Explaining the Ending of ‘You’ Season 5: The Fate of Joe Goldberg

For one last time, fans of Netflix‘s serial killer thriller — based on the books by Caroline Kepnes — are saying “Hello, You!”

You’s fifth and final chapter revolves around Joe Goldberg’s return to New York with his wife Kate and son Henry, hoping for a peaceful life free of murder. However, as Joe reopens Mooney’s book store, he encounters Bronte, a captivating woman who leads him back into his old destructive patterns.

Joe’s past deeds catch up to him when Kate confronts him and locks him in his own cage. With the help of Nadia and Marianne, they try to make Joe see the impact of his actions. In a dramatic turn of events, an intense confrontation leads Joe and Kate trapped in a burning basement, believing it might be their end. During this desperate moment, Joe makes a confession about killing Love Quinn, while Kate sends the recording to Nadia for the police. Ultimately, Bronte comes to Joe’s rescue just in time.

After surviving the ordeal at Mooney’s, Joe proposes to Bronte, who accepts the proposal. However, a revelation unfolds as Bronte secretly plans to take down Joe after finding new resolve from her conversations with Kate and Marianne. This sets the stage for the Season 5 finale of You.

How doe You end? What happens to Joe Goldberg? Does Joe kill Bronte? Does Joe die? And what happens to Kate? Decider’s You Season 5, Episode 10 recap has you covered.

Spoilers for You Season 5, Episode 10 ahead.

As “Once Upon a Poolside” by The National (feat. Sufjan Stevens) sets the mood, You Season 5, Episode 10 opens with shots of lush green hills, and for a moment, you think that Joe and Bronte really hopped a plane to Ireland to live in Bronte’s dream castle. Spoiler alert: They’re on a far less romantic road trip to Canada so Joe can cross the border.

As Joe drives with Bronte in the passenger seat, his internal monologue rages, delusional as ever. “Ghosts from my past wanted me to believe I didn’t deserve this. But you knew they were wrong about me,” he tells himself. But we’re soon reminded he’s not the only one with an internal monologue this season. When Joe pulls over the car to take in the view, Bronte follows him out of the car, pulls out a gun, and shoots him. Naturally, with 50 minutes left in the episode, it’s just a fantasy. As Bronte’s narration explains, “It could be that easy. But then the world would never know the truth about you. And I wouldn’t get the answers I need. How could I love you knowing what I knew? What did you do to Beck? And the biggest question of all, how do I give you the ending you deserve?”

The episode sets out to do just that — to give both Joe and You the endings they deserve after a wild five-year run. While fans may not agree with the journey, the missed opportunities to take this man down, or the length of the series, in my opinion, the intense finale undoubtedly delivers. And Badgley delivers his most impressive, chilling performance of the series.

Before Joe and Bronte reach their mysterious destination, Joe partially comes clean and admits Kate sent “something damning” to the police that they’ll surely have questions about. He calls his old Season 2 pal Will Bettelheim (Robin Lord Taylor) to request fake passports and asks him to hack into Henry’s game server and connect them when he logs on to play.

When Joe stops to gas up the car, Bronte heads inside on snack duty, contemplates buying a self defense cat ears keychain, and naturally runs into a police officer who asks if she’s OK. For a moment, she considers asking for help, but worried Joe will run, she stays quiet and cashes out, only to find Guinevere Beck’s (Elizabeth Lail) book sold up front — a sign that she’s on the right path.

Like “Anti-Hero” before it, Taylor Swift’s “Guilty As Sin?” sets the mood as Joe shows Bronte a massive house in the woods they’ll be squatting at for a few days. Despite her growing nerves, Bronte does her best to act normal and ward off suspicion, but as her inner monologue promises, “This ends tonight.” During dinner, she asks about Joe’s book and though the only copy went up in flames at Mooney’s, he plans to rewrite it and have his protagonist turn his love interest into a vampire before they travel the world together. Bronte asks if she thinks that’s what he really deserves and suggests there should be a reckoning. After dropping the pretense, she asks, “Do I make it in your story?” He assures her she does, and she admits, “If I seem scared, it’s because I am.” The shred of honesty was all he needed to believe her feelings for him were still genuine.

After dinner, Joe takes Bronte out in a rowboat on the backyard lake, where he turns on his charm, making her internal monologue ask, “What is wrong with me that I know who you are and can still feel this good?” The answer? “Who doesn’t love to be loved? More than Justice, more than reality, love is just stronger. And you weaponize it.” When the two reach “peak romance,” they head to the bedroom and get horizontal, which is when Bronte reaches behind her pillow, pulls out a gun, and holds it to Joe’s head. This time, it’s reality, not fantasy.

“Tell me how you killed Guinevere Beck,” Bronte says as Joe falls backwards off the bed in shock. “I know you did it. How did you do it?!” When Joe tells her she doesn’t want to know, she pulls out Beck’s book, along with a Sharpie, and orders him to take out every word he added so she can preserve Beck’s voice. As Joe starts reading and crossing out his contributions, he believe he’ll bounce back from his gunpoint confessional like a protagonist in a novel. “You could have let me die in a fire. I think some part of you still needs me. Before we met you were lost, something you shared with Beck,” he says, trying to manipulate Bronte. “I think you’re more scared of the absence of me than me. No one will ever love you like I do again, I embraced all of you. And I still do.”

Their face-off is interrupted by a call from Henry, which Bronte graciously lets Joe answer so he can say his goodbyes. Rather than an outpouring of love, Henry asks Joe what he did to Kate, then says, “Remember when you used to tell me there were no monsters in my room? You lied. It was you. You’re the monster.” After Henry disconnects, an emotional Joe realizes Love’s dying words — “He’ll know what you are” — were true. He has an outburst, questioning if life without his son or love is what he deserves, and Bronte reminds him he’s not the victim of the story. As she reaches for the phone to call 911, he lunges at her and the two fight for their lives until a single shot rings out.

Bronte runs outside bleeding from stomach and hides. After Joe runs past, she goes back inside and tries to call 911, but the phone screen is conveniently — or inconveniently, for her — cracked, so she struggles. As thunder cracks, Joe returns to find Bronte jumped out of the bedroom window and dropped the phone just as a 911 operator answered. In case there was any doubt, Joe admits he intentionally injured her ankle while she was unconscious. He tackles her, starts to strangle her, and says, “You want to know how I killed Beck? I’ll show you.” Bronte stabs him with the self defense cat ears she secretly bought from the gas station (hell yeah!), but before she can get away he pushes her into the lake and holds her under water until she stops breathing.

Once again, Joe makes the kill and gets away — or so it seems! As he attempts to flee, he hears police sirens in the distance and sees flashlights in the woods. The 911 call picked up his Beck murder confession and police swarmed the scene! After killing one cop, Joe sprints through the forrest in the rain wearing only his briefs desperately looking for a way out of his mess. Finally, he hears a gun cock, turns, and sees Bronte — or LOUISE, as she reminds him — standing before him. “It’s over, Joe,” she declares. “I’ve been asking myself over and over why? And finally, I see it clearly. The fantasy of a man like you is how we cope with the reality of a man like you.”

Joe begs her to end his life, saying he can’t live with what comes next, but she refuses to shoot until he lunges at her — and even then, her aim is very…strategic. As police cuff Joe, who’s howling in pain, you notice his bloody crotch and later learn he was turned into “a walking dick joke.” (Even You‘s number one fan Cardi B tweets in an iconic Easter egg.)

As Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” plays, Louise’s voiceover explains the aftermath of Joe’s capture. “In the end, Joe Goldberg was made to see all of himself. The trial was messy, the evidence horrific, and the truth undeniable.” After being convicted for the murders of Love Quinn and Guinevere Beck, allegations snowballed, and he was convicted for other murders, including Benji and Peach. And yes, Dr. Nicky’s (John Stamos) conviction was vacated — all thanks to Louise, her friends Dominique (Natasha Behnam) and Phoenix (b), Joe’s survivors, and internet sleuths.

Following Joe’s conviction, Nadia returns to writing and starts and teaches women to process their trauma. The charges against Harrison are dropped, and he lives happily ever after with Maddie, who’s expecting twins. In a massive twist, Charlotte SURVIVES the Mooney’s fire (YESSSSS!) and cares for Henry, who has to decide what kind of man he wants to be in wake of his father’s crimes. As Teddy makes the Lockwood Corp a full non-profit, Kate returns to her love of art and champions Marianne’s work. Louise re-publishes Beck’s book (sans Joe additions) and looks forward figuring out who she wants to be away from that “asshole” she dated. And Joe? Joe’s in prison, doomed to reread a limited selected of books like The Executioner Song.

“In the end, my punishment is even worse than I imagined. The loneliness. Oh my god. The loneliness. No hope of being held. Knowing this is forever — it’s unfair, putting all of this on me. Aren’t we just products of our environment? Hurt people hurt people. I never stood a chance,” he says in You‘s final narration.

As another fan letter is slipped into his cell, he lies back and reads, asking, “Why am I in a cage when these crazies write me all the depraved things they want me to do to them? Maybe we a have a problem with society. We should fix what’s wrong with us. Maybe the problem isn’t me. Maybe the problem is you.” As Radiohead’s “Creep” plays us out, Joe remains delusional as ever and unable to take accountability in a refreshing decision to deny him last-minute redemption.

All that’s left to say now, is, “Goodbye, You.“

You Season 5 is now streaming on Netflix.