The final season of You has arrived, and with it comes the final chapter of Netflix’s beloved thriller.
Heading into the final episodes, there was no telling what the writers had in store for the closing of the series. If there is one thing we did expect heading into the final season of You, it was that at least a few more characters would lose their lives before the series's final episode. After all, this is You we’re talking about, and the show has never gone a season without racking up a body count.
The biggest question on the minds of fans going into the last 10 episodes wasn’t a matter of how many deaths there would be, but rather who exactly would make it out of the final season alive. You has never held back or been afraid of making big moves. With Season 5 serving as the final chapter of the show’s run, really, anyone feels like fair game—even Joe!
So who exactly made it out of the season alive and which characters perished in the final chapter of You? Let’s just say, the season is full of surprises!
Needless to say, there are MAJOR spoilers ahead for the final season of You on Netflix. If you haven’t finished the season and want to avoid spoilers, you might want to turn back now as we’re going to dive into the biggest spoilers from the season with a look at which characters do and don’t die in the final season!
Uncle Bob was the first big death of You season 5
The final season of You wasted no time in bringing about our first notable death of the season. The first character to meet their maker in season 5 was poor Uncle Bob, whose plot against Kate turned out to be his personal downfall.
In the first episode, we learn that Forbes is working on a hit piece which could bring Kate down which Joe is not about to let happen. He spearheads an investigation that leads him to Kate’s Uncle Bob, who has secretly been plotting behind Kate’s back and is looking to stage a no-confidence vote to oust Kate from her status as CEO at the family company.
Upon learning of Bob’s role, we see Joe abduct and murder Bob in an effort to protect Kate… only for that moment to be a daydream. However, Bob soon lands in Joe’s crosshairs for real when Bob reveals to Kate that he knows what happened to Rhys and Kate’s involvement in covering up his murder. When Kate tells Joe about Bob’s threat to release the information, she gives Joe the go-ahead to clean up the mess for her.
Joe breaks into Bob’s house and strangles him with a rope before staging the death to make it look like a suicide.
Reagan indeed dies, but Joe surprisingly didn’t kill her
Right out of the gate, it became clear that Reagan was unlikely to make it through the season as she quickly found herself in Joe’s crosshairs.
Joe begins plotting Reagan’s demise at the top of the season and makes it clear he wants to take her off the chessboard he calls life by any means necessary. In the second episode, Joe acts on his impulses and abducts Reagan… only to discover he took the wrong twin, having confused Maddie for Reagan.
Eventually, Joe can’t help but go after the real Reagan, who puts up a fight and fends Joe off when he attempts to abduct her. The two battle it out and it looks like Reagan will make it out, but Joe ends up knocking her out by hitting her over the head with a bowling pin.
Reagan survives the blow to her head and ends up being put in the cage alongside Maddie. Joe’s plan then shifts to manipulating Maddie into killing her own sister. At first, Maddie isn’t sold on the plan, but after Reagan lays into her and tears her down, Maddie finally snaps and injects Reagan with a fatal dose of her insulin, which results in the death of Reagan at the hands of her sister.
Clayton was surprisingly Joe’s final major kill in You’s run
Heading into the final season of You, there was a high expectation that Joe would be adding a handful of additional victims to his body count. Perhaps that’s why it’s so surprising that Joe only kills – yes, I just said only, which sounds insane without context – three key characters across the final season. The first victim of the season is Uncle Bob and Joe’s final murder of the season is a random man who came after Bronte, later in the season. As for that third victim? Well, that honor goes to Clayton, whom Joe killed in the fifth episode of You season 5.
At the conclusion of episode 5, Joe is under the assumption that Clayton is Bronte’s ex, so when he comes downstairs from the beach house where he and Bronte were staying to find Clayton standing over Bronte, Joe’s killer instincts immediately kick in. Joe and Clayton struggled back and forth, but Joe ultimately got the upper hand on Clayton.
As Clayton fought back as Joe tried to strangle him, Joe smashed his head into the stone hearth by the fireplace, killing him instantly. We later learn that Clayton was actually the son of Dr. Nicky, and had met Bronte online when she began to ask questions about Beck’s death. Clayton initially set a trap for Joe to come after Bronte, but ended up walking into his own trap when he confronted her at the beach house which led Joe to take drastic measures in attacking and killing Clayton.
Does Kate die in You season 5?
After surviving the fourth season of You and marrying Joe, Kate entered the final season of You seemingly in a good place. Years had passed since season 4 and Joe and Kate were still going strong as the final season kicked off; however, it didn’t take long for the couple’s marriage to crumble before our eyes.
Following the death of Uncle Bob, Kate began to see Joe for who he truly is when he seemed to show no regret or remorse for the murder. As Joe began to spiral further out of control, Kate began to put a plan into motion to both protect herself from Joe and to also attempt to finally put a stop to his murderous ways.
For a good stretch of the season, Kate managed to stay one step ahead of Joe, and we thought it was going to be Kate who would bring him to justice – in fact, we still believe it should have been, but that’s an argument for another time.
In the ninth episode of the season, Kate has managed to capture Joe with help from Nadia and Marienne. After some debate among the group regarding what they should do to stop Joe, Kate agrees to be the one who ends things by killing Joe. The only thing she didn’t account for was that Joe caught on to her and had literally hidden a copy of the key to his cage under his skin.
Joe gets the jump on Kate and the two battle for her gun. Joe eventually manages to overpower her and shoots Kate, seemingly killing her —emphasis on seemingly. While the gunshot did injure her, it was not a fatal wound and Kate managed to use a hammer to stun Joe. Things went from bad to worse though, when Maddie rolled up and set fire to Mooney’s, not knowing her sister was in the basement. As the episode ends, Bronte comes running down to the basement and pulls Joe out of the fire, while leaving Kate for dead.
The finale alludes to Kate dying in the fire; however, we learn in the series finale that Kate survived and was reborn, returning to the art world once Joe was brought to justice and helping champion Marienne’s talent as an artist.
Bronte is the You season 5 final girl
From the moment Joe set his sights on Bronte, we had a bad feeling she was about to meet an untimely demise at the hands of Joe and become the latest in a line of women Joe killed after they saw him for who he truly was. Much to our surprise, though, Bronte does not get killed in You season 5 and ends up becoming the final girl of the series who actually helped to bring Joe down once and for all. Still, that doesn’t mean Bronte doesn’t come close to dying.
After finally seeing Joe for the killer that he is, Bronte concocts a plan to try to get him to confess to the murder of Beck finally and to make him pay for killing her friend – that’s right, we learn halfway through the season that Bronte catfished Joe and happened to be a student Beck helped mentor. Bronte did not meet Joe by chance and actually met him as part of an elaborate plan to gather evidence and out him as a killer to the world.
For a moment, it looked like Bronte was duped by Joe’s act, but as the series comes to an end, Bronte proves to be the one who brings Joe down. After making Joe redact his edits to Beck’s book, she goes to call 911, which is when Joe attacks her. The pair engage in a heart-pounding game of cat and mouse, which includes a fakeout death in which we believe momentarily that Joe has drowned Bronte, only to find out she survived. Their showdown ends when the police show up in the nick of ti
In the end, Bronte gets to start fresh, having finally gotten justice for Beck, which entailed releasing Beck’s final novel without Joe’s edits, thus giving Beck’s voice back to her story.
Does Joe die in You season 5?
As much as we wish Joe got what he deserved, the final season of You opted not to kill Joe and instead ended his killing spree with Joe's arrest and conviction on multiple counts of murder.
In the series finale, Joe is convinced he’s going to get his happy ending with Bronte and the two flee for Canada. Little does he know, Bronte has finally wised up to who Joe really is and has a plan to put an end to his reign of terror.
After faking her way through a romantic dinner and moonlit boat ride, Bronte enacts her plan by luring Joe to bed, where she turns the tables by holding him at gunpoint. Bronte then forces Joe to finally confess that he killed Beck, then forces him to go through her final novel to redact all of the changes he had personally made to her final work.
Once Joe finishes redacting his edits, Bronte goes to call 911, which is when Joe attacks her. The two struggle with the chase bleeding out into the woods around the house they broke into. Believing he killed Bronte by drowning her in the lake, Joe hears police sirens in the distance and his fight-or-flight instincts kick in. He attacks a cop and tries to evade capture which is when Bronte shows up, gun in hand to confront him. With the police closing in, Joe begs Bronte to kill him so that he won’t go to jail but she refuses to let him off that easy.
Joe charges at Bronte, who ends up shooting Joe’s penis off, resulting in a viral moment on TikTok following his arrest. Joe’s story ends with him being convicted for murder and landing behind bars, cut off from the outside world, serving multiple life sentences.