You Season 4 Part 2 Review: The Eternal Struggle Between Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde
Cast: Penn Badgley, Tati Gabrielle, Lukas Gage, Charlotte Ritchie, Tilly Keeper, Amy-Leigh Hickman, Ed Speleers
Creator: Greg Berlanti, Sera Gamble
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Finally, You Season 4 Part 2 landed on the Netflix streaming platform. Talking about the last 5 episodes of You Season 4 released today on Netflix, Thursday 9 March, is simply impossible unless you want to list everything that happens and fill the readers with spoilers. The last 5 episodes close Joe’s London parenthesis unexpectedly and surprisingly, the episodes are full of twists but still modest as in the previous ones. That perverse, provocative side of the first seasons of You now seems to be definitively buried. When Netflix announced that You Season 4 would be released at two different times, the news created some eyebrows. The risk was to interrupt the narrative flow which is a fundamental element in a thriller. Despite these doubts, however, the closure of the first part, which aired on February 9, demonstrated how right this choice was. A direction confirmed above all by the second, released by Netflix on 9 March.
The closure of the first five episodes can be read in two ways. On the one hand, it is an effective trick to create suspense and automatically ferry the viewer toward the second chapter of this increasingly intense narrative. On the other hand, then, it represents a real point capable of concluding a phase and starting a completely new one. In this sense, therefore, the atmosphere and the very approach of Penn Badgley to his character changed. The aim is to lead to an error or to take a direction that is suddenly diverted toward an unexpected destination. In this sense, therefore, the two parts of this fourth season can be considered as functional wholes to achieve the final goal. But also, in their uniqueness because they evolve through different narrative atmospheres and timbres. To better understand some details let’s see more specifically the review of You Season 4 Part 2.
You Season 4 Part 2 Review: The Story Plot
After the dramatic events that took place during the weekend in the country house of Phoebe’s parents, Joe, known by all as Jonathan, seems to have identified the mysterious killer of the rich. The same one that he’s been trying to frame for weeks and tried to kill him in a fire with Roald. His face is that of Rhys, a successful man who came from nowhere and was tied to the small group of spoiled high aristocracy kids from a school past. He aims to kill them to punish the emptiness of their existence and to prevent them from becoming an obstacle to his political ambitions. The man runs for Mayor of London, while Joe is determined to stop him and definitively unmask his game. But will it be like this or is the reality behind the appearance completely different? On the other hand, in Joe’s thousand and disturbing worlds, it is difficult to find a truly clear and reassuring glimmer. And the situation seems far too well-defined and moving towards a sort of normality to seem true.
Even the relationship with Kate appears bizarrely healthy, based on mutual acceptance of each other’s dark sides. Has he found the only woman able to support him and silence his neuroses? Everything seems to start from the answer to this question. His name, of course, matches Rhys’s. The man appears to have an unassailable facade. Son of the working class, a successful writer, and dedicated to the well-being of his city. In essence, he represents the perfect model of the self-made man destined to be an example for those who share an unfavorable starting condition with him. For all the others, i.e. the privileged, it is a warning not to take one’s birthrights for granted which, if not supported by something else, do not guarantee continued success. At least that’s what others see.
Joe, on the other hand, had the opportunity to go beyond the surface and see the killer’s sparkle in his eyes, follow the delusional killer’s architecture, and undergo the conditioning of an undoubtedly brilliant mind. So, who else could stop him if not him who seems to have a lot in common with a man? So much so that they could even be the same person. But Joe, in his new life as a university professor in love with the strong-willed Kate, doesn’t think about this at all. For once he seems to be intent on doing the right thing. Too bad, however, that Rhys, or the projection of him, seems intent on involving him in an endless spiral. In a sort of perverted game to come out completely clean and above suspicion from this story. When, therefore, he even finds him inside his apartment sitting in an armchair touching the books that are so dear to him, he feels that he must do everything in his power to put an end. Even get to kill his contender. But how to get rid of himself? Because if Rhys was just a projection of his madness, of that dark side often denied and excused, Joe would have no alternative but to succumb to his charm or kill himself to kill even the killer in him.
You Season 4 Part 2 Review and Analysis
Since its first season appeared in 2018, the TV series inspired by the novels of Caroline Kepnes has always had the structure of an internal dialogue. This means that, in essence, the viewer has been offered a real journey inside the mind of the protagonist, going to see up close the explosive effects of a brilliant but psychotic mind. In doing so, therefore, the action has always been divided between two different levels, the external one and the internal one. On the one hand, Joe’s actions and apparent normality. On the other hand, all the thoughts crowd his mind and are the basis of an obsessive need to manipulate and control everyday life as he pleases. All without any kind of scruple or limit. After all, what Joe wants, Joe gets. In the second part of this fourth season, however, the inner dialogue, the most intimate and psychotic level takes over.
This means that it is not used with an essentially practical purpose but rather gives life to a duel destined to definitively divide the personality of the character and define it clearly. Here, then, the last five episodes are a real journey into the mind of the killer. This an increasingly revealing path of the nature of a character who has made ambiguity his distinctive style so much that he even lies to himself. This also leads to a total change in the mood of the fourth season’s narrative. More reassuring and conveyed through an investigative mood, the first part gradually gives way to an increasingly gripping disquiet, slipping decisively towards a drama with psychotic tones.
This a change that, as has been mentioned, takes place one step at a time, given that you must wait more or less for the third episode to understand that you have fallen into a confrontation between a man and his inner ghost. A slow slide towards the abyss that shows no easy way out other than to proceed forward. And, although some moments can be naturally disturbing, the feeling of attraction and seduction you feel is undeniable. The desire is to get to the end, touch the inscrutable and, at the end of everything, go back to see them again. At least the viewers. For Joe, however, the shadow represents a destiny that is impossible to escape.
One thing is certain. The authors who defined the plot of this fourth season and, in particular, of the second part, have read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde very carefully. Or, at least, they went back to leafing through it to find elements congenial to their narrative. And, in fact, at this point, Joe’s character sinks into a constant duel with the two aspects of himself. On one side is the man he would like to be, on the other the monster he refuses to see. Indeed, in the now-long association with this character, one element is clear: Joe has never been completely aware of his nature. This means that all of his heinous actions, the evidence of the psychoses that torment him, and the latent dangerousness that he represents have been excused, and justified by a series of major forces. Reasons why he couldn’t do otherwise. These are excuses that he, from time to time, uses to avoid having to face his monstrosity or, in any case, a basic aggressiveness that pushes him to attack and hurt.
In this case, however, Joe finally comes face to face with himself. Or, at least, with the instinctive, aggressive, subconscious element that he calls it. A comparison which, through the projection of an image outside even from an aesthetic point of view, leads to an awareness and the need for a choice. Going out of your way to try to be a different man or consciously letting go of your madness? To continue killing without seeking any psychological and moral way out or to take one’s own life so as not to continue to harm? Joe debates with himself but surrender is announced. In this case, the monster has its thoughts, words, and reasons for moving. Any reasonable limit has been crossed and all that remains is to surrender to the evidence, ending the agony of trying to be something different. Mr. Hyde has won, and Joe faces his defeat with a sense of sheer relief. He knows he knows who he is: a murderer, a psychotic, a man incapable of feeling remorse for his actions. And from here a whole other narrative could begin.
Ma You is pure enjoyment. The goal is to keep the viewer glued, to push him to stay in front of the screen to understand what will happen next. This is why the division into two blocks is perfect because it gives time to absorb what happened in the first part, to develop theories and hypotheses, and then suddenly overturn them. Precisely for this reason, however, it also represents the emblem of the failure of the binge-watching model. Netflix has now remained the only platform to follow this formula as the only way to release its products. After all, it is his trademark and it would be absurd to abandon it. The division into two blocks is a useful trick for having titles capable of collecting hours of views and satisfying your subscribers.
In this way, however, Netflix effectively denies the very nature of its platform, built on the overabundance of titles dispersed in the catalog and from all over the world. Not only that but this two-block release felt like a perfect fit for You Season 4 and would have been even more so for a weekly release. The perfect formula does not exist. There are titles that if they weren’t all immediately available would be quickly forgotten, eternal unfinished products of the platform. However, ideal formulas depend on the type of product. And in this case, we can say that the division into two blocks has done You Season 4 well.
You Season 4 Part 2 Review: The Last Words
You Season 4 was designed to surprise and destabilize the viewer with a narrative that seems to take two completely different paths. Only in the end, however, does one realize how everything was built as perfect architecture, a mirror game between being and appearing. The aim, of course, is to get to the essence of the character who, in becoming aware of his darkness, leads towards a bitter but necessary ending where there are no more gray areas or impossible opportunities for redemption.
