You | |
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Season 4 | |
Showrunner | Sera Gamble |
Starring | |
No. of episodes | 10 |
Release | |
Original network | Netflix |
Original release | February 9 – March 9, 2023 |
Season chronology | |
The fourth season of the American psychological thriller television series You was ordered by Netflix on October 13, 2021. You series co-creator Sera Gamble returns as showrunner. Series star Penn Badgley returns as Joe Goldberg and Tati Gabrielle reprises her role as Marienne Bellamy, with Charlotte Ritchie, Tilly Keeper, Amy-Leigh Hickman, Ed Speleers and Lukas Gage joining the main cast. Filming began in March 2022, primarily in London, and concluded in August. The season was split in two parts, with the first part premiering on February 9, 2023, and the second part premiered on March 9, 2023.
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | |||||||
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Part 1 | ||||||||||||
31 | 1 | "Joe Takes a Holiday" | John Scott | Sera Gamble & Leo Richardson | February 9, 2023 | |||||||
In a flashback, Joe tracks down Marienne in London, but chooses to let her go after she calls him a murderer. Joe is later met by Elliot Tannenberg, a fixer working for Love's father, who sets him up with a cover identity in exchange for killing Marienne to tie up loose ends. Joe instead pickpockets Marienne's necklace and sends its picture to Elliot to make it appear he killed her. In the present, Joe lives under his new identity as "Jonathan Moore", a university English professor. He develops an interest in Kate Galvin, the girlfriend of his obnoxious fellow professor Malcolm Harding, who lives in the flat across from him. Joe saves Kate from two muggers; to repay him, Malcolm invites him to a party at the elite Sundry House, where Joe befriends author and mayoral hopeful Rhys Montrose. Joe gets heavily intoxicated at the party and awakens in his flat to find Malcolm stabbed to death and missing a finger. Assuming he killed Malcolm before blacking out, Joe disposes of his body. The next day, Kate invites Joe to dinner. As Joe arrives, he receives a series of anonymous texts from Malcolm's real killer, thanking him for disposing of the evidence. | ||||||||||||
32 | 2 | "Portrait of the Artist" | John Scott | Kara Lee Corthron & Neil Reynolds | February 9, 2023 | |||||||
Lady Phoebe, Kate's aristocrat best friend, invites Joe to an art exhibition curated by Kate and featuring the work of Simon Soo, a billionaire's son in their friend circle. Joe breaks into Malcolm's office and finds a ledger of gambling debts and various codenamed contacts. Joe follows Phoebe's boyfriend Adam Pratt, an American expat who owns Sundry House, and discovers he has a fetish for being urinated on by men, before Adam's bodyguard Vic thwarts him. At the exhibition, Simon's art is vandalized by a woman that Joe and Kate later learn is the real artist behind the paintings, whom Simon got addicted to drugs to discredit her. Joe recalls a reference to the artwork in Malcolm's ledger and believes Simon killed Malcolm to avoid being extorted; however, Simon is murdered that night, with the killer cutting off one of his ears. Joe returns home to find his wall covered in newspaper clippings from his past, the killer having deduced his real identity. | ||||||||||||
33 | 3 | "Eat the Rich" | Shamim Sarif | Justin W. Lo & Mairin Reed | February 9, 2023 | |||||||
The killer sends Malcolm's finger to the press, and is dubbed the "Eat-the-Rich Killer". Joe discovers his student Nadia was in a sexual relationship with Malcolm. At Simon's funeral, the killer orders Joe to kill Kate. Joe follows Kate around to protect her; though initially cold to Joe, Kate eventually opens up to him and the two have sex, unaware that Vic is watching them. The next day, Joe follows Kate to a crypt where she pays respects to Malcolm; after she leaves, Vic, who was following Joe, searches him at gunpoint and finds Malcolm's ring, which Joe realizes was planted on him. A struggle ensues, forcing Joe to kill Vic. The killer suggests Joe is aroused by murder; Joe plays along and tells the killer to let him finish Kate, and the killer arranges a meeting with him. Phoebe calls Joe to Sundry House, where the police are waiting to question him. | ||||||||||||
34 | 4 | "Hampsie" | Harry Jierjian | Michael Foley & Amanda Johnson-Zetterström | February 9, 2023 | |||||||
Joe is invited to Phoebe's family's country manor for a weekend getaway. He observes her friends, particularly a socialite named Gemma, behaving callously to the servants. Joe shuts down Phoebe's attempt to seduce him, and she instead confides her concern that Adam does not love her. Adam, meanwhile, tells Joe he plans to propose to Phoebe, in part because her family fortune will rescue him from mounting debts. Joe comes at odds with Roald Walker-Burton, Kate's childhood friend who, as Joe discovers, is obsessed with her. At dinner, Roald chastises Kate for not accepting herself as "one of them", while Gemma accuses Joe of being the killer. Kate later reveals to Joe that her father is a powerful investor with whom she cut ties due to the harm his business dealings have done to the world. Joe realizes he may be in love with Kate. Roald confronts Joe about being the killer, and pushes him out of a second-story window. Joe recovers and hears a scream; he runs to find Kate, only to discover her kneeling over Gemma's corpse with a knife in hand. | ||||||||||||
35 | 5 | "The Fox and the Hound" | Harry Jierjian | Hillary Benefiel & Dylan Cohen | February 9, 2023 | |||||||
Kate insists she did not kill Gemma. Joe comes to believe her and helps her dispose of the body in a barn while the others are partying. Kate confronts Joe about his past after noticing his apparent experience with covering up murders; Joe admits that he disposed of Malcolm's body, and that whoever framed him is now trying to frame Kate. Kate goes to tell Phoebe to dismiss the servant staff; while she is away, Roald discovers Joe in the barn and brings him to the others, accusing him of being the killer. Despite Joe's protests, Roald gives him a headstart to flee before pursuing him with a shotgun. Joe subdues Roald in the woods, only to be captured and placed in a dungeon by the real killer: Rhys, who, having come from poverty, committed the murders out of hatred towards the rich. Rhys tells Joe to kill Roald so they can frame him for the murders. When Joe refuses, Rhys sets the dungeon on fire and leaves; Joe escapes and frees Roald, and the two are rescued by Kate. Joe does not tell the others about Rhys, and vows to bring him down himself. Rhys announces his candidacy for Mayor of London. | ||||||||||||
Part 2 | ||||||||||||
36 | 6 | "Best of Friends" | John Scott | Justin W. Lo & Leo Richardson | March 9, 2023 | |||||||
Rhys forces Joe to find someone to frame for the murders, and places Simon's severed ear in his freezer. Joe initially plans to frame Connie, a member of the Oxford group who confides his struggles with addiction, but later relents when Connie decides to get clean. At Kate's latest gallery fundraiser, Phoebe is held captive in a hotel room by Dawn, a woman posing as a waitress, who has a parasocial obsession with her. Joe negotiates his way into the room and plants Simon's ear in Dawn's bag before the police arrive, thus getting Dawn arrested for the "Eat the Rich" murders. Nadia, who witnesses the arrest, becomes suspicious of Joe. Adam proposes to Phoebe, but Phoebe, who learned of his financial problems from Dawn, rejects him. Joe and Kate admit their feelings for one another after Kate promises not to inquire into Joe's past. Rhys gives Joe a final task: kill his rival political donor Tom Lockwood, Kate's father. | ||||||||||||
37 | 7 | "Good Man, Cruel World" | Rachel Leiterman | Ab Chao & Neil Reynolds | March 9, 2023 | |||||||
Joe accompanies Kate to dinner with her father, who is visiting London; Lockwood reveals he knows Joe's real identity. Lockwood soon gets an article published revealing that Rhys fabricated much of his memoir. Rhys reveals he has kidnapped Marienne, and forces Joe to kill Lockwood to save her. Phoebe struggles with PTSD symptoms after her kidnapping; Kate arranges her stay at a clinic, but Phoebe instead decides to marry Adam. Joe prepares to kill Lockwood, but Lockwood instead enlists him to kill Rhys, giving him the location of a countryside cottage where Rhys has gone into hiding since the publication of the exposé. Joe finds Rhys, who claims he doesn't know who Joe is. Joe tortures Rhys for Marienne's location; Rhys pleads his innocence, but Joe ends up killing him, only to then discover that the "Rhys" he has been interacting with has been a figment of his imagination. Nadia, meanwhile, finds a key in Joe's apartment that leads to a room where Marienne has been trapped in a glass cage. | ||||||||||||
38 | 8 | "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" | Rachel Leiterman | Kara Lee Corthron & Mairin Reed | March 9, 2023 | |||||||
Joe is revealed to have drugged and kidnapped Marienne before she could leave London, and locked her in a glass cage in the basement of an abandoned building across from Rhys' favorite restaurant. Joe had been exhaustively researching Rhys' life, finding commonalities between Rhys' story of rising out of a life of crime and poverty and his own desire for moral redemption. Upon imprisoning Marienne, Joe suffered a psychotic break that caused him to dissociate, resulting in gaps in his memory where he kidnapped Marienne and later committed the murders. Having forgotten he kidnapped Marienne, Joe left her to starve in the cage. The "Rhys" in Joe's visions proclaims himself to be a figment of his darker impulses, and helps him remember where he kept the key to Marienne's location. Joe arrives at the building at the same time Nadia explains to Marienne her plan to help her escape. | ||||||||||||
39 | 9 | "She's Not There" | Penn Badgley | Hillary Benefiel & Amanda Johnson-Zetterström | March 9, 2023 | |||||||
Nadia manages to hide while a horrified Joe finds Marienne and promises to set her free. Nadia later procures ketamine from her boyfriend Edward to use on Joe. Joe and Kate attend Adam and Phoebe's wedding party and attempt to convince Phoebe, whose mental state has declined, not to marry Adam. Phoebe is later committed to psychiatric care after suffering a breakdown at the party. Adam is killed by hitmen posing as prostitutes, who, as Kate learns, were sent by her father; she refuses his request to take over his business. Joe takes Phoebe's diazepam to expunge his visions of Rhys, but experiences a nightmare in which he sees Gemma, Beck and Love, which convinces him the only way to end his obsessive cycle is to kill himself. He awakens to go free Marienne, only to find she overdosed on medication he left for her earlier. | ||||||||||||
40 | 10 | "The Death of Jonathan Moore" | Harry Jierjian | Michael Foley & Sera Gamble | March 9, 2023 | |||||||
Believing Marienne to have died, Joe disposes of her body at a park to make her look like she overdosed. Nadia, however, tells Edward that she and Marienne plotted to fake the latter's death by replacing her medication with beta blockers that lowered her blood pressure, so that she could escape. Kate tells Joe that her father revealed himself to have bankrolled her every venture even after their estrangement, and confides her fear of never escaping his control. Joe kills Lockwood, and the next morning, attempts suicide by jumping off a bridge. However, the police rescue him; he awakens in the hospital to find Kate, who tells him she has inherited all her father's assets, and has already covered up Joe's involvement in Rhys' death. Joe decides to accept his darker half; he kills Edward and frames Nadia for the crime. Sophie and Princess Blessing buy Sundry House, which Roald and Connie continue to frequent with no signs of change; after rehab, Lady Phoebe moves to Thailand to teach children. While Marienne reads an article about Joe while safely home with Juliette back in Paris, Joe moves back to New York with Kate, who runs her father's business after his death and helps Joe rehabilitate his public image as Love's escaped victim. |
On October 13, 2021, ahead of the third season premiere, You was renewed by Netflix for a fourth season. [2]
The season is primarily set in London, [3] the first time outside the United States, and showrunner Sera Gamble said protagonist Joe Goldberg is "great when he's in an environment that's not natural to him, that's foreign to him". Part of the decision to set the story in another country arose from Gamble's decision to explore the world further after watching many other international series on Netflix while quarantining during the COVID-19 pandemic. [4] The story is also briefly set in Paris, the idea being co-creator Greg Berlanti's, and Gamble noted that since it is not a familiar place to Joe, he is like a "fish out of water". [5] Penn Badgley, who portrays Joe, said that while the fourth season would retain the tone of the series, "We're using a different format [...] It's almost like we're shifting the genre slightly". [6] The first half of the season is structured like a whodunit, while the second half takes inspiration from Fight Club . [7]
In February 2022, Lukas Gage was cast as a series regular for the season. [8] A month later, Charlotte Ritchie was also cast as a regular. [9] Tati Gabrielle was also confirmed to be returning from the third season, though unclear in what capacity. [10] In April 2022, Tilly Keeper, Amy-Leigh Hickman, and Ed Speleers were cast as new series regulars, with Gabrielle confirmed to be returning as a regular, while Niccy Lin, Aidan Cheng, Stephen Hagan, Ben Wiggins, Eve Austin, Ozioma Whenu, Dario Coates, Sean Pertwee, Brad Alexander, Alison Pargeter and Adam James joined the cast in recurring roles for the fourth season. [11] Jenna Ortega had been offered to reprise her role of Ellie Alves from the second season, but declined due to scheduling conflicts with the TV series Wednesday . [12] Victoria Pedretti and Elizabeth Lail made special guest appearances as Love Quinn and Guinevere Beck, respectively, in the second half of the season. [13] [14]
Principal photography began on March 22, 2022, in the United Kingdom, [11] [15] and wrapped in late August. [16] Filming took place in locations including Royal Holloway, University of London, [17] Four Seasons Hotel London, [18] and the River Thames. [19] Badgley made his directorial debut with the ninth episode of the season. [20] The season features fewer intimate sex scenes than previous seasons in accordance with Badgley's wishes, citing his discomfort with such scenes. [21]
The season was split into two five-episode parts, with the first part premiering on February 9, 2023, and the second on March 9. [22]
For the fourth season, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 92% approval rating with an average rating of 7.3/10, based on 53 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "The hunter becomes prey in You's London-set fourth season, which shows some wear as this premise begins to outlive its believability—but Penn Badgley's sardonic performance continues to paper over most lapses in logic." [23] For the first part of season 4, Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 73 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [24] For the second part of season 4, Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 82 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [25]
Gregory Berlanti is an American screenwriter, producer and director. He is known for his work on the television series Dawson's Creek, Brothers & Sisters, Everwood, Political Animals, Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and You, in addition to his contributions to DC Comics on film and television productions, including The CW's Arrowverse, as well as Titans and Doom Patrol. In 2000, Berlanti founded the production company Berlanti Productions.
Penn Dayton Badgley is an American actor and producer. He is known for his roles as Dan Humphrey in The CW teen drama series Gossip Girl (2007–2012) and Joe Goldberg in the Netflix psychological thriller series You (2018–present).
Edward John Speleers is an English actor. He is best known for playing the title role in the 2006 film Eragon, antagonist Stephen Bonnet in the TV series Outlander and Jimmy Kent in the TV series Downton Abbey. He has also appeared as Rhys Montrose in the fourth season of You (2023) and Jack Crusher in the third season of Star Trek: Picard (2023).
Dario Coates is an English actor. He is known for portraying Alex Neeson in the television ITV soap Coronation Street (2007–2008).
Amy-Leigh Hickman is an English actress. Hickman made her television debut as Carmen Howle in the CBBC series Tracy Beaker Returns, a role she reprised in the sequel series The Dumping Ground. She then went onto appear as Linzi Bragg in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, before being cast as Nasreen Paracha in the Channel 4 drama Ackley Bridge, a role for which she won the Actor award for at the RTS Yorkshire Awards. Her other roles include Ester Kamali in Strike Back (2013), Sia Marshall in Safe (2018), Mimi Saunders in Our Girl (2020) and Bethany in Innocent (2021). Hickman also stars in the fourth series of the Netflix drama You (2023).
Sera Gamble is an American television writer and producer, best known for her work on Lifetime/Netflix's You, the Syfy's The Magicians and The CW's Supernatural.
Elizabeth Dean Lail is an American actress. She played Anna in the fantasy adventure series Once Upon a Time (2014) and Guinevere Beck in the Netflix psychological thriller series You (2018–2019). In film, she starred in the supernatural horror Countdown (2019) and portrayed Vanessa in the film adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy's (2023).
You is an American psychological thriller television series based on the books by Caroline Kepnes, developed by Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble, and produced by Berlanti Productions, Alloy Entertainment, and A+E Studios in association with Warner Horizon Television, now Warner Bros. Television.
The first season of the American psychological thriller television series You, based on the novel of the same name by Caroline Kepnes, was ordered by Lifetime in April 2017. It stars Penn Badgley, Elizabeth Lail, Luca Padovan, Zach Cherry and Shay Mitchell. The 10-episode first season, which premiered on September 9, 2018, was produced by A&E Studios, in association with Alloy Entertainment, Berlanti Productions, and Warner Horizon Television; the showrunners were Greg Berlanti, Sera Gamble and Leslie Morgenstein.
Victoria Pedretti is an American actress. She gained wide recognition for starring in the Netflix horror series The Haunting of Hill House (2018) and The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020), which established her as a scream queen. She earned further recognition for playing Love Quinn in the Netflix thriller series You (2019–2023). For these roles, she received nominations at the Critics' Choice and Saturn Awards.
Tatiana Gabrielle Hobson is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Gaia on The CW science fiction television series The 100, Prudence on the Netflix original series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Marienne Bellamy on the Netflix series You. She also provided the voice of Willow Park on the Disney Channel animated series The Owl House, and played Jo Braddock in the 2022 movie Uncharted and Hannah Kim on the Netflix series Kaleidoscope.
Caroline Kepnes is an American writer, screenwriter, author, and former entertainment reporter. She is best known for her novel series You, consisting of You (2014), Hidden Bodies (2016), You Love Me (2021), and For You and Only You (2023), writing for the 2018–present Lifetime/Netflix television series adaptation of the same name, and the stand-alone novel Providence (2018).
You is a thriller novel by Caroline Kepnes, published in September 2014. The novel has been translated into 19 languages, and was adapted into a television series of the same name.
Hidden Bodies is a thriller novel by Caroline Kepnes, published in February 2016. It is the sequel to her 2014 novel, You. It was loosely adapted in the second season and third season of the Netflix thriller series, You.
The second season of the American psychological thriller television series You was ordered by Lifetime on July 26, 2018. On December 3, 2018, it was announced that the network had passed on the second season and that the series would move to Netflix as a Netflix Original series. Penn Badgley and Ambyr Childers reprise their roles while new cast members include Victoria Pedretti, James Scully, Jenna Ortega, and Carmela Zumbado. The 10-episode second season is loosely based on the novel Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes and was entirely released on Netflix on December 26, 2019.
Joe Goldberg is a fictional character and protagonist of the You book series, written by Caroline Kepnes, as well as the television adaptation of the same name, where he is portrayed by American actor Penn Badgley, by Gianni Ciardiello, Aidan Wallace and Jack Fisher as a youth, and as his inner self by Ed Speleers. Joe is a serial killer, stalker and former bookstore manager who, upon meeting Guinevere Beck at his workplace in New York, develops an extreme, toxic and delusional obsession with her. After moving to Los Angeles to escape his sordid past, he meets avid chef Love Quinn and falls into his old habits of obsession and violence in order to avoid the fate of his past romantic endeavors. As his troubled marriage with Love falls apart, he abandons his life in the United States and moves to London where he begins tracking down the Eat-the-Rich killer, while managing an infatuation with Kate Lockwood.
The third season of the American psychological thriller television series You was ordered by Netflix on January 14, 2020. It features the continuation of Joe Goldberg's fraught relationship with Love, who is pregnant with his child in a new suburban home. You series creators Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble return as co-executive producers, and Gamble returns as showrunner. Penn Badgley, Victoria Pedretti, and Saffron Burrows, who was upgraded to a series regular, reprise their roles. New cast members include Shalita Grant, Travis Van Winkle, Dylan Arnold, and Tati Gabrielle. Michaela McManus portrays Joe's new neighbor, shown at end of the second season. In December 2020, the production of the third season was suspended for two months due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed in February 2021. The ten-episode season premiered on October 15, 2021.
Kaleidoscope is an American heist drama television anthology series created by Eric Garcia. The eight-part series, unique for its shuffled order, centers on master thief Leo Pap and his crew attempting an epic heist worth $7 billion, but betrayal, greed and other threats undermine their plans.
The fifth and final season of the American psychological thriller television series You was ordered by Netflix on March 24, 2023. You series co-creator Sera Gamble left as showrunner and was replaced by Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo. Series star Penn Badgley returns as Joe Goldberg, with Madeline Brewer, Anna Camp and Griffin Matthews joining the main cast. Filming began in March 2024 and ended that August.