You Recap: Love, I Have To Let You Go

This recap of Netflix Series You Season 2, Episode 8, “Fear and Loathing in Beverly Hills” contains significant spoilers.

• Read the Season 2 review.
• Read the recap of Episode 9.
• Read the recap of the previous episode (7).
• Access the archive of all the episode recaps.

As Season 2 draws nearer to the end, the bizarreness of the story peaks.

You Season 2, Episode 8, “Fear and Loathing in Beverly Hills” begins with Delilah (Carmela Zumbado) begging Joe to let her out — she promises she will not tell a soul. Delilah answers the phone to Finch to prove she can be trusted and on the call, she does not reveal anything. Joe feels he has no choice; he has to leave and let Love go — he books a plane ticket and then brings Delilah food. He gives her handcuffs with a timer — in 16 hours the cuffs will unlock and she will be free. This gives him time to leave the state.

Meanwhile, Love is still heartbroken over Joe — she confides with her friends; they tell her to go get him. Joe writes Love a goodbye letter and sneaks it into her locker at work. Forty catches Joe and tells him that Kathryn Bigelow’s assistant has got in touch and that they have work to do — the timer on Delilah’s handcuffs is lowering. Joe agrees to help Forty but wants to do it as quickly as possible. All of a sudden, two men in suits capture them and throw them in a car.

Episode 8, “Fear and Loathing in Beverly Hills” see Forty and Joe in the back of an unknown car with black bags over their heads. Forty confesses to being a gambling addict and that’s why they are in trouble. When they get to their location, they are in a fancy looking hotel room — it was a prank by Forty; he hired these two men to kidnap them. “We are going to have to go outside of our comfort zone”. A furious Joe is told they cannot leave; Dimitri has all of Joe’s IDs and they have to stay until they have a completed script. Ellie turns up to help. Joe has got to help complete the script before Delilah is uncuffed.

Love reads Joe’s love letter and she’s devastated. Her mother asks if they can have dinner. Meanwhile, in Episode 8, Joe, Forty and Ellie finish the script. Ellie provides feedback, stating it is not done and that they may have to start over due to the lack of female perspective. Forty suddenly jumps out of the window into a garbage dump. Joe follows and finally finds Forty at a bar. Forty admits that he does not know how to write about women. He admits to still being in touch with Candace. At the bar, he offers a newly married bride ten thousand dollars if he can kiss her in front of the groom. The husband accepts — Joe and the audience are seeing a new side of Forty, manipulative and dangerous. Forty then drops the bombshell that he has laced Joe’s drink with LSD. A fuming Joe walks out of the bar.

Love and her mother Dottie have dinner together. Dottie reveals that her husband Ray is cheating again. She takes a selfie of them both so her father sees it. Love says she is sick and tired of always pretending and brings up the au pair. They have a small row, and Love walks off.

Love runs into Joe at the hotel. She asks him if he is really going to leave LA. As she starts talking drunkenly and asking Joe to stay one more day, the LSD kicks in for Joe and he can barely respond. Dottie turns up and takes Love away. A young Joe appears as Joe begins to hallucinate, and then Dimitri punches Joe in the stomach as he has left the hotel room.

Forty tries to redo the script from Beck’s perspective while Joe is tripping. Forty who is also tripping pretends to be Beck; this frustrates Joe as it brings back memories — Joe starts choking Forty, believing it to be Beck. Forty feels like he understands Beck now and gives Joe the safe word so he can leave. There’s suddenly more daylight and Joe has no idea how he ended up back in the hotel room — he can see blood on his hands; Joe cannot tell what’s real. He tries to retrace his steps with Forty. Dimitri tells Joe that when he returned to the room, his hands were clean.

With the LSD wearing off slightly, Love rings Joe and refuses to say goodbye. She admits that Joe “feels right” — “I want a life with you”. Joe suggests leaving together, but she can’t because of Forty. Joe offers to take Forty with them. When they end the call, Joe suddenly starts seeing his mother who says “people like us don’t change”. Joe claims he has changed and she responds with “are you sure?”. Joe heads back into the main room and Forty has worked out each act of his script. Forty states he has figured out the book and Beck’s life. Joe’s mother encourages him to kill Forty while the man explains how he has figured out Beck’s life. There’s a twist; Forty admits he loved Sofia (the au pair) and that he killed her; he’s been carrying this secret for ages. Joe understands of course, and the two hug it out.

You Season 2, Episode 8, “Fear and Loathing in Beverly Hills” moves forward 11 hours; Joe wakes up and rushes back to Delilah to set her free. When he opens the storage container, he sees Delilah dead with blood everywhere in the glass cage — she’s been murdered.

He must have done it.

Disturbing Thoughts

• “Love, I have to let you go”
• “She’ll hate me forever but tomorrow she’ll be fine”.
• “All I feel is rage”
• “I’m gonna miss how smart you are”