Walking on the English streets feeling like a Dickensian, Joe reinvents himself as a professor in London. But after one boozy night out Joe wakes up with a bad headache and a dead body in his apartment. Soon he starts getting cryptic texts and he realizes he is in a whodunnit, as someone tries to frame him for more murders.
Spoiler warnings ahead
Joe has a twisted philosophy on love and morals. Every time a woman catches his eye, he becomes obsessed with her, stalks her, and goes to great lengths to ensure the success of his relationship. Joe believes murdering someone is justified if it is for love. He will not hesitate to permanently remove someone he perceives as a threat to his romantic life. In season 3, we saw Joe moving to an idyllic suburb of San Francisco with his wife, Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti). Soon, the Quinn-Goldberg paradise falls apart when Love finds out about Joe’s new obsession, Marienne (Tati Gabrielle). Joe kills Love, fakes his death, and promises to find Marienne, who fled to Europe.
Every season is a start-afresh chapter with Joe eventually relapsing and getting involved with a pile of dead bodies. Season 4 is a reboot but with a new formula. Joe attempts to abstain from the murderous humdrum. He finds Marienne in London and confronts her. Joe lets her go to prove he is not the raging killer she thinks him to be. It is an illusionary moment for the viewers of ‘You’ as none of Joe’s titular love interests have survived before.
Joe settles in London under the alias Jonathan Moore. He is a professor teaching American literature through, well, an American perspective. Of course, the hypercritical soul somehow befriends a loudmouth named Malcolm Harding (Stephen Hagan). Malcolm is capricious and most of the time unfaithful to his girlfriend and ice queen gallerist, Kate Galvin (Charlotte Ritchie).
As Joe steps into the mega-sophisticated club, he scrutinizes anyone and everyone who offers him a handshake.
The internal monologue gets amusing as he struggles to socialize. ‘You’ always addressed the glaring class system of our society through witty monologues.
Typically, Joe uses his intellect as his weapon to mingle with such exclusive crowds. This time when Joe introduces himself to the upper-crust circle of Londoners, his bookish wits do not impress anyone except Lady Phoebe (Tilly Keeper). The circle has a full spectrum of coveted media darlings, from a Nigerian princess to a money making painter. In the incurious and haughty circle, Joe thinks Rhys Montrose (Ed Speleers), bestseller memoir writer and potential mayoral candidate of London, is the only one with substance.
The predictable plot twists and flashy, neo-fascist privileged characters made this season grossly entertaining. Joe gets entangled in other people’s business, spies on Kate, and gets framed for her boyfriend’s murder. Naturally, Joe fixates on Kate, and initially, he gets on Kate’s nerves. Yet the American professor soon grows on Kate. Joe gets past her iron-clad exterior and reaches the warm, rich center of affection in his effortless ways.
Viewers are surprised (or are they?) as Joe keeps making the same mistakes and dragging everyone down around him. You would think Joe is mature this time in letting Marienne walk away free. Still, he fell for the next woman who struck him and made his moves at the most inconvenient opportunity, only to turn Kate down after a shocking revelation that he might jeopardize her safety. On the other side, Joe gets desperate to find the mystery killer and is distracted by Kate as more people from the circle drop dead. Simultaneously, the killer on the loose garners the name ‘Eat-the-Rich’ killer by the media.
Oh yes, things turn political since the culprit goes after the wealthiest of the wealthy to protest economic inequality.
By the final episode of Part 1, we find out that Rhys Montrose is the Eat-the-Rich killer. Rhys leaves Joe chained to burn in fire and gives an ultimatum. Joe survives the hazard (because Joe figures everything out at the right place and at the right moment). When the final scene rolls, Rhys expects to meet Joe again in London.
Despite their murderous tendencies, Joe and Rhys have different motives.
Joe is adamant in explaining that he is not a frenzy psycho who takes people’s lives for granted just because of their status. Joe believes he is compassionate and kind. He sometimes steps down his high horse when left with no choice. His killing is an act of self-defense, while Rhys’s killing derives from his hatred for the aristocracy.
The show puts stalker after stalker to break the old formula. The concept only stretches so far. Once again, the audience relies on Joe to be the white knight and defeat the bad guy. Rhys is last seen in a television interview when he announces his mayoral candidacy. Will he be too consumed by the power and unleash his wrath upon everyone? Or will he only go after the privileged and take Joe down with it? And what is Kate’s fate? It is too soon to tell. However, we will get the answers on March 9 with the release of part 2.