‘You’ Season 4 Part 2 Reveals a Fan Theory Was Right
Season 4 of You started as a classic murder mystery. So fans tried to figure it out with their theories. The second half revealed one of them was right.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from the You Season 4 episode, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”]
Some ‘You’ fans believed Rhys wasn’t real
Part 1 showed Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) first coming across Rhys at an exclusive club where he met Lady Phoebe Borehall-Blaxworth’s (Tilly Keeper) circle of friends. Rhys was there reading, and Joe mentioned he enjoyed his book.
Joe could relate to the author because he grew up in poverty and had an unstable single mom. But Rhys had a father who was a duke and later raised him in privilege.
As the season continued, more of the inner circle were killed. Joe discovered Rhys was the Eat-the-Rich-Killer. Part 1 ended with Rhys announcing he was running for mayor. But some fans weren’t buying the character.
“Any Rhys theories that aren’t ‘He’s a figment of Joe’s imagination’?” a reddit user asked. “I think it’s a great theory and probably the most realistic one,” the writer continued. “At first, I thought that maybe Joe was Rhys’s Beck, or Candace, or Love and that he was obsessed with him the way Joe was obsessed with those girls. But idk anymore.”
“I think the wildest theory so far is the one that says that the whole season is just Joe hallucinating while Love has him locked up after poisoning him,” someone commented. But not everyone agreed, the thread is full of other theories.
Is Rhys on ‘You’ Season 4 real?
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” shows earlier events from Marienne Bellamy’s (Tati Gabrielle) perspective. Joe didn’t really let her leave on a train. He kidnapped her and put her in a box.
Joe tortured Rhys to find out where Marienne was being held. But after he died, another Rhys popped up to explain the truth.
“You and Rhys Montrose, the real Rhys Montrose, have never met,” he said. “Ah, Correction! Once, when you zip-tied his bollocks and killed him. But I wouldn’t exactly call that a formal introduction.”
Joe brought up that they talked in public, and Rhys told him it wasn’t with other people. “You are full fat, extra sugar, deep-fried f***ing insane, Joe Goldberg,” the figment of his imagination told him.
Rhys explained that he’s the part of Joe that broke away to do his dirty work. “You poured all that darkness you hated into this vessel you admired because you knew that the endgame was facing yourself, didn’t you?” he said. “There you go, all the worst bits in a little package you don’t mind having a pint with. I hope it makes it easier.”
Joe admits to having a mental breakdown. The real reason behind the murders is that he didn’t believe they were worth saving, and Gemma Graham-Greene (Eve Austin) was onto him.
What’s next for Joe Goldberg?
Rhys warns Joe. “I’d love to be gentle, but you won’t listen when I tell you how you are living is unsustainable,” he said. “You will end up in prison or worse. You need to embrace your truth, Joe.”
All season Joe has been denying being a murderer to everyone, including himself. If Joe drops the lie that his actions come from love or the desire to protect people, what’s next for him? It’s unclear but it probably will change the character in a big way.
