Season one of You follows Joe Goldberg, a bookstore manager in New York who becomes
obsessed with aspiring writer Guinevere Beck and begins stalking her and manipulating her
life to court her and develop a relationship.
When Joe first meets Beck, it’s a creepy love at first sight.
He fantasizes about being in a relationship with her and justifies all of the horrific
things he’ll eventually do for love as necessary.
Because he’s a “good guy”.
Heavy emphasis on the air quotes.
Joe breaks into Beck’s apartment to snoop around and learn more about her.
He follows her throughout her day to keep tabs on her.
When a drunken Beck falls onto the subway tracks, it’s Joe that is miraculously there
to save her.
He even steals her phone so he can monitor conversations she has once getting a new one.
The first major obstacle in Joe’s way of winning Beck’s heart is her on-again-off-again
boyfriend Benji.
Benji’s a bit of a tool, so Joe feels completely justified in attacking him and locking him
up in the book vault in the bookstore’s basement.
Eventually, Joe realizes there’s no good way out of this situation, and kills Benji.
He covers up this act by burning Benji’s body and making it appear that Benji has simply
run off.
Following Benji’s murder, Joe and Beck enter into a relationship, but another obstacle
presents itself.
Beck’s best friend Peach is suspicious of Joe and is similarly obsessed with Beck and
manipulating her to bend Beck to her wants.
A jealous Joe hits Peach on the head with a rock and leaves her for dead, but unfortunately
for Joe, she survives the attack.
Not 100% sure that it was Joe that attacked her, but still very much suspicious, Peach
invites Beck over to her family estate for a getaway with plans to whisk Beck off to
live together in Paris.
Beck turns down the offer, realizing that Joe was correct about Peach’s manipulative
ways, and leaves the estate.
Although, that complicates things a bit, because Joe has followed Beck to the estate and is
caught by Peach who draws a gun on him.
Joe is forced to kill Peach, and frames it as a suicide.
The perfect crime!
Although he did pee in a jar and accidentally leave it in Peach’s house.
With Peach now out of the picture, Joe and Beck are finally free to be together with
no more distractions!
And that lasts...for a few months.
Beck grows secretive and distant, which only further fuels Joe’s jealousy and possessiveness.
He begins to suspect that Beck is cheating on him with her therapist, Dr. Nicky, and
even begins seeing the therapist himself using an alias.
At first it’s to try to get more information on Dr. Nicky’s relationship with Beck, but
after a while he wants to use his sessions to actually explore his own psyche.
Eventually, Joe confronts Beck about her relationship with Dr. Nicky.
Hurt that Joe doesn’t trust her, she breaks up with him.
When Joe secretly uses Dr. Nicky’s computer to try to confirm his suspicions about the
affair, he instead discovers routine therapy sessions that make Joe realize he overreacted
and that Beck was better off without him.
Three months pass, and Joe is doing his best to move on.
Throughout the season, Joe has looked after Paco, the young son of his drug addict neighbor,
Claudia.
Claudia’s boyfriend is an abusive parole officer named Ron who is constantly picking
fights with Claudia, Paco, and Joe.
Joe enters into a relationship with Karen, Claudia’s friend, and the two help Claudia
get clean.
But try as he might to convince himself that Karen is right for him, he just can’t seem
to get over Beck.
Similarly, Beck isn’t over Joe.
And so, Joe breaks up with Karen and reunites with Beck, making them seemingly stronger
than ever.
But when a spiteful Karen tells Beck that Joe will always be pining for his ex, Beck
begins to look into Joe’s previous relationship with the mysterious Candace.
Beck discovers that Candace was an ex-girlfriend of Joe’s that seemingly went completely
off the grid following their breakup and hasn’t contacted friends or family in years.
Beck grows concerned that something sinister is at play with Joe, and she SHOULD be concerned,
as we learn that Joe had previously killed a man named Elijah after discovering that
Candace was having an affair with him.
Mr. Mooney, the original owner of the bookstore Joe managed and a father figure that mentally
abused him as a child, helped Joe cover up Elijah’s death.
When Beck confronts Joe about her suspicions of Candace’s disappearance, Joe is able
to explain everything away in a satisfactory way.
And when Joe discovers that Beck actually WAS having an affair with Dr. Nicky, she gives
a genuine apology and assures Joe that that was now finished and it was Joe that she loved
and wanted to be with.
And so everything was once again great between Joe and Beck!
That is, until Beck discovers a hidden box in Joe’s apartment filled with mementos
of all his previous crimes.
Her original phone, Peach’s phone, Benji’s phone, even Benji’s teeth!
This confirms all of Beck’s darkest fears to be true.
Joe is left with no choice but to lock Beck up in the book vault until he can figure out
a way to make their relationship work again.
Beck pleads for her life and release, and eventually even suggests that Joe pin all
of his crimes on Dr. Nicky.
Back at his apartment building, the abusive Ron beats Claudia and puts her in the hospital.
Joe is forced to kill Ron to protect Paco and explains to Paco what must be done to
cover up this murder.
As Joe deals with all of this, Beck uses a typewriter in the book vault to write her
story, detailing all of Joe’s horrific crimes, but attributing them to Dr. Nicky instead.
When Joe finally returns, Beck is able to convince him that she loves him and understands
why he did everything he did.
She lures Joe into the vault and locks him inside.
But her escape plan is thwarted when she discovers the basement door is also locked.
Joe escapes the vault and finally kills Beck.
Four months later, the book Beck wrote in the vault has become a huge success.
It also led to the arrest of a framed Dr. Nicky, inadvertently exonerating Joe.
But just as it looks like Joe will be able to get away with all of his past crimes, his
ex girlfriend Candace shows up, very much alive, to confront Joe over their unfinished
business.