You season 5 ending explained: Does Joe finally get caught?

After years of his killer antics and a penultimate season 5 episode that looked as though Joe (Penn Badgley) was set to get his happily ever after, the final ever episode of You delivered a slice of justice for the problematic protagonist.

The fifth season followed Joe as he restored Mooney's, employed Bronte (Madeline Brewer) and ultimately fell in love with her, realised she was duping him and was part of a Reddit community that wanted to take him down and, eventually, proposed to her with Mooney's burning down just besides them.

We knew it was going to be a wild ride of a finale, but nothing could've quite prepared us for the heart-racing battle to the death that entailed between Bronte and Joe, as Bronte continued to wrestle with her true feelings and prospective future with a serial killer.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com about the finale, Charlotte Ritchie said of how she thinks fans will react: "I think there'll be a mixed reaction, as there always is.

"I think this is such a larger than life character that finding an ending that satisfies everybody based on all of the various feelings they have about him, like in his life, I don't think that's possible, but I think it's a nice nod to the kind of relationship we have with him, which I think is quite fun and quite kind of inclusive, weirdly."

But how did things end up for Joe and did he finally get a taste of his own medicine? Read on for a full breakdown of the final ever episode of Netflix's You, including some exclusive reflections on the finale from Ritchie herself.

You season 5 ending explained: Does Joe finally get caught?

After Maddie (Anna Camp) burns down Mooney's with her own sister Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) and Joe inside, Bronte came back to rescue Kate, but as she was seemingly dead and with Joe still alive, she ended up bringing up Joe to safety, where he popped the big question.

The finale starts with the pair on a road trip just outside New York, driving round to find somewhere to rest up for the night before they make their way to the Canadian border with new passports that have been pre-arranged by Joe.

Unlike before, Bronte isn't blinded by her love for Joe any longer after her heartfelt conversation with Marienne (Tati Gabrielle). She's intent on making sure the world learns the truth about Joe and plays nice, resisting the urge to speak to a police officer when they stop for petrol and concealing a gun of her own.

They end up at a holiday rental that Joe breaks into (he has no money, after all), spending the evening eating and going out on the boat for a ride around the lake. They end up in the bedroom just about to have sex when Bronte gets out the gun she's concealed under one of the pillows and aims it at Joe's head, demanding to know the truth about how he killed Guinevere Beck.

Bronte orders Joe to redact all his own words from Beck's book, tearfully talking about how Joe has managed to erase parts of herself while they've been together.

They're interrupted by a call from Joe's dodgy friend, who informs him that Henry's online playing his game and can be patched through to Joe. Henry is at home with his uncle Teddy (Griffin Matthews), who is seen solemnly talking to the police.

Henry quizzes Joe about what he's done to his mother, referring to Kate. Henry tells Joe that despite Joe telling him there weren't any monsters in his room, Joe lied and actually is the monster. Henry's emotional statement breaks Joe, who completely loses it at Bronte and starts to question how he has become the person he is. Bronte is tired of Joe trying to play the victim and says she should call the police, but Joe says there's little point as he always manages to get off scot-free.

He lunges at Bronte, knocking the gun from her grasp, and the pair get into an intense brawl, with Bronte eventually managing to break free and run into the surrounding woods. She returns to the house to call the police and manages to finally get through, once she's had to jump from the bedroom window to hide from Joe again. The phone is connected as Joe admits to breaking Bronte's ankle himself to keep her around so they can talk.

He calls her ungrateful and spiteful as he follows her into the lake, strangling her seemingly to death in the water. After hearing sirens, Joe goes running into the woods and ambushes a police officer, who the camera pans to for a second time as it's revealed his gun is missing.

Bronte is actually alive and has taken the officer's gun for herself, aiming it at Joe who eventually begs her to kill him as the police start to circle the area. After a tense confrontation, Joe runs at Bronte but she shoots him in the penis, he drops to his feet and the cops come to take Joe away.

We then flash-forward to a courthouse where Joe is being led from a courtroom to awaiting press and paparazzi, clearly numb to the fact that he has now finally been caught for his crimes.

Bronte's narration reveals that Joe's trial was messy and the truth of his true nature was undeniable. Through her shooting of him, Joe was also immortalised on the internet as a meme, eventually being turned on by the public. Joe was convicted for the murders of Love Quinn and Guinevere Beck, which then led to a flurry of allegations coming his way, which later turned to more convictions, ensuring that Joe will never be free again.

We learn that Joe has also been convicted for the murders of season 1's Benji Ashby (Lou Taylor Pucci) and Peach Salinger (Shay Mitchell), Dr Nicky's conviction for Beck's murder was also vacated, with Dominique (Natasha Behnam) and Phoenix (b) telling a podcast that they're far from done with their internet sleuthing as there continue to be many more Joe's out in the world.

The final scene of the series is of Joe in his prison cell, with a shaven head and in a red jumpsuit, denoting he has been imprisoned for the most violent crimes. He finishes reading The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer, likely hinting at Joe's thoughts of the future, despite New York having abolished the death penalty.

Joe's narration remarks on the loneliness of the time ahead and whether all the blame can be pinned on him if he's simply a product of his environment.

He gets handed a letter from a fan, who is explicit in the kinds of sexual fantasies she wants to enact with Joe. Joe asks whether it's fair that he's caged while people like this continue to roam free, asking finally if the problem of this all is actually not him, but you.

On that final moment of Joe reading his fan mail, Ritchie told RadioTimes.com: "I don't know about the psychology of that. There's something about the distance that matters, right?

"It's the same with the intrigue in the show. It's far away. It's not someone there in your living room or at your school or whatever. It's like they are away from you, and they exist in your mind, and in there you can control that, and that is major. People are into stuff that you can't explain."

What happens to Bronte?

After narrowly escaping Joe's deadly clutches and making it out alive from her tense stand-off with him, Bronte is the one narrating the final part of the episode.

Now living in her truth as Louise, she reworked Beck's manuscript and took out Joe's additions after demanding he redact himself.

A newly released version of Beck's book is released in stores, which is bittersweet for Louise who wishes she was there in person to see it. She admits that her life will not be seen as before and after Joe, admitting that the memory of him shrinks with each passing day.

She doesn't know what she wants to do or who she wants to be just yet but says she can't wait to find out.

Did Kate die?

As we learn in the episode's closing moments, Kate survived the fire at Mooney's after all. Left with burn scars, she wears them proudly as she embarks on a new chapter in her life with Henry and continues to spend plenty of time with her brother Teddy, who has made Lockwood Corporation a 100% nonprofit after taking over as CEO.

Having now left her father's company, Kate returns to her first love of art and continues to champion Marienne as an artist, who can now live in the public limelight after Joe is put behind bars.

As for the rest of Kate's family, Reagan is obviously dead, but Maddie is now living happily as herself with Harrison, whose charges for Reagan's murder were dropped. Although Maddie was tried for arson and her sister's murder, she didn't have to serve time due to the circumstances. We see her enjoying time in the park with Harrison and Gretchen, now expecting twins of her own.

Chatting exclusively to RadioTimes.com about Kate's fate in the finale, Ritchie said: "I found out so late. There were so many moments in the make-up room where I remember catching eyes with Penn, and he was definitely talking about Kate and he was like, 'So are you sad that Kate...?' And I was like, 'Sad that Kate what?' And he was like, 'What do you mean? You don't know?' I was like, 'I don't know. I don't know anything.' So there was this real tension."

She continued: "There were a lot of rumours going around that he died, that he didn't, that he got away. They were really good at keeping it under wraps, even from us. I wonder if they were sort of still deciding towards the end... but I don't think so. I think they had that idea.

"I was as satisfied as you can be. It's as close as satisfying as you could get. I reckon seeing him having to face himself, even though he won't, the possibility that he could is quite exciting. It's nice he can't get near anyone."

What happened to Nadia?

Having been freed from prison with the help of Kate and with Joe now in prison himself, Nadia returns to writing and seems happier than ever.

She is seen returning to her prison to teach classes to women, and uses her gifts to help others process their trauma.

You season 5 will be coming to Netflix on Thursday 24th April 2025 – sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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