This Small Detail From *You*'s Season Finale Will Convince You That Beck Is Alive
Warning: You spoilers ahead.
If you’re all aboard the You train on Netflix (and who isn’t?) then you know the big question on fans’ minds: Is Beck (Elizabeth Lail) alive? The season one finale suggests Joe (Penn Badgley) murdered her after she tried to escape that creepy glass box in the basement of his bookstore—but we never see Beck’s body, just an anonymous body bag of some sort. Joe also manages to sell Beck’s debut novel to a publisher, and people are celebrating it in an almost-posthumous way. But none of this 100 percent proves Beck is dead. You is bonkers, people. Anything can happen.
With that spirit in mind, fasten your seat belts—because there’s a small detail from the show’s season finale that supports the fan theory that Beck is alive. As WhatCulture points out, Joe is completely flabbergasted when his ex-girlfriend Candace shows up to the bookstore in episode 10. “Candace, you’re…” Joe starts saying before she finishes his thought for him: “Alive.” For those who think this means Joe didn’t harm Candace—as previously speculated—think back to something she said to him in an earlier episode in a hallucination: “Are you gonna leave Beck alone, or will she end up like me?” This builds a strong case for thinking Joe believed he killed Candace but didn’t.
And if Candace is alive, it could mean that Beck is also alive. It’s plausible that for a second time, Joe is a failed murderer. He essentially replicated the same atrocious behavior with Beck that he did with Candace: the obsessing, the stalking, the jealousy, etc. Maybe Joe also thinks he murdered Beck—that would explain why he’s acting like Beck is dead in the season finale. But in reality he didn’t pull it off, and fans are finding all sorts of loopholes.
This theory holds water if you (a) believe Joe attempted—but failed—to murder Candace, and (b) believe the fates of Candace and Beck mirror each other, which is more than possible. Joe is a very methodical thinker and quite set in his problematic, murderous ways. He’s a killer, yes, but as the pee incident at Peach’s house proves, he makes mistakes. Perhaps he made the same mistake twice.