You season 3 appeared to end with one shocking death, but things may not be straightforward, and the dead character could return in season 4. Based on stories by author Caroline Kepnes, Netflix's You tells a serial killer's twisted tale from the perpetrator's perspective. To the audience, the show is a violent psychological thriller; however, to the show's main character, Penn Badgley's Joe Goldberg, it's more of a love story. The series turns romantic tropes and conventions on their heads, showing a darker side to classic meet-cute stories. In You, Badgley's charismatic Joe Goldberg manipulates, charms, and schemes his way into the lives of his obsessions. And his violent delights always have violent ends.
In You season 2, Joe finally meets his match. After killing and disposing of his previous lover/obsession, Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail), Joe looks for a fresh start in Los Angeles. There, he meets Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), who brings out the worst of Joe's old patterns. However, things aren't exactly what they seem. Quinn has also become obsessed with Joe, even manipulating him to fall harder for her. In a twist in You season 2, Love reveals she has a deadly past of her own and even kills to keep her love alive with Joe. Unfortunately, she's also pregnant with Joe's child, and the season ends with the pair moving to the suburbs, where Joe quickly falls back into his usual ways.
With Love and Joe both having murderous instincts, there's no way the relationship can last. Inevitably, they both try to kill each other in season 3, with Joe finally offing Love in the season finale. However, despite Love's apparent death, there's still a chance she's alive. And the series finale leaves several clues that the character could ultimately return. If Love did come back for You season 4, the Netflix show could carry out more plot points from Kepnes' novels, which were interestingly not addressed thus far.
Why You Season 3 Killed Love
In the You season 3 finale, Joe prepares to leave Love and go away with his new obsession, Marienne (Tati Gabrielle). However, Love learns that Joe secretly killed for Marienne and sets a trap for her husband at home. Joe asks for a divorce and grabs a kitchen knife, anticipating that Love won't be happy with the news. However, he fell right into Love's plan. She covered the knife handle in aconite/wolfsbane, a paralytic she used to kill her first husband, and Joe becomes temporarily paralyzed. After talking with Marienne and realizing Joe is the actual problem, Love goes to slit his throat. However, Joe was secretly onto his wife's plan and took an antidote ahead of her murder attempt. Love Quinn seemingly dies after Joe plunges a syringe full of wolfsbane into her leg. Joe then stages the scene to look like Love committed suicide, cuts off two toes for good measure to fake his death, and lights a fire to burn everything to the ground. He then heads off to France, hoping to one day find Marienne.
There are several reasons why You killed off Love. First and foremost, Love and Joe couldn't co-exist with each other. With their violent tendencies, jealousy, and obsessive personalities, the pair were always destined to clash, and in many ways, the show had to kill one of them off. By killing Love in a twist ending, You allows Joe to leave the suburbs and continue his story elsewhere. Though You frequently features Joe's obsessive patterns over and over again, the series has also explored his backstory, how he killed his father to save his mother, and how his mom ultimately abandoned him. Due to the backstory, Joe clearly has unfinished business with his mother, and the show could seemingly explore that, as well as other questions, in future seasons. You can't do that if Joe is dead.
Hints That Love Isn't Dead In You Season 3
Though You appears to kill off Love in the season 3 finale, the show also leaves clues about the character's return. For instance, Love doesn't get a funeral on the show. Also, the series doesn't show her body burning. Instead, You season 3 ends with Joe's narration, as he explains the fallout from Love's death, how he set up everything to look like a suicide, and how he ultimately faked his death. However, Joe is an unreliable narrator, constantly twisting events to fit his warped perspective of the world. Therefore, it's possible that he's not truthful. Additionally, Joe gets the best of Love by secretly taking the wolfsbane antidote before her murder attempt. But since Love is more familiar with wolfsbane than Joe, and she's worked with the drug before, it makes sense that she'd also be familiar with ways to get around it.
You has also pulled off fake deaths before. Throughout season 1 of the show, it appears that Joe previously offed Candace (Ambyr Childers), an ex-girlfriend that cheated on him. In addition to killing the person she cheated with, Joe kidnapped her, hit her in the head, and left her buried in a shallow grave. As a result, even he believes Candace is dead. However, Candace shows up in the season 1 finale, surprising Joe and saying she has "unfinished business" with him. Given the fakeout involving Candace, You has set a precedent for dead characters returning. And with You season 3 failing to show Love's funeral, the possibility of a return is always open.
You Season 4's Story Could Bring Back Love (& Copy The Books)
If Love returned for You season 4, the show could pick up other storylines from Caroline Kepnes' You books. In Kepnes' You Love Me, Joe lives in the Pacific Northwest after Love Quinn's family pays him to stay away from Love and their child. However, Love eventually lures Joe to Los Angeles for a meeting. There, she shoots him before turning the gun on herself. Joe lives in the end, but Love dies by her own hand. Love's death in season 3 is a severe departure from the book. The series also leaves several other plot points from the books on the table, including Joe going to prison. In the show, he commits heinous crimes and just goes about his life with few consequences. By bringing back Love in future seasons, You can explore more of the storylines from Kepnes' books, and Joe can finally pay for his crimes. Because, as Love says, Joe really is the problem.