YOU Season 2 5 Ways Joes Character Arc is Positive (& 5 Ways Its Not)

YOU Season 2: 5 Ways Joe’s Character Arc is Positive (& 5 Ways It’s Not)

Joe is the character fans love to hate, let’s dive into his season two character arc. Here are five ways it’s positive and five ways it’s just not.

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When You premiered in 2018, fans were hooked. The first season of You follows the story of Joe Goldberg, played by Penn Badgley, who seemingly lives a typical life in New York City. However, audiences soon learn that Joe is far from average. Joe has an addictive personality and predatory tendencies. He commits horrifying crimes and rationalizes that he’s doing these things out of love for the people closest to him.

Season two was recently released in December 2019 and again, fans couldn’t look away. The more problematic Joe is, the more viewers can’t wait to see what happens next. The second season follows Joe as he starts a new life in Los Angeles and sets his sights on a brand new group of people. While Joe seems to grow in this season and can be almost likable at times, his character arc is all over the place. Keep reading to find out the five ways his character arc is positive, and five ways it’s just not. Warning: spoilers are definitely ahead.

10 Positive: Joe thinks he’s trying to be a better person

Joe comes to Los Angeles, wanting to walk the path of the straight and narrow. He explains to the audience that he wants a quiet life and that he doesn’t want to fall in love, knowing full well of his own addictive personality. At first, this really does seem to be the case.

Joe tries on multiple occasions to keep things platonic with Love in order to keep her safe. He even corrects himself in situations when his thoughts start to wander into “old Joe” territory. For a minute there it was possible that Joe was turning over a new leaf.

9 Not Positive: Joe is still keeping people in his plexiglass box

Joe is still more than willing to physically hurt people to get what he wants. Joe hits Will, his Craigslist contact who sells fake IDs, over the head with a brick, kidnaps him, and keeps him in a newly built glass box in order to steal his identity.

Later in the season Joe also knocks out Delilah and locks her in his glass box in order to protect his secrets. He promises that Delilah won’t die in there, but as viewers have seen in the past, Joe’s promises don’t mean much. These actions alone definitely contradict his plan to lead a quiet life.

8 Positive: Joe ultimately lets Will go

For a while, it was questionable as to whether or not the real Will was going to make it out of his hostage situation alive. It turns out that Will has some demons of his own that Joe gets mixed up in, considering Joe is now posing as Will.

Joe is forced to deal with Jasper, a man who Will owes quite a bit of money. Joe eventually leads Jasper to Will, things go awry and Joe ultimately kills Jasper out of self-defense. Surprisingly, Joe decides to take a leap of faith and lets Will go with the promise that he will silently leave Los Angeles.

7 Not Positive: Joe is still keeping his box of “mementos”

The reveal of this box really tipped audiences off to the fact that Joe was up to his old ways. It was shown early in season two that Joe was still keeping a hidden box of stolen goods just like the one he had in season one.

Remember the box where Joe hid Beck’s broken phone, Benji’s teeth, and all of the other creepy mementos? Well, it’s back, and the only difference is that Joe hid the box inside his apartment’s wall behind a painting instead of in the bathroom ceiling. The big reveal scene of Joe pulling out the box for the first time in season two shows that he still has the same addictive personality and plenty of secrets.

6 Positive: Joe takes care of Ellie

Just like Joe protected fan-favorite Paco in season one, Joe protects Ellie in season two. Joe feels like somewhat of a father figure to Ellie and wants to protect her at all costs.

Throughout the season, we often see Joe working day and night to keep her safe, and even if his methods are questionable, he does seem to have good intentions. Joe keeps Ellie safe from Henderson, is there for her when she needs a friend, and ultimately keeps much better tabs on her than her own sister does.

5 Not Positive: Joe meeting Love was premeditated

Later in season two, fans find out that Joe had planned out meeting Love all along. He did his research on her, devised a plan to get hired at her store, and chose a specific apartment that would allow him to spy on her from the comfort of his own home.

It’s undecided whether this is a surprising or unsurprising development in Joe’s season two story. Regardless, this is extremely contradictory to Joe’s original plan of avoiding his addiction, considering he was apparently feeding it from the beginning.

4 Positive: Joe was there for Forty

While Joe didn’t always like or respect Forty, he was there for him on many occasions. It’s arguable that Joe was only a good friend to Forty to get in Love’s good graces; however, Joe shows Forty friendship even when he doesn’t have to.

For example, Joe is there for him when Forty confesses that he killed his nanny many years ago. Of course, audiences soon find out that Love had actually killed the nanny. Regardless, Joe not only accepted Forty after he heard his secret, but he also comforted him.

3 Not Positive: Joe tries to hurt Candace again

Not only does Joe refuse to come to grips with the fact that he tried to kill Candace, but he also manages to convince himself that he needs to get rid of her again. Joe breaks into the house that Candace is staying in with a bag full of menacing items such as rope and duct tape.

However, Candace isn’t home, and Joe gets a taste of his own medicine from the owner of the house when she knocks him out, ties him up and threatens to kill him for invading her home. Of course, Joe is able to talk his way out of yet another situation and ultimately makes it out alive.

2 Positive: Joe finally realizes he’s problematic

It takes Delilah’s death and Candace locking Joe in his own plexiglass box to realize how much blood he truly has on his hands. Even though it’s revealed that Love killed Delilah, not Joe, he has finally come to terms with all of the hurtful things he has done in the past.

Joe also comes to terms with the fact that he is still responsible for Delilah’s death and understands that Ellie will probably never forgive him for his participation in the events that led up to Delilah’s unfortunate death.

1 Not Positive: Joe thinks he’s getting what he deserves and hasn’t changed where it counts

At the end of the season, Joe tells himself that he still loves Love, regardless of what all has happened. Though Joe later admits that he views a suburban happily ever after with Love as his own personal jail, thinking it’s what he deserves for everything he has done in the past. While in reality, this average suburban lifestyle is nowhere near a punishment fit for his crimes.

In the last moments of the finale, Joe seems to have set his sights on his next “you,” the next-door neighbor. At the end of the day, Joe hasn’t learned his lesson and definitely hasn’t changed where it counts.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/you-season-2-joe-character-arc-positive-negative/

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