This episode is a buffet of contradictions and confirmations-and ultimately, a heavy (but necessary) reminder of what the series has always shouted: Joe Goldberg is beyond redemption. It doesn't matter how many killer monologues he gives, how many tears he sheds on camera, or how many women he convinces that their deaths were just twisted acts of love. He doesn't change. He doesn't want to change. And the script, cleverly (though frustratingly), rubs that in our faces while planting the seed that the only possible solution now is the most extreme one. Kate, the only one who finally seems to wake up, realizes it too late-but still reaches the only real conclusion: if justice won't come, the bullet will.
A big chunk of the episode revolves around Joe and Bronte's dysfunctional relationship-which honestly, has become the wildest social experiment on the show since Beck decided to sleep with her stalker. The idea that Joe is constantly testing Bronte is suffocating, because it lays bare just how manipulative he is, even when he's pretending to be "vulnerable." The woman wakes up handcuffed to a bed, and he acts like her reaction is just "an understandable fear." And this is where the script starts messing with the dangerous territory of dark romance: Bronte, full of trauma, falls for the trap of "no one's ever loved me enough to kill for me." And Joe, of course, serves up that sick kind of love on a silver platter-complete with a tour of the infamous glass cage, now featuring a gross doxxer as a souvenir.
This whole dynamic between them isn't just disturbing-it's also a sharp jab at the fantasy that love can fix anything, especially when it's aimed at a broken, misogynistic, murderous man. That moment when she says "I fixed you" is not just predictable, it's purposely pathetic. The show knows exactly what it's doing. Bronte doesn't see the real Joe-she sees a version she made up to fill her own emptiness. She wants to be the lead in a dark romance, the "only one who understands," but the episode makes it clear that not only is that an illusion-it's a dangerous one. Joe kills Dane after Bronte begged him not to hurt anyone. And it's not out of love-it's just who he is.
Then there's Kate, who in the last episode looked ready to become Joe's ultimate antagonist, but here she's pushed aside again, reduced to exposition dumps and emotional confessions that go nowhere. The show's been teasing her growth forever, but never fully delivers. Her redemption arc is stuck in this dull limbo-she wants to atone for her past, help Nadia, protect her kid... but it all happens after Joe's already destroyed half a dozen lives. And when she finally decides to stop playing his game and start playing hers, it's already too late-because Joe's on the phone, calmly telling her he wants his son back, with the cold confidence of a psychopath who knows he's winning. Again.
Maddie is still the season's tragicomic touch. Every time she shows up, it feels like the show turns into a self-parody-but in a way that works. The way she begs Joe to "work his magic" and manipulate Harrison is so absurd it loops back to being accurate. It shows how even people who should be terrified of Joe end up treating him like a tool. And that just feeds his ego even more. By the end of the episode, Joe feels untouchable-in love, loved back, about to get his kid, and facing zero real consequences for all the people he's killed. Joe is the perfect example of how charming white men get away with being monsters, even when the whole world knows exactly what they are. It'd be funny if it weren't so damn tragic.
The episode hits the mark in showing that Bronte's whole arc is just another way of reaffirming who Joe really is. She's just another woman duped by the myth of redemptive love, trying to force a psychopath into a romantic storyline, thinking she's living in a novel. And like the show makes crystal clear with that bold bit of foreshadowing-"I can fix him"-you can't fix someone who doesn't want to be fixed. And Joe? Joe wants to kill. Because deep down, that's what he loves.
If the plan now really is to kill him, like Kate's final decision hints at, then maybe "You" is finally ready to face the truth we've known since season one: Joe Goldberg doesn't deserve sympathy, redemption, or one more damn chance. He deserves an ending. And with any luck, it'll come from the hands of a woman who survived him. Because of all the things Bronte said, she got one thing right: loving Joe is dangerous. But trying to change him? That's just plain stupid.
