The first five episodes of You season 4 is out on Netflix. The newest installment finds beloved good-guy psychopath Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) living under a new identity as a literature professor in London.
You Season 3 ended with Joe killing his wife, Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), setting their idyllic suburban home ablaze and faking his death in the process. He then traveled across the Atlantic in search of his one true love, Marriene (Tati Gabrielle), who desperately tried putting a whole ocean between them.
How did Joe end up working as a beloved professor at a London university? The answer is a very lucky encounter with a man named Elliot Tannenberg. In this article, we’ll explore Elliot’s character and his role in the fourth season of You.
Who is Elliot in You Season 4?
During the season’s premiere flashback scenes, we first spot the mysterious man following Joe from afar while he’s too busy chasing down Marriene to notice. Later on, the man catches up with a brokenhearted Joe in a pub, sits on the chair in front of him, and introduces himself as Elliot Tannenberg and his employer as Ray Quinn aka. Love’s rich daddy. It turns out the little murder-frame job Joe pulled at the end of season 3 failed to convince the bereaved father, which led to the Quinn family fixer, Elliot, tracking him down across the ocean. Not that anyone could blame Ray for wanting revenge, considering how Joe is now responsible for the death of both his children.
During both seasons 2 and 3 of You, it was heavily implied the Quinn patriarch had people like Elliot on the payroll. And in You Love Me, Caroline Kepnes’s third novel from the series, Joe has several interactions with one of these fixers, named Oliver. Yet season four is the first time the character appears on the show. Elliot’s introduction this season shouldn’t have been too surprising to viewers. After all, Love Quinn wasn’t an average middle-class nobody like Beck or Candace, she was the daughter of a powerful and wealthy man. It’s no surprise someone like Ray Quinn would pour a lot of money into getting to the bottom of his child’s death.
Who plays Elliot in You Season 4?
Elliot is portrayed by the British actor, Adam James. Some of his acting credits include roles in series like Dr. Who, I May Destroy You, and the Netflix miniseries, Treason.
Why is Elliot important?
Not only does Elliot spare Joe’s life, but he’s also the person who offers him all the papers he needs to take on the Jonathan Moore identity. It’s unclear who the real Jonathan More was, or how Elliot came across his documents.
At first, Joe assumed Elliot tracked him down to take him back to the States where he’d finally face some real justice for his crimes. But the hitman was sent for something else – He’s there to kill our protagonist in retaliation for Love’s death. But after years of doing Ray Quinn’s dirty work, it appears Elliot’s at the end of his rope. He’s also aware of a secret bank account in Love’s name that Joe emptied shortly before taking his leave of Madre Linda.
The old hitman wants to retire, while Joe needs a fresh start, so the two make a deal – Elliot gives Joe a new identity, while Joe hands over all the money he stole from his late wife. But Elliot also asks Joe to tie up any loose ends, meaning murder Marriene as she’s the only other person who knows he’s alive and in Europe. Joe chooses not to kill her. Instead, he steals her locket and uses it to lie to Elliot.
Is Elliot dead or alive?
Elliot is alive, well, and living his best life away from Joe and all the Eat The Rich Killer drama our protagonist got himself involved in.
When Joe first starts getting strange texts from the killer, he immediately suspects Elliot’s behind it. But when he reaches out to the now-retired hitman, he makes it clear he has no involvement in our antihero’s whodunnit. It appears Elliot is somewhere mountainous, maybe Tibet, and he hilariously advises Joe to take up a meditation practice. He then hangs up, annoyed at having to destroy his phone, thus permanently severing any line of communication between him and Joe.
