Fans have polarizing views on the series finale ofYou. Some appreciate how things ended for serial killer and stalker Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley). Others are not pleased with how he got there and the fact that a brand-new character took him down. Nonetheless, the story has come to an end. In the final scene, Joe is reading a book, and the title has a deeper meaning than fans might realize. There are many ways to interpret it, and why this particular novel was chosen as his lonely reading material. What he says after putting the book down carries a lot of weight as well.
‘The Executioner’s Song’ Is About a Killer Who Gets the Death Penalty
As those who watched Season 5 know,Joe was captured thanks to Bronte/Louise (Madeline Brewer).He was put on trial with overwhelming evidence against him and convicted of multiple counts of murder. He was going to be spending a very, very long time in jail.
In the final scene, Joe is sitting in his prison cell reading a book.It’sThe Executioner’s Songby Norman Mailer. This Pulitzer Prize-winning true crime novel, published in 1979, is the story of Gary Gilmore, an infamous murderer. While he wasn’t a serial killer like Joe, having killed “just” two people, his case was infamous for another reason. He was the first victim in almost a decade to be executed in the United States for his crimes.
The death penalty at the time had been reinstated in the U.S. Supreme Court, despite earlier statutes deeming it cruel and unusual punishment, and unconstitutional. Many death sentences were switched to life imprisonment following appeals. However,when Gilmore’s execution was delayed so he could appeal, he demanded that this not happen. He wanted to get the death sentence. Hewantedto die. He was eventually executed by firing squad, making him the first person to receive the death penalty since its reinstatement. His death sparked a major debate about capital punishment in the country.
What This Means for Joe
What makes Joe’s choice of bedtime reading so interesting is that at the same time, Joe’s inner monologue discusses his situation in comparison to Gilmore’s.He calls his incarceration a fate worse than death. He is stuck in a cell with no one to obsess over, no one to love, and perhaps most torturous, no one to love him. For a person like Joe, who sought out a mate at every turn, unable to be on his own, his sentence was the worst possible one that anyone could have given him. He is now forced to live with his own loneliness rather than escape via death.
In fact, this is also why,when faced with imminent capture, Joe begs Bronte to pull the trigger and kill him. He knows what will happen if he is taken away by the police. New York does not have the death penalty today. This means the worst possible sentence he could get would be a life of solitude.
Bronte knows this, too, which is why she doesn’t shoot him (at least not fatally).“You are gonna live the rest of your life alone,” she tells him. “I know it’s scary for you, isn’t it?”Knowing there will be a trial, photos and evidence of his crimes presented before him is seemingly a reality Joe can’t bear to live with. It’s easy to run, hide, and move on. It’s not so easy to face the crimes you swore were necessary to commit. Gilmore may have felt the same way, wanting the death penalty to escape having to face the punishment of living every day with his crimes.
However, the big difference is that while Gilmore presumably recognized his crimes and the person he was by the end,Joe still did not accept who he was, or at least not the responsibility for it. So, in reading this book and thinking over his own fate by the end, it’s clear Joe is still in denial about being a cold-blooded killer.
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Joe Still Doesn’t Take Accountability For His Actions
By the end ofYou,Joe finallyadmits that he’s a murderer. However, hestilldoesn’t take accountability for his actions. Instead, his inner monologue talks about how unfair it is to put everything on him.“Aren’t we all just products of our environment?” he asks, claiming that it’s the fault of circumstance, not him. “Hurt people hurt people,” he says, much like how he probably interpreted Gilmore’s situation. “I never stood a chance,” he adds, once again deflecting blame.
Part of these words come after a prison guard slides “another” letter under the cell for Joe. It’s from a crazed, depraved fan, clearly one of many, describing all the nasty things she wants Joe to do to her. “Maybe we have a problem as a society,” he adds, further finding someone else on whom to shift the blame. “Maybe we should fix what’s broken in us?Maybe the problem isn’t me. Maybe it’s you.”
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Thus, in reading this book, Joe is fantasizing about what the end could have been like for him had he been so lucky to receive the death penalty.In his eyes, execution would have been an escape, a release from these shackles that society has put on him. Instead, he is now living in a fate worse than death.
Had Joe been given the same death penalty sentence as Gilmore, he likely would have done the same thing and fought to have it stand instead of trying to get it reduced to life imprisonment. Ironically, for Joe, a man who locked women in cages, he will die in one, too. But unlike Gilmore, who got a quick death to end his nightmare, Joe’s will continue for a long, long time. His song is not of execution, but of slow-burning loneliness.
