kang-mi-rae

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Because with you, love has a price. This is where it was headed the whole time. Peak romance.

YOU | 5.10 "Finale"

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Men like Joe, they… They really catch you off guard, don't they? Even when you think you have all the facts. Even when you think your hard-fought instincts are so good. Even though a voice in the back of your mind is… whispering. Telling you, "Don't be fooled by his smile." "It's all too good to be true." "The way he sees you." "The way he loves you." "Even when you don't love yourself." "Don't believe it when he tells you he'll take care of you." "Definitely don't assume the best when he says he'll keep you safe." You ignore that voice because it feels so good to love him and be loved by him. Like it's you and him against the world. You know what bad looks like. You know better. And when the bad things happen, you have to believe they're not actually bad, right? Because if you got fooled by this guy, you are not as smart as you thought you were. You're one of those women. You know, the ones you, deep down, think you're smarter than. It can't be you. But he's convinced you that you need him. And he's wormed himself so, so deep you don't know whether you are Bronte, or Louise, or Marienne. Or Beck. Or none of those. Or nothing.

Tati Gabrielle as Marienne Bellamy & Madeline Brewer as Louise Flannery YOU (2018 - 2025) Ep. 5.09: "Trial of the Furies"

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Bronte is all of us. Let's be fucking real. She's literally THE chronically online girl with a difficult home life who uses the internet for escapism. Whether she was pretending to be someone else or if it was her projecting her inner vulnerabilities, it doesn't mean she is not representative of a large chunk of the online sphere. I agree with the sentiment that it should have been someone from the past to destroy Joe Goldberg but why is everyone scrutinizing this poor girl for no reason. She knew what he had been doing and couldn't help but fall for it. Isn't that our whole point of view as viewers? This mob of Joe defenders cannot separate Penn's attractiveness from a character. And I was a Beck hater but I think what made her so special was that she was literally just a girl. She had hopes, dreams and she was flawed but she was incandescent. I read somewhere that Love was Joe's equal and Kate was the opposite of what he had ever been. Marienne (imo) was what he thought he could be, a flawed altruistic and confident parent who strives to be better for their child. Bronte is a fangirl who's accepted his darkest parts (as opposed to Love, who challenges and brings that part out of him). Stop criticizing the dumbness, the validity, the beauty, the intelligence, and the survival instincts of these women because they are victims of a person and a society that we actually live in.

If you think about it, we are the most immersed in Joe's head from the first season to the second season's finale. After the glass shatters with Love, we see things a little more clearly throughout the third one cause we have Love. He loses the plot in Season 4 hence Rhys Montrose. And Season 5 he has officially lost control over what we see, hear and believe.

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the creep needle drop, joe getting his dick shot, beck behind the book signing table with all joes words edited out of her writing, mariannes speech to louise and her getting to finally tell joe how much he ruined her, nadia getting her writing published, women thriving and joe rotting in prison knowing that only a truly troubled person could ever love him,

guinevere beck you will forever be the reason joe goldberg spends eternity rotting in a cage where he belongs

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creating bronte and showing what beck was really like, and not through the lens of her abuser, was actually a really beautiful decision and i love this twist a lot. to see how much she had to offer the world so plainly.. like this is so important

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Nadia being a published writer and helping inmates process their traumas. Marianne being a famous artist. Kate back to being an art gallery manager and a mother. Bronte rewriting Beck's book.

The girls won this season as they should!

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The way Joe is still not feeling guilty and accountable for his actions even though he's in jail. He killed so many people, hurt so many others, and yet blamed it on the society, being the "product of his environment" and that "hurt people hurt people".

He's a proper sociopath.

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I for one absolutely love the You season five finale because did you guys seriously think a narcissistic psychopath deserved a happy ending? Not only did Joe call out the weirdos who romanticize/justify his actions but it’s also him still taking zero accountability and finding yet another person (the audience) to blame for said actions. I just KNOW Penn Badgley wrote that line himself. Chefs kiss

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i always wondered what would be the most satisfactory way to wrap YOU up and lowkey assumed that the finale would not be some sort of perfect culmination to the whole story.

and boy, was i wrong...

the finale of YOU s5 was perfect. it surpassed my expectations for a great ending bc it went beyond the show's assumed formula and became a self-aware, raw and surprisingly feminist meta commentary on the show itself, joe goldberg, his victims and the real world realities of the victim/predator dynamics.

throughout the season, i wondered what was the point of introducing a character like louise. was it to show once again that joe will always find a flaw in his "soulmate" and continue the pattern of his predatory behavior?

yes, but more importantly, it all clicked and made sense when the finale revealed the point of louise to be about HER, not joe.

louise is not a random chick whose life and story is split in "before joe and after joe". she is an echo of beck. through louise we see that beck was not just a tragic heroine in joe's story, she was someone who left an impact on people in her life such as louise.

she is not the perfect victim or heroine. she has some moments of internalized misogyny, thinking that she is smarter than those women who fall for toxic men. she believes that she can fix joe. she fantasizes about being saved and dominated by him, giving him control to build her up bc she does not know who she is and has self-esteem issues, struggling to love herself without a lover's validation.

in some sense, she represents joe's perfect victim; in some sense, she represents the audiences who romanticize him. and she is the one who snaps out and sees herself clearly, thus seeing joe as he truly is and becoming his ultimate reckoning.

and with her, we see joe as he is as well. a pathetic misogynist with mommy issues who does not accept anything he deems selfish in women he preys upon. a predator who kills his prey once she does not reflect the image of himself to him he wants to see. someone who does not take accountability for harming others, always making excuses for himself. his mask is finally off, he is naked.

once louise confronts him and takes her voice back, demanding joe to admit the truth, the story takes off the romantic lenses that reminded more or less intact throughout the show and turns into a pure horror of brutality and violence.

but joe can not kill louise. metaphorically, it's bc he does not have power over her anymore, she found her own power in herself. power that is found through self-acceptance and love for all the victims who were silenced by joe. she declares that she is not bronte built in his fantasy, she is louise.

i actually teared up when louise had a vision of beck autographing her books and then it cut to an older lady, showing the lifetime that was taken away from her.

in the end, we recognize what joe refuses to recognize - that he is responsible for his loneliness. yet, he is not wrong when he breaks the forth wall and confronts the audiences for participating the culture that blames the victims and gives power to the abusers.

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YOU (2018-2025) 5.10 "Finale"

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You finale will stay with me for long

YOU (2018-2025)

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"Tell me how to hate you"

Ohohohohoooo boy that was the gif set i saw that finally got me to start watching and BOY HOWDY I was NOT ready I OOP 💖💫🥵

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also “I’ll become your biggest secret” is suchhhh a good confession of feelings

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OKAY SO

I love Chief Kwon. She is such a surrogate mom to baby boy like...come on. She loves that boy.

And i hate the grandmother even more. I am glad that Sujeong gave her a piece of mind.

AND THE POWER POLITICS OH. I LIVE FOR THIS SHIT. BRILLIANT.

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Chief Kwon such a real one. At the mercy of a chaebol and she still did the right thing. Didn't let the paycheck stop her from helping Juyeon however she could...

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They’re just sooo CUTE!

And so unashamed to be dating. He's like yeah, I got everyone at work lobster because of my crush, what about it

The nosy coworkers were so cute too!! Not all of them, just these fangirls

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Oh baby! / I couldn't express or tell you / Back then, you and I "I miss you" / "I like you" / In that moment / I wanted to scream out loud

MY DEAREST NEMESIS - EPISODE 12