Diksha Sundriyal
The whole point of coming to LA was to run away from Candace. But now she is here, and Joe doesn’t know what to do because he can’t figure out what she really wants from him. Until now, there were hurdles in Joe’s paths, be it with Beck or Love. The problems just stemmed out unexpectedly. But as Candace, he has a proper antagonist, even a villain, if you want to look at it that way. The second season took some time to set the stage for it, but Joe’s past has finally caught up with him. It is only a matter of time before it starts to bite.
You Season 2 Episode 5 Recap
After finding a balance between Love and Forty, Joe prepares for the weekend that is to bring him face to face with Love’s parents. He never went that far with Beck, not including the time he stalked her to discover her father was alive. But this time, it is different with Love. This time, it is real, so he promises to be on best behaviour and see it through. But all his preparation goes down the drain when he meets Forty’s new girlfriend.
You Season 2 Episode 5 Review
With the mid-way mark of the season, ‘You’ presents you with a question of choice. It is time to take sides now. Who do you root for, Joe or Candace? Because Joe is the protagonist, because we know him so much better, even his darkest side, we are wired to consider everything that comes in his path as danger. Even if we don’t want to, subconsciously, we still root for him. He is the hero of this story and heroes always win, especially if the network wants the show to continue into the next season. Whether or not Joe should win this war against his ex is the issue for another day, but what’s important before picking sides is to know both your options.
The first season made the mistake, for which it received criticism as well, was to not show Beck’s side. What this did was paint her as a bad person, undeserving of the love of the man who would anything for her, and worse, deserving of what she got in the end. What this did was that it gave an advantage to another misogynistic character who believes himself a feminist. It made the audience accept Joe for his good as well as his dark side. Beck, on the other hand, remained a needy and often-selfish person who would have ended up better had she just did what Joe expected of her. Most of the audience saw through it, but there are still the fans who defend Joe!
Looks like, the second season wants to rectify this mistake. It doesn’t want to show Candace as a villain to Joe’s story. She could actually be the saviour of the Quinns, the guardian angel who saves them from the devil. Showing her side of the story, especially the fact that she is still recovering from the trauma that Joe doesn’t even acknowledge he put her through. Joe might be the narrator, the protagonist of ‘You’, but Candace is the hero that this story needs. Hopefully, the show will make better use of her and not go about the usual and expected redemption arc for Joe.
The focus on her story is also needed to break her image that Joe had painted for us. She is the cheat, and if she had only stayed loyal to Joe, none of this would have happened. This is one of the million arguments that pro-Joes can present to defend his actions. In fact, Joe himself believes that she is the danger here, that he needs to protect Love from her. That she is crazy. As for himself, he doesn’t “hurt people, especially women, especially when they are out of their minds. That is not me!”. If nothing, then at least, Candace can prove to be a tool to bring out Joe’s delusion about himself.
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