Joe Goldberg Can't Outrun His Past in 'You' Season 2

From Harper's BAZAAR

Netflix's You has been a major topic of conversation since it aired, and it's easy to see why. But beware: There are major spoilers ahead as we examine what's going to happen in the series' second season.

Featuring Gossip Girl's Penn Badgley as leading man Joe Goldberg, a stalker-turned-murderer, bookstore manager, and seemingly perfect boyfriend, You treads the fine line between rom-com and horror story with aplomb, proving not all romantic prospects are what they seem.

To recap: Throughout Season 1, Joe pursues, and eventually wins, promising writer Guinevere Beck, played by Elizabeth Lail, but only by gradually eliminating several people from her life first—including Shay Mitchell's Peach Salinger. And when the truth catches up to him, there are some pretty violent consequences.

Here's everything we know about Season 2.

Season 2 premiered on December 26.

Because nothing screams "the day after Christmas" like a stalker love story? The 10-episode second season arrived on Thursday, December 26.

Watch You Season 2 on Netflix

Joe has a new love interest, and Candace is back.

The Haunting of Hill House alum Victoria Pedretti stars in You Season 2 as Joe's new love interest. Pedretti's character, Love Quinn, is a grocery store chef, and Joe begins preying on her almost as soon as he arrives in Los Angeles. However, there's a lot more to Love than meets the eye. Variety describes her as a young woman dealing with a heavy grief, who shuns the world of social media.

At the end of Season 1, Joe's ex-girlfriend Candace turned up out of the blue. It's safe to say that Candace has some unfinished business with Joe and she's back to get her revenge.

The story is set in Los Angeles.

Anyone who's read the books on which You is based will already know that the second part of Joe's story moves from New York to Los Angeles. The former-bookstore manager finds it hard to adjust to the sunnier climes and the big open spaces.

Joe's name is Will now.

The first teaser trailer for Season 2 (at the top) showed Joe in an L.A. coffee shop, putting in a name for his order. "I'm Will," he said, introducing himself with a creepy smile. New city, new name. In the official trailer, Joe also introduced himself under his alias, Will Bettelheim. And just like Joe, Will gets himself in to a lot of trouble.

Joe falls in love again.

The official synopsis for the season reads:

Joe will wrestle with his past in Season 2.

Gamble recently told Metro.co.uk that Season 2 of You won't follow the second book in the series—Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes—exactly. Gamble explained, "We've got lots of great stuff from the books, and also some new things that have come about as a result of changing the story for TV, like that (spoiler alert) Candace is alive and kicking and not pleased with Joe."

It's also worth noting that several characters were still alive at the end of Season 1 of You, despite Joe's best efforts to finish everyone off. As pointed out by Narcity, "Paco, Dr. Nicky, Beck's BFFs, all of Peach's family, and obviously, Candace," are all alive and could cause trouble for Joe.

As Gamble told The Hollywood Reporter, "Joe was already a teenager by the time he even met Mr. Mooney. There's a lot more to explore about Joe from earlier in his life."

In the same THR interview, Gamble also explained, "Part of the fun of continuing the story is that the loose ends from Joe's past are still dangling and could come back to him at anytime. He is very worried about the fact that Peach Salinger's family has hired people to investigate her alleged suicide, and there is evidence potentially still at her house."

But as for whether John Stamos, Beck's cheating therapist who was framed for her murder, is back in Season 2, Gamble said, "We have been talking a lot about the character and we're excited to keep telling that story."

In the official trailer, we see glimpses of Joe with Candace, who's tied up in the back of a van, hinting that there will be flashbacks of the night he tried to kill her.

Several new characters join Season 2.

James Scully (Heathers) plays Love's brother, Forty Quinn. A press release describes Forty as "confident, opinionated and privileged—at his best, a charming buddy; at his worst, a razor-sharp bully." He's also a recovering addict who relies on Love to help him stay in his 12-step program.

Meanwhile, Jenna Ortega (Jane the Virgin) plays Ellie, a teenager who was forced to grow up too fast. Not only is she Joe's next door neighbor, but her older sister, Delilah (played by Need for Speed's Carmela Zumbado) plays an important role in Season 2.

Other new additions include comedian Chris D’Elia as Henderson. Take a look at the full cast, plus more stills from the new season, below.

Joe has a lot to learn.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight in June 2019, Badgley revealed that he was already three months into production on the show's second season. He also explained his approach to playing a complex serial killer, saying, "I really focus on his curiosity, his sensitivity and his investigative nature." Looking at the character's positive attributes, he continued, "He's a fixer. He's a hero in his mind, so he strives to do all of those things and he'll use whatever means he can to get to the end that he believes is right."

Rather than viewing Joe as a straightforward serial killer, the former Gossip Girl star explained, "He's meant to be an embodiment of the many ideas we have about men and women, and romance and love." He continued, "But then as a character, I see him as a real honest human being trying to love. As an actor, it's often dangerous to think about your characters that way, but I feel like, with Joe, it's somehow a necessary dimension of it."

Joe might meet his match.

As reported by Deadline, Gotham's Robin Lord Taylor has joined You's second season. He is set to play a character called Will who "deals with unsavory sorts as part of his job, but is himself a thoughtful, personable, and highly intelligent guy who marches to the beat of his own drummer. That is, until he gets trapped in a bad situation." Sounds as though Joe could be in trouble.

Coincidentally, the tag line on the official Season 2 poster is "Meet your match."

One episode shows how Beck really died.

Season 2 will reveal more details about Beck's demise, as the first season left the details vague and mysterious. "There’s a revisitation of that [Beck's death] with Joe in the second episode of the second season, where you get to see a bit more of the hard reality of what he did to her," Badgley told Entertainment Tonight, "whereas you’re sort of, for better or worse, mercifully saved from seeing that in the first season."

He added that for Joe, "In his mind, she’s not even dead.”

“I’m not giving you some kind of spoiler, she’s dead," Badgley explained. "In his mind, everyone’s still alive because the pain that he feels he suffered at their hand is very much still alive.”

It looks like Joe will do more weird stuff with dead people.

"There are some things I’ve done with prosthetic bodies in this [new] season that were kind of nauseating as I did them, I will say that," Badgley told Entertainment Tonight.

Although Joe ("Will") seems like he's trying to reinvent himself, he hasn't kept away from his murderous ways. From wielding a knife, about to chop a body up in a professional kitchen, to lurking with his signature cage, with a bloodied up victim lying inside, Joe is still up to no good.

Read the sequel to You now.

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