‘You’ Season 4’s Decision to Ditch Joe’s Childhood Flashbacks Was the Right Call

You found something special in how it orchestrated its fourth season. Where the series began to become quite formulaic over the first three chapters, the most recent season finally brought something new to the table. There were two seemingly different parts to Season 4’s 10-episode arc, including a thrilling plot twist in the second half of the season that flipped everything we had known from Part 1 on its head. In putting together a fresh take on an old formula and giving Penn Badgley a chance to flex his acting chops even more than usual, You accomplished all it needed to with Season 4. The fear of repetitiveness was quelled. The show’s lead finally faced some stakes. There was more to this story than just Joe Goldberg killing people because of his obsession with a woman.

When looking back on You Season 4, one of the best creative changes is something that might have flown under some fans’ radars: removing Joe’s childhood flashbacks, which we saw periodically in earlier seasons. Besides adding context to Joe’s upbringing and how he got to the point in which we see him in present day, these flashbacks seemed to serve as a means of making the audience relate to this twisted character. There’s a growing interest in dark, wicked leads going back to the days of Dexter. You does what it can to make Joe as appealing as possible in spite of his heinous acts, and showing us flashbacks to Joe’s rough childhood is a tool to make us feel for him — which is exactly why Season 4 made the right decision to ditch them.

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‘You’s Early Childhood Flashbacks Made Us Sympathize With Joe Too Much

In the early days of You, there was an interest in seeing how this violent person came to be. We knew that Joe had to have experienced something traumatic to reach this point in his life — the way he was able to go about his life as an innocent bookshop manager without ever seeming fazed by his horrific crimes was fascinating. So, the decision to incorporate brief moments back in time to his younger self made sense. More interestingly, it seemed to give us a way to sympathize with this horrible person. It was risky, of course, going in this direction, but it’s ultimately what made You into what it is today.

Similar to Dexter, by making the serial killer someone viewers have an attachment to and even sympathize with (as sick as it may be to fathom reaching that point) — You was able to keep us engaged in every step Joe took. Through its use of childhood flashbacks, You was able to create a protagonist so enthralling, some fans found themselves rooting for him despite his serial killer ways. This is part of what made You work, but it’s also a big part of why it was the right decision for Season 4 to cut them out. Joe went through heartbreaking trauma as a child, but that does not take away from the fact that he is a serial killer who stalks and murders anyone who gets in his way.

After so many seasons, there also comes a point where flashbacks become tiresome because they don’t necessarily add anything new to our understanding of a character. It was difficult to see Joe’s mother abandon him as a child, how he sought her affection to the point of killing for her in defense, and how every aspect of his life even outside his home was rather grim. At some point, though, these flashbacks became unnecessary. We could tell his upbringing was brutal. We knew that this was at the root of who he became. There were moments in Season 2 where the flashbacks started to feel overused, but it was Season 3 where the story involving the school nurse felt forced. Nixing them completely in Season 4 only helped to push the narrative forward.

‘You’ Season 4 Used Flashbacks in a Different, More Effective Manner

With the concept of You Season 4, it would have been nearly impossible to seamlessly recall Joe’s childhood in a truly effective way. There was the fact that he had forgone his old identity, so rehashing his past would have felt out of place. More so, in order for that big reveal — that the Rhys (Ed Speleers) we saw in Part 1 was actually just Joe’s psyche — to pay off, there was little time to spare for anything else.

In conveying this twist, Part 2 spent much of Episode 8 by showing a flashback of what really happened between Joe and Marienne (Tati Gabrielle, the stealth MVP of Season 4) through her perspective. This was a much better, and necessary, use of time for the show. The final episode also saw a few look backs in time that filled in missing holes. While Joe and Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) were being interviewed in the final scene, viewers were left to wonder what transpired with Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman) and Edward (Brad Alexander). Not too long into this interaction do we see a flashback to what happened to those two students, with one unfortunately meeting his demise and the other facing a bleak outcome after being framed.

There was a lot that this season of You sought to accomplish, making it the most ambitious chapter of You to date. However, all the creative changes seemed to pay off, including the omission of Joe’s childhood. The inner dialogue between Joe and himself — aka, Rhys — was fascinating and needed all the screen time it could get. The uses of flashbacks were all warranted this time around and added much-needed context to this season’s plot. It’s not that the insight into Joe’s childhood in earlier seasons was unnecessary, it just simply ran its course once we became attached to him and didn’t need any further context on who he once was. More importantly, the time in this season of You was better spent not in trying to get us to sympathize with Joe’s past or hope for his redemption, but rather, show us who he has really become in the present.

All four seasons of You are now streaming on Netflix.