During the period before the final exams last semester, while browsing the Netflix homepage, I came across YOU, which had been heavily promoted. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the first episode and found the series incredibly addictive. Unfortunately, due to the tight schedule and heavy workload during finals, I couldn't binge-watch it all at once. It wasn't until I was on the high-speed train home that I finished this American drama, which has two seasons and a total of 20 episodes.
Plot Summary#
Spoiler Alert!!! Major Spoilers Ahead!!! Spoiler Alert!!!
If you mind spoilers, please skip the plot summary section.
YOU is defined as a "psychological thriller crime" type of TV series, which, in my view, broadly encompasses elements of love, crime, and suspense.
Season One#
The story takes place in New York, where the male protagonist, Joe Goldberg, is a bookstore manager with a tragic childhood. He falls in love at first sight with Guinevere Beck, a graduate student at New York University, after a chance encounter in the bookstore. To win Beck over, Joe begins to stalk her both online and offline, creating various opportunities to get closer to her.
To eliminate obstacles, Joe lures Beck's ex-boyfriend, who runs a soda company, to the bookstore basement and ambushes him, imprisoning him in a temperature-controlled glass room where precious books are stored. A few days later, Joe kills Beck's ex-boyfriend, who is allergic to peanuts, by poisoning his coffee with peanut oil.
After successfully pursuing Beck, Joe discovers that Beck's best friend, Peach, has been infatuated with Beck and is jealous of him. At a party, Peach introduces Beck to a well-known literary agent, but Beck later realizes that the agent is only interested in her looks and never intended to help her genuinely, a fact Peach has known all along but did not disclose to Beck. After a fight with Peach, Beck is manipulated into staying with her when Peach pretends to attempt suicide by overdosing on medication. Although Joe sees through Peach's intentions, he cannot convince Beck, and when their relationship remains unshaken, Joe attacks Peach with a rock during her morning run, but she survives. After recovering, Peach invites Beck to her family estate to recuperate. Joe follows her to the estate but is discovered by Peach. In a struggle, Joe uses Peach's gun to kill her and stages the scene to look like a suicide.
After Peach's death, Beck becomes increasingly melancholic and unpredictable, leading to a growing distance between her and Joe. Beck starts keeping secrets from Joe and becomes close to her therapist. Joe resumes stalking Beck but is caught in the act at a park. Disappointed, Beck breaks up with Joe. During their separation, Joe finds a new partner, Karen, and feels satisfied with his situation until Beck suddenly reappears, reigniting their old flame and leading to frequent secret meetings. Joe realizes he still loves Beck and breaks up with Karen to reconcile with Beck.
Initially, Beck discovers that Joe is still hung up on his ex-girlfriend, but it turns out to be a false alarm. Beck also confesses to Joe that she once cheated on him with her therapist, and they reconcile. However, their happiness is short-lived when a neighbor's child accidentally reveals to Beck that the bathroom ceiling can hide things. Curious, Beck opens the bathroom ceiling in Joe's home and discovers all the evidence of Joe's past stalking and murders. Just then, Joe returns and realizes Beck has uncovered his secret, so he knocks her out and imprisons her in the bookstore basement.
In the basement, Beck pretends to write and engages Joe, convincing him that she still deeply loves him. Joe, moved, opens the glass room door to kiss Beck, but she takes the opportunity to stab him with a hidden typewriter's pointer and locks him inside the glass room while escaping. However, she cannot open the basement door. At that moment, Joe uses a spare key to unlock the glass room and catches up with Beck, ultimately killing her. After Beck's death, Joe publishes her manuscripts from the time she was imprisoned as "The Dark Side of Love," using it to clear his suspicions and frame the therapist. Just when Joe thinks everything is over, his ex-girlfriend Candace, whom he buried himself, reappears in his bookstore. Season One ends.
Season Two#
To escape Candace's revenge, Joe leaves New York for Los Angeles. He kidnaps an identity hacker named Will and assumes his false identity. Using Will's identity, Joe finds a place to live and a job at a bookstore café, where he meets Love Quinn, who works in the kitchen. Joe had already noticed Love and had once fallen for her, so he began stalking her, and working at the café was part of his plan to get close to her.
Joe starts stalking Love again, but finds that her social media accounts are all private. He enlists the help of his landlord's sister, Ellie Alves, to teach him about social media and adds Love as a friend. Their relationship gradually heats up, and they become a couple. However, Will's old creditor, Jasper, suddenly appears, cuts off Joe's pinky finger, and demands immediate repayment. Joe brings Jasper to the warehouse where he is holding Will and, in self-defense, stabs Jasper to death, dismembers him, and disposes of the body in a meat grinder.
Joe becomes friends with Love's brother, Forty, who is an aspiring director but often creates trouble due to his immaturity. Joe helps him secure a famous comedian, Henderson, for his film, where he discovers Ellie. Previously, Ellie's journalist sister, Delilah, had told Joe about her experience of being assaulted by Henderson, making Joe worry for Ellie. He steals Henderson's personal laptop, hoping to find evidence of Henderson's secret assaults on underage girls, but they find nothing on the computer. Unwilling to give up, Joe breaks into Henderson's house again and discovers a secret room filled with Polaroids of naked girls. He steals these photos and leaves them at Delilah's door, hoping she will write an article exposing Henderson's actions.
Later, Henderson invites Ellie to his house to discuss things privately. Joe feels the need to protect Ellie and follows her to Henderson's house, where he discovers Henderson drugging Ellie's drink. Joe manages to drug Henderson's drink as well, and after both men pass out, Joe ties Henderson to a chair in the secret room and forces him to record a confession video. Henderson refuses to admit anything, and during the struggle, Joe's mask falls off, revealing his identity. In the ensuing conflict, Joe accidentally pushes Henderson down the stairs, resulting in a fatal head injury. After cleaning up the scene, Joe returns to the warehouse where he is holding Will and, feeling guilty, releases Will to prove he is a good person. Will successfully reaches the Philippines and moves in with his fiancée.
After dealing with Henderson, Joe and Love attend a wellness retreat hosted by Love's parents, where Joe discovers that Candace is using a fake name to get close to Forty and has become his girlfriend. Joe nervously navigates the retreat and shares his struggles with Love regarding their dysfunctional families. Candace suggests that Forty adapt Beck's posthumous work, "The Dark Side of Love," hoping to expose Joe's actions. Love notices something off about Candace and hires a private investigator to follow her. One time, Candace breaks into Joe's house but finds Joe waiting for Love, and she reveals everything Joe has done to her. Unfortunately, Love does not believe her. Joe later explains that Candace's obsessive attachment to him is due to her mental illness, and he had to go into hiding to escape her. However, Love ultimately cannot accept this and chooses to break up with Joe.
Joe returns home in despair and confides in Delilah, who is also saddened by her inability to take down Henderson. That night, they sleep together. After the breakup, due to Forty’s insistence, Joe continues working at the café, witnessing Love's relationship with her deceased husband's friend, Milo. Joe encourages Delilah to write down her experience of being assaulted by Henderson, which inspires her. Later, Joe and Delilah are arrested for an unspecified reason, but Forty uses his connections to bail them out. However, Delilah's brief romantic involvement with a police officer leads to her recalling seeing Joe wearing Henderson's branded headphones on the night of Henderson's death.
After receiving a warning, Delilah breaks into Joe's house and finds the key to the warehouse, immediately heading there to investigate. Joe discovers Delilah's intrusion through the warehouse's nanny cam and quickly arrives to imprison her. Joe assures the frightened Delilah that he will release her the next day when he successfully escapes Los Angeles. Joe begins preparing for his escape, but Forty invites him to participate in the adaptation of "The Dark Side of Love." Joe declines, prompting Forty to stage a fake kidnapping, taking them to a hotel for a closed writing session. During this time, Joe accidentally ingests a large amount of LSD and begins to see his hands covered in blood. When he regains consciousness, he discovers that Forty has figured out that Beck's death in "The Dark Side of Love" was a murder by her boyfriend, not the therapist, and learns that Forty accidentally killed his first love as a child.
Joe goes to the warehouse to check on Delilah, only to find her dead in a pool of blood. At that moment, Candace, who has discovered Joe's warehouse address, arrives and sees Joe standing next to Delilah's body, concluding that Joe killed her. Candace immediately uses pepper spray to subdue Joe and imprisons him in the glass room. Candace calls Love to come over, wanting to prove her claims about Joe. When Love arrives and sees Delilah's dead body, Joe is utterly hopeless and confesses all his crimes to Love.
Unexpectedly, Love kills Candace and confesses to Joe that she was the one who killed Delilah, expressing her love for him. In fact, Love had already investigated Joe's past and had fallen for him because of it. She also admits to killing his first love to protect Forty. Love proposes a solution: to report Ellie as a suspect in the Henderson case, using her family's connections to resolve the matter, thus clearing Joe of suspicion for Henderson's murder and explaining Delilah's death. When Joe realizes that Love is not the innocent woman he imagined, he feels despair, realizing he has become her "Beck." Joe attempts to kill Love, but she reveals that she is pregnant. After they leave, Forty discovers the true cause of Beck's death was Joe's murder and rushes to confront them, holding a gun and demanding Joe leave his sister. Just then, the police arrive and shoot Forty. Love uses her family connections to frame Forty for the murders of Henderson and Candace.
Later, Joe and Love move in together, starting a new life. At the end of this season, Joe finds himself infatuated with a new neighbor.
Highlights of the Series#
I must say, YOU is a very captivating series. In today's world, where TV dramas are abundant, presenting a fresh take on the common "urban romance" is certainly not an easy task, but YOU has managed to do just that.
The "Anti-Hero" Protagonist#
I haven't watched many romance-themed films and series, but I can imagine how stories in this genre typically revolve around love. However, YOU is completely outside my expectations, as it chooses a so-called "stalker" or "psychopath" as the male lead.
The protagonist, Joe, becomes infatuated with a girl and begins to stalk her comprehensively, not only following her daily activities but also digging up everything related to her online. He even breaks into her house to steal her belongings to satisfy his twisted desires and is willing to kill anyone who poses a threat to their relationship. Such a ruthless character is often seen as a traditional villain in films or as the cause of an unexpected event that aids the development of the romance between the leads; in short, they are not the characters that usually receive the spotlight. Yet in this series, we observe and understand the emotional life and views on love of such a uniquely set character from a first-person perspective, which is undoubtedly a refreshing experience.
Joe is someone who has an obsessive pursuit of "love." From his perspective, everything he does is to create an ideal environment for the love he imagines, to save his partner from a chaotic life. He believes he is making the difficult but right decisions. This may be related to Joe's childhood experiences; he had an abusive, alcoholic father and a weak, careless mother. During a typical domestic violence incident, he used a gun hidden by his mother to kill his father to protect her. Perhaps this experience led Joe to consider killing anyone who threatens the person he loves as a viable option, even deeming it necessary. Later, Joe is fostered by a relative who owns a bookstore, and this bookstore owner locks him in a glass room in the basement at the slightest disagreement. In the glass room, he seems to come to terms with this being the owner's way of educating and loving him. Therefore, when he discovers that Beck knows about his actions, he locks her in the glass room, hoping she will understand Joe's love while inside. In summary, many of Joe's incomprehensible behaviors have reasons behind them, and from this perspective, we gain a deeper understanding of a character that should be universally despised.
In the second season, we see an "anti-hero" female protagonist. Love, as a child, killed the nanny who was close to her brother, who was also his first love, to "protect him." After noticing Candace's suspicious behavior, she hires a private investigator to follow her. Even when she discovers that Delilah might threaten her relationship with Joe, she does not hesitate to kill Delilah and devises a cold and meticulous escape plan for Joe. This character's portrayal is not as straightforward as Joe's; we only discover Love's true nature at the end of the plot, and we quickly begin to feel Joe's shock and resistance. Love also comes from a dysfunctional family, has a strong pursuit of love, and hopes that the person she loves will reciprocate her feelings.
Thus, the setup in the second season becomes quite interesting. In the first season, Joe always believed he was Beck's savior, that his presence improved her chaotic life and made her a better person. In the second season, when Joe is in a state of self-punishment, he meets Love, who becomes his savior and helps him through his low point. We can clearly see Joe's transformation from the first to the second season, and we know this is due to Love's influence. However, because of this, when Joe discovers that Love is not as innocent and pure as she appears, he quickly finds a new object of affection.
In summary, the protagonists in YOU are not "flawed ordinary people" in the traditional sense of romantic films, but rather a "psychopath." YOU expresses its reflections on "love" by showcasing such extreme situations.
Exquisite Psychological Portrayal#
The first scene of YOU features a monologue by Joe. Initially, I thought this was just a necessary explanation for the beginning of the plot, but later I realized that this type of monologue runs throughout the entire series. According to what we learn in class, using monologues to showcase inner thoughts may be the most basic method; normally, it should be conveyed through performance. However, YOU goes against this norm by incorporating a significant amount of monologue, directly revealing Joe's psychological activities.
As mentioned earlier, Joe is not an ordinary person. If we do not explain his thoughts in detail and simply show his external actions, he could easily be seen as a typical stalker psychopath. However, YOU uses his monologues to fully explain his delicate inner activities to the audience. All of his twisted actions are motivated by a noble cause—love. It is through the name of love that Joe rationalizes his stalking, theft, and murder. This is why Joe cannot bear the fear of Beck; he simply feels that she cannot understand his love and is unwilling to reciprocate his efforts. Ironically, through his inner monologue, we find that Joe is not a person without judgment. When he discovers Peach's obsession and manipulation of Beck, Joe can confidently accuse Peach of being a stalker.
The detailed psychological portrayal also has the benefit of keeping us firmly locked in Joe's perspective. Joe becomes the thread that ties the entire plot together, and we follow his footsteps, overcoming challenges bit by bit, rejoicing in his successes, mourning his failures, and feeling wronged and pained by his lack of understanding. Such a three-dimensional character not only makes the plot more coherent but also evokes strong empathy from the audience. In the second season, our first impression of Love is the same as Joe's: she is a generous, cheerful, and strong woman. Then, following Joe's perspective, we gradually discover her vulnerabilities and pains. In the end, we realize that she harbors darkness and pathological distortions similar to Joe's. Only through Joe's first-person perspective can we naturally experience this dramatic contrast.
What Would You Do for Love?#
After watching the series, I believe the core of the discussion is: how much can we do for love? Joe, having grown up in an environment lacking love, places love on an excessively high pedestal. Joe will do everything within his power to create an ideal environment for his love, even sacrificing the lives of others.
The glass room in the bookstore basement houses first editions and other precious books. The temperature and humidity in the glass room are constant, and all conditions are set to preserve the paper in ideal conditions, but the books cannot see sunlight. I believe this is actually a metaphor for Joe's view of love. Joe mistakenly thinks that by maintaining all external conditions of love in the best state, he can achieve ideal love, but in reality, this love cannot see the light of day. Joe can never truly reveal everything to his partner, so he will always feel that this is not ideal love. Joe will forever be trapped in his pursuit of perfect love.
Love has never been everything in life. Keeping one's focus solely on love will inevitably cause one to overlook other beauties in life. In dealing with love, we should strive to treat it as we do with everything else—maintaining rationality.
For More Information#
- Chinese Wikipedia page: Sleepy Bookstore
- English Wikipedia page: You (TV series)
- YOU Wiki on FANDOM
- Video by ? Baoni on YouTube: Analysis of Sleepy Bookstore Season Two | Love it! ! ! ! Obsession is Awesome
- In "Sleepy Bookstore," a Stalker’s Love Experiment: Can Love Blossom if One Loves "Desperately"?
Postscript#
This blog post took about three days to write. I reviewed a lot of materials and watched many comments, during which I discovered a lot of information I hadn't noticed before and learned many new perspectives. Just the plot summary took me two days to write. I initially thought I would provide a bit more detail, but it seems I overdid it. A lengthy, detailed plot summary is not very meaningful; for those who have watched the series, a brief overview is enough to recall the plot, and for those who haven't, such detailed spoilers are not appropriate. So, in future reviews, I can reduce the plot summary section.
As I wrote the analysis part, I felt like I was just filling space. I had many thoughts when drafting the outline, but when it came to writing, I found those ideas too fragmented to articulate clearly.
This blog post contains a lot of English, and I like to insert a space between Chinese and English, so the formatting in the backend editing preview looks terrible. Next time, I will try to avoid mixing a lot of Chinese and English and use Chinese characters uniformly. I can also organize some related content about Chinese formatting when I have time.