“You” might not want to see this

KC staff writer Julia Smeltzer reviews season 2 of the Netflix show “You”

Americas Favorite Psychopath is back and maybe not for the better.

America’s Favorite Psychopath is back and maybe not for the better.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

America’s favorite psychopath is back in “You” season 2, but fans of Joe Goldberg may have been let down the second time around.

The show returns with Joe, played by Penn Badgley after he killed his first love interest and got away with it by blaming the entire thing on her therapist who she had a love affair with. After Joe cleaned up the mess with one girlfriend, another one came to visit. If you watched the first season, you know that Candace was Joe’s girlfriend before his obsession with Beck took control. In season one, Joe had found out that Candace had been cheating on him with some band junkie who Joe later decided to casually throw him off a building. Casual. 

The plot for season two begins after Joe runs away to Los Angeles to start a new life while adopting the pseudonym Will, thinking that Candace will never find him in the one city he hates most, hiding behind palm trees and the Hollywood sign.

Set in the City of Angels as a “new” person, Joe finds himself falling back into old habits as he is attracted by his new love interest Love in the bookstore cafe where they work together. To viewers, it’s getting repetitive. We get it, he stalks his new victim, does everything he can to protect their relationship while hiding his psychopathic ways, and then once she finds out, he kills her. Viewers have seen this pattern for the second time now, and there’s only so many times Joe can escape being caught until viewers get bored.

It is almost the same plot this time around with Love, except a couple of episodes into the season, an old friend pays a visit to Los Angeles, Candace. Candace finds Joe through a social media post made by Love’s brother, Four, while at a producer’s party 

(spoiler: Joe ends up killing this movie producer, what’s new.) So, season two is a rollercoaster of Joe trying to keep his relationship alive with Love without Candace exposing his wicked past. 

While this is going on, Joe’s neighbor and friend Delilah sniffs out Joe’s past before Love can and figures out that he was the one who killed the movie producer. Threatened, Joe handcuffed Delilah in the plexiglass cage to give him enough time to flee the city and avoid being exposed. When returning to the glass after a failed attempt of leaving the city, Joe is greeted by the sight of Delilah, on the floor of the cage, covered in blood with no pulse. 

In the season finale, Love confronts Joe about his past but tries to protect him, showing him she has the same wicked heart he does. Love confesses to killing Delilah while turning around to kill Candace five minutes later.

In the last ten minutes of the last episode, Joe and Love, pregnant with a baby, move into the suburbs to raise their family. But Joe finds his new obsession just across the fence, which is the setup for season three, which has already been announced to air in 2021.

To be honest, I am not very excited for the third season. Will I watch it? Probably. But unless it has new exciting factors that change the familiar dynamic, it will not live up to its reputation. I will admit, the series as a whole is filled with thrills and psychological excitement, but after a while, it gets boring. Season one was new and unknown, and viewers didn’t know what to expect from the series. But after finishing the second season, it leaves me dissatisfied because season two was not as gruesome or wicked as the first time around.

Netflix already announced and renewed “You” for the third season, soon to be released in 2021 and it will take place after Joe and Love move into their new house. Hopefully third times a charm, and this season turns out better than the last.