You Season 4 Can Only End After One Huge Character Return

Netflix’s You season 4 can only end when an important character returns: Joe’s mother, Sandy. The hit Netflix thriller You follows character Joe Goldberg’s (Penn Badgley) machinations to create the ideal romance. However, as shown in the flashbacks peppered across the show, his serial-stalker-and-killer ways are a result of a troubled childhood, starting with his mother’s negligence. 

In You season 2, it is revealed that Joe grew up in a dysfunctional household. Sandy has an abusive partner, whom she plans on leaving in order to start over with Joe. However, she backslides occasionally, breaking this promise and abandoning Joe in pursuit of multiple sexual encounters. This results in a never-ending cycle of abuse in their home, and one day, Joe finally puts an end to it by killing his mother’s partner. Instead of celebrating their freedom and being grateful, as he expected, Sandy is frantic. Claiming that she is not capable of raising him anymore, she ends up leaving Joe in a foster home, where he would later get adopted by You‘s Mr. Mooney (Mark Blum). However, before that, Joe searches for his mom, only to find her perfectly content with her new family, enjoying the fresh start he wanted for so long with his mom. 

Joe’s extreme abandonment issues and need to protect his object of affection — doing whatever it takes to achieve this — stem from his relationship with his mother. As identified by Joe himself, he has “mommy issues,” exhibited by his patterns of chasing after his next obsession once the current one either abandons him or fails to live up to his expectations — from Beck, Love, Natalie, and, now, Marienne. That is why the only way You season 4’s story can end is for Sandy to finally return.

By returning Sandy into the fold, You would force serial killer Joe to confront his deeply entrenched demons, instead of remaining in denial about his true nature and the consequences of his actions. After all, Joe always justifies his crimes because of his mother’s reaction to what he did. If his flashbacks are any indication, Joe still carries the weight of his past, so meeting his mother in the flesh after decades of abandonment would certainly bring out these emotions. He could confess to his crimes, as he blames her for ingraining on him that he is a good person, who has to kill people just because “it needs to be done”. 

Obviously, no matter how noble Joe’s intentions are, he still violates the moral code, and, thus, wouldn’t (or, at least, shouldn’t) be socially or ethically redeemed. However, meeting with his mother, confronting the abandonment issues underlying his motivations, could be personally redeeming for Joe. Consequently, having Sandy return would satisfyingly close out the Joe chapter. His childhood issues would then be addressed, if not resolved, and his victims would at least receive closure, too — either by bringing Joe to justice or killing him in Netflix’s You season 4.

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