what happened in season 4 of you

Season 4 of You takes Joe Goldberg to London, splits his story into two very different halves, and ends with him more powerful and more dangerous than ever as he fully embraces who he is.

What Happened in Season 4 of You?

New life, new identity

• Joe fakes killing Marienne in Paris and runs to London under a new identity: English professor Jonathan Moore.

• He’s pulled into a rich, messy friend group through his neighbor and colleague Malcolm and Malcolm’s sharp, guarded girlfriend Kate Galvin.

• Joe meets Rhys Montrose , a working‑class kid turned author and rising politician, and feels an odd sense of kinship with him.

Joe tells himself he’s finally done with obsessing and killing… but his instincts don’t actually go anywhere.

Part 1: The “Eat‑the‑Rich” murders

• After a drug‑ and alcohol‑fueled night at an elite club, Joe wakes up to find Malcolm murdered in his flat, missing a finger, and no memory of what happened.

• Joe disposes of the body to protect his new identity, then starts getting anonymous messages from the real killer, who knows exactly what he did with the corpse.

• The killer starts picking off members of the wealthy circle:
  1. Malcolm is found dead first.
  2. Simon , a toxic artist, is exposed as a plagiarist and then killed.

3. **Gemma** , a cruel, entitled socialite, is murdered during a chaotic country‑house weekend.

• The media dubs it an “eat‑the‑rich killer” case, and Joe tries to solve it while blending in with the very people being targeted.

• The anonymous texter eventually reveals himself as Rhys Montrose , who claims he’s killing the rich friends because they’re corrupt and wants Joe to join him.

Joe and Kate

• Joe and Kate start out hostile: she finds him creepy and judgmental, he thinks she’s an icy rich girl.

• As bodies pile up, Kate shows she’s more morally conflicted than her crowd; she and Joe bond over abusive families and a shared hatred of the ultra‑elite lifestyle.

• Their relationship gradually turns romantic, even as Joe hides his past and his involvement with the murders around them.

Country house chaos

• Lady Phoebe hosts the group at her family’s country estate to escape bad press and regroup.

• Tensions explode: accusations fly, secrets come out, and another murder cements the idea that the killer is one of them.

• Joe uses the chaos to keep suspicion off himself while still trying to identify Rhys’s real role in the killings.

Part 2: The Rhys twist

This is where the season shifts from whodunit to full psychological horror.

• Rhys becomes a major public figure, running for mayor and promoting his memoir about his rough upbringing.

• Joe’s convinced Rhys is the killer and confronts him in person at events, but Rhys acts like he barely knows Joe.

• Eventually Joe tracks Rhys to a countryside cottage and tortures and kills him , only to realize Rhys had no idea what he was talking about.

• The huge twist: the “Rhys” Joe’s been interacting with privately is a hallucination , an alternate personality that embodies Joe’s darkest urges.

Rhys isn’t Joe’s partner in crime; he’s Joe’s inner voice, made visible.

Marienne’s fate

• Early on, Joe “spares” Marienne in London by letting her run away, then fakes proof of her death for the fixer hired by Love Quinn’s father.

• Later we learn that Joe’s Rhys‑persona actually kidnapped Marienne and locked her in his infamous glass cage while Joe’s conscious mind blocked it out.

• Student Nadia , suspicious of Joe, snoops around and discovers the key to a hidden room where Marienne is imprisoned.

• Together, Nadia and Marienne stage an elaborate escape plan: Marienne fakes an overdose so Joe thinks she’s dead, while Nadia helps her get away and reunite with her daughter in Paris.

• Joe believes he’s driven Marienne to suicide and spirals even further into self‑loathing.

Joe’s mental break and “rebirth”

• The hallucinated Rhys pushes Joe harder: kill Kate’s powerful father Tom Lockwood , remove obstacles, and stop pretending he’s different.

• Lockwood tries to use Joe to his own advantage, but Joe ultimately murders him anyway, supposedly to “protect” Kate.

• Joe, crushed by guilt and seeing himself clearly as a monster, jumps off a bridge to kill himself.

• He survives, rescued by Kate, and in that moment decides to embrace his true nature rather than fight it.

• With Kate now inheriting her father’s empire and choosing to be with him, Joe gains money, power, and a polished public image in New York.

Nadia’s tragic end

• Nadia gathers evidence about Joe’s killings and Marienne’s captivity, planning to expose him.

• Joe catches her, murders her boyfriend, and frames her as the killer, planting incriminating items and evidence.

• Nadia ends up imprisoned, silenced, and branded as a murderer, while Joe walks free.

How Season 4 Ends

By the finale, Joe has:

• A wealthy, morally conflicted partner in Kate who accepts his past and helps rebrand him.

• Public rehabilitation: he’s back in New York, no longer hiding his real name, playing the part of a reformed, charming survivor.

• Internal peace of the darkest kind: his Rhys persona is no longer separate; Joe has fully accepted that he enjoys killing and is very good at rewriting the story.

Season 4 ends not with Joe redeemed, but with Joe upgraded: richer, better protected, and more honest with himself about being a predator.

Forum & fan reaction snapshot

• Many fans liked the season’s twisty “murder mystery” structure but found the hallucinated‑Rhys twist divisive.

• Some viewers enjoyed seeing Joe finally confronted with his own psyche; others felt the tone shift and pacing in Part 2 were jarring.

• Discussions leading into Season 5 focus on whether Joe can ever truly face justice now that he has money, media control, and a partner who shields him.

TL;DR: In Season 4 of You , Joe moves to London as “Jonathan Moore,” gets entangled with a wealthy friend group and a serial “eat‑the‑rich” killer, only to discover the killer he’s been chasing is actually a manifestation of his own mind; by the end, he escapes consequence, gains power in New York with Kate by his side, and fully accepts that he’s a conscious, unapologetic predator.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.