The first part of You season 4 sees Joe navigating a new life in London, leaving his old ways behind—only until a murder takes place and someone starts pinning it on him. The first part is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Joe Goldberg, now going by the name of Jonathan Moore, works as a professor of literature in London. He tried approaching Marienne, but she completely disowned him.
Love’s father had hired a man to kill Joe, but Joe ended up striking a deal with this assassin. He offered Joe this identity as Jonathan and asked him to keep a low profile, and that’s all he needs to do to hit the restart button on his life.
Joe does embark on a new journey and, unwillingly, becomes a friend of his colleague, Malcolm Harding. Eventually, he once again starts falling into his old habits when he notices Malcolm’s girlfriend, Kate, from across his window.
Joe observes them and realizes that they are in a relationship but are not exactly happy together. He further stalks them and learns about Kate, who is a gallerist and an art lover.
When Joe rescues Kate from some robbers, Malcolm thanks him and invites him to Adam Pratt’s Sundry House, the most exclusive club in Soho.
Joe ends up befriending Malcolm and Kate’s friends, who are some of London’s most fortunate and privileged. He studies the people he is meeting.
There is Lady Phoebe, Blessing, Simon Soo, Simon’s sister, Sophie, Roald Burton, Gemma, and, of course, Adam Pratt, who is also Phoebe’s boyfriend.
Joe despises all of them except for Rhys Montrose, who impresses Joe during a conversation. Unlike most of them, Rhys was born into poverty but later discovered that he is the son of a duke.
Toward the end of the night, this group gets Joe drunk to the point where he has no sense of time or place. Joe awakens in his apartment to find Malcolm’s body on his table.
Malcolm brought him home when Joe wasn’t in a condition to walk. Malcolm also criticized Marienne last night upon hearing Joe’s story, and Joe assumes that he may have acted upon those criticisms and killed Malcolm under the influence of intoxication.
Things go sideways when Joe gets rid of the body and receives a text from an unknown person on an app called Evanesce, which deletes texts right after it has been read.
Joe doesn’t know how this app got installed on his phone. The unknown person applauds Joe for taking care of Malcolm’s body. It turns out that Joe didn’t kill Malcolm; someone else did and is now trying to frame him.
Joe begins to investigate who is stalking him. He likes to believe that the stalker is one of Malcolm’s friends for sure. This unknown person has turned this murder into a whodunit mystery.
Joe turns to Agatha Christie’s books and takes help from one of his students to figure out the killer’s next move. Joe suspects Adam and Simon, as Malcolm knew both of their dark secrets.
While Adam’s secret is just a fetish, Simon’s is a fraud. Joe strongly feels that Simon is the killer, but in the blink of an eye, the murderer kills Simon too. Like the cliches of whodunits, the first suspect died.
Another person Joe suspects to be the killer is Kate, as Malcolm had his own fair share of affairs, which even Kate knew about.
The stalker becomes a big problem when Malcolm’s murder also comes to light and this stalker learns about Joe’s true identity and his dark past. He encourages Joe to take care of Kate, claiming that she could be a problem.
Joe instead opts to protect Kate, believing that the killer might be coming for her. Following Kate around results in Vic, Phoebe’s bodyguard, observing a suspicious Joe, who is forced to get rid of him. The blackmailer then understands Joe’s urge.
Joe, on the other hand, figures out that this blackmailer stalking him is just like him. He is a loner who is looking for a friend. Joe starts playing along with this stalker, hoping that he will get to meet them.
Joe is invited to Lady Phoebe’s country house for a getaway. Throughout the day, Joe crosses out Roald Burton as the person blackmailing him. He has been Kate’s friend for a very long time and is obsessed with her.
In the meantime, Joe and Kate also get really close to each other and learn about each other’s past little by little, something Roald couldn’t stand to see.
Roald finds Joe searching for something inside his room. He confronts Joe, calling him the killer, and proceeds to push him out of the window.
When Joe comes back inside, he sees Kate missing. A look around the house ends with Joe finding Kate with her friend Gemma’s body.
You season 4 part 1 ending explained in detail:
Why Kate doesn’t tell everyone about Gemma?
Kate knows what Joe must be thinking at this time. She certainly looks like the one who killed Gemma. She confesses that she hasn’t murdered her, and the reason she doesn’t want to alert everyone is that her father’s security is here.
Kate’s father, who she hates, can cover this up, but from this point on, he will own her. She fails to convince Joe but points out that the situation isn’t good for him either, as he can be blamed for Gemma’s death too.
The two agree to get rid of the body together. Upon watching Joe skillfully do this job, she questions him with a knife on his neck. At this point, Joe tells Kate about his son and why he just wants to start over, but this killer won’t let him.
They both assure each other that they are not the killers and start working again. While Joe takes care of Gemma’s body, Kate calms Phoebe, who discovers blood in the room where Gemma was killed.
Who is Joe’s stalker?
Roald is sure that Joe is the one targeting and killing them. He plans to kill Joe himself. Adam joins him in this when he learns that Joe told Phoebe about his fetish.
Roald comes across Joe covering up Gemma’s body. He brings him in front of everyone except Kate and Phoebe, who know the truth but are somewhere else.
Roald convinces his overly drunk friends that Joe is the killer and hunts Joe down. Joe manages to take Roald out while they are in the woods. That’s when Joe’s stalker, Rhys Montrose, shows up and knocks Joe out.
When Joe wakes up, he is in a dungeon, locked to chains, along with Roald. Rhys reveals that he is part of his project where he is killing these rich people off.
He plans to pin these murders on Roald, but at the same time, have him killed so that no one will protest for him. He really liked Joe’s ways and wanted to use them.
Joe continues to play along with Rhys, claiming that he will take care of Roald. Rhys sees through Joe’s lie. He believes that if Joe is clever enough to set himself free, he will see him in London. Rhys then leaves after setting the dungeon on fire.
Does Joe survive?
Roald wakes up and sees him and Joe tied. Joe manages to break free of the chains. Roald asks for help too, and Joe does assist him in getting free.
The two attempt to escape through an opening. Kate comes to their aid and pulls them out before the fire could spread further.
Back at home, Joe watches the news of Gemma’s death and Phoebe’s country house that has been burnt to ashes. None of these privileged kids have apologized to him for accusing him. Rhys hasn’t contacted him either since their last confrontation
Kate knocks on Joe’s door and asks him out, but Joe knows she won’t like his real self and his dark past. He doesn’t want to hurt her, so he decides not to go on this date.
Once Kate leaves, Joe watches Rhys’s interview, where he announces his candidacy for mayor of London. Joe vows to stop Rhys before he can hurt any other soul and drag his own down with him.
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