“It was a lot about Joe having to face what he is.”
Courtesy of Netflix
This article contains spoilers from the final season ofYou.
Joe Goldberg was never going to be the problem at least, not according to Joe Goldberg.
Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg on ‘You’.Credit:Courtesy of Netflix
She ultimately helped to take Joe down.
(And shequite literally shot his penis off in the process.)
In the series' final moments, Joe finds himself behind bars, but he isn’t totally alone.
Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg and Madeline Brewer as Bronte on ‘You’.Courtesy of Netflix
He’s reading a love letter from a fan, a woman he’s never met.
As he looks straight into the camera, he ponders, “Maybe the problem isn’t me.
Maybe it’s you.”
Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg and Madeline Brewer as Bronte on ‘You’.Clifton Prescod/Netflix
Entertainment Weeklyspoke with showrunners Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo about that series ending.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You all had to decide the end of Joe Goldberg.
Does he get away with it?
Charlotte Ritchie as Kate Lockwood on ‘You’.Courtesy of Netflix
How did you decide to land him in jail?
MICHAEL FOLEY:It was a lot about Joe having to face what he is.
He gets close, but of course in the end he can’t do it.
He has to blame us.
Of course, it did become about: Is he captured?
And yes, that was a pitch.
Do we see him on trial?
Those conversations did happen, but it was mostly these other, broader ideas that were driving us.
JUSTIN W. LO:Ultimately, we felt it would be important to hold Joe accountable.
Charlotte Ritchie as Kate Lockwood and Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg on ‘You’.Courtesy of Netflix
We were really happy with that ending.
That finale felt like such a standalone episode with Joe and Bronte isolated and him almost hunting her.
What did you all like about breaking them off for that last episode?
And ultimately, both Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) and Bronte survive.
Was that a debate in the writers' room?
LO:With Kate, it was a subject of great debate.
There were some writers in the room that really wanted her to die.
Others wanted her to have some measure of redemption.
Clearly we landed on that she was redeemed in some way.
So that’s why we went there with her.
FOLEY:As for Bronte, it was really important for us that she got her voice back.
I’m curious about the twist that she knew who Joe was and wanted to take him down.
Had that been brewing in the room for a while?
And thank God it didn’t, because it just made all the more sense here.
We didn’t do it obviously, but that’s what Mike’s referring to.
We’ve talked about certain things that were big debates for you all.
What would you say was the hardest part of crafting this final season?
I don’t need to watch this season."
That was a real sticking point.
LO:Yeah, we’ve done five seasons of the show.
So that was another challenging aspect of this season.
Inevitably, it ends up being one of my favorite things about a season.
Why didn’t you want to bring any of the other women back for that final showdown?
The entire final season ofYouis on Netflix now.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
