In You season 4, the Eat-the-Rich-Killer is on the loose. At the end of part 1, we even find out who is behind it. But is Joe the real killer after all? This fan theory is surprisingly conclusive.
- In part 1 of “You” season 4, it is revealed who the killer is who is making London high society unsafe.
- Joe appears to be innocent. But a fan theory reveals that he may be behind the Eat the Rich killer after all.
- We’ll explain how that could be.
“You” Season 4 brings a breath of fresh air to the story surrounding stalker/serial killer Joe Goldberg. Joe wants to leave his past behind and starts a new life in London as Jonathan Moore.
As a university professor, he suddenly finds himself in the haze of London’s high society – until a murder occurs that, for once, is not committed by Joe. At least that’s what the Netflix series wants us to believe. The “Eat-the-Rich-Killer,” as he is christened by the British press, kills one rich person after another and wants to pin the murders on Joe.
In the manner of an exciting whodunit thriller, Joe tries to find out who the real serial killer is among all the suspects and even finds the culprit at the end of Part 1. So behind the murders is the bestselling author Rhys Montrose, played by “Outlander” villain Ed Speelers. But a crazy fan theory now calls this resolution into question.
You Season 4: Is Joe the real killer after all?
According to a fan theory, Joe is in fact still the murderer of the series. In all scenes in which Rhys Montrose appears, only Joe speaks alone with the author. Thus, some fans believe that Rhys is a product of Joe’s imagination. The real Rhys does exist and continues to be a best-selling author and is running for mayor, but the interactions between Joe and Rhys take place only in Joe’s imagination.
Joe probably identifies strongly with Montrose because he has read Montrose’s memoirs and they both had similar, bad childhoods. In his efforts to finally get away from murder, Joe projects his penchant for violence onto a fictional version of the author.
Fittingly, Joe is also not conscious during any of the three murders so far. During Malcolm’s murder he is woozy from absinthe and heavily intoxicated, during Simon’s murder he falls asleep on a public bench, and during Gemma’s murder he is briefly unconscious after being thrown out of a window by Roald.
The Eat-the-Rich killer makes contact with Joe by conveniently writing him messages through an app that makes the messages disappear after they are read. That way, no one else but Joe can know he’s being blackmailed. Which doesn’t happen, because according to this theory, Joe is thus looking for a scapegoat for the murders, driving himself into the arms of his latest stalking victim, Kate.
Because in the end, Joe is only interested in being close to a woman, and for that he will go over dead bodies. To continue to follow his old patterns, his personality seems to have split and the atrocities must now perform a fake Rhys for him, so that he no longer has to be plagued by a guilty conscience.
Also, the fact that we see Love, Joe’s ex-wife, who is actually dead, again in the trailer of Part 2, speaks to the fact that Joe is suffering from hallucinations. Especially because we see her in Joe’s old glass bunker, where he preferred to lock up and murder his prisoners.
Joe remaining the villain of “You” would also fit better in the series. Part 2 of Season 4 will show Joe’s struggle against his evil side. On March 9, 2023, we will finally see the remaining episodes of the new season on Netflix.
