Joe Goldberg Biography

Joseph “Joe” Goldberg is an American fictional character in the television series “You“. He is portrayed by Penn Badgley. “You” is an adaptation of a book series by Caroline Kepnes.

Joe Golberg Early Life

At the story’s outset, it was revealed that Joe was orphaned at a young age. It is implied in the first season that he was subject to neglect by his biological parents. After he was put into foster care, Mr. Mooney adopted Joe and took care of him. Though, it is later highlighted that Mooney would subject Joe to a similar abusive treatment. Mooney locking him in a glass cage vault, below his bookstore, against his will. As part of his “lesson”, Mooney would teach the value of reading and books to Joe. This is in order to show his affection and reverence towards such activities.

Joe Golberg Season 1

The first season follows bookstore manager, Joe Goldberg as he tries to win over MFA student Guinevere Beck. He does this by manipulating everything and everyone around her. They first meet at Mooney’s, the bookstore where Joe and his co-worker Ethan work. Joe starts to obsessively find all the information on Beck that he can via her social media accounts. In order to pursue Beck, he wants to make sure that she is worth it and won’t break his heart. Which he continuously implies, that a similar instance occurred in the past with his ex-girlfriend, Candace Stone, who is presumed dead.

Meanwhile, Joe is good friends with his kid next-door neighbor, Paco. Paco has an abusive home life and is always trying to escape by reading tons of books. Joe has a soft spot for Paco because he sees a lot of his childhood in Paco’s. As Paco’s situation at home with Ron, his stepfather, deteriorates over time, Joe finds himself getting more and more involved. As a response, Ron admonishes Joe’s actions, by stating that he is suspicious of him and that he needs to stay far away from Paco.

After a day of following Beck around in the shadows, he stalks her to one of the New York City Subway stations, where she falls on the train tracks. He successfully saves Beck from imminent death, before the train arrives. Later, it is revealed that he stole her phone during his attempt at helping Beck. He starts to read every content, she has shared with her friends, workers and family members. Going through her messages, Joe uncovers the identity of Benji Ashby, Becks on and off hook-up buddy. Joe starts plotting how to get rid of Benji from Beck’s life. Goldberg believes that Benji is an obstacle to his future relationship with Beck.

Joe Goldberg & Benji

He tricks Benji into having a business meeting with him and hits him over the head with a mallet, keeping him captive in his basement. To not raise any suspicions about Benji’s whereabouts, Joe starts using his phone and social media accounts. Goldberg keeps up the ruse that Benji decided to remotely travel somewhere without any notice. This move more or less works for Beck who tries to put Benji behind her. Though, Joe is adamant about getting rid of Benji. Due to his knowledge of the complicity in kidnapping him and stalking Beck, posing a great risk and threat to his future plans. Resorting to a final decision, he kills Benji by using his peanut allergy against him. After Benji suffocates to death, Joe wraps his corpse and successfully burns it in the woods.

After Benji’s out of the picture, Joe and Beck start dating and he is introduced to her world and friends that he doesn’t really fit in with. Beck’s best friend, Peach Salinger, has been suspicious of Joe from the start. Joe is suspicious of Peach as well and starts following her for information.

Joe Goldberg & Peach

He soon finds that Peach is just as obsessed with Beck as he is. Joe sees Peach as another obstacle in his relationship with Beck, so he decides to eliminate her. Eager to get rid of Peach, he follows her during her jogging routine in Central Park and hits her with a rock at the back of her head. After Peach survives the incident and is later discharged from the hospital, he finally decides to take advantage of the opportunity to kill her after she invites Beck to a retreat at her family’s estate in Connecticut.

While Beck and Peach are on a weekend getaway, Joe follows them but ends up crashing his car on the way. After he wakes up, he realizes that he needs to get to Peach’s estate but encounters Officer Nico who questions his identity. After giving the officer, fake identity and an explanation surrounding his accident, he convinces him to let him go. Moments later, he successfully breaks into Peach’s estate and waits for the right opportunity to dispose of her. After Beck furiously leaves the estate on the way back to NYC, Peach finds out that Joe is there and they have a stand-off. Holding a gun and pointing it at him, she realizes the truth behind Joe’s sinister façade, but he later attempts to threaten her. Stating that he knows all of her secrets and that he is willing to expose them, he taunts her before starting a fight. After fighting over the gun, Joe shoots Peach and frames her death as a suicide.

Joe Goldberg & Dr. Nicky

Beck starts dealing with grief in the aftermath of Peach’s death by going to therapy, which threatens Joe’s perception and role in the relationship because he wants to be the person she confides in. He starts getting suspicious of her relationship with her therapist, Dr. Nicky, and begins to think she is cheating on him. As the events in the present unfold, a flashback of Joe with his ex, Candace reveals she cheated on him throughout their relationship.

He commits to several therapy sessions with Dr. Nicky using a fake story, in order to uncover the truth. After a particular session, he planned to kill Dr. Nicky, but then, comes to the realization that he was wrong about the situation and concludes that Beck needs time and space to figure out what she wants. After their relationship ends, Joe begins dating Karen Minty, Paco’s babysitter. Joe likes that Karen knows who she is and that the relationship is easy. Meanwhile, Paco’s mom, Claudia breaks up with Ron, with the help of Joe’s encouragement, but soon relapses back into drug addiction.

Joe Goldberg & Guinevere Beck

During their time apart, Beck relays to Blythe that she needs to focus on her work. Though, she later realizes that she truly misses Joe and starts to pursue him again. After breaking up with Karen, they begin another relationship. Sometime later, Beck starts to get suspicious of Joe’s avoidant behavior, whenever discussing the topic of his ex-girlfriend, Candace. Through flashbacks, it is revealed that Joe killed Elijah Thornton after he discovered that Candace was sleeping with him in order to get a record deal at his company. Later, Joe discovers the brutal truth; that Beck slept with Dr. Nicky.

He furiously asks Beck, whether she ever loved him and chastises her for cheating on him. After Beck apologizes and consoles him, he states that they can work on these issues in their relationship as long as they trust each other. After Joe leaves the apartment to go shopping, Beck encounters Paco who asks for Joe. Telling her that he wanted to give the book that he borrowed back, he inadvertently exposes the location of a secret place that Joe uses to hide certain things. After discovering the box in Joe’s apartment, containing souvenirs and parts of her deceased friends and ex-boyfriend, he kidnaps her and traps her in the basement of his workplace.

Joe Goldberg Kills Guinevere Beck

While he tries to come up with a plan to resolve his situation with Beck, he comes across her friends, Annika and Lynn. After convincing them with a fake story explaining Beck’s sudden disappearance and strange behavior in the relationship at a local café, he succeeds in fooling them. Shortly afterward, he comes across Ross, a private investigator hired by the Salinger family to investigate the discrepancies of the case surrounding the death of their daughter, Peach. After Joe finds out from the P.I. that the forensic team have found evidence at the scene and are waiting for the DNA analysis, Joe becomes alarmed. Joe later goes back to Mooney’s to check on Beck.

While Beck writes a novel, implicating Dr. Nicky in her murder, Joe leaves her again at night and successfully kills Ron. Paco helps Joe in covering up Ron’s murder. This was because of how grateful he is to him. In his last conversation with Beck, he finally understands the truth; that Beck will never love him. Shortly after, he ends up killing her. The season ends, months later with the incarceration of Dr. Nicky and the revelation that Candace is alive after showing up at the bookstore, which leaves Joe stunned.

Joe Goldberg Season 2

Season 2 release will be featured in September/ October at the latest. From Netflix, we see that Candice will be back. Also, Joe Goldberg will still be present soon.

Joe Goldberg Relationships

Candace Stone

Status: Ex-girlfriend/broken up
(episode1)

Guinevere Beck

Started: Living with the Enemy
Ended: Everythingship

Started: You Got Me, Babe
Ended: Bluebeard’s Castle

Karen Minty

Status: Ex-girlfriend/broken up
Started: Everythingship
Ended: You Got Me, Babe

Joe Goldberg Victims

1. Elijah Thornton – Pushed off a ledge pre-Pilot (shown in a flashback scene in Candace)
2. Benji – Purposely inflicted an allergic reaction in The Last Nice Guy in New York.
3. Peach Salinger – Attacked her from behind with a rock whilst on a run, causing a concussion in Living with the Enemy. Later shot dead in Amour Fou.
4. Ron – Stabbed in Bluebeard’s Castle.
5. Guinevere Beck – Allegedly murdered in Bluebeard’s Castle, however, her death was not shown. he framed Dr. Nicky for the murder.