In the gripping finale of the hit series “You,” actor Penn Badgley shared his thoughts on the dramatic conclusion for his character, Joe Goldberg. After a long and difficult road, Joe pays the ultimate price. Badgley goes on to call it “justice served,” specifically citing that brutal removal of Joe’s genitalia, which he feels is a fate worse than death for the character.
In that last episode, Joe finally breaks. In his final moments, he begs the honorable Bronte to kill him himself, so that the police can’t take him to be executed. Joe understands that his doom has finally come. Now he faces death in a location he would have never selected. Instead, Joe ends up in the clink, serving time for his unquenchable thirst for solitude.
Badgley said that with Joe, a positive outcome more often found in neutral mediations was ultimately achieved. He added that the overall objective of the series is to make sure the character’s romantic journey is an enjoyable one. What surprised him the most was during the finale — the last love scene that he’s a part of is, he argued, the most vomit-inducing love scene of them all.
Joe’s death begins in an intimate space—his bedroom. There, he participates in a dangerous stunt while nude for the first time ever. The differences in setting and tone couldn’t be starker, especially when looking back to earlier formative scenes in the series. It creates a palpable sense of anxiety in audiences, who fear seeing this horrific reversal.
Badgley discussed what justice would look like for someone like Joe. As he explained, “Justice for a man like Joe isn’t enough, in and of itself, to be fulfilling. There was no possible resolution that could please everyone completely in Joe’s situation. To illustrate, he explained that a more gory, heroic or dramatic ending would have provided Joe the martyrdom he was looking for. This unexpected turn would further sully the show’s leads by bringing them down to his level.
Badgley spoke on Joe’s overall journey and his ending. He explained the need for time and perspective in depicting what happened in Joe’s last moments. He continued, “Think of this as a real human, a real story, and real victims. The only thing that heals hurts and satisfies like time, if justice has been served.”
In a poignant analysis of Joe’s character arc, Badgley expressed that his worst damage occurs not behind bars but in moments where he is most transparent about who he is. He told me that his greatest damage isn’t done inside the cage. The truth is that he’s an open book once he steps foot inside that cage.
The finale smartly encapsulates the greater, murky narrative at play producing Joe Goldberg. Badgley ultimately decided that the finale does all that it can do in a satisfying way and really pulls it off. He also recognized the difficulty in bringing to a close a narrative arc for such a deeply flawed character.
