REVIEW | Get ready for one of the best reveals on television as bloody hell breaks loose in You S4 Part 2

Bloody hell breaks loose! In Part 2 of season 4, Joe/Professor Jonathan Moore faces the Eat the Rich killer, who has been killing his new associates and framing him for the crime.

I will be the first to admit that I was incredibly wrong about my critique of the first part of You's fourth season. Like many others, I was hustled by the show's incredible writers, setting up one of the best reveals in television and garnering Penn Badgley one of his best performances as the love-lorn Joe Goldberg. Inverting our expectations yet also delivering them with psychotic gusto, You has come very far since Joe's humble beginnings in season one as an obsessive stalker and jaded lover. The series sticks to a clear vision that is planned to the very last detail, and they are incredibly lucky with Badgley's talents to carry this show all the way to the finish line - regardless of who makes it to first place.

The last time we saw Joe/Professor Jonathan was the start of his long stand-off with the Eat the Rich killer, determined to end him before he reveals all Joe's secrets. He maintains a safe yet in-touch distance from Kate in an effort to protect her from the killer, but it becomes increasingly harder as he's constantly pulled into the lives of London's rich socialites.

The first part of the season expertly played with the tropes of a whodunit to distract its audience, though that facade is quickly dropped half-way through part two. The cleverness of You has always been in how Joe connects with his audience directly through his inner monologues and inventively plays around with the conventions of an unreliable narrator. Even when Joe's not in the scene, we are still beholden to his perspective of events and people, either confirming his judgments of other characters or excusing his actions as the necessary evil. The writers know that a dedicated audience is used to seeing all of this through his eyes, using it to their advantage to plant a big narrative bomb. Whether this brilliance lies in the original novel series by Caroline Kepnes or the adaptation by its showrunners, You has a fascinating connection with its audience that's hard to replicate.

Joe himself is a detached audience of the world around him, observing and living precariously through his twisted sense of morality. His extreme denial of his own nature causes not only rifts within himself but with his connection to his 'imaginary' audience. I didn't enjoy this straight-laced, good Joe of part one, yet I was still hooked enough to see his journey through. The season finale took the story in a direction I did not expect and a reconciliation that seemed unattainable before. Kate, played with precision by Charlotte Ritchie, took a surprise turn that could go any which way in future seasons, although I am in two minds if I'm happy with where the story is heading, split with wanting to see Joe burn for his actions.

Badgley gives his best performance as Joe here, analytical yet emotionally raw, as he finally starts to stop running away from himself, and the character undergoes a surprise evolution. He had great antagonising chemistry with Ed Speleers as his stalker and Eat the Rich killer and carefully mirrored the darkest parts of Joe with his well-researched performance.

Another excellent execution of raw emotion came from Tati Gabrielle, whose character wasn't as done with the show as we were led to believe. She had to have tapped into a dark place for her gut-wrenching delivery as the only one whose side of the story is far removed from Joe's perspective. As Marienne, she offers a break from Joe's hold on the audience, a reminder that he's supposed to be the villain in the story and that she can write her own way out of his little messed-up world.

You can never trust what will happen next in You, and it is the type of show that only really works well because of its specific writers and casting choices. Few other actors could maintain the hypnotic charisma that Badgley brings to Joe over four seasons, and I doubt he will ever falter. A big key is Badgley's real-life awareness of Joe's awfulness, and the show ensures that you're constantly reminded of this despite his dark appeal.

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