Does [SPOILER] Die in ‘YOU ‘Season 3?

From its very first episode, YOU Season 3 introduced a fascinating war. Two lovers, two murderers, and two battling egos that refuse to be topped. Who’s going to come out on top of this marital battle: Joe (Penn Badgely) or Love (Victoria Pedretti)?

It’s a question that the series first starting whispering at the end of Season 2. That installment ended with Joe almost killing Love, only stopping because of her newly revealed baby bump. Desperate to know what happens to your favorite explosive baker-turned murderer? We have your back. Here’s what you need to know about Love Quinn’s fate at the end of YOU Season 3. Beware, there are some major spoilers ahead.

Does Love Die in YOU Season 3?

It sure seems like she does. Let us explain.

In “What Is Love?”, Love (Victoria Pedretti) learned the truth about Joe (Penn Badgely). Her dearly beloved fell in love with another woman, specifically his boss Marienne (Tati Gabrielle). Love was determined to confront him about his infidelity at the same time that Joe was ready to confront Love about her own infidelity. Yep, Joe learned about Theo (Dylan Arnold) the teenager Love was sleeping with.

Joe asked Love for a divorce, causing her to run out of the room. That’s when Joe decided to arm himself. Mistake No. 1. When he grabbed the handle to a knife, Joe unknowingly dosed himself with aconite, a paralyzing drug. Love explained her drug-happy security net to him, but she also confessed to something we’ve suspected throughout Season 3. She was the one who killed her late husband James. See, James wanted a divorce too after he started to recover from cancer. Love claimed that she just wanted to use the aconite to stop him from leaving, but she accidentally used too much. Oops.

Taking the paralyzed Joe’s phone, she texted Marienne to come over. When Marienne did, Love was ready to kill her, but she backed off when she saw Marienne’s daughter. So instead of murder she offered her rival some good advice: run far away from Joe. Marienne left, but not before giving Love another idea. Love decided her life would be better if she was a single mother, which meant killing her hubby.

But Joe was too quick for her. As Love was about to slit his throat, he injected her with a concentrated dose of aconite. Months ago, Joe realized that Love had planted wolf’s bane in her garden and took the necessary precautions. Not only did he already take an adrenaline pill, but he also had a needle full of aconite ready for his wife.

The drug knocked out Love, and Joe went to work. He baked a chicken pot pie, cut off two of his toes, stuck those little piggies in the pie, and started a house fire using their wedding album. Oh, and he also sent the HOA a suicide note from Love, claiming that she was the one who murdered Joe. In a voiceover at the end of the episode Joe revealed that the cops believed the note. Love Quinn will now go down in history as the the Mrs. Lovett of Madre Linda, making her more famous than even Guinevere Beck (Joe’s lover/victim from Season 1).

So does Love actually die? Joe believes she did, and all signs point to death. For Love to have survived she would have had to wake up from this powerful drug that could have killed her, escape from a burning house while still drugged, and spend months hiding from the police. It’s absolutely possible that Love is still out there since we never actually saw her charred body. But it’s probably best to assume she’s dead.

Could Victoria Pedretti Return to YOU?

One hundred percent. First, there’s the lack of a body to consider. We never actually saw Love’s burned body, and you know how things go in YOU. If you don’t have a body, everything is fair game. But it’s more likely that if Pedretti does return, it will be as a flashback or an illusion.

As Joe becomes more and more disconnected from reality, he imagines more of the people he’s killed. That’s why we saw the return of Beck (Elizabeth Lail) in Season 2. Considering that Love has been his longest and most explosive relationship to date, Joe’s not about to forget about her easily. That’s good news for us, since Victoria Pedretti makes everything better.

Watch YOU on Netflix