him despite his sociopathic behavior. We can’t help but want him to find a path to redemption and not get caught in the meantime. Now that he’s the person being stalked, he’s getting a taste of his own medicine, which is satisfying to see as well. 

Penn Badgley continues to play this role with perfection, and I’d argue this season allows him to shine even more than in past seasons. In the smallest details, Badgely is able to portray the conflict Joe experiences in the decisions he makes, in his frustration and inner turmoil, and in the feelings he develops for Kate (I’ll get to her in a second).

Between that and the narration, which stands out on its own, it’s truly a remarkable performance.

What’s less interesting about this season is that it quickly becomes focused on criticizing the elite, which feels like a tired theme in film and television lately. I suppose that’s really just poor timing, but it’s impossible not to lose interest in this crew of elite friends that Joe is now enmeshed in, and it’s in those parts of the story where everything lags. 

Joe’s commentary on each of them is great, though. As usual, his ability to analyze people so well is one of the things that makes the series so captivating, and here, he’s putting that skill to the most use we’ve ever seen — and with the highest stakes.

He stays close to this group for a few reasons. He needs to figure out who the real killer is — the person stalking him and sending him disappearing text messages through an app called Evanesce. But also, he has to protect Kate.

Because of course, there’s a woman who he simply can’t stay away from. Kate is unlike the others who came before her, and so much of what occurs seems happenstance. She’s the girlfriend of Malcolm, our first murder victim, and because her flat is just across the way from Joe’s, he can watch her constantly. 

Yet he tries to stay away, and he tries to avoid watching her through the window. He even hesitates to save her when she’s being mugged, but ultimately steps in. And that’s what sets everything else in motion. It’s how he winds up with Malcolm’s group of rich friends, how he winds up getting stuck with Malcolm’s dead body — everything. 

There’s a bit of an unreliable narrator question when it comes to her, but as a viewer, Joe comes across as genuine in wanting to keep her safe and following her for selfless reasons. At the very least, it’s what he believes, and Kate’s attitude toward him feels unfounded and unfair.

That is until she begins to see him for who he really is — murderous escapades excluded. As it turns out, Kate and Joe have more in common than you might expect, and it’s on a deep level.

Joe may be lying about an awful lot, but he’s truthful when he speaks about Love and about leaving his son behind. He’s honest about how all of that has affected him, and Kate sees him in a way no one else ever has. 

Another strong point of the first half of this season is that it continues to surprise us. Even though there’s an obvious meta element with the “whodunnit” of it all and the conversations Joe has with his student about Agatha Christie novels, the next victim is never who you expect.

Neither is the identity of the killer and Joe’s stalker. Each of the five episodes keeps us on our toes, to say the least. 

Add to that, it sure feels like this season is the one that could have Joe’s past coming back to haunt him once and for all. Even if it doesn’t, it’s worth noting the way things are coming full circle to cause him some punishment of his own.

Because yes, part of us wants to root for Joe Goldberg, but I think another part of us wants to see him get what he deserves.

Other thoughts:

• I love that Joe hacks a body into pieces shortly after assigning his class to read Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” 
• Did we really have to go with the trope of the student who hooked up with the professor? Really?
• It’s not lost on me that Penn Badgley is once again an outcast among the elite, and is also narrating his thoughts about them. ~XOXO, Gossip Girl

What did you think of these episodes of You? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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You Season 4 Part 1 is currently streaming on Netflix. The second half of the season will be available on March 9th.

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