The Ghostly Fate of Joe Goldberg: You's Unexpected Alternate Ending!

Joe Goldberg eventually faced the repercussions of his crimes in Netflix's popular drama You, but the series nearly concluded in a different way. You showrunners Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo revealed in an interview with The New York Post that the crew considered a number of different endings before deciding on the final one. Joe even came up with the crazy notion that he was a ghost.

 

“Throughout the series, there was a shared belief among the writers and the creators that Joe wouldn’t get away with his crimes,” Foley revealed. “We came into the season knowing that we didn’t want to redeem him, that he would get his comeuppance, that he was going to face some of those whose lives he ruined. And most importantly, we knew he was going to be made to face himself.”

 

After Bronte (Madeline Brewer) brings Joe (played by Penn Badgley) to justice for the deaths of Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail) and Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), Joe is imprisoned and left alone in a cage in the show's final season.

In the final scene, Joe is shown reading The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer and getting a letter from a fan who wants to be his next victim. As the series comes to a close, Joe says, “Maybe the problem isn’t me. Maybe...it’s you.”

 

Foley explained why death was not considered Joe's demise. "Death is too easy," he said. The team's preference was for a penalty that would make Joe face his loneliness and remorse. "They liked him not knowing the touch of a lover," Foley continued.

 

According to co-showrunner Justin W. Lo, the group had once thought of killing Joe off. He claimed that they looked at a variety of possibilities, including one in which Bronte killed Joe. Additionally, Lo talked about an early concept where Joe was shot, and the audience wouldn't know it until the last episode, when Joe realized he was a ghost.

The showrunners ultimately determined that Joe's most appropriate conclusion was to have him alive, alone, and confronting himself.