Warning: This article contains spoilers for the novel You Love Me.
Netflix’s series You has been a major hit since it became available on the streaming service in 2018. You centers around Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), who’s a charming but rather obsessive man who goes to extreme measures to insert himself into the lives of certain women. The show follows Joe as he falls for these different ladies and the fatal consequences he creates. The series is loosely based on Caroline Kepnes’ best-selling novels You and Hidden Bodies.
In the gruesome finale of Season 1, Joe kills Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail) after she almost escapes from his clutches, like the book. However, her death plays out quite differently than in the book. In the finale of Season 2, Joe and Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), who’s as deranged as he is, are having a baby together, and Joe ends up becoming obsessed with his next-door neighbor. The Season 2 finale also differs a bit from the second book.
In the book, Joe ends up in jail, leaving a pregnant Love at home. Season 1 of You is more based around the events that unfolded in the first book, and Season 2 is based more around the second book, Hidden Bodies. Now that Season 3 will be premiering in October, fans wonder what clues from the third novel, You Love Me, they will get about the forthcoming season. Could the Season 3 finale be similar to the book?
How did the third book in the ‘You’ series, ‘You Love Me,’ end?
You Love Me was released in April 2021, which was after Season 3 of You began filming. However, it’s possible that the production team got a sneak peek of what was in store in the book to write Season 3. But, in many ways, the series and the books’ paths have seemed to differ a lot. Still, there have always been elements of the book that make their way into the new season.
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So, the ending could have some similarities, and the book’s end may have some clues about what’s to come in the series. In the ending of You Love Me, Love shoots Joe, and then she kills herself in a murder-suicide attempt. Throughout the book, Love and Joe do not interact much since they are not living with one another. However, as the story ends, Love invites Joe to a hotel and confronts him about being a neglectful father.
Source: Netflix
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She tells him that he’s trying to replace her and their son, Forty, with his new obsession — Mary Kay and her daughter, Noni. Audiences may see more of Joe’s obsession with his neighbor, but that shouldn’t take him away from his son or Love because Joe’s wish for a family seems to be a common thread that is evident in both the book and the television series. However, his obsessive behavior could get in the way of that.
It looks like the new season might change Mary Kay up a bit, but she does seem to be a new character for the show, though her name will be Marienne (Tati Gabrielle). Like Mary Kay, she’s the object of Joe’s affections now, a dangerous position to be in. And also like Mary Kay, she’ll be a librarian and fit right in with Joe’s love of books. We also know that Love and Joe have a son named Henry, but Love’s family wants to call him Forty in the new season.
It will be exciting to see how Season 3 unfolds and dissect the similarities and differences of Season 3 of You and the third book in the series.
You Season 3 will be available to stream on Netflix beginning on Oct. 15.