The Penn Badgley-starring thriller, You captured fans' attention since its first season and it continues to hold their interest long after the season 3 finale. The final episode saw the explosive end of Joe's marriage and his unhinged murder and framing of Love in the suburban neighborhood of Madre Linda.
Joe Goldberg is a unique character in television history, and while he has been compared to serial killers like Dexter Morgan, there is an innate lack of goodness in Joe. This should make him hateful, but he has a massive fan base. His curious character has made him the target of many memes, and some of them are truly hilarious.
Joe's Cap
One of Joe's favorite activities was following and stalking the objects of his affections to get to know more about them or to keep a track of their whereabouts.
His go-to method of stalking didn't involve much of a disguise except for a blue cap, which he thought kept him anonymous in the crowd. However, his delusional thinking didn't keep him out of trouble because he was caught by Beck on more than one occasion, but he still didn't learn that a cap didn't make him invisible.
Paco's Mom, Joe
It was very obvious that Joe had some serious and deep-seated mommy issues because of his abandonment and constant search for love, so it added up that when he saw a lonely, loveless boy in his building, he took to him.
Joe saw a bit of himself in Paco and took him under his wing with the kind of generosity he hadn't shown to anyone else. His kindness paid off (at least for him), as Paco knew about Joe's criminal tendencies, but didn't give him away (yet).
Joe's Slip-Ups
Joe had a nice-guy act put up for the ladies he fell in love with, but his penchant for snooping around their homes and picking up their things to keep with him sometimes made him say things that he shouldn't have known in the first place.
When Beck and he went shopping for beds, he casually said that a king-sized mattress wouldn't fit in her flat, and when she asked how he knew, he made a quip about the size of New York houses. Joe was a smart character in You, but not always.
Joe Vs. Peach
Both Peach and Joe had obsessive personalities and did some bad things to their muses to satisfy themselves. Peach collected inappropriate photos of Beck, and Joe did a number of terrible things, which would eventually lead to murder.
However, Joe didn't like to compete for Beck's attention, and chose to almost kill Peach once (which was one of the biggest twists on You), and then actually kill her the second time. After that, he had to attend her funeral and console her friends, pretending like he hadn't murdered their friend.
Joe's Peculiar Love
It was clear that healthy ways of loving a person had never been modeled for Joe, so he grew up with a skewed sense of what one does when they want to help their partner.
For Joe, helping Beck or Love meant that he would kill for them, especially when they didn't ask. He liked to think he was being a guardian angel, of sorts, removing obstacles from their path, when in reality, he would be doing the worst thing to their family and friends.
The Infamous Monologue
Joe's perennial narration of his own life and the movements of his lovers is extremely popular, with Penn Badgley even doing a narration of one of his fan's TikToks in the way that Joe would.
His first brush with his new obsession, along with a detailed observation of what she was doing and how she was flirting or signaling her interest in him (when she mostly wasn't) was a signature Joe move, and it usually ended with a "Hello, You." This meme parodies this very speech in a social media context.
FBI Agent, Joe
It's uncertain whether Candace was the first of Joe's lethal loves (there could have been many before her), but she was definitely not the last. Joe's way of infiltrating people's lives was by going through all their social media and combing out locations, boyfriends and more.
He had become very adept at finding out information on people by the time he met Beck and Love, which would make him the perfect person to go to if one can't find someone on social media because Joe would definitely scope them out.
The Burden Of Loving Joe
The notorious serial killer has managed to garner a massive fan following due to his friendly and kind nature outside of the glass cage, but liking a negative character has its downsides.
In the first season, audiences definitely felt panic when Joe started stalking Beck, but as it progressed, they felt pacified by his undying love for him. But that didn't last long and his disturbing pattern took over, effectively ending the state of calm and also Beck's life.