If Love Quinn was the only one to match Joe’s freak, why did he kill her? The psychology behind “You” explored

Netflix’s You highlights the perverse progression of love, fixation, and defiance in a way few shows dare to put up. In You, Joe Goldberg's poisonous brand of warmth bumps into someone just as dark—Love Quinn.

Played by Victoria Pedretti (The Haunting of Hill House & The Haunting of Bly Manor), Love Quinn was the only one, the only woman to match Joe’s freak. Yet, he murders her.

Why? Hidden under the overt surface, the show explores psychological self-loathing, some Freudian subtleties, with which comes the frightening incompetence to acknowledge one's true self.

Let's dive further into why Love Quinn, the perfect match, had to be killed by the cold hands of Goldberg.

Disclaimer: The details of this article represent the author's opinion. Reader discretion is advised.

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The Love Quinn mirror Joe Goldberg refused to face

In You, Joe visualizes himself as a white knight or Prince Charming rather than facing up to his true identity, a villain and a serial killer.

"The first step to fixing something is to know no matter how destroyed it seems, it can always be saved."

Love Quinn, on the other hand, peeled off his sense of delusion and illusion bare. She wasn't a damsel in distress in need of her prince charming to ride on a white horse and rescue her—she was equally devious and was equally willing to kill, just like Joe.

Her presence in the show throughout the end of season 4 and the entirety of season 4 shattered this false idea and deluded fantasy that Joe clung to: that he killed only for moral reasons, that he was special, better.

Love uncovered that he wasn’t ‘saving’ anyone—he was just another monster, just like her.

Joe could not come to terms with this mirror image, let alone that of a woman being thrown at him. Rather than face his inner darkness, he ultimately made the decision to shatter the reflection.

What makes You so gripping is how Joe’s psyche reacts aggressively to any commotion caused to his internal narrative. He labeled Love’s murders as reckless and malicious, while seeing his own as unselfish and necessary.

Him burying Candice? Framing Dr. Nicky for the murder of Guinevere Beck? Killing Peach, Edward, and a long list of Joe’s victims? Yep, all necessary and all done for good.

This hypocrisy and falseness are the foundation of the show when it comes to Goldberg. Joe isn’t a man eager for love, but a man desperate to deem himself good.

And when Love put this deluded belief of his in jeopardy, Joe saw no choice but to kill her, making sure he stayed the "white knight" of his story.

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"You" through the Freudian Lens: The death of the idealized mother/woman

According to Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, his ‘Freudian theory’ provides interesting understandings into You and Joe’s venomous behavioural patterns.

Freud proposed the idea that unresolved childhood traumas, especially those linking parental figures, shape a child’s relationships in their adult life.

Joe’s abusive childhood left him running after an impossible idea: a woman who could appease and validate his value without challenging his self-esteem. In season 2, Love Quinn initially, for just a brief moment, seemed fit for this role.

She cared for him, baked cupcakes and left them in his locker, loved him, and most importantly, seemed to need him. But once she showed her true self, her own violent nature, Love switched from being a damsel to Joe’s own reflective mirror into his deranged psyche.

According to Freud, this downfall of idealism leads to anger and fear, which is exactly what happens with Joe when it comes to Love Quinn.

In the show, Joe didn’t just murder Love because she was threatening —he killed her because she simply demolished his fragile fantasy. Love was no longer the ‘woman to save’ he craved for; she was his counterpart, now turned into what he saw as a rival.

In killing her, Joe wasn’t just wiping away Love; he was figuratively getting rid of parts of himself he couldn’t stand to confront.

You brilliantly uses these subtleties to show that Joe’s definitive enemy has always been Joe himself.

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You and the eternal chase: Joe’s obsession with rescue

Immediately linking to the above, a major theme running throughout You up until the finale season is Joe’s craving for the idea of "rescuing" women. Beck, Marienne, Kate, Bronte —all were etched in his mind as broken birds whom he could step up and save.

Love, on the other hand, broke this mold. Love didn’t need anyone saving her. She wasn’t a woman who needed a man to save her; she could kill for herself and fight for herself.

She allowed Joe to believe she was frail initially, but once her true colours were revealed, Joe lost interest—and grew perplexed.

The thrill and chase for all these women was always more mind-altering to Joe than honest connections and relationships. Settling down with an equal frightened him. Without someone to be available for him to save and rescue, Joe lost his sense of purpose and his illusion of being "better."

Love wasn’t a project. She was his wife. In Joe’s fissured psyche, his relationship was now up for rivalry, and a rivalry with his wife equalled death.

So, he fled to what he knew how to do best— aggression, denial, and make-believe. You is not about ‘love’ at all; it’s about control, and Joe could never control Love Quinn.

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You exposes that Joe didn’t poison and burn the house down on Love because she was poles apart; he did all of that because Love Quinn was exactly the same as Joe Goldberg.

Through a psychological lens, You undoes the reality that Joe’s vilest enemy wasn’t Love—it was the actuality of his true self that she forced him to see, which is why, even though Love matched his freak, Joe was still the one to kill her.

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You is streaming on Netflix.