Hello there. It’s you. What are you here for? To write? To edit? To read? To catch up? Or are you here to fall in love with Joe Goldberg? Don’t forget though, Joe and Love are together, and they are also about to have a child. Will they finally have their happy ending or will Joe find another woman to pine after? Let’s recap Season 3 and find out what’s next for Joe Goldberg!
SPOILERS BELOW: THIS RECAP WILL INCLUDE SPOILERS FOR THOSE THAT HAVEN’T WATCHED SEASON 3 OF “YOU” YET, SO PLEASE TRY TO AVOID IT!!!
Season 3, Episode 1: “And They Lived Happily Ever After”
Season 3 starts with Joe and Love moving to the Bay Area after painting Los Angeles red with blood. Joe is still judging Love for being just like him-a creepy stalker and murderer who just wants love. But, he is still staying with her for the sake of his daughter. But wait, when their child is born, it appears to be a boy, not a girl. Joe, upset at this revelation, says “I’m fucked, and so is he”, as he is afraid that his son will turn into himself, but still tries to become a good father to him. Henry Forty(after Love’s late brother) Quinn-Goldberg is the name that Love and Joe have given their son, as Love’s mother, Dottie, believes that Henry has been reincarnated as her late son, Forty.
Every town has its queen bee. For the San Francisco suburb of Madre, which is apparently the safest town in California, its mommy blogger Sherry Conrad, who condescendingly tells Love how to calm Henry down in your first meeting. Meanwhile, Joe already has a new person to obsess over: his next-door neighbor, Natalie Engler, who is a realtor and wife of famed tech entrepreneur Matthew, who you may recognize as Nick from Grey’s Anatomy. It seems that Natalie is also interested in Joe, as she encourages him to leave his family, yet doesn’t want to leave her own marriage, and tries to initiate sexual contact with Joe, in which he goes back to be with his family. Has Joe changed?
Natalie and Love get along immediately, as Natalie tells Love all about Sherry and also tells her about a location that would be perfect for Love to open her bakery. The next day, Love and Natalie decide to visit the bakery location, and as Natalie is showing her the basement, Love hits her with a fire ax and BAM!! Natalie is dead. The day before the appointment, Love found Joe’s new “YOU” box, which contained Natalie’s panties. Creepy, right? As Joe has finally made Henry laugh, he gets a call from Love telling him that they may need to go to couples therapy together. What is going to happen next?
Season 3, Episode 2: “So I Married An Axe Murderer”
“You signed a lease for our crime scene?!” Yes Joe, yes she did. But now it’s time for Joe to do to hide the body and cover up the murder that his wife committed. He decides to text Matthew from Natalie’s phone with an excuse about going out of town, while Joe bags her up, sticks her in her own car’s trunk, and puts on the hat and coat she left in the front seat in case of traffic cameras, leaves the car at a rest area, and buries her. He also decides to send a text to Natalie’s sister from her saying how unhappy she is in her marriage. Well, problem solved. For now.
It seems like the Quinns are having financial problems, which leads Dottie to tell Love that she cannot help her with her bakery lease. Love’s attempt to interest Madre Linda in her cupcakes backfires, because of Sherry and her minions, but Love does find out that all of Madre Linda, including Natalie, wear VitalRing, Matthew’s next-level FitBit-ish device, which is a chunky ring that users wear on their fingers, leading Joe, Love, and Henry to go on a nice family trip back to Natalie’s burial site.
Natalie’s body has not just been decomposed but has also sunken, as Joe removed her teeth so she can’t be found using dental records. It seems that the VitalRing broke when Natalie fell, so that’s good news for Joe and Love, yet they do decide to put it on a sink at a rest area, making it look planned. Joe then decides to put the corpse at a construction site, as the foundation’s going to be poured the next day, so if they drop the corpse into the frame, no one will ever find it. Cue, couples therapy with Dr. Chandra.
Dr. Chandra gets Joe and Love to confess their deepest fear: that anyone who sees the truest Love or Joe will leave them. They soon reconcile and decide to build another plexiglass case in the basement of Love’s bakery, called “A Fresh Tart,” just in case of emergencies, as they do decide to hold separate keys of the glass without telling each other. The cement does set at the building site, just in time for Love to meet Matthew’s stepson, Theo, and for Matthew to call the cops about Natalie.
Season 3, Episode 3: “Missing White Woman Syndrome”
The news about Natalie’s disappearance has spread, and by refusing to comment on the matter, Matthew isn’t helping himself, but he is benefitting her murderers, so at least that’s good. It’s time for Love to go back to her bakery and for Joe to go back to work as a librarian alongside judgmental librarian Marienne, and his de facto boss Dante, who is both blind and gay. While Joe gets a surprise visit from the detectives and Love gets a surprise visit from Theo, both parents get an emergency call from Dottie about Henry, who, it turns out, has measles.
Dottie also decides to tell Love that she has spent the rest of the family funds on a vineyard, which leads to their fight. It also comes out that Love was the last one to see Natalie alive, which leads Joe and Love to try to frame Matthew for the murder, especially since Joe still has Natalie’s bloody scarf that he stole from her. When he goes to frame Matthew, he swoons and realizes that he has measles. He soon starts hallucinating and gets flashbacks from his childhood, and, all of a sudden, ends up on Matthew’s couch, who asks Joe what the hell he was doing in his backyard he also helps Joe try to get better, by giving him some Tylenol and letting him rest.
Due to Matthew’s kind act and Love’s conversation with Theo, the two decide to burn the scarf and not frame Matthew for Natalie’s death. As a candlelight vigil is held outside the Engler’s house, Matthew finally gives his statement and one of the detectives has found Natalie’s ring.
Gil, one of the dads at the birthday party comes to the bakery for some muffins and admits that both of his daughters, who were also at the party, had the measles infection. He explains that their girls’ cases were so mild, and they just don’t believe in vaccinations, causing it to spread to Henry. Love remains silent as Gil babbles on, and he’s almost out the door when she calls his name, and BAM!! bludgeons him with a rolling pin! Oh, Love, what have you done now? Looks like Love may be crazier than Joe this season.
Season 3, Episode 4: “Hands Across Madre Linda”
Once, again, Joe has to clean up the mess that Love has caused, as they decide to keep Gil in their basement cage, hoping to negotiate with him in any way that they can. Joe sets up Henry’s baby monitor outside the cage to spy on Gil, as he tries to find some dirt on Gil, that he can use against him. But it turns out that Gil is clean, yet Love doesn’t believe so, leading her to put the Quinn family PI on the case.
Meanwhile, concerned citizen Sherry is apparently hosting a community search for Natalie, in which Love goes as well, to feign off any suspicions. She overhears Matthew and Theo fighting about how Theo knows Sherry thinks Matthew killed Natalie and doesn’t want to “help the villagers sharpen their pitchforks”, but Love later talks to him and the two become search buddies. Back at the library, Joe figures out that Marienne doesn’t like him because she assumed that he’s been removing the rare books because he’s a rich kid and doesn’t care about their value, in which he clears up her misunderstandings about him, causing the two to get closer, and also causing him to return the books that he needs to resell for Ellie to get her own resources.
It turns out that Gil cheated to get his son Alan into Dartmouth, with faked transcripts and SAT results and a $50,000 donation to a fake charity, as his son had also sexually assaulted a student on Gil’s previous campus. Love and Joe taunt Gil with this information, some of which he did not know. While Joe and Love are away, Gil decides to hang himself out of guilt, causing Joe to feel guilty about driving Gil to do this. They decide to frame Gil for Natalie’s murder by making it seem like they had an affair, Gil killed Natalie, and then committed suicide at home because he couldn’t take the guilt of what he had done, all explained in a note written by Joe.
Theo kisses Love and returns to school, acting like nothing happened between the two. Sherry and Love are now friends and Joe takes over Gil’s library job of reading to the children. But it seems like Marienne has her eye on Joe, flirting with him, with Joe saying “I cannot be thinking about You like this, no. No, no, no. This is bad.” Looks like Joe has another obsession. Great.
Season 3, Episode 5: “Into The Woods”
Six months have passed since Episode 4, and it looks like Love has changed a lot to try to fit into Madre Linda. She also decides to look out for Theo by rescuing him with Ubers every time he gets drunk, causing Joe to find out and get extremely mad at her, enough to punch a wall. But Joe has his own problems, as he doesn’t have any friends in Madre Linda and is also experiencing impotence, causing Love to force him to go on a hunting trip with Sherry’s husband, Cary, and a bunch of other men. While this is going on, Love and Theo have a talk about why he is blowing off his classes and getting arrested. Apparently, he can’t stop thinking about Love.
When the couple reunites, it turns out that Joe is a different person now, as he was moved by the acceptance with which he was met in the woods by the guys and is apparently no longer experiencing impotence. Joe is still obsessed with Marienne and is stalking her, although he is not looking at her social media and not taking any keepsakes, trying to hide this obsession from Love as much as he can. Let’s hope things will be different this time around.
Season 3, Episode 6: “W.O.M.B”
Love’s period is late, and it looks like her possible child’s possible father Theo, is doing everything he can to get closer to her, despite her warnings, as he is trying cheesy, yet cute, gestures of love that he has seen in rom-coms. She then embarks on a trip to the Women Owning Motherhood And Business symposium (WOMB) at Gaia, Dottie’s vineyard resort, in which she notices Sherry and Dottie getting closer, while she gets farther away from her mother, as the two of them fight later on about Dottie’s parenting style and about Forty. Two bottles of wine later, Love fills the tub in her room that night and complains some more to Forty’s dead phone, in which Forty himself appears, telling her that he is her soulmate, not Joe. The next day, after Love sends her final text to Forty, Theo comes, telling her that Matthew has been investigating ALL of his neighbors to find information about Natalie’s death, via his PI.
Meanwhile, during Love’s absence, Joe has decided to gather information on Marienne, as he finds out that she lost custody of her daughter to her douchebag of an ex-husband, Ryan Goodwin, a local news reporter, due to her past with drugs and his lying. She calls Joe to the library for an emergency, as the sprinkler system has malfunctioned, causing many books to be soaked. The sprinkler goes off again, but this time, the two find out that it is only raining on them, causing both Joe and Marienne to kiss, as they cannot resist this magical moment. The next day, Joe decides to resign from the library, afraid of what Love will do to Marienne, once she finds out about them, but ends up kissing Marienne again and staying at the library.
While Joe vows to stay one step ahead of Love at all times, Love tells him that she is going to use Theo’s crush on him to get the information that Matthew has on them. This should be very interesting indeed.
Season 3, Episode 7: “We’re All Mad Here”
It’s game on for Joe as he decides to juggle both Love and Marienne at the same time. It’s going to be hard to do that, as it’s time for the Alice in Wonderland-themed library fundraiser gala that Sherry is holding, meaning that Love and Marienne will probably meet each other. It’s a very interesting turn of events. Joe also decides to solve Marienne’s Ryan problem by stalking him and getting him on drugs, leading him to miss the fundraiser.
Meanwhile, Dottie has gone a little crazy, as she has started day-drinking, due to the fact that her ex-husband Ray has managed to get the vineyard in their divorce settlement, concerning Love. Later, Dottie apologizes to Love and Joe for being late to babysit Henry, but a confused Love, says that they already got a babysitter for Henry that night, which causes Dottie to lose it, as she sobs and says “You’re keeping my baby from me!… Please, he’s all I have left!” It’s time for the gala! Marienne and Love meet each other and it is looking good so far.
Dante reveals to Joe that Ryan is not and never has been sober, which causes Joe to rethink his plan. While Love is upstairs talking to Sherry, she gets a notification from her sitter that Dottie showed up and left with Henry, who drives him out to Gaia to set the vineyard on fire, causing Love to yell at her who says that Dottie will never see her or Henry ever again. The next morning, Joe decides to talk to Dottie about Love’s ex-husband James, who he had believed died of an illness, in which Dottie reveals that James had recovered, asked Love for a divorce, and then suddenly died, causing Joe to consider whether he could be next or not. It turns out that Matthew is trying to gain access to all of Madre Linda’s CC cameras, so he can easily access and watch footage of his chosen targets, one of them being Love. Stalker much?
Season 3, Episode 8: “Swing And A Miss”
The Quinn-Goldbergs decide to try polyamory, and who better to try it with, than Sherry and Cary Conrad? As the four talk about the possible pairings that they will try until it comes to Joe and Sherry, which Love says that she is fine with, but actually isn’t, which doesn’t go unnoticed by Sherry and Cary, causing them to back out. Meanwhile, Theo tries to get access to Matthew’s office, which starts an argument between them about Love and about Natalie’s death. Sherry and Cary are back in, leading to the start of their wild night. The night progresses well so far until Joe gets a call from Marienne, who says that Ryan anonymously sent nude photos of her to all of her contacts, including an editor whose illustration contest she had entered, causing Joe to talk her down but also decline her invitation to come over since he is a little preoccupied.
The night resumes, with everyone’s phones in the bowl downstairs, but things go south when Joe doesn’t maintain eye contact with Sherry while they’re having sex, causing Love to yell at him, saying “You made me kill her!… I killed Natalie for you!!! It turns out that Sherry cannot lie very well, causing Joe and Love to find out that the Conrads have heard everything. One minute, it’s sex, the next minute it is chaos, as, after a lot of fighting, both Conrads end up unconscious in the cage. Love is happy that both of them are working together as a team, while Joe is wondering what to do with Ryan and how the hell Sherry and Cary are going to get out alive. I do not have a good feeling about this.
Season 3, Episode 9: “Red Flag”
The episode opens with Sherry and Cary talking about healthy communication, while they are trapped in a cage. So, that seems fun. While Love figures out what to do with the Conrads, Joe decides to set the house aright, as to make it look as if nothing has happened. He then decides to go to a liquor store, trying to find Marienne, who tells him that the judge has ruled against her, leading Ryan to move to New Jersey, taking their daughter with him. In the spur of the moment, Joe tells her that he is ending his marriage, causing them to go back to Marienne’s house, where they finally have sex.
Meanwhile, Sherry tries dozens of things to try to get out of the cage, all proving unsuccessful. Theo decides to leave town, and wants Love to come with him, to which she says “maybe”. She then decides to expose Matthew and his ways on Sherry’s blog, which causes a bunch of lawsuits. Love decides to give Sherry and Cary a challenge, in which she provides a gun, saying that one of them is going to shoot the other, in which Love is going to release the survivor. Joe decides to end Ryan once and for all by stalking him to the gym, pushing him off of a railing and stabbing him a few times, killing him.
Theo looks at the cameras and finds Joe putting something in the trunk of Natalie’s car, leading him to go to the bakery and tell Love about this, going downstairs and eventually entering the basement, where Cary has shot Sherry’s ear, who just also seized the gun. Theo goes to find the key, until he is hit with a fire extinguisher by Love, sending him tumbling down the stairs. Oh, Theo.
Season 3, Episode 10: “What Is Love?”
The Season 3 finale opens with the Quinn-Goldbergs trying to pursue separate agendas, as Love wants to create more ties between herself and Joe, who wants to leave with Henry anywhere away from Madre Linda and Love. It looks like getting rid of Theo will be the last ugly thing that Joe will ever have to do. This should go according to plan, except for the fact that Theo is alive, leading Joe to knock him out and leave him at a hospital. Meanwhile, everyone at the bakery is talking about is Ryan’s murder and how it is potentially connected to Natalie, murder, as Love connects Joe’s blood covered shirt that she found last night with Ryan’s connection to Marienne, knowing for sure who is behind his murderer.
Joe’s suspicions about Love are confirmed when she doses him and paralyzing him, while taking his phone and texting Marienne to come over, finishing her once and for all. Matthew comes in as soon as Love leaves, as a paralyzed Joe helps him find Theo using his own phone search history, to which Matthew leaves Joe on the floor until Love returns. After Love tells Marienne the truth about Joe, telling her to run away, Love decides to kill Joe once and for all, until he jabs her in the leg with a syringe, telling her that he knew what she was up to, as he took the antidote to save himself, leaving Love to die, leaving Henry with Dante, and setting the house on fire planting evidence, including a note to make it look like Love killed everyone, including himself.
Epilogue time!!! Joe was declared dead and Love’s declaration within the letter made her some kind of a folk-hero in death. But that is not all, as Matthew and Theo’s relationship has improved a lot, Dante and his husband Lansing got custody of Henry, and the Conrads, who did get out of the cage alive, authored the self-help book called “Caged: A Radical Couples’ Therapy Technique”, are shown to be using their technique on Ted Talks. It sounds like a happy ending, right?
What’s Next For Joe Goldberg?
Joe has tried to look for Marienne and has yet to find her, as he remembers her dream of going to her birthplace of Paris with her daughter, leading him there to fulfill his obsession with her. According to the Season 4 teaser, she is there and calls him a murderer, but it also turns out that Joe, or his new persona, Professor Jonathan Moore, is being stalked, as he gets a message reading “Hello, Joe.” Is Love alive?
The only way to find out is to watch Season 4 Part One, which is out on Netflix now.