The Most Tragic Deaths in the Netflix Series, Ranked

Warning: Heavy spoilers ahead for all 5 seasons of Netflix’s YouNetflix’s acclaimed thriller series You has finally come to a close. Despite the fifth season’s mixed reception, it provided a fitting and satisfying conclusion for TV’s most prolific serial killer. “In the end, Joe Goldberg was made to see all of himself.” He was put away for his crimes, where he’d never find the love he so desperately craved and would go on to live the rest of his life alone, having to live with the fact that his son knew exactly the monster he was.

Penn Badgley gave an unforgettable, chilling performance across all five seasons, depicting Joe as he stalked, manipulated, and murdered his way through a staggering number of prey. Joe infected the lives of nearly everyone he came near, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. Although he may not have been directly responsible for every death on the show, make no mistake, the blood always leads back to Joe. While some of his victims may not have been a loss to the world, others didn’t deserve the fate they encountered.

Here are the most tragic deaths throughout all of You, ranked from upsetting to utterly devastating.

10

Raphael Passero (Played by Billy Lush)

Killed by Joe in Season 2

In Season 2, the audience learns of Joe’s bleak, traumatic past as a child. His father, Raphael, was abusive to both him and his mother, Sandy (Magda Apanowicz), who may never have raised a hand at Joe, but was a bad parent in a different, neglectful kind of way. She went as far as showing her kid where she hid her gun (big no-no!), promising him that one day they’d be rid of Raphael. Instead, it was left up to Joe to protect both of them.

A Traumatic Death, But a Serious Misstep

Joe pulls out the gun when his dad is beating his mom one day, fatally shooting him. This entry is not to mourn an abuser, but to recognize that such a heavy burden should never have weighed on a child. The only reason Raphael’s death doesn’t rank higher on this list is because the flashbacks to Joe’s past arguably served to make the audience feel as if being a serial abuser and murderer wasn’t ultimately Joe’s fault, when, in fact, it really is. The responsibility falls on Joe and Joe alone, no matter his brutal upbringing or the sympathy garnered by exploring it. He chose to act on his compulsions, knowing right from wrong. His trauma can’t conveniently explain it away.

9

Reagan Lockwood (Played by Anna Camp)

Killed by Maddie in Season 5

Joe abducts Maddie and locks her in his glass box, confusing her with Reagan, who had figured out his and Kate’s (Charlotte Ritchie) crimes and was gearing towards pressing charges against Henry (Frankie DeMaio). When he realizes that he has kidnapped the wrong twin sister, he knows he has to figure out a way to let Maddie go without having to implicate himself. His solution is to get Maddie’s hands dirty by having her murder Reagan.

The Loss of a Twin’s Other Half

After putting Reagan in the cage with Maddie, he manipulates the more benevolent twin into injecting her sister with insulin to kill her and then taking over her life. Maddie comes undone afterward. Reagan may not have been a good person, but her death was an injustice. Although Joe is just as guilty, Maddie will forever carry Reagan’s death on her conscience. She may go on to live a happy life with Harrison (Pete Ploszek) and Gretchen (Lillian Tardie), but she’ll require years of therapy and, even then, she’ll never be able to outrun what she did.

8

Natalie Engler (Played by Michaela McManus)

Killed by Love in Season 3

The next-door neighbor catches Joe’s eye in Season 3, and like most things, it doesn’t get past his wife. Just when Love talks herself into believing it’s all in her head and Joe has nothing to hide, she finds his hidden shoebox of Natalie’s trophies, including the panties he stole. Naturally, Love feels compelled to get rid of the competition and eliminate the threat to her seemingly picture-perfect family. Luring Natalie into the bakery’s basement, she takes an ax to the realtor’s neck.

You Never Know Your Neighbors

Natalie was only in one episode, but her death looms heavily over the remainder of the season. It devastated her husband Matthew (Scott Speedman), sending him into a downward spiral and fracturing his relationship with his adoptive son, Theo (Dylan Arnold). It was also the catalyst that sent poor Theo into Love’s web, resulting in his near death. The beautiful Natalie never stood a chance, living next door to Joe. Had it not been Love who killed her, it would have eventually been him.

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7

Peach Salinger (Played by Shay Mitchell)

Killed by Joe in Season 1

Peach’s death is so particularly terrible because she came so close to exposing Joe. He had everybody in Beck’s orbit fooled, but not Miss Salinger. Alas, as someone who stood between Joe and his romantic fixation, she was doomed from the start, but she didn’t go out without a fight. It actually took Joe two attempts to kill her. First, while she was out on a run with a rock to her head. The second time, he shoots her at her family estate and stages her death to look like a suicide.

One of You’s Best Characters

Sure, Peach was a classist snob, and she was controlling and manipulative, especially when it came to trying to keep Beck under her thumb, but she didn’t deserve to die at the hands of a sociopath. It was infuriating to see a dangerous man like Joe get away with the murder of a woman. Additionally, Peach’s presence was a great loss on the show. Her character, while flawed and “unlikable,” was one of the most interesting personalities on the show. Mitchell killed it in her role.

6

Forty Quinn (Played by James Scully)

Killed by Officer Fincher in Season 2

Forty was another character that nearly exposed Joe. He was killed by Officer Fincher (Danny Vasquez) in an attempt to save Joe’s life, when he went to Anavrin with a gun in his hand to warn Love about her boyfriend. His death hit hard. Forty may have had his flaws, but he was a lovable character, who had goodness underneath it all.

A Tragic Character All Around

After his difficult, sad life, his death is all that more tragic. Forty was sexually abused by his babysitter, and never came to terms with the fact that she was a predator. He had substance abuse issues. Everyone in his life just enabled him. He never got the help he needed, even with all his family’s money. His own twin sister weaponized his struggles with mental health and addiction, making him out to be crazy, when he tried telling the truth about Joe. It may have been Fincher’s trigger-happy fingers that did the job, but Love and Joe are as much to blame.

5

Love Quinn (Played by Victoria Pedretti)

Killed by Joe in Season 3

When Love finds a bloody t-shirt in Henry’s diaper pail, she puts two and two together that he killed Ryan (Scott Michael Foster) because he’s in love with Marienne (Tati Gabrielle). Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, especially when said woman is a murderous one. After her discovery, Love cooks an elaborate dinner for her husband and paralyzes him with a poison, in an effort to have him “slow down,” so she can convince him to love her again. She also wanted him to watch as she killed Marienne, but after a heartfelt talk with the librarian, she realized the problem was Joe. Just before Love kills him with a freshly sharpened knife, he stabs her with a poisoned needle, having outsmarted her and taken an antidote.

An Amy Dunne-esque Character

Sure, Love was an extremely unstable, dangerous person. Yes, she was a psycho-killer. But as one of the show’s most intriguing and complex characters, she was beloved among fans. Her death truly was a loss. Love would have been the perfect villain to pit against Joe in later seasons. It would have been compelling to watch her make his life impossible. Her character’s potential went to waste. Victoria Pedretti’s portrayal of the Amy Dunne-esque character is among her top performances. Love Quinn, you will forever be missed!

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4

Eddie (Played by Brad Alexander)

Killed by Joe in Season 4

After spending all season deluding himself into believing he could be a good person and suppress his killer instincts, Joe commits one of his most heinous crimes in the finale. When he figures out that Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman) and his other student, Eddie, are on to him, Joe gets two steps ahead of them. While Nadia snoops around in his apartment for evidence, Eddie stands guard outside. When she goes back outside, she finds Eddie’s bloody corpse, and Joe places a knife into her hand, framing her and sending her to prison.

A Life Gone Too Soon

In a season full of wealthy, privileged elitists, the young aspiring author’s death was the saddest. He was so young and kind, with so much life ahead of him. His romance with Nadia was never given a chance to develop the way it should have. Both of them deserved so much more. Luckily, Nadia got her freedom in the final season, but what she went through, including Eddie’s death, would be something she’d always carry.

3

Candace Stone (Played by Ambyr Childers)

Killed by Love in Season 2

Candace was one of Joe’s earliest girlfriend-victims (that the audience is privy to, because who knows how many came before her). After seemingly being dead throughout Season 1, she shows up alive at Mooney’s in the finale, shocking Joe to his core and sending him running to Los Angeles. Mistaking her for dead, he had actually buried her alive. Rightfully consumed with anger and a desire for revenge, she tracks him down in Season 2, hellbent on exposing and destroying him. In the season’s biggest twist, Love kills her to protect Joe, revealing herself to be a cold-blooded murderer, just like her beloved.

Justice for Candace

After surviving all the horrors inflicted on her by Joe, her death came as an immense tragedy. It was gutting to see a survivor of domestic violence suffer such a cruel death, especially one who was determined to finally deliver justice to a serial abuser. Love may have been the one who slit her throat, but Candace’s blood is also on Joe’s hands. Had he really wanted to redeem himself, he would have turned himself in, and Candace would still be alive, but men like Joe have no chance at redemption.

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2

Guinevere Beck (Played by Elizabeth Lail)

Killed by Joe in Season 1

The moment the dreamy Guinevere Beck set foot in Mooney’s bookstore, she was done for. Joe becomes obsessed at first glance, delusionally mistaking a friendly conversation for a fated meet-cute straight out of a romcom. After stalking her, infiltrating her life, and murdering people close to her, Joe ultimately gets her right where he wants her. Just when their relationship is at its strongest, she finds his creepy box full of memorabilia. When Joe realizes she has found his stash, he locks her in the glass cage, promising it’s only to make her understand his love and to be certain he can trust her.

The One Who Almost Got Away

Because she could never love him again after seeing the monster he truly is, he kills her. Those who read the book knew that the aspiring writer was always destined to be a tragic character, but her death was still heart-wrenching nonetheless. Beck spent her last days next to a pee bucket, abducted by the man who preyed on her and manipulated her into loving him, uncertain if she would survive. Her death hit even harder because she almost outsmarted Joe and made it out of that basement. Season 5’s conclusion is so satisfying precisely because Joe is finally brought to justice for her murder, and her book is republished without his additions and edits.

1

Delilah Alves (Played by Carmela Zumbado)

Killed by Love in Season 2

Delilah’s death is by far the most devastating in all of You. Introduced as Joe’s property manager, Delilah lives with Ellie (Jenna Ortega), her younger sister, having been responsible for her from a young age. Despite being initially put off by Joe, the two later develop a friendship, confiding in each other. She even opens up to Joe about being sexually assaulted by Henderson (Chris D’Elia) as a teen. Her former instincts kick in when Fincher warns her about Joe, telling her about his hunch that he had something to do with Henderson’s death.

A Tragic Loss for Ellie

Her snooping leads to the “glass torture box”, where Joe traps her and Love eventually kills her. After her death, Ellie was left alone and vulnerable in the world, having lost her only parental figure. Neither of them deserved such cruelty. Delilah was just beginning to heal from her trauma, having finally found her voice. It’s troubling to think of what Ellie’s life became without her sister. Once again, Love did the killing, but it was also partly to blame on Joe.

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