Explained: Here’s how YOU season four part one ended after the killer’s identity was exposed

Spoiler warning: This is a YOU season four part one ending explained so obviously there are major spoilers ahead.

Penn Badgley is back as everyone’s favourite obsessive murderer, Joe Goldberg. The last three seasons of YOU have been wild. We’ve seen Joe commit several murders, one of them being his own wife, Love. Typically we know Joe is a man who becomes obsessed with a woman and is ready to kill anyone who might threaten or harm her or his chance of being with her.

At the end of season three we saw Joe fake his own death and move to Europe in the search for Marienne. However whilst he’s in London he becomes friends with some London elites and then everything we’ve ever known about how Joe works gets flipped on his head. It turns out someone knows Joe’s secret and this time he is the one being stalked.

The first part of season four shows Joe realising what it’s like to be stalked. Having to second guess everyone you’ve ever met. So here’s everything you need to know about the events of season four in YOU and how part one ends.

YOU season four part one ending explained:

Joe takes on a new identity, Professor Jonathan Moore

Joe is hiding in plain sight as a literature professor at a university in London. He’s now going by Professor Johnathan Moore and becomes friends with a rich professor named Malcolm who lives next door to Joe with his girlfriend, Kate.

Joe can see through into Malcolm’s living room and clocks Kate. In the first episode Joe is invited to a rich party where he meets the other elites. There’s people such as Lady Phoebe and her boyfriend Adam. And a Nigerian princess called Blessing, an artist and his influencer sister, Simon and Sophie Soo. We also meet Gemma, Connie, Rhys and Roald.

At the party Malcolm encourages Joe to let loose – he gets too drunk and wakes up to find Malcolm’s dead body on the kitchen table. Joe can’t remember killing Malcolm though but decides to clean up the mess whilst the police question Kate. Joe gets rid of Malcolm’s body without raising alarms. He then finds Marienne who gets spooked and returns to Paris. Joe then switches his attention to Kate and builds a connection with her and joins the circle of the rich kids in London.

Several members of the elite group die

Over the next few episodes various members of the group end up dead. The killer gets the nickname “Eat the Rich Killer” and everyone suspects it is Joe but it’s actually not. The real murderer begins a series of mind games, taunting Joe through text messages that disappear after a certain amount of time. Simon Soo is then killed during an art show that was produced by Kate and Joe returns to his flat to see the killer has stapled clippings of articles about all the other people Joe has killed.

By the end of the third episode Joe is back to his old habits and makes his first killing. He fights with Adam’s bodyguard, Vic, kills him and buries him before the police manage to jump on his tail.

Roald accuses Joe of being the killer

Phoebe suggests the group go on a trip to her family home, Knebworth House. Joe sees this as a chance to figure out who the killer is. Roald catches Joe looking around his room and pushes him out of the second floor window. Joe then hobbles back into Kate’s room and finds Gemma dead on the floor.

Eat the Rich Killer is exposed

In the fifth and final episode of part one, Roald openly accuses Joe of being the killer. Joe manages to leg it but Roald catches up to him and they fight. Out of nowhere, Rhys appears and he kidnaps them both and chains them in a dungeon under the house. Rhys Montrose, one of the friends amongst the elite group is revealed as the killer.

Rhys tells Joe he planned to pin all the murders on Roald and to make it look like suicide so he can’t protest his innocence. Essentially Rhys wants Joe to do all the dirty work for him and surprisingly Joe has reservations and tries to break free from the chains. Rhys sets the mansion on fire because Joe double bluffed him about wanting to be part of the plan. Kate rescues the pair of them and the love between her and Joe deepens. The group return to London and Kate asks Joe to go on a date.

Joe holds back because he doesn’t want to put her in danger and is more focused about exposing Rhys as the killer. The season ends with Rhys announcing his plans to run for Mayor of London. Joe decides he is the only person who can stop Rhys.

Part one season four 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. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Here’s how ridiculously long it would have taken Joe to walk around London in episode one

• Here are all the London-based filming locations you recognise in YOU season four

• Meet Amy-Leigh Hickman, the Ackley Bridge star playing Nadia in YOU season four