Spoiler Alert: You Season 3

Bailey McKeon ’22

Features Editor

Netflix’s thriller series You staring Penn Badgley is back with Season 3. Here’s a full recap of everything you need to remember from seasons 1 and 2 before you start watching. 

In Season 1, we meet Joe Goldberg, a bookstore clerk, who begins to stalk a customer of the bookstore, Beck, that he is intrigued by. Quickly, Beck’s boyfriend Benji threatens Joe’s relationship with Beck, so, naturally, Joe locks Benji in a glass vault in the basement of the bookstore and kills him. Joe then begins dating Beck. 

Soon enough, Beck’s best friend Peach becomes suspicious of Joe’s intentions and honesty. In an attempt to save his own reputation, Joe hits Peach in the head with a rock while she is on her morning run. Although she survives, Joe eventually kills Peach and frames it as a suicide by typing up a note on Peach’s laptop. 

Joe then begins to suspect that Beck is sleeping with her therapist, Dr. Nicky, and goes to visit the doctor himself. Joe and Beck break up after Joe confronts Beck about his suspicions and Joe begins dating a new woman named Karen. Soon, however, Joe and Beck rekindle their romance. Jealous Karen warns Beck about Joe’s past, which rises suspicions about what happened to Joe’s earlier ex-girlfriend Candace, who mysteriously disappeared.  

Beck finds Joe’s collection of victim’s cellphones, including her previous boyfriend Benji’s phone, along with some other horrifying items. Beck then discovers the glass vault in the basement of the bookstore. Joe finds Beck in the basement and quickly locks her in the vault. Beck tricks Joe into coming into the vault, although Joe eventually escapes and kills Beck. Joe pins these murders of Dr. Nicky. The season ends with Candace walking into Joe’s bookstore.  

In Season 2, Joe begins his life in Los Angeles to escape from Candace in New York. He steals the identity of Will, who he locks in a glass vault, this time inside of a storage unit. Joe soon becomes intrigued by yet another woman, Love, and begins working a job at the same department store she works in. Love’s brother Forty is skeptical of Joe. 

Love becomes apprehensive about Joe and distances herself from him. After Forty overdoses on drugs and alcohol, Joe is left to take care of him, which brings him back closer to Love. However, Candace shows up in LA and befriends Forty. Love grows suspicious of Candace and Candace comes clean to Love, in the process exposing Joe. Joe and Love break up again.  

Joe then has an affair with Delilah, his neighbor. Delilah is attempting to criminalize Henderson, who molested her when she was 17. Joe breaks into Henderson’s apartment to collect evidence in an effort to help Delilah but instead ends up killing Henderson while he is there.  

At the same time, Delilah finds the keys to Joe’s storage unit and discovers the glass vault. Joe finds her and locks her in the vault yet promises not to kill her. He grants her time release handcuffs that will open when Joe has fled town.   

Before he leaves town, Joe helps Forty with a script. However, Forty drugs Joe, which makes him late to leave town. When he comes to, Joe goes back to the storage unit and finds Delilah still there, but dead. Candace shows up and traps Joe in the vault with Delilah’s dead body. Candace calls Love so Love can come see for herself Joe’s dirty secrets.  

When Love arrives, however, she kills Candace. Joe comes clean to Love and quickly realizes that he is to Love what Beck was to him, a psychotic infatuation. Although Joe is struck with the urge to kill Love, she reveals to him that she is pregnant with his child. Consequently, Joe and Love move into a new home. The season ends with the suggestion that Joe becomes infatuated with their new neighbor.  

Be sure to watch You Season 3 on Netflix!