‘You’ Season 4 Part 1 Is a Dark Academia Whodunit
It seems like everyone is in Europe these days, including the most well-read sociopath in suburbia. Season 4 of Netflix’s hit series You picks up in England with Vampire Weekend’s “Oxford Comma” and an Emily Dickinson quote, a reminder that if it weren’t for the previous three seasons of stalking and murdering, Joe Goldberg would be a walking embodiment of the female gaze—returning with a poet’s beard and blazer. Conflicted swoon.
Following the execution of his master plan in season 3’s finale—which left him presumed dead but in reality widowed, childless, and down two toes—Joe Goldberg (now under the alias Jonathan Moore) is working as a literature professor at a university in England. His flame for Marienne, his former library boss and latest mark, still burns, despite his efforts to lie low in London. We know this shtick by now—he doesn’t want to lie low, he will kill again, and we can’t fix him.
In his dark academia era, Joe mingles with the elites of London, quickly finding himself (yet again) next to a dead body. After a rager of a night with the Brits, Joe wakes up to find his new friend Malcolm dead, sans fingers. He figures this was his doing, because it usually is, and cleans up the mess, disposing of the body. Soon after, he starts receiving anonymous texts from the real killer, who knows his true identity.
The subsequent episodes see Joe start up a fling with Malcolm’s girlfriend Kate and forge a friendship with Rhys Montrose, a writer who is running for mayor of London and, like Joe, grew up in poverty. Meanwhile, bodies continue to stack up, making noise in the media and inspiring a new nickname for the mystery murderer: the Eat the Rich Killer. The penultimate episode of season 4 part 1 takes place at the lavish country house of one of Joe’s new rich friends, à la Knives Out. The group prods, parties, and accuses each other of being the killer, and Joe’s beef with Roald, a richie rich who is obsessed with Kate, comes to a head. The two chase each other through the woods and Joe bashes his head into the ground before looking up and seeing a new face, that of Rhys, who promptly knocks Joe unconscious with the butt of a rifle.
Moments later, Joe wakes up to find himself and an unconscious Roald chained in the dungeon (a classic feature of elitist manors in the English countryside). Rhys tells Joe that he is suppressing the “real” him, which is, of course, a murderous sociopath. He kicks over a lantern and sets the dungeon on fire, challenging Joe to either escape or burn, taking posthumous credit for all the killings.
As tensions rise and fires blaze, Joe manages to break free from the chains, freeing Roald and escaping the house with Kate. The trio watches the house burn to the ground.
With the Eat the Rich drama behind him, Joe sets his sights on a new mark in the name of revenge—Rhys, who officially announces his candidacy for mayor. The second half of season 4 will surely follow Joe on his quest to take down his stalker and the true Eat the Rich killer, Rhys. That said, some interesting conversations are stirring online about the character that is Rhys—the way he is so rarely seen interacting with other characters and the way a split personality would explain Joe’s new bouts of memory loss. The part 1 finale leaves us asking, is this a Goldbergian redemption arc or a twisted fight club fantasy? Is Rhys really the killer, and moreover, does Rhys really exist?
The first five episodes of You season 4 are currently streaming on Netflix, with the final half of the season airing March 9.
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