Stalkers, love, murder: Long-awaited 'You' season three didn't disappoint

Netflix has finally released the highly anticipated season three of the hit thriller series “You" on Oct. 15 starring Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg and Victoria Pedretti as Love Quinn.

“You” was positioned to explore new thrills following season two's conclusion, which revealed that Love was just as psychotic and murderous as Joe and pregnant with his child, and season three did not disappoint.

In the series, Joe is constantly running from his past parental problems and he’s on a journey to find “the one.” The problem is, though, that every time he meets a woman, his crush and attraction turns into full blown obsession, stalking and eventually murder as he discovers that, yes, humans are not without flaws, killing them if they don’t fit his exact idea of “the one.”

After meeting his match with Love, season three shows the couple as the perfect, evil pair. The new storyline remains in touch with the thrilling themes known to “You,” but with refreshing, captivating perspectives. The new parents and newly weds pick up and leave Los Angeles for a fresh start in the fictional Californian suburb of Madre Linda, but they can’t seem to figure out how to leave their habits behind.

In Joe’s new role as a father, he is determined to give his infant son, Henry, a better life than the one his parents gave him. This doesn’t mean giving up his violent ways, no, of course not. He’s present and trying to connect with Henry. Good enough, I guess. 

And with Love’s history of killing her ex-husband, revealed to Joe by her mother, as well as her violent, unremorseful ways shown at the end of season two, Joe knows he has to tread carefully around his wife. But this doesn’t stop him from obsessing over two new women, his new neighbor, Natalie Engler, played by Michaela McManus, and his boss at the local library, Marienne Bellamy, played by Tati Gabrielle.

Joe has a knack for saving people, ironically. It’s no surprise that he chooses Natalie, who’s marriage to an emotionally unavailable businessman is falling apart, leading her to Joe, and eventually her death by the hands of Love.

And Marienne is a recovering addict in a custody battle with her manipulative, local celebrity ex-husband. Fortunately, Marienne is able to escape with her life after Love spares her in a chilling, emotional scene that shows that Love does have an ounce of humanity left in her.

We’re also introduced to an array of new characters in the superficially picture-perfect town of Madre Linda that’s filled with rich influencers and gluten-free, high-tech snobs. A solid handful of which fall victim to the couple’s twisted ways of being trapped in a cage in the basement (classic), framed in a murder-suicide plot and manipulated for information until being brutally murdered.

The story magnificently delivers Joe’s inner dialogue as he fears his wife’s impulsive killing and lack of remorse, as he truly believes that she is the bad guy in the situation, and his own horrific acts are justified.

He portrays Love as lacking empathy and an unhinged monster, meanwhile he is more concerned with the fact that they now have to figure out how to cover up her crimes than the fact that human beings with families are being innocently killed. This conflict adds a compelling complexity to each episode, and shows just how out of touch with reality both characters really are.

The season finale concludes after Love discovers Joe’s affair with Marienne. He asks her for a divorce during dinner, which was, naturally, spiked with a paralytic. In classic “You” fashion, Joe anticipated that this would be the case, and already took an antidote to prepare for his wife’s attack.

After regaining mobility on the dining room floor, Joe murders Love with a drug of his own, cuts off his toes, types out a blog post blaming Love for all of the murders, crimes and deception in Madre Linda, frames her for his own murder and burns his house down with his DNA from his toes left behind.

He abandons Henry to a trusted gay couple who hoped to adopt, in hopes of giving his son the life he deserved. And he flees to Paris under the name “Nick,” hoping to one day track down Marienne, “the one.”

Overall, season three of “You” is the best the series has ever been. The acting is impressively masterful, and the writing is compellingly thrilling. Already renewed for a fourth season, fans of “You” are surely in for a bone-chilling adventure in the world’s most romantic city.