List of You characters
You is an American psychological thriller novel series, written by Caroline Kepnes, and television series, developed by Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble, following bookshop owner Joe Goldberg in a satire of romantic comedies, as he struggles to overcome his homicidal tendencies while searching for true love. For the latter's first season, it aired on Lifetime, moving to Netflix from its second season onward. The novel series consists of You, Hidden Bodies, You Love Me, and For You and You Only.
The following is a list of characters that have appeared in the novel and television series.
Overview
; KeyMain cast
Recurring cast
Main characters
Joe Goldberg
Joseph Gabriel Goldberg is a bookstore manager at Mooney's who stalks and dates Guinevere Beck in the first season. In the second season, he goes by the name Will Bettelheim and works as a bookstore clerk at Anavrin, and stalks and dates Love Quinn. Joe, then marries Love, has a son named Henry and moves to the San Francisco suburbs. However, his obsessive behavior still finds a way back into their lives, rupturing his marriage. At the end of season 3, Joe kills Love and moves to London, where he is given the cover identity of Jonathan Moore, a college English professor. While in London, Joe undergoes a psychotic break that causes his personality to dissociate, leading him to unconsciously commit a string of murders. During this time, Joe enters a passionate relationship with heiress Kate Galvin. He and Kate eventually move back to New York, where Kate takes over her family business and rehabilitates Joe's public image. Joe is portrayed as a teenager by Gianni Ciardiello in season one, and as a child by Aidan Wallace and Jack Fisher in season two and season three respectively.Guinevere Beck
Guinevere Beck is a broke NYU graduate student and an aspiring writer with whom Joe falls in love. She is best friends with Peach and close friends with Lynn and Annika. She was also in an on-again, off-again relationship with her ex, Benji, but becomes the girlfriend of Joe Goldberg. She suffers the consequences of Joe's successful attempts to manipulate and control her life.In the first season finale, Beck accidentally discovers the truth about Joe and his crimes, and he imprisons her in a glass cage in the bookstore’s basement. Because of her failed efforts to escape, Beck is ultimately killed by Joe in a fit of rage, who stages the scene to make it look like someone else was responsible for her death. Four months later it is revealed that Joe submitted Beck's posthumously released book The Dark Face of Love, and framed Dr. Nicky for the murder.
Driven by the death of her close friend Beck, Louise Flannery spent years uncovering the truth behind Joe’s carefully hidden trail of violence. With the help of a network of online detectives, she begins to gather the evidence that could finally bring him down. As Louise closes in on the truth, Joe finds himself increasingly cornered. Desperate to regain control, he tries to manipulate her—but misjudges her unwavering determination. Their confrontation escalates into a brutal struggle, during which Joe seriously wounds Louise, though she ultimately survives. Refusing to be silenced, she emerges with irrefutable evidence of his crimes and takes it public. The revelations spark a media frenzy, culminating in Joe’s arrest and a sensational trial that lays bare the full extent of his violent history, including the murder of Beck. He is sentenced to life in prison, becoming a twisted cultural figure—reviled by many, yet disturbingly idolized by some as a dark antihero.
Meanwhile, Louise releases a redacted version of Beck’s unfinished manuscript, giving voice to the victims Joe tried to erase—and ensuring their stories are finally heard.
Paco
Paco is Joe's young neighbor and Claudia’s son. He and Joe form a strong bond over their shared love of books. Paco also has a tumultuous relationship with his mother’s abusive boyfriend, Ron.Later, angry after Ron hurt his mother again, Paco attempts to steal a gun from the bookstore to avenge his mother. He is caught and confronted by Joe. Instead, Paco drugs Ron and hits him with a bat. Ron wakes up to Joe who is trying to revive him and brutally beats him. Ron later returns looking for Paco, who hides from him. Joe arrives and kills Ron to protect Paco and Paco emerges from his hiding spot. Joe tells him that everything is going to be okay and Ron won't hurt him or his mom anymore. Joe takes care of the disposal of Ron and tells Paco not to ever tell anyone what happened.
When Paco later goes to the bookstore and finds Beck attempting to escape the basement, begging Paco to find the key and insisting that Joe is crazy and dangerous, Paco runs away leaving Beck to be murdered by Joe.
Paco and his mother Claudia moved away from New York to start fresh.
Six years later Paco posted a video on TikTok in an attempt to defend Joe's reputation when he was accused of being a serial killer, but it only incriminates him further.
Ethan Russell
Ethan Russell is a bookstore clerk who worked with Joe.Peach Salinger
Peach Anaïs Salinger is a wealthy and influential socialite and Beck's best friend whom she met at Brown University.Peach is revealed to be secretly obsessed with Beck and has an adversarial relationship with Joe who later kills her.
Love Quinn
Love Quinn is an aspiring chef and health guru in Los Angeles. Love is the heiress to a self-care business started by her wealthy parents, who launched the grocery store Anavrin when Love and her younger brother Forty were teenagers. Love noticed Forty being sexually abused by Sofia, the family's au pair and murdered her after drugging Forty, allowing him to believe he blacked out and killed Sofia himself. Love's parents elected to cover up the death to protect Forty, who grew up with severe unresolved trauma and developed an addiction to alcohol and drugs. Love made it her responsibility during adulthood to manage Forty's sobriety. She later went to culinary school and fell in love with a deaf man named James whom she married, but he ultimately died of a medical condition.Love begins the series as an employee at Anavrin. She meets Joe - who also begins working at the store under the pseudonym Will Bettelheim - and quickly becomes attracted to him. She secretly discovers that Joe has been stalking her and keeps a glass cage inside his storage unit, which she takes as signs of his passion. She also deduces Beck as Joe's ex-girlfriend via her memoir and deems her undeserving of him. As she and Joe become closer, Love is visited by Candace, who reveals that Joe is living under an alias and tried to murder Candace. Love feigns disbelief but cuts ties with Joe, only to realize she still holds feelings for him. Love learns that Joe was in a sexual relationship with his landlord Delilah and later discovers her being held hostage inside the glass cage. Love murders Delilah to tie up loose ends. Candace later discovers the storage unit herself and traps Joe inside the cage with Delilah's corpse, then calls Love to the unit to prove Joe's psychopathy to her. Love, however, murders Candace and reveals to Joe that she murdered Delilah and has been obsessed with him. Joe attempts to kill her, but she reveals she is pregnant with his child. Forty realizes Joe is a serial killer and calls Love and Joe to Anavrin; he warns Love to stay clear of Joe and prepares to execute him at gunpoint, but is shot dead by police officer David Fincher. Joe and Love move to a suburb outside San Francisco to raise their child, Henry.
Love and Joe will have to adjust to the life of parents. Love along with Joe meets Sherry Conrad in a cafeteria. Love and Joe go to Sherry's party. Love listens as Sherry and her friends talk bad about her and then gets to know more about Natalie Engler, her neighbor; which makes Love decide to open her bakery. Love discovers Joe's box where she keeps belongings from her obsessions, there she finds something from Natalie discovering that she is Joe's new obsession. She calls Natalie to see her bakery location; and in a moment of jealousy, Love kills Natalie. She asks Joe to help her cover up the death of her neighbor. Love meets Theo who flirts with her. Later, Love and Joe tell the bakery about Natalie, and they put Joe's vault in the basement. Love discovers that Theo is the son of her neighbor, Matthew Engler and therefore Natalie's stepson.
Theo flirts with Love again at her bakery, but she rebuffs his advances. Later, Henry contracts measles. Love and Joe decide to frame Matthew. Although they fail. While Henry recovers, Joe and Love decide not to frame Matthew. The next day, Gil, a neighbor, reveals to Love that Henry contracted measles from his twin daughters and that he and his wife are both anti-vaccination. As Gil leaves, Love beats him unconscious. Love and Joe lock Gil in the vault in the basement of the bakery. Love enlists the Quinns' enforcer to investigate Gil's life and discovers that his son is a sexual predator; they confront Gil and he is disgusted causing him to commit suicide. Joe and Love decide to frame Gil for Natalie's death. Theo kisses Love after a heart-to-heart with each other at the bakery.
Theo calls Love from the police station about an incident. Theo then invites Love to ride a scooter with him and they end up having sex. Dottie gives Love advice. Love buys a pregnancy test and messages Forty as if he were a living person, confessing that she might be pregnant with Theo's baby. Love attends an event for Dottie, where she is taken out of her pregnancy scare. She hallucinates Forty, causing her to have an epiphany about her life. Theo warns Love that Matthew is spying on everyone at Madre Linda. She decides to keep Theo around to get more information from Matthew. Love unsuccessfully tries to spice things up with Joe, which leads to her having rebound sex with Theo. At a fundraiser, Love meets Marienne Bellamy. Sherry tells Love that she and Cary are very attracted to her and Joe and that they should try to take her relationship to another level. Dottie is cut out of her family's life by Love because of her carelessness with Henry. Love discusses Sherry's proposal with Joe.
Joe and Love to meet with the Conrads and they are presented with a confidentiality agreement. Joe and Love invite the Conrads to their sexual encounter. Love realizes that Joe has someone other than her on her mind while he is having sex with Sherry, leading to an argument that causes Love to reveal out loud that she killed Natalie. The Conrads try to flee the house, but Joe and Love overpower them and put them in the cage. Theo tells Love to run away with him, believing Joe to be a violent husband upon seeing footage of an earlier argument between Love and Joe and offers to get Love a copy of the footage, which Love accepts. Sherry tries to bond with Love so that she and Cary are released from the cage. Love discovers that Joe has Cary's gun, gives the gun to the Conrads, and tells them that he would let one of them walk free while the other dies. Love finds Theo in the bakery, learns what he saw, and hits him with a fire extinguisher.
Love confesses to Joe that she attacked Theo and that he is in the basement of the bakery. She also talks about starting a new chapter in her and Joe's life by having a new baby. Love discovers Joe's bloody T-shirt and realizes that Marienne is the one Joe is obsessed with. Love cooks a special dinner for her and Joe, where she confronts him about Marienne while Joe confronts her about James' mysterious death. Love leaves the table to tend to a crying Henry. She returns and reveals that she accidentally killed James. She also reveals that she knew Joe would grab a knife and poisoned the handle of it, leaving him paralyzed. Love asks Marienne to come over to her house and then goes to drop off some orders. Love returns and confronts Marienne and reveals that Joe killed her ex-husband. Marienne advises Love to leave Joe and listen to the voice inside her. Love reconsiders her actions after Marienne's words, draws the conclusion that her actions are unforgivable, and that Joe is the problem in her relationship.
In the end she realizes her mistakes and comes to the conclusion that in order to change she must kill Joe, she tries to kill him, but Joe kills her first by injecting her with wolf's bane. As Love slowly dies, she tells him to leave Henry because he will know who he is. Joe forges an email from Love to their friends and family, stages a murder–suicide by burning down the house and drops Henry off in front of Dante Ferguson and Lansing's house.
Love is portrayed as a teenager by Olivia Ragan.