What do you get when you plug Joe Goldberg into London, give him a fake identity, a new group of despicable people, and a mysterious stalker of his own? A whodunnit version of “You,” apparently, where Joe is hunting down a killer rather than a crush. Though his journey abroad begins as a way to reconnect with Marienne (Tati Gabrielle), Part 1 makes her a footnote in his story. Joe tracks her to Europe, but their time together (doled out in flashbacks across the season) is limited, ending with Joe nursing his broken heart in London. He slowly comes to accept that his life with Marienne was not meant to be. So why not begin anew?
Realizing that Marienne is only part of Joe’s story for those short interjections is quite a letdown; when he ended last season with her as his new target, I was rooting for 10 episodes fronted by Gabrielle. But on the bright side, with Marienne and the rest of the Madre Linda plotline (mostly) in the rearview, we get to fully embrace the show’s new direction: Joe Goldberg trapped in the middle of a “Knives Out” rip-off.
Posing as English professor Jonathan Moore, Joe relishes the opportunity for a European vacation — which is to say, he’s resisting the urge to commit any more murder. He opts instead for a quiet life in London, where he can kick back, relax and teach Edgar Allen Poe to argumentative undergrads like Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman), a student who quickly becomes his favorite. But before the first episode is out, Joe’s already got fresh blood on his hands, a new body to hide in a foreign country, and — surprise, surprise — a woman whose window he can’t stop peering directly into. Try as he might, Joe Goldberg just can’t escape the monster that he is.
