Sorry but Lady Phoebe is the only character who deserved true happiness in Netflix's You (2024)

I'm just going to say it. Season four of Netflix's You has been severely lacking in likeable characters. At one point, we thought we might get a redemption arc for Joe (Penn Badgley), but that was quickly undone in part two. And with the promise of a new cast full of Brits, we thought there would be a few new favourites.

But the majority of the characters are "rich douchebags" (Joe's words), with no real character development. Even Kate (Charlotte Ritchie), despite losing her father and partner Malcolm (remember him?) is relatively banal, with no qualities to endear her to the audience. Thankfully, there is one person we've become extremely devoted to and that is of course Lady Phoebe.

Yep, she's the person you want to hang out with on a night out. She's fun, bubbly, full of fun one liners and an enviable wardrobe. But she's also one of the few characters with real emotional depth and complexity, who goes on quite a journey through the season.

When we first meet Lady Phoebe (Tilly Keeper) in episode one of season four outside of Sundry House, there is an expectation she is going to be the typical representation of an "heiress" - spoilt, stuck up and generally not a nice person to be around. And yet within two minutes of watching her, the whole image drops and it's impossible not to instantly love her.

She is sweet, charismatic and seems to generally care about others. Yes, she may be ditsy and a little naive, but this also endears her to everyone.

In that first scene at Sundry House, Phoebe is the only person to be genuinely interested in Jonathan/Joe and introduces him to everyone in order to make sure he doesn't feel left out.

Her kindness to everyone continues throughout the season, even when she goes through horrific things. You know, like casually being kidnapped. It never stops her from being generally good to people even when they don't deserve it.

But her kindness is also what lets people take advantage of her, particularly Adam. Adam (Lukas Gage) didn't necessarily deserve to die, but it wasn't exactly a shock after the way he treated Phoebe. From the off-set, it's pretty clear Phoebe is more into Adam than he is into her. She is supportive of his plans for Sundry House and never kink shames him, but instead wants to use it as a way to get closer to him. And even though she has doubts about her relationship with Adam she ends up saying yes to his proposal.

She's by no means perfect, but unlike the other characters in the series, she's the only one to have any real character development. In episode six, we see she's not as naive as she once was when she rejects Adam's initial proposal, aware he's only using her for money, and she's far smarter than we all gave her credit for when handling her kidnapper with calmness and intelligence.

She becomes the only relatable character in the series, because of her insecurities and doubts about herself, that we all feel on occasion. It's what makes the audience so protective of her, because we can all see a bit of ourselves in Phoebe.

At the end of You season 4, it was disappointing but not surprising to see Kate and the others all end up in a similar position to how they started. Still successful and all relatively unscathed.

But despite all this, let's be real, Phoebe was the real winner of the series. By the time she ends up teaching in Thailand, she has retained her good hearted nature but with an added sense of self-assurance and belief. She doesn't need all the money, private members clubs and designer clothes to make her happy, she just needs herself.

You season four is available on Netflix now