Penn Badgley Shares His Take On The Controversial You Season 5 Finale
Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the final season of You
Penn Badgley has weighed in on the way things turn out for his character in the fifth and final season of You.
Earlier this week, the last batch of episodes of the thriller/black comedy/romance drama (delete as applicable) debuted on Netflix, and while critics may not have been bowled over, it’s already proved to be a hit for the streaming platform.
While early reviews were unanimous in that the season gets off to a bit of a slow start, critics were a little split on the final episode, in which Penn’s character Joe Goldberg finally pays for his crimes, after being – and there’s no polite way of saying this – shot right in the balls by newcomer Bronte, played by Madeline Brewer.
Though some reviews praised this final turn of events, others were les enthused about Joe turning the tables by breaking the fourth wall in his final lines.
Speaking to Deadline, Penn said that these last episodes serve as a “meta exercise” questioning “why are we so obsessed with this man?” and “apart from the superficial reasons, what is it about a protagonist like this that works?”
“And I think we deliver,” he continued, branding season five’s latter offerings a “true deconstruction of Joe”.
Penn went on to praise the finale for making sure viewers are “viscerally confronted” with exactly what kind of character Joe is.
He added: “[The finale became] a question of, ‘What do we do with people like Joe?’. It is a carceral question, a question of justice, of transformative justice as it’s referred to sometimes, vengeance, retribution.
“What is best, not just for Joe, but the person who then has to do it? If somebody was to kill him – and it would be a woman, right – well then actually now what you’ve burdened her with is having committed murder, like that’s not just, I don’t think.
“Torture? Uh OK, same thing. Prison? Eh, feels a bit not enough. So what do you do? Take. His. Balls.”
Around the release of You’s penultimate season in 2023, Penn repeatedly made headlines when he revealed that he had deliberately asked for Joe to be involved in less sex scenes, of which he’s made no secret of not being a fan.
However, he seemingly had a change of heart for season five – a decision he’s also opened up about while promoting the new season.
All five seasons of You are now streaming on Netflix.