Warning: This post contains spoilers from the final season of You. You took a dramatic turn in its final moments. The thriller's fifth and final season, which premiered April 24 on Netflix, saw star Penn Badgley's Joe Goldberg incarcerated after the many crimes he committed throughout the series caught up to him.
But the imprisonment comes after a major, physical altercation with his new flame Bronte (Madeline Brewer) — a young woman whom he has an affair with before it's revealed that she had initially been planning to seek revenge against Joe before falling for him, due to her suspicions that he murdered her former TA, Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail). The standoff between Joe and Bronte commenced after she lured him to bed and held him at gunpoint, requesting that he redact all of the changes he made to Beck’s book with a Sharpie. He then suddenly gets a moment to speak with his son Henry, who confesses to knowing the truth about Joe and calling him a "monster" before hanging up.
Madeline Brewer as Bronte in the 'You' series finale. Clifton Prescod/Netflix He soon becomes enraged by Bronte after she declares she's "turned" on him and insists he's not a "victim." A full-fledged fight then commences between the two, but fortunately, it concluded with police stopping Joe in his tracks.
The entire sequence saw Joe simply sporting boxer briefs as Bronte was fully clothed. Now, Badgley tells PEOPLE exclusively that his character being nearly nude was an intentional choice that was made. The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here!
How quickly can you solve it? Play now! "I actually fought to be as naked as possible in that last sequence because he needed to be as dangerously close to being witnessed finally as a sexual predator that he was," Badgley, 38, explains.
Penn Badgley attends a screening for Season 5 of Netflix's "You" at The Plaza Hotel on April 23, 2025 in New York City. Taylor Hill/FilmMagic "He needed to be seen in that way to be kind of saying to everybody, is this what you needed to see in order to realize who he is?" he continues.
"We withheld it from now, but is this what you need to see? And that's, I think, a really juicy kind of engagement and question with the viewer that we're all a part of." The Easy A actor notes that "in order to do that, the truth is we really had to return to form with him being a romantic icon."
"That's what he is. He can't just be killing and masturbating," he adds. "Sorry, not sorry.
That's what he does. I didn't write it. I didn't even shoot it!"
But still, after playing the murderous character for five seasons, beginning in 2018, Badgley says he "will miss him a little bit." "He's been a profound experience for me. He's not a real person.
So what have I been doing? I've been engaging in this … my entire 30s," he shares of his character, Joe Goldberg. "I was 30 when I took the role.
I'm going to be 39 this year. Even though the show, the way it came out, it's actually been closer to seven years. For me, it's like my 30s."
The PEOPLE App is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more! All 10 episodes from the final season of You are now streaming on Netflix.
