YOU Season 1: What Does The Ending Really Mean?
Why is Candace back and will Joe's murders come back to haunt him? YOU Season 1's ending explained.
Lifetime’s YOU has become a buzzy hit since releasing on Netflix. Based on the book by Caroline Kepnes, YOU tells the story of bookstore manager Joe Goldberg who stalks and then dates aspiring writer Guinevere Beck.
There’s a lot of story in Season 1. After falling in love at first sight with Beck, Joe learns everything he can about her before fully activating his plan of conquest. Joe is attractive, charming and intuitive – or so it seems – leaving people unsure if they’re supposed to love or hate him.
The couple have their ups and downs as Joe keeps some alarming secrets from her. Joe’s ability to tell right from wrong is pretty skewed when it comes to love, and how it ended only leaves us wondering where it will go next.
Contains spoilers for all of YOU Season 1.
9. The Ending
After Beck finds Joe’s stash of creepy mementos – including her own underwear and the phones of her dead friends – she realises just how disturbing Joe actually is. Once Joe knows that she knows, Beck awakens in the book vault in the store’s basement.
Joe tries to give good reason for what he did, and Beck eventually realises that she must agree with him in order to escape. She writes a manuscript framing her therapist, Dr. Nicky, who she had an affair with. But once Joe lets her out of the cage, she turns on him, saying he’s going to spend the rest of his life in jail.
In the end, he killed her. Of course he killed her. He was equally creepy as he was romantic. Joe knew that she was never going to love him again, and if he couldn’t have her then no one could. Plus, there was the fact that Joe did confess to Beck that he killed her ex-boyfriend Benji and wealthy friend Peach, so he definitely couldn’t leave her alive.
Four months later, we learn that Joe used Beck’s manuscript to frame Dr. Nicky for Beck’s death and Joe’s other murders. Even in her death, Joe says he managed to give Beck exactly what she wanted in the end: “The book is yours, Beck. And it made you famous. It’s sad that you’re not here to see it. But I know you would be so happy.”