After five seasons of murder, manipulation, and psychological mayhem, You has come to a chilling close — and Penn Badgley believes Joe Goldberg got exactly what he deserved.
In the finale of the hit Netflix series, Joe is finally arrested and imprisoned, his crimes — including the murders of Love Quinn and Guinevere Beck — laid bare. For Badgley, it’s the only appropriate ending for a man who’s long evaded consequences.
“He’s delivered to his truly appropriate end,” Badgley tells Entertainment Weekly. “He’s an abuser, a killer, a bad person. So I think being satisfied [with the finale] is a positive thing.”
A Twist of Justice
Rather than being killed off in a blaze of revenge — which many fans may have hoped for — Joe ends up caged within a prison cell, haunted by loneliness and stripped of the control he’s always craved. And in a particularly brutal twist, he’s shot in the genitals by his girlfriend Bronte (Madeline Brewer) just before his arrest.
“That’s a fate worse than death for Joe,” Badgley says. “He does his worst damage in the bedroom, not the cage. That part of him had to be removed.”
This violent moment, Badgley believes, is symbolic. Joe’s sexual predation and warped ideas of romance have defined his pathology throughout the series. The removal of that power was, in the end, more damning than death.
Why Joe Had to Face the Music
According to Badgley, letting someone else kill Joe would’ve granted him the victim narrative he always sought — and dragged others down in the process.
“If we were to be satisfied by his end too much, that would be bloodlust,” he explains. “To have the women who hurt him kill him would bring them to his level. That would be horrible for them — and us.”
Instead, Joe is undeniably captured and exposed as the predator he truly is. His downfall begins not in his signature glass cage, but in a vulnerable, disturbing moment of intimacy — the final love scene of the series that Badgley calls “the first one that truly turns your stomach.”
The Only Ending That Fits
The actor, now 38, admits that true justice for someone like Joe is difficult to deliver onscreen. But the finale’s lasting impact lies in its refusal to glamorize or justify his behavior.
“Time and perspective are the only things that can truly bring healing,” he says. “But I think, in the case of Joe, justice has been served.”
The final season of You is now streaming on Netflix.
