How did Bronte trick Joe in believing her in You's season finale? Here's everything we know

Let’s be honest, You has always been a wild ride. But the final episodes? They blew everything wide open. Just when it felt like Joe Goldberg might be redeeming himself, the series slammed the brakes. Hard. We were tricked into thinking he had changed. But Bronte? She never bought the act. She saw through the lies, and she made sure the story ended on her terms.

Throughout the series, Joe convinced himself he was the hero. Misunderstood, maybe a little intense, but deep down? Just a guy looking for love. But by You Season 5, it was clear: Joe hadn’t changed. He just got better at pretending.

We’ve all fallen for the idea of the “bad boy” who wants to be good. It’s a trope. But Joe wasn’t just broken, he was dangerous. Still, part of us kept hoping. Until Bronte showed us why we shouldn’t.

By You Season 5 Episode 9, Bronte started putting the pieces together. Something about Joe didn’t add up. And then, at Mooney’s bookstore, she finds Kate dead. Joe’s barely alive. And for a second, she almost walks away. But she doesn’t.

It wasn’t love or pity that made her stay. It was justice. She realized the only way to stop Joe for good was to play the long game.

Joe, in his twisted way, thinks proposing will fix everything. And shockingly, Bronte says yes. But it wasn’t romance. It was a strategy. She wasn’t joining his fantasy, she was rewriting it.

She wore the ring. She smiled. But inside? She was planning how to finally end the nightmare.

You - A fake fresh start

They head to Canada. Joe’s painting pictures of a happy future. But Bronte knows better. She’s not here to build a life, she’s here to bring him down. She questions him, keeps pushing. Joe thinks it’s intimacy. But it’s interrogation. She wants the truth. All of it. At the lake house, Bronte finally breaks the silence. She demands to know the truth about Beck, about Love, about everyone.

He spins his usual excuses. “I did it for love,” he says. But Bronte isn’t buying it. She calls him what he really is: a narcissist. A manipulator. A killer. Joe snaps. He attacks her. He admits to breaking her ankle earlier, just to keep her from leaving. That says everything.

He drags her into the lake, tries to drown her, screaming about how he killed Beck. It’s brutal. But it’s also the beginning of the end. Bronte survives. And then comes the reveal: she’s not Bronte anymore. Her real name is Louise. And she’s been planning this takedown for a while. Joe begs her to kill him. He wants a dramatic ending. But Louise refuses. She knows that death would be too easy. Living with the truth? That’s the real punishment.

The police arrive. Joe’s been arrested. Louise shoots him in the crotch, poetic, right? And hands him over. The courtroom is packed. Joe’s crimes are laid bare. Love. Beck. Benji. Peach. Survivors like Nadia speak. Joe is done. Kate rebuilds. She turns her empire into a nonprofit. She gets her life back, her real life.

Marianne comes out of hiding. Joe’s son, Henry, goes to live with Kate. Safe. Loved. Far from the chaos. Beck’s book is re-released, this time without Joe’s edits. Her voice, at last, is heard the way it was meant to be. Louise/Bronte refuses to kill Joe because she won’t let him write the ending. He doesn’t get a tragic goodbye. He gets irrelevant.

Joe no longer defines her. She’s not another name on his list. She’s the one who ended the cycle. Joe sits in prison. Alone. Forgotten. Then he gets a letter from a fan. And just like that, the cycle threatens to start again. Even in prison, Joe still believes he’s the hero. And someone out there still sees him that way. Chilling, right?

You always pretended to be a love story. But it was really a warning about obsession, control, and the lies we tell ourselves. Bronte doesn’t just survive. She wins. Not by playing Joe’s game, but by ending it. Bronte (aka Louise) saw through every lie Joe ever told, to the world, to himself, and to the women he claimed to love. By pretending to go along with his fantasy, she turned the tables and brought the whole twisted story to its final page. Her refusal to give Joe the ending he wanted?

That wasn’t just personal. It was powerful. It was a statement. In the end, You wasn’t Joe’s story. It was Bronte’s victory.

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