Stream It Or Skip It: ‘You’ Season 4, Part 2 on Netflix, Where Joe’s Hiding His Murderous Past While Battling With A Slick Killer

Netflix has found success with its tack of releasing episodes of its trending titles in batches, and to that end, Part 2 of You Season 4 has arrived. That’s five more episodes for Penn Badgley’s obsessive, chameleonic serial killer to match wits with Ed Speleers, who’s also a serial killer; five more episodes to discover who among London’s richest millennials will survive, and five more episodes to howl at the contrivances You readily relies upon. Created for television by Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble, the series is based on the books by Caroline Kepnes.   

YOU SEASON 4 PART 2 : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “I grew up in a council estate in Lewisham.”  At a press conference in a city park, Rhys Montrose (Speleers) is in full campaign mode. “If I become mayor, I want to do more for the working class of London.”

The Gist: “You’re one clever psychopath, I’ll give you that.” In the first part of You Season 4, Joe Goldberg (Badgley) had settled in London in the guise of literature professor Jonathan Moore, begun to travel in the social circles of the city’s young, wealthy, and powerful, and made promises to himself that his past behavior – murders, house burnings, child giveaways, and insane levels of stalking – was just that, in the past. Except none of it is. No matter how many times his internal monologue protests, Joe is still Joe, and his scheming and compulsive nature continues to exist. What’s at work as part 2 of You season 4 kicks off is how Joe’s toolkit for mayhem might come in handy against the machinations of Rhys, who admits to a string of this season’s most significant murders in Gemma (Eve Austin), Simon (Aidan Chang), and Malcolm (Stephen Hagan) and embroils Joe in a deadly cocktail of blackmail and his own quest for mayoral power. 

The richies Joe runs with as Jonathan have their own problems. The caddish Adam (Lukas Gage) floats a massive diamond for Lady Phoebe (Tilly Keeper) against the titles for his Aston Martin, Rolls, and Maybach – if she agrees to marry him, his money problems will be solved. Roald (Ben Wiggins), who Joe internally calls a “tapeworm in Tom Ford,” is still a roadblock to his affections for Kate (Charlotte Ritchie), the gallery owner and rebellious daughter of generational wealth who Joe is drawn to despite it muddying his fabricated backstory. And Connie (Dario Coates), Blessing (Ozioma Whenu) and Sophie (Niccy Lin) are placeholders for the lives of the rich and insipid. 

Rhys has forced Joe to find a scapegoat, a person to frame for the Eat the Rich murders that he committed, and so our internally ruminating protagonist finds himself with a severed and decomposing ear tucked into the pocket of his corduroy blazer, coming to the rescue of Phoebe while simultaneously scoring points with Rhys, and adding another layer to his emerging romance with Kate. In the latter, at least, the two of them promise to keep their past selves out of it. Yeah, right. There’s more to be said about Tom Lockwood (Greg Kinnear), Kate’s domineering tycoon father, and Rhys still has Joe over a barrel with regard to the past evils he’s trying to outrun. That’s the thing about a show like You. For as many murders as there are, nobody dies forever. Not even when your house burns down.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Speaking of weirdly charismatic psychos who privately share their proclivities with the viewing audience, Barry returns to HBO this April for its fourth and final season. And while it underplays the violence, You shares its fixations on darkness beneath the surface with Banshee, the often outrageous action drama that aired for four seasons on Cinemax and is these days available on HBO Max.      

Our Take: In You, Joe’s internal monologue serves numerous purposes. Principally, it allows us to follow along with all of his thoughts and motivations, to learn how he justifies his violence-making and the ugly objectification of women that intersects with his twisted takes on love and desire. But alternatively, it also gives him cover, since he can be persuasive in the same way he externally becomes an ally for individuals in his life. And ultimately, the monologue stuff is where You is often at its most humorous, as Joe picks apart the vapid identities of his wealthy London acquaintances, spouts pop culture reference points from Leaving Las Vegas to Man in the Iron Mask, and mulls his tactical options when confronted with either a dead body or a challenge to make one. In this way, Joe’s monologue is like a contorted, underside version of a film noir gumshoe’s perspective on the world.

But You is also a scream. While it’s slickly produced and well-acted – the array of pauses Penn Badgely inserts into his internally spoken dialogue masterfully adjusts the inflections and meaning of how he uses “You” – the series doesn’t exist in any vicinity near to real life. Sometimes what’s funnier than Joe’s observations on his existence is how he says nothing out loud at all, only for the person he’s in conversation with to declare his advice completely brilliant. You has seated itself on a perch where it can poke fun at the superficialities of our narcissistic and social media-addled culture while simultaneously being superficial itself, and a series that, with its mounting body count and culprit misdirects, thrives itself in the social media space. And that’s a handier trick than supposedly dying in a house fire before appearing in the trailer for You season 4.        

Sex and Skin: There is some relatively heavy petting between Joe/Jonathan and Kate, but that’s it. Because as we’ve recently learned, it’s not Penn Badgley’s “desire” to go any further as an actor.

Parting Shot: In a more normal show, Joe/Jonathan and Kate giving into their feelings for each other might be cause for celebration. But in You, it will probably (certainly) cause more problems. Because, you know, the whole “I’m also a serial killer” thing. But what’s even crazier is the other serial killer who’s after the main serial killer. And in the final moments, Rhys’s blackmail of Joe escalates. 

Sleeper Star: “I can’t do it again. Be made a fool of. I have been incredibly kind in the past, had so many dear little lambs who were, in actuality, cruel wolves. I want someone who loves me…” The plight of flippant and obscenely rich Lady Phoebe Borehall-Blaxworth has been a fun one to follow, mostly because Tilly Keeper plays Phoebe with a core niceness that suggests something deeper within the titled young aristocrat. Plus, Phoebe has seemingly, finally, thankfully become wise to Adam’s gold digging.    

Most Pilot-y Line: “I can’t turn you in,” Joe says of Rhys in his guttural internal monologue. “No one would believe me. But I can catch you and get the irrefutable evidence I need to stop you forever…”

Our Call: STREAM IT. In You Season 4 Part 2, the series remains grotesque, absurd, slick, vapid, skewering, and often quite predictable. All of which makes it totally binge-able. 

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges