All spoilers for YOU S2 are welcomed here. So if you are not finished with the season, do not view any further!

link to episode discussion hub.

Overall Season Discussion Hub [SPOILERS]

Synopsis: The second season follows Joe Goldberg, who is on the run from his sordid past. Upon taking a trip to Los Angeles, he quickly settles in the city with a different identity and finally meets his love match, the avid chef, Love Quinn. As Joe attempts to forge a new life with the love of his dreams, will he truly escape from the horrors of his past or will history repeat itself again?

WARNING: In this thread, you can discuss the entirety of the second season without spoilers. However, each Episode Discussion Threads will contain spoilers for that episode. Spoilers for subsequent episodes in those threads are NOT ALLOWED AT ALL.

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Episode Discussion Threads (Season Two)

• S20E1 - A Fresh Start

• S20E2 - Just the Tip

• S20E3 - What Are Friends For?

• S20E4 - The Good, The Bad, and The Hendy

• S20E5 - Have a Good Wellkend, Joe!

• S20E6 - Farewell, My Bunny

• S20E7 - Ex-istential Crisis

• S20E8 - Fear and Loathing in Beverly Hills

• S20E9 - P.I. Joe

• S20E10 - Love, Actually

DISCORD for YOU

Please feel free to join the Discord server dedicated to the television series YOU, to discuss theories and thoughts in depth for past and upcoming seasons. Everyone is very nice and the show is growing, so please help us build a nice community. The permanent invite link is below for your consideration.

https://discord.gg/vcwp4Kb

I enjoyed watching it while I was watching it but came away feeling a bit dissatisfied after reflection in regards to not just believability but character motivations and plot. Curious as to everyone else's responses and justifications.

It was such a change from the first season. This made no sense, almost all the characters were so unlikeable and nonsensical with lots of over-acting. Am I the only one who hated it this much? I still like Joe as a character but I hope they can salvage him in the next season.

Edited to add: I’m just saying compared to the previous season this wasn’t nearly as interesting or thrilling. He didn’t do much of his usual stocking as he did with Beck. The most he did seemed very preliminary just to land the job. She basically did all the work for him. He didn’t even realize Forty was her twin. The mystery of Delilah’s murder was probably the most interesting part of the whole season.

No spoilers! I just finished season one and liked it and I’m like 20 minutes into season 2 episode one and I’m not liking it so far.. I think I just miss beck

The Verge (positive, no grade)

"What we call prestige television is often a function of marketing. Prestige shows — the kind of stuff you see on HBO and sweeping the Emmys — involves a lot of putting on airs, signaling an intent to be literary or ambitious. You does no such thing. It is every inch the Lifetime show it began as, and just as wickedly sharp or thoughtful as another show with loftier goals. This makes You feel dangerous. Like it shouldn’t work so well. And then, when you start to think about why it does — well then, the show has you."

Entertainment Weekly (Grade B)

"With two more books in the YOU series on the way, Netflix is unlikely to wrap up Joe’s story with season two. The finale delivers a twist that lands somewhere between clever and too clever by half, and it sets up another season in its final moments."

IndieWire (Grade A-)

"You Season 2 proves Season 1 wasn’t lightning in a bottle, though it’s questionable if Sera Gamble and company should attempt to press their luck with a Season 3."

The Hollywood Reporter (positive, no grade)

"While the writers sometimes trip over their endless layers of irony (how many times can a guy fall in love with a stupidly named woman?), You remains as captivating as ever."

Vulture (positive, no grade)

"For all its ecstatic turns and arch, sometimes operatic nature, You is ultimately an unnerving, complicated portrait of male violence — how it begins, whom it targets, and how its effects ripple outward."

Metro UK (positive, no grade)

"You Season 2 is more than enough to quench your thirst for twisted-in-a-sexy-way killers and keep you hooked for a serious binge session."

Vanity Fair (positive, no grade)

"You is committed to keeping the audience guessing, and as with the first season, much of the story is a chain of wild twists."

Variety (mixed, no grade)

"By the time this new season ends, setting up a third mad pursuit of a woman to seduce and destroy, viewers could be forgiven for feeling a bit tired of being addressed by an ever-less-charming killer, one who’s become tiresome company."

Uproxx (positive, no grade)

"No main character goes unscathed, and the show even skewers its own audience, who will probably dig the experience and beg for more."

The Independent (positive, no grade)

"Rivetingly told and well acted, YOU manages to make a viscerally unlikable protagonist endlessly interesting. That is no small achievement."

The New York Times (positive, no grade)

"What keeps us watching is Badgley’s delicate balancing act as Joe, synthesizing charm and bug-eyed creepiness and alarm while carrying much of the comic burden in the slightly stiff but yearning tone of his Harlequin-novel narration. It’s a performance that’s all on the surface. (The show’s conceit depends on Joe’s self-delusion, and the attempts to give him some emotional depth this season actually dull down the story.) But Badgley is impressively consistent, controlled and resourceful — he nearly always finds a way to make us smile."

The Daily Dot (positive, 4/5)

"Without spoiling too much, You does set the story up for another season. It’s likely that the show will continue on Netflix, especially if it matches or beats last year’s viewership numbers. And while there’s little mystery left to Joe and the situation he gets himself into, the show has proven that it’s a hit no matter where Joe is living."

Heroic Hollywood (positive, 7.5/10)

"Penn Badgley’s You is a creepy delight as the stalker tangles with new enemies that turn the tables on him alongside a ticking clock that forces him to debate leaving everything he’s built so far."

Time (positive, no grade)

"Equal parts smart, silly and scary, You remains an offbeat, uniquely contemporary pleasure on the whole. And what’s funny about season 2—with its slightly older, less social-media-obsessed cast of characters and its many timeless caricatures of L.A. self-involvement and self-reinvention—is that ends up feeling less specific to the teen and 20-something audience that discovered their ideal show in its predecessor. The Christmas-break crowd may already be counting down the hours until the new episodes drop, but that shouldn’t stop anyone else from catching up in time to tear into this belated holiday gift."

The Washington Post (mixed, no grade)

"The new season is a lukewarm extension of the first — redundant and not as engrossing as it used to be. Penn Badgley returns as Joe, the stalker-murderer bookstore manager with sad eyes and a ceaselessly cynical interior monologue. Is he adorable or creepy? Is he handsome or heinous? Are his impulses merely a reflection of the cruelty of those around him? Is he the man of your dreams or the guy who uses a meat-grinder to get rid of his latest victim? Can he be all of these? That’s how You wants it."

The Spinoff (positive, no grade)

"Honestly, You makes turning out a good show look as easy as moving through society as a charming white man who does bad things. Because it turns out, all you need to make a show that people want to keep watching is a great premise that can survive more or less any twist you throw at it, a strong lead performance that only gets better as time goes on, and being twice as fun as it is deep."

CNN (positive, no grade)

"In that sense, the series serves as a highly binge-able, very modern thriller, if not, hopefully, what anyone will view as a template for modern romance."

Mashable (positive, no grade)

"Without spoiling some juicy twists, You Season 2 does not retread old territory. It pulls the rug out from what could have been a formulaic, almost procedural show, keeping us tense and guessing right until the final moments. Joe might think this is a love story, but we know better, and we're making it to the end — even if no other character does."

Awards Circuit (positive, no grade)

"Too many shows fall victim to a sophomore slump. Especially when the first season starts out so strong, it’s hard to keep up the momentum and give the audiences more of what they want without rehashing the things that made it successful in the first place. You manages to bring together the things that made season one work, and then make it even better and more addictive. This is a series that was made to be binged. And, best of all, just when we think we know where it’s going, there is a new twist or a turn that makes it impossible to stop watching. This is entertainment in its purest form, and we already can’t wait for more."

Collider (positive, 3/5)

"You remains compulsive viewing thanks to its seductive thrills and wry dark humor, but it remains must-watch TV for its wise vivisection of the so-called “nice guy,” the toxic allure of the “bad boy,” and the terrifyingly-familiar meeting point between the two where the fantasies become a nightmare."

IGN (positive, 8.7/10)

"You continues to shock and delight in its bonkers second season, which is even more entertaining than the first."

New Musical Express (positive, 4/5)

"For the most part, though, You doesn’t lose any of its initial impact on its return. Once season two hits its stride, it’s just as gripping as its predecessor, manoeuvring through a torrent of twists that keep you on your toes and, by its end, will leave you completely shocked."

I finished S1 and it was fire, I’m on season 2 episode 1 and it doesn’t seem all that….and I feel like S3 will be even worse.

Joe goldberg, just when u think he was gng to be happy ever after... What is this new neighbour thing.. I am confused... what kind of a person is he exactly? Does he even want true love?

I’ve just binge watched the whole series and really enjoyed it, was a lot more gripping than the first season and thought the characters in LA were brilliant.

However I have mixed feelings about the ending. For me the show peaked during the Acid trip episode when he came back and saw Delilah dead. I was as blown away by that plot twist as I have been at the end of some GoT episodes but I was unsure about the ending. I feel like the show didn’t give enough clues for Love to be insane like it portrayed at the end. I love a show that’s consistent though-out and you can react to it like “Oh shit that makes so much sense now” instead of “wtf how did that happen”.

For me the twist that Love was a psycho too didn’t fit with how she blew Joe off when Candice told her about his past. I hope they have a good plan for season 3 instead of just trying to stretch it out, the show has an incredible plot and a lot can come from more seasons but it came to a good natural end and they shouldn’t ruin it if it’s not going to be authentic. That being said I am very excited for season 3.

PS: I’m writing this JUST finishing the series at 3am with not a lot of reflection yet, just my initial thoughts.

PSPS: How amazing was Will’s character. I loved him. (Original Will)

TL;DR: seemed too easy for Joe to find a female version of himself.

Imagine that instead of Forty dying the cop runs in and Forty shoots him instead, then it’s Joe, Love AND Forty stuck in this killing cycle together. The next season is Forty trying to find any sort of sanity between his murdering sister and her killer bf, Joe trying to grapple with being a father whilst surrounded by crazy and Love slowly spiralling darker and darker because Joe doesn’t love her like he used to. I just think the ending was so lacklustre and a boring set up for what was actually a really great second season.

Okay look, I know it shouldn't be this way, but I feel pissed that Joe found another obsession! Dear god, Love is perfect for them! Can they just live happily ever after and maybe murder as a team from time to time? I want him to love Love forever. Is that too much to ask?

i don't know why so many people like the second season, given that it's the most boring season of the series, forty is one of the most annoying and irritating characters i've ever seen, joe doesn't seem really obsessed with love, he literally doesn't kill no one for her (not that i remember) the fourth season is much more hated for no reason

i don’t think of “you” as a comedy (there are definitely some lines that make you laugh), but the episode in season 2 where they do acid is legitimately hilarious. forty was a bit annoying throughout the season but he cracks me up in that episode.

The ending of season 2 presents Joe Goldberg and Love Quinn getting married, having a kid and moving to another neighbourhood after all those horrible things involving Delilah and Candace and whoever was also in the finale. I don't remember. Personally, I hated that in season 3 Joe fell in love with Marienne because he literally had a wife and a child. Season 3 is kind of a build-up for season 4 where he moves to London after killing Love and he gets like a secret message from a guy, and then something similar to Fight Club happens. I mean, the show could've just had a happy ending at season 2 where he finally found love. What do you guys think? I'm not really good at these kind of stuff but this seemed to be right.

This thread is for discussion of YOU Season 2, Episode 1: "A Fresh Start"

Synopsis: Joe -- now “Will” -- arrives in his own personal hell on Earth: LA. He's trying to go straight, but the past doesn’t always leave well enough alone.

DO NOT post spoilers in this thread for any subsequent episodes. Doing so will result in a ban.

Episode 2 Discussion