Summary
“What Is Love?” is simply the best episode of You. Following a fantastic season, it ends perfectly. The finale goes out with a bang with well-crafted conclusions and a tragic (but deserved) death. But the story isn’t over yet, and it’s exciting to find out where Season 4 will take us.
This recap of Netflix’s You season 3, episode 10, “What Is Love,” — the ending/finale explained — contains spoilers.
You season 3, episode 10 recap – finale and ending
As Joe attempts to hide Ryan’s murder, Love attempts to hide Theo’s murder. But a spot of blood on her jacket gives the game away for Love. Meanwhile, Matthew tries to contact Theo, unaware of the horror that has unfolded. Marienne rings Joe and tells him that Ryan is dead. The phone call swiftly moves to them pouring out their love for each other before they agree to leave town together.
Now that he has spoken to Marienne, Joe returns to disposing of Theo’s body. But Theo is still alive! But even more shocking is Joe’s rare act of kindness. He decides not to kill Theo; instead, he sends him to the hospital. But not before drugging Theo so he can’t blab about the event the second he arrives at the hospital.
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In The Box, Sherry accidentally shoots Cary in the leg. But Love is more pressed about the fact that Joe is cheating on her with Marienne. During dinner, Joe tells Love that they should part ways amicably, aka he wants a divorce. This is when Henry begins to cry, so Love goes upstairs to settle him. But when she comes back, will she be armed to kill Joe? Maybe. So Joe grabs the steak knife, just to be safe.
Love returns, calmer than you would expect, and she admits to Joe that she did murder her husband. It was an accident; she drugged him with a paralytic, but the dosage was too high. She’s made sure she hasn’t made the same mistake this time. Oh shit! And so it turns out that Love placed the drug on the knife. As Joe collapses to the ground, Love states that had he not touched the knife, he wouldn’t be in this situation. Joe is helpless as Love invites Marienne around.
After Love drops off some cupcakes, Matthew, who is searching for Theo, finds Joe. By using Joe’s phone, Matthew learns that Theo is at the hospital. But instead of helping Joe, he decides to leave Joe to suffer a fate just like Natalie. Love returns with Marienne turning up shortly afterward. Love tells Marienne that it was her who sent the text inviting her around, not Joe. With the plan to kill Marienne in front of Joe, Love tells Marienne that Joe murdered Ryan. And just as it seems as though Love will kill Marienne, her young daughter Juliette appears.
Maybe it’s due to seeing Juliette, or maybe it’s the heart-to-heart she has with Marienne, but Love decides to let Marienne walk away. “I can see why you like her, she makes a single mother look good,” Love says to Joe. Then just as Love is about to hack Joe to death, he injects her with aconite. But as it’s injected, it’s less paralysis and more agony. Joe reveals that he checked what she was growing in the garden, i.e aconite, and took an antidote before he touched the knife in case his fears of Love came true. As Love dies, Joe tells her that she did this to herself.
The ending
Back in The Box, as Cary begins to become weak, Sherry realizes that Joe and Love will be the weak spots of The Box as they can’t trust each other. And so, Sherry desperately searches for a hidden key. Meanwhile, Joe is aware that he can’t stay in Madre Linda and that as the authorities will soon be after her, he leaves Henry in the care of Dante and Lansing. Next, Joe leaves a “suicide note” behind for Love. In it, she confesses to murdering Natalie, Gil, and Ryan. Joe then chops off two of his toes before he frames Love for his “murder”. Finally, Joe burns the house down.
With that, the chapter on Madre Linda is closed, sort of. In death, Love Quinn became a folk hero, even more famous than Guinevere Beck. In the aftermath that followed, Madre Linda began to heal. Theo, who still lives with Matthew, attends physical therapy. Dottie, who still wasn’t sober, allowed Dante and Lansing to remain in charge of Henry’s care whilst after Sherry and Cary (somehow) made it out alive and later wrote a book about their experience.
But what about Marienne? According to Joe, that part of the story is unwritten. Joe has looked for her and Juliette, but they’re nowhere to be seen. Joe, however, does believe that he will cross paths with Marienne again; “I’ll search the world if I have to”.
You season 3 finishes with Joe, who after successfully faking his death now lies in Paria and goes under the name “Nick”.
What did you think of Netflix’s You season 3, episode 10, the finale, and the ending?
