This article contains SPOILERS for You season 4, part 1.You season 4 has not even ended yet, with Netflix dividing the season into a two-part story, but a bloody time is already being had by all. Resident stalker, Penn Badgley's Joe Goldberg, is trying to turn over a new leaf in London as American Literature professor Jonathan Moore. Struggling, and briefly succeeding, to not find a new object of obsession, Joe has more or less found a quiet life away from his murderous past.
Joe finds himself with London’s close-knit elite group and comes onto the radar of You’s new killer. Tagged as the Eat The Rich killer, this mysterious murderer is determined to know Joe’s true identity, his every crime, and why he committed them. In hopes of getting Joe’s attention, the Eat the Rich killer becomes responsible for a series of murders they are trying to pin on Joe, which means plenty of people have died in You season 4 so far.
Malcolm Harding
You season 4's first casualty is Stephen Hagan’s Malcolm Harding; a professor at the same college where Joe now teaches as Jonathan Moore. As a rich fellow who nobody really likes, Malcolm is notorious for sleeping with his students, and probably many other people that are not his girlfriend, Kate. After a crazy night at Sundry House, Malcolm takes a drunk and drugged Jonathan back to his apartment before he is killed himself.
Joe finds Malcolm’s dead body on his dining table the morning after, a kitchen knife stuck in his chest. While Joe has no recollection of killing Malcolm, he suspects the possibility due to his blacking out the night before. As Joe tries to navigate his foggy memory, he hacks Malcolm’s body into pieces, packs the chunks in separate garbage bags, and disposes of them around London. Joe cleaning up Malcolm’s body is reminiscent of his You season 2 murder of Jasper Krenn, who he stabbed, cut to pieces, and then ground down before throwing the remains in the dumpster.
By the end of You season 4, episode 1, an anonymous texter finally admits to Malcolm’s murder and effectively gives Joe a new kind of "You" to obsess over. Malcolm’s death, and finger, marks the end of Joe’s unassuming life as Jonathan Moore. Racing to uncover and stop the Eat The Rich killer from claiming his next victim and pinning it on him, Joe mulls over his stalker’s motives by reading “whodunit” novels to help with his detective work.
Simon Soo
Aidan Cheng's Simon Soo is the second dead body to turn up in You season 4, part 1. As You lead character Joe Goldberg tries to understand the ramifications of “whodunit” plots and apply the patterns to his own murder mystery, he ignores the very first rule that Amy Leigh Hickman’s Nadia tells him: the first suspect is always the second victim. Simon dies in his own gallery after Blue, his former assistant, tries to sabotage his exhibition. He is stabbed and robbed of an ear like the tragic artist Vincent van Gogh.
Introduced as a rude and tortured artist, Simon is considered the brooding genius of his little group. Being a prime suspect, according to Joe, in Malcolm’s murder, Joe snoops around Simon’s life and eventually discovers his artist career is fraudulent. Simon's assistants are the ones who create the art, and the You season 4 character just takes the credit. Simon also leaves drugs for his assistants to find and use. This eventually leads to them becoming addicts, ensuring that if they ever try to expose him, no one would believe them.
Apparently, Malcolm Harding was onto Simon's behavior, which became a plausible motive for Simon to murder the professor. Of course, this theory proves false and Simon ends up dead, with the actual Eat The Rich killer still at large and taunting Joe Goldberg. In the grand scheme of things, Simon was nothing but a red herring to distract Joe as the Eat The Rich killer digs deeper into his life.
Vic The Bodyguard
Sean Pertwee's Vic is Adam Pratt’s bodyguard, and dies by strangulation. With Joe creepily following London’s rich flock in You season 4 part 1, someone has to be suspicious about who he is and his own motives. Considering that Jonathan Moore’s inclusion in the group coincides with the beginning of the disappearances and murders, Vic naturally picks out the new element as the cause of it all.
Although Vic is on the nose about Goldberg’s impure intentions, he erroneously believes these are directed towards his charge and Kate, who he suspects to be Joe’s next victim. In trying to capture Joe, Vic becomes collateral damage to his own search for the Eat the Rich killer. Joe and Vic get into a scrap in You season 4, episode 3, in which Joe strangles him and then buries the bodyguard in Simon's freshly dug grave. Vic is the first and only Joe kill in You season 4, part 1, and the only victim to be a simple case of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Gemma Greene-Graham
The rude and cruel Gemma Graham-Greene, played by Eve Austin, is the last to bite the dust in You season 4, part 1. Among the rich lot of Sundry House, Gemma is arguably the most vile, as Kate describes her, often using her money and status to force people she deems beneath her to do things that they otherwise would not do. One instance is when she has a butler stand in as a human obstacle during their golf session. Similar to Malcolm, Gemma’s death is not shown on-screen. Joe just happens to witness Kate holding the murder weapon near Gemma’s body.
Although Kate did not actually slit Gemma's throat, Joe takes a minute before he decides she did not do it. Of course, Joe quickly agrees to help Kate dispose of the body - a parallel to every murder scene cleaned up by Joe and Love in You season 3. It is not yet known why Gemma was killed, but her death prompted Rhys Montrose to finally admit being the Eat The Rich killer to Joe. So far, You season 4, part 1 has claimed four lives, and with part 2 still to release, more dead bodies are guaranteed to come.