The You season 2 finale opens with the tables turned on Joe (Penn Badgley). This time, he’s the one locked in the cage. Joe thinks he’s the one who killed Delilah, but Love (Victoria Pedretti) admits to him that she’s actually the culprit. She killed Delilah to protect Joe. Needless to say, Joe is absolutely shocked at what Love’s done. He’s envisioned Love as the perfect girl but she’s anything but perfect. She’s just as flawed as he is. Love has no qualms about who she is, though. She thinks she’s doing the right thing. Love tells Joe that she killed Delilah just liked she killed the au pair who took advantage of Forty all those years ago.
All of this information is hard for Joe to process, especially as Delilah’s body rots next to him. He’s looking at a female version of himself right in the face. Love explains her plan to cover up Delilah’s murder while protecting Ellie and getting rid of any suspicions about Joe concerning Henderson’s murder. Joe remains hesitant of Love’s intentions. She holds all the cards here. Later, Joe and Love engage in some small talk. Love asks Joe if his mom is still around. He doesn’t give her an answer.
Joe convinces Love to open the cage. When she steps inside the cage, she spots the handcuffs used on Delilah in the back of Joe’s pants. She realizes he’s about to kill her. He grabs her by the throat and slams her against the wall. Right before Joe is about to use the handcuffs to kill Love, she screams that she’s pregnant. Joe is going to be a father. Just when you thought Joe’s world couldn’t get rocked any more, Love drops this bomb on him.
Joe and Love eventually make up. He vows to earn back her trust. He desperately wants to be a part of his child’s life and provide her (Love has a hunch the baby is a girl) with the family he never had. Meanwhile, Forty has found out about Joe’s past and tries to warn his sister. He confronts Love and Joe at Anavrin and ends up putting a gun to Joe’s head. Joe has pretty much come to terms with the fact that he’s about to die. A gunshot goes off but Forty is the one who ends up dead on the floor, thanks to Officer Fincher’s last-minute save.
Love is devastated by Forty’s death and Joe knows that Love is going to need all the support she can get from him right now. The show flashes forward a few months as Joe and Love move into a new house. “I’m ready to meet my daughter,” Joe’s voiceover says as he settles into a new house. “I’m ready to be the good father I never had, to make the family I always dreamed of, the one she deserves. It’s funny how fate works. I had no idea that the cage I was building all this time was a trap for me. And when I found myself here, locked in, I thought this was the end.”
Joe suddenly sees a crack in the fence and walks towards it. “But that’s not how destiny works, is it?” he continues. “This is just the beginning. Because this is where I had to be, exactly where I had to be, to meet you. There you were with your books and your sunshine. So close but worlds away. I will figure out a way, a way to get to you. See you soon, neighbor.” The woman is wearing a bright yellow dress, reading classics, and writing. Her face is obscured so we don’t know who this mystery lady is. Could this be Joe’s long-lost mother? The last we see of Joe’s mother is when she tells him that he’s going to go away for a little while after he killed her boyfriend. “I’m not the best for you right now,” his mother says to the young Joe. “You need a father.” He replies, “I only need you.” He’s eventually taken to a group home for boys and hasn’t seen his mother since.
It makes sense to bring back Joe’s mother in a potential season 3. She’s been a focal point of season 2 as Joe’s past is explored. There’s still a lot of unfinished business between Joe and his mother. She built the foundation for the man Joe grew up to be. Given how important she is to Joe and the show, bringing her back into Joe’s life is the perfect curveball to throw his way in a third season.