Joe Goldberg’s Deadly Trail: The Full Kill Count in Netflix’s ‘You’ Series

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The character Joe Goldberg, played by Penn Badgley in the popular Netflix series You, appears to be a literary enthusiast, bookstore manager, and a charming individual. However, beneath this pleasant exterior lies a chilling reality. Over five seasons, viewers have been captivated by his dangerous internal monologue, observing how he rationalized stalking, manipulation, and ultimately murder. Joe’s tale transformed romance into terror, leaving destruction in its wake across various locations. As the story progressed, Joe moved from New York to Los Angeles, then suburban Madre Linda, London, and back to NYC, with his tally of victims steadily increasing. Now that his story has ended, fans are left pondering just how many lives Joe Goldberg personally took during his reign of terror. The question remains: How many lives did Joe Goldberg ultimately claim?

WARNING: Spoilers below for Netflix’s You Season 5

To clarify, this isn’t a count of every character who perished throughout the show’s five seasons; rather, it focuses on those individuals undeniably killed by Joe Goldberg himself. This means we’re looking at instances where Joe was the one brandishing the knife, pushing someone from a height, administering poison, or pulling the trigger. These deaths occurred due to his intense “love” obsession, strategic self-protection, or as a result of his fractured and dissociative state in his murderous journey. Here’s a breakdown, season by season.

Season 1: The Beck Obsession (5 Kills)

Joe Goldberg’s lethal journey commenced, appropriately, amidst the book-filled shelves at Mooney’s in New York City. The intense, overwhelming affection he held for budding author Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail) sparked his initial spree of killings. These early murders were largely fueled by Joe’s belief that he needed to eliminate any competitors for Beck’s affections or anyone who might uncover the darkness he tirelessly tried to hide. Swiftly, he set a chilling precedent marked by his infamous glass prison, seemingly logical reasons, and painstaking cleanups.

Initially, it was Benji Ashby (Lou Taylor Pucci), Beck’s intermittently artistic boyfriend with whom he had an on-and-off relationship, who met his untimely end. Joe perceived Benji as a self-entitled hindrance and fundamentally unworthy of Beck. Luring him into the bookstore’s basement enclosed in glass, Joe took advantage of Benji’s severe peanut allergy by poisoning his coffee with peanut oil. Subsequently, Joe meticulously extracted Benji’s teeth and burned his remains, displaying an unsettling degree of premeditation and proficiency in disposal from the start.

After Benji, Joe shifted his focus towards Peach Salinger (Shay Mitchell), a wealthy and possessive friend of Beck who had deep feelings for Beck and immediately mistrusted Joe. In his initial attempt to eliminate Peach, Joe struck her with a rock during a run, but this plan didn’t work out. Unfazed, he trailed Peach to her family’s home in Connecticut, which eventually led to a showdown where he used her own gun to shoot her and carefully orchestrated the scene to appear as a suicide, even forging a note.

As a devoted cinephile, I can’t help but share my thoughts about Season 1 of “You”. It unveiled a murder that occurred before Joe’s infatuation with Beck, revealing Elijah Thornton (Esteban Benito) as the victim. Intrigued by his music industry connections, Joe found out that Elijah was secretly having an affair with his then-girlfriend, Candace Stone. Overwhelmed by a blinding jealousy, I, in a moment of impulse, pushed Elijah from a lofty building to his tragic demise. This chilling act hinted at the darker origins of Joe’s violence, suggesting that his obsession was not just calculated, but also fueled by deep-seated emotions.

In the current timeline, Joe’s compassion for his young, mistreated neighbor Paco (Luca Padovan) drove him to take drastic action against Paco’s stepfather, Ron (Dan Daniel Cosgrove). Joe ended up fatally stabbing the abusive police officer in a secluded alleyway, rationalizing it as a life-saving intervention. Ironically, this incident laid the groundwork for his first Season 1 murder.

In a startling revelation, Guinevere Beck uncovers Joe’s secret stash of keepsakes from Benji and Peach, exposing his true character. Enraged, Joe captures Beck in his confinement. In a surprising turn of events, Beck momentarily imprisoned Joe, but her plan was thwarted by Paco, who stayed silent due to his allegiance to Joe, disregarding her pleas for help. Managing an escape through a concealed key, Joe cornered Beck once more. Although the act wasn’t depicted directly, the story strongly suggests that he strangled her, thereby solidifying his final demonstration of possessive control by muting the one who witnessed his true self. To complete his twisted tale, Joe falsely accused Beck’s therapist, Dr. Nicky (John Stamos), of her murder.

Season 2: California Consequences (3 Kills)

Joe Goldberg, who had believed he’d killed his ex-girlfriend Candace Stone (Ambyr Childers) and moved on to Los Angeles under the alias Will Bettelheim in Season 2 of “You”, struggled to escape his past. However, he soon became infatuated with a new object of affection – Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), a captivating chef living in the bustling, sunlit city.

In Los Angeles, Joe Goldberg’s first victim was Jasper Krenn, portrayed by Steven W. Bailey, a menacing individual who had borrowed money from the actual Will Bettelheim. Upon uncovering his identity theft, Jasper aggressively confronted Joe, even severing one of his fingers as a threat. Fearing immediate exposure and danger, Joe tricked Jasper into going to his new hideout – a storage unit – by promising payment. Once inside, Joe ended Jasper’s life. The process of disposing of Jasper’s body was especially gruesome. Joe transported the corpse to Anavrin, the upscale grocery store where he worked with Love, and employed the commercial meat grinder to get rid of the proof.

In another phrasing, we could say: Joe’s actions leading to Henderson’s demise were influenced by his twisted sense of right and wrong. When he found out that Henderson, a well-known comedian, was exploiting underage girls, including Ellie Alves, the younger sister of Joe’s neighbor Delilah, whom he cared for deeply, he decided to take action. Infiltrating Henderson’s residence in search of evidence and a confession, Joe got into a scuffle with him. During this altercation, Joe accidentally pushed Henderson down a staircase, resulting in his fatal injury. Joe swiftly adjusted the scenario, planting evidence of Henderson’s predatory activities and presenting the death as an accident while portraying himself as a self-appointed avenger dispensing justice.

Season 2 offered valuable insights into Joe’s entire psychological development by revealing childhood flashbacks showing that as a young boy, Joe saw his mother, Sandy, enduring abuse from her partner. In search of a way to save his mother, Joe found a gun and fatally shot the man in a desperate act of self-defense. This pivotal violent act deeply influenced Joe’s mindset, linking violence with love and protection for him throughout his life, laying the groundwork for the person he eventually became.

Season 3: Suburban Secrets and Lies (2 Kills)

In Season 3, Joe found himself in the setting he loathed the most – the picturesque yet poisonous town of Madre Linda. Tied in matrimony to Love Quinn, whose dark tendencies were shockingly unveiled, and caring for their newborn son, Henry, Joe felt suffocated. The pace of his personal killings decreased this season, partly because Love was preoccupied with eliminating neighbors such as Natalie Engler (Michaela McManus). However, Joe committed two murders directly, fueled by his intense longing to free himself from his marriage and pursue his newest obsession – his library co-worker, Marienne Bellamy (Tati Gabrielle).

In his mind, Love has become the antagonist for Joe, causing his fixation to shift wholly towards Marienne. He perceived Ryan Goodwin (played by Scott Michael Foster) as the main hindrance in his imagined romance with her. Ryan was portrayed as cunning and involved in a heated custody dispute with Marienne. Convinced he was assisting Marienne, Joe set an ambush for Ryan in a parking garage. He shoved the man off the roof, then plunged down to confirm the kill by repeatedly stabbing him. Later, he staged the scene as if it were a robbery gone awry.

In the season finale, Joe’s decisive, dramatic act was to kill Love. Learning about Joe’s intention to leave her for Marienne, Love sought to end his life using aconite (wolfsbane), much like she had done with her first husband. However, Joe had foreseen this action. Having delved into her past, he had already ingested adrenaline as a countermeasure. Revealing that the poison had no effect on him, Joe reversed the situation and injected Love with a lethal dose of the same toxin. In a masterful display of control, Joe orchestrated a complex escape: self-mutilating two toes to simulate his demise, writing a suicide note implicating Love for all the recent crimes at Madre Linda, and setting fire to their home with her corpse inside while he slipped away to pursue Marienne across Europe.

Season 4: London’s Psychotic Break (8 Kills)

As Professor Jonathan Moore in London, I, Joe Goldberg, was determined to break free from my past, resisting my obsessive and violent tendencies. But it didn’t take long before I found myself ensnared within a circle of privileged, arrogant high-society individuals, and seemingly hunted by an enigmatic figure known as the “Eat The Rich Killer.” The fourth season offered a jaw-dropping twist: fans learned midway through that I had suffered a severe psychotic episode, leading to the development of a dissociative identity. In this altered state, my darkest impulses took form as an imaginary figure modeled after Rhys Montrose, a man I’d briefly crossed paths with. This revelation shed light on many of the murders previously attributed to the Eat The Rich Killer, which were actually committed by me during those dissociative episodes.

The violent sequence of events started when Malcolm Harding, a haughty coworker and neighbor of Joe’s, was found stabbed to death on his kitchen table after a night of drinking by Joe, who had no recollection of the incident. Driven by dark instincts, Joe then proceeded to dismember the body and hide the pieces throughout London, inadvertently cleaning up his own crime scene.

Afterward came Simon Soo, portrayed by Aidan Cheng, a snobbish artist belonging to the high-society circle. Discovered with a gruesome injury to his ear in his gallery, this grisly act bore the signature style of Joe’s alter ego, Rhys. As these events unfolded, Joe intentionally took Vic’s life (Sean Pertwee), a bodyguard who had begun to suspect him. Feeling intimidated by Vic’s increasing suspicion, Joe and Vic engaged in a violent confrontation within a crypt, leading to Vic’s tragic demise and burial in Simon Soo’s recently dug grave. Subsequently, another disdained member of the social circle, Gemma Graham-Greene (Eve Austin), met her untimely end at the hands of Joe’s Rhys persona. Later, Joe assisted Kate Galvin (Charlotte Ritchie) in disposing of the body, which further strengthened their relationship through their mutual knowledge of a crime Joe himself had committed.

The most chilling point in Joe’s delusion was when his rational mind believed that the genuine Rhys Montrose was the one tormenting him. In a tragic twist, Joe pursued and abducted the real Rhys, subjected him to cruel treatment, and ultimately ended his life by throwing him off a bridge. It wasn’t until the senseless murder of an innocent man that Joe started to face the heart-wrenching truth: the tormentor he had been chasing was himself. Regrettably, this revelation didn’t stop the violence.

Currently, Joe appears to be combining his dark side with practicality as he carried out a series of killings. First, he killed Hugo, a bodyguard safeguarding Kate’s influential father, Tom Lockwood (Greg Kinnear), when Hugo disrupted his plans. Later, Joe eliminated Tom Lockwood himself, getting rid of the billionaire who represented the greatest risk of exposure and control. In what may be his most chilling action yet, Joe abandoned any semblance of his former twisted morality to carry out the cold-blooded murder of Edward “Eddie” (Brad Alexander), an innocent boyfriend of his astute student Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman). Joe committed this heinous act solely to set up a frame job against Nadia, planting evidence to silence her after she figured out his wrongdoings, thus ensuring his own escape.

Season 5: Final Murders in NYC (4 Kills)

In Season 5 of the series You, we find Joe Goldberg residing in New York City three years later, living openly with his influential wife Kate Lockwood (played by Charlotte Ritchie). This season follows Joe as he struggles to maintain this new life, using Kate’s resources to conceal his violent history and control his impulses. However, external pressures from corporate rivals targeting Kate and a romantic complication with a budding writer named Bronte (Madeline Brewer) force him to confront the darkness within himself once again.

As a cinephile, I’d rephrase that intriguing plot point like this: In the climactic season, Joe’s first victim was none other than my dear aunt’s trusted colleague, “Buffalo” Bob Cain (Michael Dempsey), who worked high up at Lockwood Corp. This man found out about my aunt’s silencing of a corporate scandal and tried to use the information against her by forcing her resignation as CEO, so he could steer the company back towards its ruthless capitalist roots. Feeling pinned against the wall, my aunt had no choice but to let Joe handle the situation. With chilling efficiency, Joe executed Bob, making it look like a suicide by hanging. The cold-blooded way Joe carried out the act left my aunt shaken, revealing his monstrous side and pushing them further apart.

Afterward, it was disclosed that Clayton, who Joe had killed (Tom Francis), was Dr. Nicky’s son, the therapist Joe framed in Season 1. Clayton had been collaborating with Bronte to reveal Joe’s actions and clear his father’s name. However, things became more complex as Bronte, initially seeking to expose Joe, found herself falling for him and began doubting his guilt. To compel Joe, Clayton orchestrated an assault on Bronte. In this heated moment, believing that Clayton was abusing the woman he cared about deeply, Joe responded impulsively and ended up taking Clayton’s life during their altercation. The incident was captured live by Bronte’s friends, Dominique (Natasha Behnam) and Phoenix, but due to the circumstances—Joe appearing to protect Bronte from her alleged abuser—it was ruled as self-defense, with Bronte supporting this narrative.

In due course, Joe’s protective nature took a disturbing turn again. A man named Dane (Jefferson White), angered by Clayton’s demise and considering Joe a martyr, sought revenge on Bronte for allegedly deceiving Joe. However, Joe thwarted Dane, rescued Bronte, and imprisoned him once more in Mooney’s basement – a glass cell. He attempted to persuade Bronte into executing Dane herself, urging her to confront her own potential evil. Yet, Bronte declined, choosing instead to spare Dane’s life. Joe, nonetheless, perceived Dane as a lethal threat that needed removal. Subsequently, he traced Dane down on the street and fatally stabbed him, ensuring his silence forevermore.

As a devoted fan, I’d rephrase it like this: In the thrilling finale of the series, it was me – Joe Goldberg – who made my last lethal move during a chaotic climax. After Bronte skillfully exposed me, I became the hunted, pursued relentlessly by the police. Facing a dead-end in the woods, I encountered an unnamed officer who stood between me and freedom. With no second thoughts, I took his life, clearing the last hurdle mere moments before I was finally cornered, captured, and brought to justice.

In total, twenty-two individuals are the sad tally of lives Joe Goldberg took throughout the course of five seasons in the show called “You.

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2025-04-24 14:11