You: A Season 2 Line Cleverly Explains Love’s New Bakery Secret In Season 3

A line from season 2 poignantly foreshadows Love’s new bakery in You season 3, as well as explaining the psychological reasoning behind its existence. You season 3 signals a host of big changes for newlyweds Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) and Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), with the combustible couple struggling to adapt to the stifling nature of suburban life. Alongside the aforementioned move and obvious birth of her son, another markedly large life choice for Love in You season 3 is the decision to begin a new business venture in the form of her bakery: A Fresh Tart.

You season 3 pits serial-killer-couple Joe and Love against a new set of societal challenges, most of which the couple struggles to overcome. It quickly becomes clear that despite Joe and Love’s intent to create an idyllic home for their new son Henry, their burgeoning bloodlust far outweighs any paternal instincts the pair harbor. Joe’s immediate tendency to seek out a new obsession also inevitably riles Love to seek revenge on him, with Love’s mental state deteriorating accordingly across the course of the season.

Yet a You season 2 line already explains the true reason behind Love’s decision to open her bakery. Love’s friends poignantly point out to Joe midway through You season 2 that Love cooks when she is happy but bakes when she is stressed. This acts as a clear indicator of Love’s mental state at the beginning of season 3, which, despite her initial insistence, is clearly as frayed as Joe’s.

Initially, Love’s choice to begin baking again is seemingly born from a lifestyle-induced existential crisis after she admits to her neighbor Natalie Engler (Michaela McManus) that she “doesn’t know who she is.” The oppressive and endless cycle of passive-aggressive niceties accompanying living in a community like Madre Linda is shown to exact a large toll on Love, who feels she is a shadow of her former Los Angeles self. A Fresh Tart, inevitably, becomes not only a symbol of Love’s failed intent to reinvent and revive her self-worth but also a staging point for You season 3’s macabre main plot points to play out.

This, however, belies the fact that You season 2 already answered why Love would choose to open a bakery during such a stressful, transitional period of her life. During one of the many lunch scenes in You season 2, Gabe Miranda (Charlie Barnett) informs Joe that Love only bakes when she is stressed, which makes perfect sense when extrapolating onto You‘s increasingly intense plot. Whether a subconscious choice or not, Love’s decision to bake indicates how she truly feels when within Madre Lina, with the opening of her bakery named A Fresh Tart as indicative of her stress as it is ironic.

This foreshadowing, therefore, places a greater onus on Joe’s selfish nature that is pushed to the fore in You season 3. Joe’s continually successful attempts to gaslight his own wife take precedent above her deteriorating mental health, bringing both characters to You season 3’s climactic Aconite-based finale. Had Joe heeded Gabe’s signifier and noticed that Love willingly chose to bake, he may have saved Madre Linda a whole lot of bloodshed in You season 3.

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