You (season 4)

You
Season 4
Promotional poster
Starring	Penn Badgley Tati Gabrielle Charlotte Ritchie Tilly Keeper Amy-Leigh Hickman Ed Speleers Lukas Gage
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	5
Release
Original network	Netflix
Original release	February 9, 2023 (2023-02-09) – present (present)
Season chronology
← Previous Season 3
List of episodes

The fourth season of the American psychological thriller television series You was ordered by Netflix on October 13, 2021. You series co-creator Sera Gamble returns as showrunner. Series star Penn Badgley returns as Joe Goldberg and Tati Gabrielle reprises her role as Marienne Bellamy, with Charlotte Ritchie, Tilly Keeper, Amy-Leigh Hickman, Ed Speleers and Lukas Gage joining the main cast. Filming began in March 2022, primarily in London, and concluded in August. The season was split in two parts, with the first part premiering on February 9, 2023, and the second part expected to premiere on March 9, 2023.

Cast

Main

• Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg, a university professor under the alias Jonathan Moore.^[1]
• Tati Gabrielle as Marienne Bellamy, Joe's love interest from the previous season. She left Madre Linda after learning the truth about Joe from Love Quinn.
• Charlotte Ritchie as Kate Galvin, an icy and adversarial gallery manager who Joe takes an interest in.
• Tilly Keeper as Lady Phoebe, a notorious but kind-hearted socialite hailing from an aristocratic family, and Kate's best friend.
• Amy-Leigh Hickman as Nadia Farran, a literature major in Joe's class
• Ed Speleers as Rhys Montrose, an author whose memoir lifted him out of poverty, got him into Oxford and helped him launch a political career. He forms a friendship with Joe.
• Lukas Gage as Adam Pratt, an American expatriate who is the wealthy, playboy son of a prominent East Coast family. He is dating Phoebe.

Recurring

• Stephen Hagan as Malcolm Harding, a literature professor and partying, drug-loving bon vivant who lives in the apartment across from Joe. He introduces Joe to Kate and her friend group.
• Adam James as Elliot Tannenberg, a fixer working for Love's family who gives Joe his cover identity in London.
• Aidan Cheng as Simon Soo, an aspiring artist and son of a Chinese tech mogul.
• Niccy Lin as Sophie Soo, a social media influencer and Simon's sister.
• Eve Austin as Gemma Graham-Greene, a pompous socialite in the Oxford friend group.
• Ozioma Whenu as Blessing Bosede, a successful Nigerian princess with multiple university degrees from Oxford and a member of the friendship group.
• Sean Pertwee as Vic, Adam's personal driver and bodyguard.
• Ben Wiggins as Roald Walker-Burton, an aristocrat and Kate's childhood friend.
• Dario Coates as Connie, a sportsman who is a part of the Oxford friendship group.
• Brad Alexander as Edward, a student in Joe's class. He has a fierce academic rivalry with Nadia.
• Alison Pargeter as Dawn, a paparazzi photographer who follows the Oxford group around.

Guest

• Victoria Pedretti as Love Quinn^[2]

Episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
Part 1
31	1	"Joe Takes a Holiday"	John Scott	Sera Gamble & Leo Richardson	February 9, 2023 (2023-02-09)
In a flashback, Joe tracks down Marienne in London, but chooses to let her go after she calls him a murderer. Joe is later met by Elliot, a fixer working for Love's father, who sets him up with a cover identity in exchange for killing Marienne to tie up loose ends. Joe instead pickpockets Marienne's necklace and sends its picture to Elliot to make it appear he killed her. In the present, Joe lives under his new identity as "Jonathan Moore", a university English professor. He develops an interest in Kate Galvin, the girlfriend of his obnoxious fellow professor Malcolm Harding, who lives in the flat across from him. Joe saves Kate from two muggers; to repay him, Malcolm invites him to a party at the elite Sundry House, where Joe befriends author and mayoral hopeful Rhys Montrose. Joe gets heavily intoxicated at the party and awakens in his flat to find Malcolm stabbed to death and missing a finger. Assuming he killed Malcolm before blacking out, Joe disposes of his body. The next day, Kate invites Joe to dinner. As Joe arrives, he receives a series of anonymous texts from Malcolm's real killer, thanking him for disposing of the evidence.
32	2	"Portrait of the Artist"	John Scott	Kara Lee Corthron & Neil Reynolds	February 9, 2023 (2023-02-09)
Lady Phoebe, Kate's aristocrat best friend, invites Joe to an art exhibition curated by Kate and featuring the work of Simon Soo, a billionaire's son in their friend circle. Joe breaks into Malcolm's office and finds a ledger of gambling debts and various codenamed contacts. Joe follows Phoebe's boyfriend Adam Pratt, an American expat who owns Sundry House, and discovers he has a fetish for being urinated on by men, before Adam's bodyguard Vic thwarts him. At the exhibition, Simon's art is vandalized by a woman that Joe and Kate later learn is the real artist behind the paintings, who Simon got addicted to drugs to discredit her. Joe recalls a reference to the artwork in Malcolm's ledger and believes Simon killed Malcolm to avoid being extorted; however, Simon is murdered that night, with the killer cutting off one of his ears. Joe returns home to find his wall covered in newspaper clippings from his past, the killer having deduced his real identity.
33	3	"Eat the Rich"	Shamim Sarif	Justin W. Lo & Mairin Reed	February 9, 2023 (2023-02-09)
The killer sends Malcolm's finger to the press, and is dubbed the "Eat-the-Rich Killer". Joe discovers his student Nadia was in a sexual relationship with Malcolm. At Simon's funeral, the killer orders Joe to kill Kate. Joe follows Kate around to protect her; though initially cold to Joe, Kate eventually opens up to him and the two have sex, unaware that Vic is watching them. The next day, Joe follows Kate to a crypt where she pays respects to Malcolm; after she leaves, Vic, who was following Joe, searches him at gunpoint and finds Malcolm's ring, which Joe realizes was planted on him. A struggle ensues, forcing Joe to kill Vic. The killer suggests Joe is aroused by murder; Joe plays along and tells the killer to let him finish Kate, and the killer arranges a meeting with him. Phoebe calls Joe to Sundry House, where the police are waiting to question him.
34	4	"Hampsie"	Harry Jierjian	Michael Foley & Amanda Johnson-Zetterström	February 9, 2023 (2023-02-09)
Joe is invited to Phoebe's family's country manor for a weekend getaway. He observes her friends, particularly a socialite named Gemma, behaving callously to the servants. Joe shuts down Phoebe's attempt to seduce him, and she instead confides her concern that Adam does not love her. Adam, meanwhile, tells Joe he plans to propose to Phoebe, in part because her family fortune will rescue him from increasing debts that his wealthy father is no longer willing to cover. Joe comes at odds with Roald, Kate's childhood friend whom Joe discovers is obsessed with her. At dinner, Roald chastises Kate for not accepting herself as "one of them", while Gemma accuses Joe of being the killer. Kate later reveals to Joe that her father is an extremely wealthy investor with whom she cut ties due to the harm his business dealings have done to the world. Joe realizes he may be in love with Kate. Roald confronts Joe about being the killer, and pushes him out of a second-story window. Joe recovers and hears a scream; he runs to find Kate, only to discover her kneeling over Gemma's corpse with a knife in hand.
35	5	"The Fox and the Hound"	Harry Jierjian	Hillary Benefiel & Dylan Cohen	February 9, 2023 (2023-02-09)
Kate insists she did not kill Gemma. Joe comes to believe her and helps her dispose of the body in a barn while the others are partying. Kate confronts Joe about his past after noticing his apparent experience with covering up murders; Joe admits that he disposed of Malcolm's body, and that whoever framed him is now trying to frame Kate. Kate goes to tell Phoebe to dismiss the servant staff; while she is away, Roald discovers Joe in the barn and brings him to the others, accusing him of being the killer. Despite Joe's protests, Roald gives him a headstart to flee before pursuing him with a shotgun. Joe subdues Roald in the woods, only to be captured and placed in a dungeon by the real killer: Rhys, who—having come from poverty—committed the murders out of resentment towards the rich. Rhys tells Joe to kill Roald so they can frame him for the murders. When Joe refuses, Rhys sets the dungeon on fire and leaves; Joe escapes and frees Roald, and the two are rescued by Kate. Joe does not tell the others about Rhys, and vows to bring him down himself. Rhys announces his candidacy for Mayor of London.
Part 2 [3]
36	6	"Best of Friends"	John Scott	Justin W. Lo & Leo Richardson	March 9, 2023 (2023-03-09)
37	7	"Good Man, Cruel World"	Rachel Leiterman	Ab Chao & Neil Reynolds	March 9, 2023 (2023-03-09)
38	8	"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"	Rachel Leiterman	Kara Lee Corthron & Mairin Reed	March 9, 2023 (2023-03-09)
39	9	"She's Not There"	Penn Badgley	Hillary Benefiel & Amanda Johnson-Zetterstrom	March 9, 2023 (2023-03-09)
40	10	"The Death of Jonathan Moore"	Harry Jierjian	Michael Foley & Sera Gamble	March 9, 2023 (2023-03-09)

Production

Development

On October 13, 2021, ahead of the third season premiere, You was renewed by Netflix for a fourth season.^[4]

Writing

The season is primarily set in London,^[5] the first time outside the United States, and showrunner Sera Gamble said protagonist Joe Goldberg is "great when he's in an environment that's not natural to him, that's foreign to him". Part of the decision to set the story in another country arose from Gamble's decision to explore the world further after watching many other international series on Netflix while quarantining during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[6] The story is also briefly set in Paris, the idea being co-creator Greg Berlanti's, and Gamble noted that since it is not a familiar place to Joe, he is like a "fish out of water".^[7] Penn Badgley, who portrays Joe, said that while the fourth season would retain the tone of the series, "We're using a different format [...] It's almost like we're shifting the genre slightly".^[8]

Casting

In February 2022, Lukas Gage was cast as a series regular for the season.^[9] A month later, Charlotte Ritchie was also cast as a regular.^[10] Tati Gabrielle was also confirmed to be returning from the third season, though unclear in what capacity.^[11] In April 2022, Tilly Keeper, Amy-Leigh Hickman, and Ed Speleers were cast as new series regulars, with Gabrielle confirmed to be returning as a regular, while Niccy Lin, Aidan Cheng, Stephen Hagan, Ben Wiggins, Eve Austin, Ozioma Whenu, Dario Coates, Sean Pertwee, Brad Alexander, Alison Pargeter and Adam James joined the cast in recurring roles for the fourth season.^[12]

Filming

Filming began on March 22, 2022, in the United Kingdom,^[12][13] and concluded on August 27.^[14] According to reports on social media, in April 2022, filming took place at Royal Holloway, University of London.^[15] In June, a scene was filmed by River Thames.^[16] Badgley made his directorial debut with the ninth episode of the season.^[3] The season features less intimate sex scenes than previous seasons in accordance with Badgley's wishes, citing his discomfort with such scenes.^[17]

Release

The season was split in two parts, with the first part premiering on February 9, 2023, and the second part expected to premiere on March 9, 2023, both parts consisting of five episodes.^[18][3]

Reception

For the fourth season, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 90% approval rating with an average rating of 7.3/10, based on 40 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "The hunter becomes prey in You's London-set fourth season, which shows some wear as this premise begins to outlive its believability—but Penn Badgley's sardonic performance continues to paper over most lapses in logic."^[19] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 72 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[20]

References

External links

• You at IMDb
• Official website