This crucial detail in the YOU finale was decided completely by Penn Badgley and it’s iconic

Hopefully by now you’ve soaked up the finale of YOU season five on Netflix. Adios, Joe Goldberg! Our not-so-favourite lover boy is now locked up in a cage of his own, and will never see the light of day again. Sweet, sweet justice.

In the final episode, Joe and Bronte had escaped together. But, he didn’t know that she had actually turned on him. This ended in Bronte trying to shoot Joe, and then escaping out in the woods in the mass expanse of the house they were staying at. During the showdown, Joe believed he had drowned Bronte, but she came back and shot him in the genitals, turning him into an internet meme as the police turned up to take him away.

Speaking to CNN, showrunners for the Netflix series, Michael Foley and Justin Lo, revealed Penn Badgley had a lot of input towards those final moments for the couple. Penn, who played Joe, served as an executive producer during season five.

According to the report, Penn has taken an “active” role in crafting Joe’s story throughout the entire Netflix series, but a very poignant part of the finale was down to him. Penn was sure he wanted his character to be shirtless in the mud and the rain during that showdown with Bronte.

via Netflix

“That was very much him [Penn] saying, ‘I need the world to see him at his worst, most horrific as an animal in the woods.’ That was really important to him, like, please pull no punches,” Foley said of Penn Badgley’s requests. “All those things that we don’t want to see in Joe, let’s show those things.”

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So basically, it was because of Penn Badgley that we saw Joe Goldberg pathetically running around in the mud and rain in his boxers – degraded how he was in his final moments as a free man. Poetic!

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Penn himself added: “It was really important that in the end, we all understood and agreed that he’s not gonna be taken down in the box, he’s gonna be taken down in the bedroom.”

He added: “For the first time we’re seeing really the true colours of this man and what he’s doing, and for the first time ever we see him in the act and we don’t want it to happen. It was really important to me that he’d be deconstructed as a romantic icon. I was singing that song since season one, but I was really explicit with it with the writers throughout this season.”

Season five of YOU is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.