Episode 8 of You Season 5, titled "Folie à Deux," feels like the messy, morally grey heart of the season. Though it stumbles in giving Kate the spotlight it had promised, the episode thrives on chaotic momentum, character tests, and sharp emotional ironies that only You can deliver.
We open with Joe (Penn Badgley) and Bronte (Madeline Brewer) reconciling after the events of the previous episode. Bronte, astonishingly, decides to give Joe another chance, feeding directly into the "I can fix him" trope. It's a clever bit of foreshadowing—one that most viewers might miss until it’s too late—that Bronte doesn’t truly see Joe. She sees the version of him she thinks she can mold.
Joe, emboldened, decides to bare his soul—or rather, his glass cage. He takes Bronte to the basement of Mooney’s where Dane, her would-be kidnapper, is imprisoned. In an unsettling show of submission, Joe tells Bronte she can decide what happens next. It's a twisted offering of trust, and it underlines the core tragedy of Joe's character: he mistakes control for intimacy.
Meanwhile, Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) heads to London to visit Nadia, who absolutely savages her for her past choices—framing an innocent woman to save a murderer. Nadia tells Kate the truth: Joe is the Eat-the-Rich Killer. The reveal should feel seismic, but the episode lets the momentum stall here, bogging Kate down in repetitive, circular conversations about betrayal and guilt. Instead of seizing her moment to lead the narrative, Kate is once again reduced to reacting.
Back in New York, Maddie continues her reign as this season's comic relief. In classic Maddie fashion, her plan to neutralize Harrison’s suspicions falls apart in the most hilariously awful way. Harrison has an existential crisis just as Joe is ready to silence him forever. But in a sharp contrast to Joe’s tests, Maddie's messy sincerity wins out—Harrison promises to keep quiet after reconciling with Maddie.
Meanwhile, Bronte's "test" for Joe—to let Dane live—seems, at first, to work. Joe listens, at least outwardly. But under the surface, his need for control festers. Bronte’s fantasy of healing Joe mirrors Joe's own projection onto her: she doesn’t truly understand the monster she’s trying to fix, just as he misunderstands her need to play saviour.
Ultimately, Joe fails the test spectacularly. Despite Bronte's pleas, he kills Dane anyway, believing that protecting her—even from the idea of future danger—justifies the violence. It’s a devastating moment of self-betrayal, but also pure Joe Goldberg: love, in his mind, is permission for anything.
The episode builds toward a tense phone conversation between Joe and Kate, where they finally stop dancing around the truth. After hearing Joe’s chilling justifications and recognising that he will never change, Kate makes her decision.
Joe Goldberg must die.
"Folie à Deux" isn’t without flaws—Kate deserved better material to flesh out her transformation—but the episode is saved by the delicious thematic echoes running through it. Maddie’s bumbling yet earnest loyalty, Bronte’s tragic attempts to reform Joe, and Joe’s inevitable surrender to his worst instincts all mirror and contrast beautifully.
It’s a dark, thrilling hour that reminds us why You works: not because Joe is misunderstood, but because he is terrifyingly, heartbreakingly understood.
As we barrel toward the series finale, one truth is clear: Joe isn’t fighting the world anymore.
He’s fighting the people who have finally stopped believing his lies.
And this time, they’re not backing down.
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