Fans have been waiting for You's fourth season to hit Netflix — and now that the first half is finally here, there's a lot to unpack.
The latest installment sees Penn Badgley's antihero Joe Goldberg reinvent himself as Professor Jonathan Moore following his relocation to London. He is committed no longer acting on his violent urges — and has even found himself entangled in an interesting, new friend group consisting of young, wealthy Londoners. But unlike in past seasons, Joe isn't the one doing the killing.
The "Eat the Rich Killer" is targeting members of Joe's new elite circle. And naturally, with Joe being an outsider, the group is suspicious of him. But the irony is Joe, too, is being targeted by the assailant, who appears to be keen on setting him up for the many killings.
The first of them began with Joe's colleague and neighbor Malcolm Harding (Stephen Hagan), who introduced Joe to Kate Galvin (Charlotte Ritchie) and the rest of the group. In the premiere episode, after the group partied at a local hotspot, Joe found Malcolm's dead body lying on his dining table the next day. Joe had no memory of doing this but relied on old tactics to dispose of the body.
By the episode's end, Joe receives a mystery message from a "high-security chat app that erases everything you say." The unknown texter remarked on Joe's ability to handle the Malcolm situation swiftly and discreetly.
"Here I thought when I left him on your table, you'd go down for my sins," the message read.
The harassing texts and killings continued from there on, though things escalated to new heights in episode 5 when the group traveled to the English countryside to stay at a massive estate owned by the family of Lady Phoebe Borehall-Blaxworth (Tilly Keeper). While there, Joe found Kate standing over the bloodied, dead body of her friend Gemma Graham-Greene (Eve Austin), but Kate insisted she was "not a murderer." Joe then helped her dispose of the body after Kate, with whom he'd also secretly hooking up, pointed out how "this situation doesn't look good" for either of them.
"You heard what they were saying," Kate said to Joe. "Pointing fingers at you."
Kate later questioned why Joe was "this good at hiding bodies," and if he killed Gemma — or planned to kill her too.
"When I found you with Gemma, I knew either you killed Gemma or someone is trying to frame you," Joe told her. "Because the same thing happened to me with Malcolm."
Even though Joe had found allies in Kate and, later, Lady Phoebe, the rest of the group was very much against him. Kate's childhood friend Roald Walker-Burton (Ben Wiggins) — who also harbored a massive crush on her — overheard her telling Lady Phoebe what had happened and headed off to intercept Joe at the very moment he was secretly retrieving a bracelet Kate had lost from where they'd left Gemma's lifeless corpse.
Roald took Joe back to a sitting room and told the group: "Meet the Eat the Rich Killer. Think about it: He shows up and our friends start dying."
As Roald pointed a shotgun at the back of Joe's head, he said he'd found Joe in the game larder with Gemma's body and informed the group that Kate and Lady Phoebe were summoning Kate's security guards.
Even though Joe attempted to counter Roald's argument by suggesting Roald was actually the killer, the group didn't believe him. Joe then chose to make a run for it, and Roald followed closely behind. After a scuffle in the woods, Joe managed to topple Roald and knock him unsconscious.
Lying there afterward, Joe noticed a man's silhouette approaching. He instantly recognized the person as Rhys Montrose (Ed Speleers) — an acclaimed author viewers first meet in episode 1.
Joe eventually realized: "It's you. It's been you."
After knocking out Joe with the butt of Roald's shotgun and dragging him and Roald to a room to chain them up, Rhys told Joe "I wasn't prepared for this type of face-to-face yet. But then you got yourself into a bind, and it became very clear that if I didn't intervene, you were gonna get yourself killed."
As Roald remained blacked out, Rhys expanded on his dark backstory. Joe had already learned that Rhys had grown up without family money and only came into enough wealth to join London's most exclusive social circles later in life. The pair had instantly connected over quips about their aristocratic associates.
As Joe sat in chains, Rhys revealed he'd concocted a "plan" for them: "We're gonna pin all the murders on [Roald]."
Rhys then told Joe he'd have to kill Roald, but Rhys himself would take care of "all the other touches" (he'd already written a note on Roald, who wouldn't be able to defend his innocence if he were dead). Joe pretended to be on Rhys's side, and Rhys stepped away to give Joe a chance to kill Roald. Joe naturally hoped to use this time to figure out an escape plan.
Upon Rhys's return, Joe improvised an excuse for why he was trying to break free — it was impossible to murder someone with his hands chained. Rhys saw through the ruse and decided to abandon Joe, telling him: "If you're clever enough to get yourself free, I'll see you back in London and we can revisit this." As he walked out, he kicked over a candle to set the country manor ablaze.
Roald awoke as Joe managed to escape his chains before also freeing Roald. Kate happed upon the two pair as they worked to escape, pulling them both to safety before the estate burned down.
The fifth and final episode of season 4, part 1, flashed forward to Kate and Joe's first encounter after the shambolic country getaway. Kate showed up at Joe's apartment to invite him for a pint of beer. Knowing it was "dangerous" for her to be around him, he refused, much to her clear disappointment.
After she left, Joe turned up his television only to see Rhys speaking about how "many" of the Eat the Rich Killer's victims were friends of his. He said he planned "to take matters into my own hands" — by running to be elected Mayor of London.
"I know who you are now, Rhys," Joe said in a voiceover. "And I'm coming for you."
After the fifth episode concluded, a teaser for part 2 saw Joe warn: "I know who you are now, Rhys. You've taken so much from me. You think you're just getting started, but you're wrong because I'm gonna stop you."
Replied Rhys, "We'll see about that."
The second half of You season 4 drops March 9 on Netflix.
