Spoiler warning: Spoilers for Seasons 3 and 4 of You follow. The first episode of You’s fourth season couldn’t be more aptly named. Titled “Joe Takes a Holiday,” it gives its viewers, right from the start, an eerie glimpse into what will go down as the protagonist arrives in London. But as Joe jumps into the new identity of Jonathan Moore, a quick recap might be nice for viewers, since the protagonist has been one prone to… change, and because nods to the previous season are present throughout the episodes — like the topic of Joe and Love’s son, Henry.
In Episode 4 of the new season, Penn Badgley’s character Joe discloses, “I had to run away, and it cost me my son.” But what does he mean by that? If you forgot all about Henry, here’s what you need to remember.
In Season 3, Joe & Love move to the suburbs with their son.
When Joe and Love welcomed their newborn son, Henry “Forty” Quinn-Goldberg, the couple decided to move to Madre Linda, a fictional suburb in California, to begin their life as a family. And, while they tried not to fall back into old habits — also known as, well, killing — Love’s jealousy quickly stirred up some trouble in the neighborhood, foreshadowing that the duo wasn’t ready to be parents.
Despite Joe’s stalking and murdering tendencies, though, he was shown to love his son in the third season. When Henry falls ill to measles, for example, viewers got to see a more tender and vulnerable side to Joe, hinting at the fact that, ultimately, he only wants what is best for his son, in spite of the means he chooses to protect him.
The Season 3 finale shook things up for the Quinn-Goldberg family.
In the previous season’s finale, Joe told Love that he wants a divorce. He was set to leave her for Marianne, a librarian in Madre Linda, but he found that his decision came a little too late when he realized that Love poisoned him, leaving him paralyzed with aconite.
Her attempt to kill Joe backfires, however: He revealed that, before dinner, he took an antidote shot, suspecting that she would try to murder him in the same style she did with her first husband — with poison. Joe then killed her, staged her suicide, and set their house on fire. Call that an explosive episode.
So what happened to Henry after Love’s death?
Though Joe’s plan all along was to escape from Love with his son and start a new life, he can’t do that anymore, since he has to run away once again after his wife’s death. So, in the end, Joe drops Henry off with a couple who is better suited to raise him.
“I didn’t have good parents, but I know what a good parent does: protect,” Joe says in a voiceover. Joe leaves his son at his friend Dante’s doorstep, who was struggling to adopt a kid with his partner. His “late” wish to the couple was that they raised him as their own.
A peek into Henry’s life with Dante is portrayed in Season 3, showing him growing up happy in his new dads’ care. And yet, the show alludes that it might not be the ending for Henry and Joe just yet, since Joe said to his son before dropping him off that “this wouldn’t be forever.”
Seems like we will just have to wait for Part 2 to find out if Joe and his son get to be reunited.