Picture: Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg in the final season of You – Netflix
After five seasons, and a myriad of dead bodies to boot, Joe Goldberg’s story finally came to a climactic end. So, did Joe come to justice? How high was the body count of the final season? Let’s find out.
You is a Netflix Original romantic crime-drama series created by Greg Berlanti and based on the series of dark romance novels by Caroline Kepnes, You and Hidden Bodies. Before landing on Netflix, the series was broadcast on the American network Showtime, where it struggled for ratings. However, after its move to Netflix, the series’ popularity sent it viral, amassing a huge fan following worldwide.
From July 2021 to April 2025, the previous four seasons of You have been watched for a combined total of 1.254 billion hours and garnered 154.4 million views, all while in the Netflix top 10. The show has been one of Netflix’s most popular crime dramas.
You Season 5 ending explained
After years of murdering and justifying his actions for the people he “loved,” Joe Goldberg finally faced the music and was arrested for his crimes.
Mooney’s Fire
Before his arrest, Joe had been trapped inside his glass cage by Kate and Nadia, who were determined to get a confession out of the serial killer, which would help clear Nadia’s name. But ultimately, they had no plans to release him and were going to kill him. Ever resourceful and crazy, before being trapped, Joe had planted a key on the inside of his arm and was able to escape the cage, where he attacked Kate with a mallet, injuring her. However, before Joe could escape the bookstore, Maddie was on a rampage and decided to burn it down, with Joe trapped inside, locked in the entrance to the basement. To save his skin, Joe realised he could use Kate’s phone to call the Fire Brigade. However, Kate was able to recover in time to hide, ambush Joe, and incapacitate him by striking him on the head as well. Kate tricked Joe into confessing how he killed Love, and recorded it, sending it to Nadia in one last act of defiance while the pair await their fate to be consumed by the flames. However, Joe was rescued by Louise, who believed she had done this as an act of love, and as a result, proposed to her. Louise agrees to the proposal, but the narrative now shifts, and we hear Louise’s thoughts as she realizes she is the only person who can bring Joe to justice.
Picture: Joe’s glass cage in Mooney’s basement
The Arrest of Joe Goldberg
Thanks to Joe’s confession to Kate, he is left with no choice but to flee New York and head to the Canadian border. Unknown to Joe, Louise is plotting his downfall and just waiting for the right moment to strike. So Joe is left to believe he’s in a super romantic scenario where it’s him and Louise against the world as they attempt to escape the country.
Louise and Joe are squatting in a vacant lake house, and while Joe is distracted in the moment, he believes they’re about to have sex, Louise pulls a gun on him. Joe tried to gaslight Louise and talk his way out of the situation, but Louise’s determination led her to force Joe to redact all the rewrites and additions he had made to Beck’s book. A phone call with his son, Henry, is what sends Joe off the deep end after Henry determines that his father is a monster. With nothing left to lose, Joe attacks Louise, and in the ensuing fight, she is shot in the side, but hides from the serial killer before he can finish the job, and uses a cell phone to call the police. But before she can speak to the person on the line, Joe catches up to her and reveals he is the one who hurt her ankle, and in his delusional state, actually unleashes the real Joe Goldberg, and attempts to murder Louise in the lake.
Picture: Louise (Madeline Brewer) turns on Joe (Penn Badgley) – Netflix
Believing her to be dead, Joe attempts to run away, where he kills an investigating police officer. Before Joe can escape, Louise returns with the downed police officer’s gun in hand. Realising the police will find them soon, Joe wants to go out as poetically and romantically as possible, with Louise killing him. However, Louise is determined for Joe to face justice for his crimes, and be forced to sit in court and see the faces and families of his victims, and for him to live out the rest of his life alone. In one last desperate bid to die, Joe attempts to reach for Louise and the gun, but is shot in the genitals, incapacitating him, and then arrested by the police.
Joe the Eunuch
Joe’s arrest led to his trial, where he was convicted of the murder of Love Quinn and Guinevere Beck. Thanks to his successful conviction, he was charged with murder in the first degree for Benjamin Ashby III and Peach Salinger. With Joe charged with Beck’s murder, this also meant Dr. Nicky was released from prison.
Picture: Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) after his trial and conviction – Netflix
Nadia, with her name cleared, became a writer and later a teacher, educating convicts in prison. Harrison was cleared of the murder of Reagan, and while Maddie was charged with arson and the murder of Reagan, she served no time due to the circumstances surrounding Joe. The pair is happily together, with Maddie pregnant and expecting twins.
Meanwhile, it’s revealed that Kate Lockwood survived the fire, and wears her burns as a badge of honour. She learned from Teddie that the Lockwood Corporation has become 100% nonprofit, much to her delight. Since stepping down from the Lockwood Corporation, Kate has returned to becoming an art dealer, where she has promoted the work of Marienne Bailey, who with Joe behind bars does not have to fear harm any longer. Kate also continues to be a good mother to Henry.
Picture: Marriene’s art – Netflix
As for Louis, she was able to remove Joe’s “contributions” from Beck’s book, and a redacted edition of the book was released given Beck her voice back.
Lastly, Joe now resides in his prison cell, alone. Instead of self reflection and taking accountability for his actions, Joe continues to blame the world, and his environment for his actions. He receives numerous pieces of fan mail, which often contain explicit details of what they wish Joe would do to them, which Joe questions how he’s on the inside of a prison cell, when these “crazies” are walking free. One last deflection from Joe to the audience, is suggesting the problem with society isn’t him, it’s “You.”
Picture: Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg – Netfix
Who Lives and Who Dies in You Season 5?
Uncle Bob
Killed by: Joe Goldberg – Strangled to death, and then faked suicide.
Uncle Bob was part of Kate Lockwood’s company’s board, but after Kate’s return from London and her radical new direction, she was attempting to take the company. Uncle Bob was ready to destroy her by leaking to the press about her role in the pipeline incident, which led to the deaths of many young children.
Scared of the consequences and losing her seat on the board and status as CEO, Kate gave in to a moment of weakness and allowed Joe to remove Uncle Bob from the picture. Joe would go to his apartment, strangle the man to death, and make it look like a suicide by hanging before sending an email to rescind what he was attempting to leak to journalists.
Reagan
Killed by: Maddie Lockwood – Stabbed in the neck with a needle.
The twin sister of Maddie, Reagan, was a cold-hearted person who was determined to destroy the lives of Kate and Joe. As a result, Joe attempted to kidnap Reagan to remove her from the picture, but accidentally kidnapped her identical twin sister, Maddie.
This exposed Maddie’s ongoing affair with her brother-in-law, Harrison. Still, Joe used the situation to his advantage and, while he had Maddie trapped for just over a week, manipulated her into the idea of removing Reagan, so she could be happy with Harrison, and her niece, Gretchen, who Maddie had been manipulated into being a surrogate by Reagan to spare her twin sister from the risks of carrying a child to term.
After Joe captured Reagan, he placed her inside the glass cage with Maddie. Instead of finding a way to overcome the danger together, the pair got into a toxic argument, which eventually led to Maddie stabbing her sister in the neck with a needle from her diabetes medication.
Clayton
Killed by: Joe Goldberg – Head smashed against the floor.
Clayton was part of the crew attempting to bring Joe to justice and was revealed to be the son of Dr. Nicky, who Joe had framed for the death of Guinevere Beck in the first season. He was pretending to be Louise’s horrible ex-boyfriend, and went rogue in their plan after Louise was beginning to get cold feet and doubting if Joe was Beck’s killer.
Clayton’s Instagram post is what helped lead Joe to the cottage by the sea where Louise was staying. After arriving and demanding Louise turn on the cameras to capture any incriminating footage of Joe, the serial killer came to what he thought was Louise’s rescue, and the fight that ensued resulted in Joe smashing Clayton’s head against the corner fireplace, killing him
Dane
Killed by: Joe Goldberg – Suffocated.
After Joe’s live interview, the narrative was flipped back onto Louise, and after a hit was put out on her head, a man attempted to kidnap her. Joe came to her rescue and stopped the man from kidnapping her, but in the process, smashed his head in with a brick. He took the would-be kidnapper to his glass cage, where he allowed Louise to talk with the man while Joe had to deal with Harrison and Maddie.
Louise allowed Dane to leave; however, Joe, who was on a high believing that killing for the ones he loves is justified, took matters into his own hands and killed Dane.
Unnamed Police Officer
Killed by: Joe Goldberg – suffocated.
As Joe attempted to run away from the police after his attempted murder of Louise, he his from the police officer before killing him. This is what led to Louise taking the officer’s gun which she would use to shoot Joe’s genitals off.
What did you think of the final season of You on Netflix? Let us know in the comments below!
