Joe Goldberg may have finally found his perfect match. No, it’s not Guinevere Beck, Love Quinn, Marie Bellamy, or even the new woman he’s obsessed with – he’s another serial killer who thinks like him. Throughout the first part of You Season 4Joe was constantly outwitted by the anonymous Eat The Rich Killer, until the killer was finally revealed at the end of Part 1. And honestly, Joe should have put the pieces together much sooner, because You Season 4 was full of clues about Eat The Rich Killer’s true identity.
Spoiler alert: This post contains major spoilers throughout Episode 5 of You Season 4. In the first half of his London-based season, You transformed from a bloody psychothriller to a real, Knives outlike a murder mystery. It’s because, for once, Joe wasn’t even responsible for the murders, at least not most of them. An anonymous killer dubbed Eat The Rich Killer has taunted Joe via disappearing texts about his deadly escapades, while blaming the death on Joe, who is actually innocent for once. With a sprawling new cast of ultra-rich and complicated suspects, Joe tried to figure out who the killer might be for the entire first half of the season, only to find he was completely wrong in the final moments of Part 1. .
Joe may be good at stalking people, but he really needs to hone his detective skills, because honestly, it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise to him that manipulative author Rhys Montrose was the killer all along. . I mean, he’s basically just the UK version of Joe – of course he is a sufficient murderer!
The season laid the groundwork for the big reveal with a ton of little hints and clues that discerning viewers probably picked up on right away… long before Joe did. Here are some of the biggest:
1. Rhys’ past is similar to Joe’s.
The greatest gift that Rhys was the killer was the attention the show paid to all of the striking similarities between Rhys and Joe. Like Joe, Rhys was also raised in poverty “by an unstable single mother”, as Joe said while researching the author. Even Joe himself couldn’t help but notice the uncanny similarity to his own upbringingwhich should have been a hint that Rhys might also have the same killer instinct as Joe.
2. Rhys called Joe his “brother in arms.”
Rhys’ very first introduction to Joe is also far more surprising when viewed in retrospect. After bonding their terrible childhood, Rhys officially introduced himself, saying, “Nice to meet you, brother-in-arms.” By the end of Part 1, it’s clear that Rhys truly considers Joe his “brother in arms” in a much deeper sense, revealing that he wants to team up with him to kill the authorized upper class together.
3. Rhys hates the Sundry House crowd as much as Joe.
Sure, Rhys may still be hanging out with his old college buddies, but the very first conversation he had with Joe was about how he couldn’t stand their behavior. Joe himself even noted that it was the first real conversation he had that night, having finally found a kindred spirit who hated the reckless, partying crowd as much as he did.
4. The title of Rhys’ book is Joe’s whole self-rationalizing worldview.
Even before meeting Rhys in person, Joe was struck by his book: A good man in a cruel world. It’s no surprise that Joe was drawn to the title – it’s pretty much the mantra he uses to justify all of his kills. Joe always thought of himself as the only good person who was forced to murderous extremes by an unjust world, and it’s obvious that Rhys thinks of himself the same way.
5. Rhys’ political ambitions are a red flag.
It’s TV drama 101: Anyone who rises through the political ranks is probably going to kill someone. Hearing rumors that Rhys would run for mayor of London, Joe should have looked at him with a lot more suspicion, especially since his whole platform hinged on solving class inequality. He and Eat The Rich Killer clearly had the exact same ideology, but Joe didn’t put that together.
6. Rhys’ alibi the night of Malcolm’s murder fell apart.
Before Joe woke up to find Malcolm dead on his table, Rhys informed him that he was flying to Berlin that night for interviews. However, after Joe cleared Malcolm’s body, he ran into Rhys at Sundry House, who claimed he was able to go to Berlin and back in just a few hours. Obviously, the trip to Berlin would have been a great alibi for Rhys, if only Joe hadn’t caught him in London a few hours later.
7. Rhys’ advice to Joe suggested he knew about Malcolm’s murder.
Rhys also overplayed his hand in the conversation he had with Joe the day after Malcolm died. He seemed to immediately realize that Joe was reeling from some sort of mistake he had made the night before and advised him not to dwell on anything and just move on. , because redemption is always possible. The whole conversation seemed way too much on the nose for someone who maybe shouldn’t have known what Joe was really dealing with.
8. Rhys’ response to Simon’s murder was telling.
Joe gravitated to Rhys at Simon’s funeral because, in his eyes, he was the only truly grieving person there. However, Rhys’ conversation with Joe at the event wasn’t very gloomy. He even seemed to rationalize Simon’s death by calling it somewhat karmic following the revelation he had stolen from his assistants. He said he was sad that his friend couldn’t live to be a better person, which Joe took as genuine grief, but sounded more like a killer trying to justify his actions.
Joe and Rhys’ game of cat and mouse is set to continue when Part 2 of You Season 4 hits Netflix on March 9.