Season one follows Joe Goldberg, your typical New Yorker who believes his city is the best in the world – even though he'd never left the place. Joe is a book store manager. He's occasionally funny, smart, and has a hero complex – like characters from the books he reads. Oh, and Joe is also a stalker and serial killer who believes he's helping his 'love interests' by killing people he thinks are a threat or bad influence to them.
Joe discovers Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail), his first love interest, when she walks into his bookstore. Beck – as her friends call her, is a Masters' student working on her book. Joe begins stalking Beck after convincing himself she's his dream girl because she's pretty and reads the same pretentious books he does.
Joe and Beck begin dating after he heroically saves her from what would have been a horrific accident. Even though Joe had only been there to save Beck because he'd been stalking her, he convinces himself that it's destiny or something equally cheesy.
Along the way, Joe murders anyone standing in the way of their happiness. First off is Benji, Beck's douche ex-boyfriend/booty call. Next is her best friend Peach (Shay Mitchell from PLL), who secretly loves Beck and despises Joe. And then a bunch of random people.
Peach was a worthy adversary because she was almost as manipulative as Joe and smart. She noticed minor details (like Benji's watch) about Joe and how shady he appeared, even though Beck was oblivious to everything. No other character on the show has matched the decadent darkness and hilarity of Shay Mitchell's Peach (The Conrads from S3 come close enough).
Peach's death was the beginning of the end of Joe and Beck's relationship. Beck finally starts noticing shady aspects of his past (like the suspicious disappearance of his ex-girlfriend Candace). She also starts sleeping with her Therapist, Dr. Nicky.
Beck and Joe break up, and he begins dating someone else. However, Beck falls back into his web, after their paths cross several months later.
Some people might argue that Beck got out and should have stayed away, but since she didn't, she deserved whatever happened to her next. This logic is flawed since Beck didn't know Joe was a psycho killer who'd murdered her ex-boyfriend and best friend. She thought he was a good guy – albeit a little creepy.
And frankly, Beck wasn't a particularly bright character. She was flawed to an extent. Kept ignoring all the big ole' red flags. However, it didn't mean she deserved her fate.
In the finale episode, Beck discovers Joe's box of trophies – little items he nicked from his victims. Benji's teeth, Candace's necklace, valuables belonging to Peach, and so on. And she finally realizes that Joe is a psycho killer.
Like most psychopathic killers, Joe keeps souvenirs of his victims, which is almost always how his crimes are discovered.
Joe catches Beck red-handed with his evidence box and locks her in his glass prison box underneath the bookstore. After trying and failing to reason with her (sorry Joe, no sane human would still want to date you after discovering your secrets), Joe kills Beck. He frames Dr. Nicky (the therapist) for the murders in Becks' book, which becomes a posthumous Bestseller.
Four months pass and Joe's life goes back to normal, with no apparent ties linking him to any of his murders, even though he had several slips. All seems well, until his ex-girlfriend, Candace, shows up at his bookstore.
Big shocker. Candace is very much alive and knows Joe is responsible for the murders – not Dr. Nicky. And she's going to expose him.
Joe packs up and runs to Los Angeles to evade Candace reporting him to the police.
He's decided to start afresh. New city, new job, fake name, and a new love interest. And thanks to Joe's delusional signature narration, he paints himself as the tragic hero of his story.
After conning his way into getting a job at the books section of a grocery store, Joe meets his "new love interest," aptly named Love Quinn. She's a pastry chef, she's pretty, and laughs at his lame jokes. Just his type.
Joe soon realizes that Love is quite different from Beck. She's forward, confident, and private, where Beck was uncertain, insecure, and public. But Love is still his dream girl, so Joe doesn't mind.
To avoid making the same mistakes he made with Beck, Joe initially tries to resist Love (name pun intended), but she's surprisingly persistent. And so they fall in 'love.'
However, Love doesn't come baggage-free. She has a twin brother named Forty, who's also Joe's boss (their parents own the store). Forty is a former addict with a lot of issues, ranging from co-dependence to parental neglect.
Other notable side characters of the season include Delilah (Joe's new Landlady), her little sister, Ellie, Henderson (the local celebrity with a shady habit of molesting minors), and Candace. Joe's ex, Candace, has made it her mission to expose Joe's crimes. And she would have succeeded if it wasn't for Love.
Since the police didn't believe her story (Joe's attempted murder on her life), Candace decided to catch him in the act of murdering someone else. Unfortunately, things didn't turn out well for her in the end.
The one thing Candace managed to do was finally get someone to believe her about Joe. And that someone was Forty – Love's brother. But in the show's typical fashion, he meets a tragic fate while trying to 'protect' his sister.
This season also provided a deeper dive into Joe's past and the reason he's all shades of messed up. His father was an abusive scumbag, and Joe ended up killing him to protect his mother (his first official kill). To protect Joe, his mother covers up the murder, dumps him at an orphanage, and bails out of town.
Love Quinn provides this season's biggest twist. And since I hadn't checked out reviews before watching it, I didn't see it coming.
In one of the most tragic deaths of the show, Joe finds Delilah lying in a pool of her blood inside his glass prison box. Since he'd been high on LSD the previous episode, he assumed he'd killed her after she discovered his secret. Except, he didn't – Love did, to protect Joe. And we eventually learn this isn't her first' murder rodeo.'
Joe tried to do the right thing by letting Delilah go, even after she'd discovered his murderous history because he didn't want her sister to be alone. Like in S1 with Paco, we see Joe's soft spot when it comes to protecting children – probably because of his childhood trauma.
He was ready to release Delilah and skip town (again), but Love wasn't going to let that happen. We see the lengths she'd go to 'protect' the ones she loves.
Seeing how crazy Love is, Joe tries to kill her, but she drops one last bombshell – she's pregnant with his kid.
Joe, realizing he can't get rid of her because of the child, resigns himself to spend the rest of his life with Love. He doesn't want his kid to end up as he did, so he'll make it work, even if it means marrying a monster (a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black).
I'd rate season one a 3/5 because I hated Joe for killing Peach. Season two, however, gets a 4/5 for its brilliant twist and portrayal of Love.
Check out season three's review here.
