Spoilers Ahead

Joe Goldberg [Penn Badgley] and Love Quinn [Victoria Pedretti]. 

Two murderers (who are probably considered serial killers at this point) are thrown together to navigate the suburbs AKA Madre Linda—with a baby (Henry). 

Joe: Obsessive, persistent, and methodical.

Love: Jealous, insecure, and impulsive. 

Good thing they have one thing in common: their murderous tendencies.

While Joe has been the main character since season one, Love enters the affairs in season two. At first, she seems perfectly normal, until you realize she killed her first victim as a teenager along with her first husband. She has a troubled past, with some crazy family ties, that has shaped her as an adult. Love’s family is nothing short of toxic and manipulative, which shows evidently in her personality.

Joe also has a tragic childhood, as he grew up in foster homes after his mother left him. Get this—he also killed his first victim as a child: nine years old! He shot his own father, to protect his mother from domestic abuse, and in return, she ditched Joe.

Skip to season three, the show’s latest part, when these two lovebirds have a baby. Totally romantic if you discount how Joe tried to kill Love before she screamed the news of her pregnancy. 

Through all the craziness, this season was beyond amazing. This show is known for its plot twists and the third season did not disappoint. I was left speechless on multiple occasions, needing to call my friends and scream. 

In the very first episode, Joe finds a new love obsession—next-door neighbor Natalie Engler, but Love impulsively kills her out of jealousy. Joe isn’t thrilled, but don’t worry! He moves on to Marriane [Tati Gabrielle] pretty quickly following Natalie’s death. Marriane is the local librarian, alongside Joe, since he now volunteers there.

On the other side, Love meets a college student Theo [Dylan Arnold] — or, more accurately, he pursues her. One huge problem is that Theo’s step-mom is the woman Love killed in the very first episode. That small factor puts a dent in their romance, along with the fact that Love is married with a baby and Theo is in college.

During all of this, Love and Joe have an up and down relationship. One day they are planning how to kill each other and the next they are working like Bonnie and Clyde romantically. Love seems to fit into the neighborhood easily, while Joe is highly irritated by everyone. 

As viewers, you’ve got to feel bad for baby Henry by this point, because it’s not looking good for him. He doesn’t seem to have a chance at a normal life in the slightest, considering nature or nurture. He has not one, but two murderers as parents, and doesn’t seem to be growing up in the healthiest household. 

As Joe and Marriane’s romance grows, they finally decide to take their kids and run away together. While this is happening, Love is forced to kill Theo, since he has found out about what she and her husband have done. Luckily, she fails and Joe finds Theo. In an unpredictable act of normalcy, Joe lets Theo live but tells him to run.

Love finally gets wind of the decision by Joe and Marriane and poisons Joe (flashback to her ex-husband much!) and texts Marriane to come over. Love’s obvious intentions of murder change when she sees Marriane’s daughter, and shows humanity to a fellow mother. Marriane is left free to go, leaving Joe and Love to work out their differences. It doesn’t exactly work out like that, since one of them ends up dead, but what else are you gonna expect from two serial killers? I was surprised they both even made it to the last episode without having a lovers quarrel gone wrong.

Once the two miserably married couple is left alone, Love brings a knife to Joe’s throat. As it seems his story is over, he injects Love with the same poison she had used on him, with just enough to kill her. Turns out Joe figured out what poison Love was growing in the garden, so he was able to take the anecdote and un-paralyze himself faster. 

Plot twist: trust issues really did save Joe’s life. 

Love falls to the floor in pain muttering the emotional words to Joe, “We’re perfect for each other.” 

In a way they are, bringing out the worst in each other and such.

Joe, left alone with Henry, leaves his child with another local resident of Madre Linda. Then, he carefully lays out evidence to incriminate Love for all the crimes committed since the arrival of the newlywed couple and flees. Love is blamed and everyone assumes Joe is dead. Instead, Joe is living his life in Paris, still searching for who he believes to be the one—Marriane. 

This show was a solid 9/10. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it from the first episode and the intensity of the drama captured all of my attention. The acting was outstanding, from each and every character, and added to the depth of the story in a way I have not seen before. If you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend it; there are so many plotlines that happen throughout the show, more than I could fit into this review. Season four is long-awaited after a beautifully crafted season.