In season one of “You,” protagonist Joe Goldberg goes through atrocious things for the one he loves, Guinevere Beck. The show gives off a sort of “Dexter” vibe, with Goldberg injuring detestable persons to protect those he cares about.
In season two, Joe wants to learn from his past mistakes. He vows he will do better, be better. Finding love isn’t number one on his agenda anymore—the aim is to be honest with himself. But that changes when he meets a girl at his new job, Anavrin. Coincidentally, her name is Love.
He bumps into Love in the fruit section of Anavrin, providing a little meet-cute for the audience where he quickly learns she is employed there too.
In season two, viewers see Joe using the alias Will Bettelheim. As he gets to know Love, he desires her more with each interaction. She’s confident and has herself together. She doesn’t need to be saved, he thinks.
Whenever they meet, he tries to persuade her to remain friends with him. He feels that she would get hurt if the relationship progressed into romantic territory. But eventually, their friendship turns into a romance. Joe realizes that he’s doing her a disservice by remaining friends when they could be much happier as a couple.
Love wins Joe over by baking for him, each sweet more delicious than the last. He learns that accepting her gifts but not giving her anything in return is seen by her as a one-sided relationship. He then gives her gifts based off memories from her childhood to show her that he does indeed care for her too.
The setting of Los Angeles adds variety to the show and reveals more about Joe’s personality. Helping his neighbors, one of a few reoccurring external factors, shows that he distinguishes hurting from helping those who need it.
Delilah and Ellie are those neighbors. Delilah is a young guardian, and Ellie is her teenage sister. Much like Delilah and Ellie, Joe was also a child to a single parent and knows how hard it can be.
The season flips back and forth from past to present to give viewers a look at Joe’s childhood. Viewers learn a lot about what makes him who he is, such as how his present relationships with women are affected by how he interacted with his mom as a child.
The mistakes he makes in the present are either inadvertent because there was no other choice or strictly out of protection.
“So karma and I, we’re in a fight,” Joe says. “Some people, they get what they deserve. Some people don’t.”
His perspective of everyone around him is formed through their social media, investigating every clue about them. Joe uses what he learns about each person to manipulate their impressions of him.
Through the season, he sees how dysfunctional everyone around Love seems to be. He takes responsibility for her, for who she is: Someone determined, headstrong, driven, strong and beautiful.
The best parts of the scenes between the pair is how they let viewers see that both Joe and Love deal with dysfunctionality around them and shows how they grow from it.
Some parts of the show leave something to be desired. The scene where Joe and Love express their feelings for each other by saying “I wolf you” came off as cringe-inducing instead of cute. Along with the location of LA comes hipsters and their lingo; although it sometimes provided comic relief, sometimes the hipster stereotype was used too heavily.
As viewers come to the final episodes, the twists and turns the show hurls at them keeps them wanting more.
Viewers will be compelled to binge-watch the series to discover what’s going to happen to all their favorite characters, from Love and Will to Delilah and Ellie. Everyone has a specific reason they are a part of the show. As the purpose of each character is revealed, it will leave viewers shocked and wanting answers from the next season of “YOU.”
