If you are someone who has still not finished watching all the episodes of YOU on Netflix, don’t blame me for spoilers.

If you are still undecided about starting the series, do check our review of the series (written by yours truly).

If you are someone who has watched it and obsessing over it, hi! How you doin’? For those of you who are still planning to watch, You is a Netflix Original Series which was originally a book by Caroline Kepnes. It is a psychological thriller which will mostly have millennial references and a wickedly twisted love story that’s borderline one-sided. Joe Goldberg is the lead character in the movie who is both the antagonist and the protagonist and I was honestly confused about how I should feel about this character.

Guinevere Beck is a beautiful individual who is smart, talented and a writer trying to figure out life as she struggles every minute to fit in with the people she chooses to keep in life. Joe and Beck’s worlds collide and hell breaks loose in the next nine episodes. The audience is mostly inside Joe’s head the entire series and every word Joe utters gives us the idea of this series being a little too captivating.

When I started watching it, I could relate so much to Beck but as time went by, I started relating to Joe in ways that were very hard to articulate. If you are a person who likes control and calculation, chances are, you’ll start justifying Joe’s erratic actions subconsciously but it is also important for us to realize that there are multiple perspectives in this series and we are only thinking of Joe because he makes this series more thrilling for us. I was surprised to see how many people actually justified Joe’s wicked intentions and Beck’s infidelity on social media while many are having mixed feelings about it. A fan actually tweeted ‘kidnap me pls’ at Penn Badgley, who politely replied ‘No’.

No matter what opinions people might have about this ‘Controversial’ character, here are the reasons why I feel Joe Goldberg should never be justified. NOT in 2019. NOT ever.

Joe Goldberg is a Stalker.

Technically, in the world of Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, we’ve all become stalkers one way or the other but the only difference between us and the traditional, creepy version of the stalkers are that we stalk people based on what information they make available about themselves. Joe Goldberg was actually being a traditional creepy stalker who almost pleasured himself while viewing Beck being intimate in her own personal space WITHOUT her knowing about it and THAT IS CREEPY. Also, he is seen stalking her for a considerable amount of times throughout the series and sneakily entering her apartment to hack into her laptop just because he wanted to protect her because he loves her? A normal person should never make sense out of it.

He literally has two personalities.

If I was Beck’s friend and saw Goldberg hanging out with her, I would never like the vibe he gives off. Since I was the audience, I knew what he was up to every minute and so I don’t blame Peach for never liking him. You might think Peach and Beck got along well before Joe came and then she tried to sabotage their relationship later on? That’s when you know you are justifying Joe Goldberg. He has successfully crawled into your brain with his words and creepy stares. He was never real with Beck and although he rants about how Beck hid things from him but he never acknowledged once that he has hidden his REAL self from her all this time.

He is a murderer.

If rape is never justified to you, so shouldn’t be a murder. Goldberg commits murders and tries to justify it in a manner where you’ll feel how blind and ignorant Beck is but trust me, Beck is like any other girl out there who is still trying to decode the meaning of life. It is never okay to kill other people to protect what you love if your significant other is mature enough to fight their own battles in a sane manner.

He never loved Beck.

He might seem like the perfect lover to have at some point of the series but deep down we all know that he isn’t. The mother of ironies was when he said Peach was obsessed with Beck when all he did the entire season was follow Beck, kill people for her, steal her stuff and later hide it in a ceiling..? He never trusted Beck for one second and what is love with doubts and hyper compassion? A Netflix Original Series with a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.

He is charmingly wicked.

He is seen to sympathize other people in this series and help them out eventually and utter words that might seem charming enough to imply he is intelligent and insightful, don’t fall for it. His emotions don’t follow a normal path and even though he doesn’t want to do the things he does, he still ends up doing it consciously, which makes his character a creepy one.

Basically, Joe is not your everyday protagonist, neither your everyday antagonist. He’s the archetypal possessive, murderous and wicked character, wrapped up in a chillingly persuasive, even charming, package. However confusing it may be to reject a series’ main character, his character should never be romanticized or justified.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, series showrunner Sera Gamble talked about how Joe’s character is problematic. “…One could argue that Joe’s intentions are good — but we all have to be careful anytime we think we know better than the person we’re talking to, especially about what that person needs or how they should act or behave as a member of whatever group they’re a part of. It’s a red flag. That’s what we get to explore through Joe, who genuinely believes he’s a feminist and a good man. His actions come from a deep place of entitlement because he’s confident that he should be helping Beck, though he hasn’t asked her if she wants help. And he, in fact, believes he knows better than she does what she actually needs.”Penn Badgley himself chimed in on the irresistible nature of Joe in the series. “I think what he’s meant to be is an embodiment and a portrait of the parts of us that can’t escape rooting for Joe. In a more just society, we would all see Joe as problematic and not be interested in the show, but that’s not the society we live in.”