In The You Finale, Madeline Brewer Seals Joe Goldberg’s Fate

From the jump, Madeline Brewer knew her character would have a pivotal role in the fifth and final season of You, thanks to a promise from co-showrunners Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo: “By the end of the series, Bronte will have Joe’s fate in her hands,” Brewer recalls to Bustle.

A tantalizing place to be, considering Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) has a knack for getting away with murder. But the bookish serial killer’s crimes catch up with him after he begins an affair with Brewer’s Bronte, a young writer who once studied under Guinevere Beck, one of his earliest victims. (The connection to Guinevere was particularly gratifying for Brewer, a longtime You fan: “That just got me even more excited and intrigued to figure out who this character was, and how I was really going to approach her,” she says.)

Ultimately, Bronte embarks on a mission to expose Joe’s violent history with the support of several online sleuths. After some detours — and developing feelings for Joe — her resolve is bolstered by meeting and believing the few women who have known him and lived to tell the tale.

It’s for them (and those who weren’t so lucky) that Bronte decides to confront Joe during a fateful trip to the countryside, an encounter that ends with her shooting him in the crotch as authorities close in. He’ll live — a life without parole, that is.

Brewer, of course, is no stranger to acting through some harrowing material — she’s starred on The Handmaid’s Tale for nearly a decade, after all.

On the set of You, the 32-year-old actor found levity in talking life and books with Badgley. (Like her character, she’s an avid reader — she’s currently taking a philosophy course at The New School — though she doesn’t quite share Bronte’s penchant for “fairy smut.”) After work, she’d run to Brooklyn to grab dinner with her castmates, eager to unwind with a glass of orange wine. “It was the summer in New York,” she says. “It was beautiful.”

Below, Brewer breaks down Bronte’s journey, the satisfying ending of You, and a scene viewers didn’t get to see.

Do you think Joe really loved Bronte?

As a fan, I don’t think that Joe Goldberg is capable of love in the way that you or I might define it. He has no respect for women. He uses them. He will “love” anyone or anything that can fill the hole inside him. The most genuine thing he’s felt to love is the way he feels about [his son] Henry. But even by the end of the series, when Henry withdraws that love, Joe crumbles.

We see Bronte stray from her mission when she develops feelings for Joe. When do you think it really hit her who Joe was — when she met Marienne (Tati Gabrielle), or something else?

It’s the first conversation with Kate [Charlotte Ritchie] that really starts it off. Then, seeing Marienne is alive is confirmation that they weren’t wrong. She was researching this woman for years and always thought she was dead. Now she’s here, alive, telling her play-by-play what happens when you love this man. That changes everything for her.

Were there any deleted scenes or moments that didn’t make the cut?

There is a full scene that was written in which Bronte looks at Joe and says, “Hello, you.” I was like, This is iconic. I mean, I understand why [the writers] took it out. I think they wanted to give respect to that moment when Bronte and Joe consummate their relationship inside the cage. Maybe you didn’t need to add the other layer of me saying “Hello, you.” I was so excited to say it. I did get to do the voiceover [later], which was also pretty sick.

What were the behind-the-scenes logistics of the final confrontation with Joe — and of shooting him in the penis?

It was 4 a.m. in the middle of the woods in mid-August. That was the last night that we shot. It was raining. Our scrapes and the gunshot and the blood and degree of wetness — it was so much. Logistically, they really didn’t shoot much in a two [shot]. They had me in a relative close-up, and then all I did was [point] down. I wanted the feeling to be that Bronte didn’t aim for any specific thing. I don’t want to shoot him in the head, [just] maybe scare him. But then it’s just luck of the draw.

One of your final lines to Joe — “The fantasy of a man like you is how we cope with the reality of a man like you” — is such a beautiful encapsulation of this show. Can you walk me through the emotional impact of that last scene?

That line blew my mind as I read it. Anybody who falls in love with someone like that, it’s like, “You are so good, I want to believe that you can be this good.” Because many [partners] are so bad. That line puts it all on the table for you.

I feel very precious about that line, like it was this delicate thing I needed to take care of. I really wanted to make sure that I got it all in there. I do believe that on the line, though, I wiped my face — there was so much rain and hair in my eye — I should have just left it, but I was like, “God!” The hammering of a rain tower was banging on our heads.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.