You – Season 3 Episode 9 “Red Flag” Recap & Review

Red Flag

Episode 9 of You Season 3 begins with Joe wondering what to do with the Conrad family, cleaning up the blood at home while reflecting on how disconnected he and Love are. Henry is busy in his crib, which gives Joe the perfect opportunity to make sure the place is sparkling.

Love though, is currently being watched by Matthew who hunches over his desk and tries to find anything to incriminate her. Love has issues of her own though as  Sherry confirms that there’s a letter of introduction that’s due today she needs to write for that prestigious school.

Sherry is happy to help, given she doesn’t want to jeopardize Henry’s future, but Theo messages distracts our psycho and tears her away from this situation. When they meet, Theo breaks the news about Matthew and decides they should use the footage Matthew has and use it to incriminate Joe, giving Love a clean break and forcing Joe behind bars. It’s a clever plan, and one that Theo immediately sets to work enacting.

While this is going on, Joe heads off to meet Marienne. She’s depressed and clearly not doing too well. The Judge has ruled against Marienne and even worse, Ryan and Juliette are moving to New Jersey.

As Joe tries to connect with his new crush, he opens up about how he killed in the past – way back when he was a kid. Marienne eventually encourages Joe to come over to his, where the pair wind up making love. Only, they also miss a call from Love who’s frantic to meet to go over the details of their plan.

Love speaks to Sherry and reveals all about Matthew’s surveillance cameras and his intent desire to oust her as Natalie’s murderer. So naturally, Sherry comes up with a good idea to turn the tables and leave a blog post about Mathew’s extra-curricular activities. Love poses as Sherry and writes the blog post, claiming she and Cary are in hiding after the surveillance camera situation.

It’s a clever plan in truth, and one that naturally sees Theo take advantage when Matthew is distracted and grab the USB stick full of evidence. When Theo scurries away, Matthew returns to his office and is encouraged to get rid of everything…so he does. He deletes all the footage and decides to try and move on past Natalie’s murder. Only, Theo obviously has the golden ticket here.

Back at the bakery, Love continues to lose control and brings Cary’s gun downstairs and gives the pair an ultimatum. Whoever kills the other will be let free from the glass cage. It’s a risky plan and as Love reels from her erratic actions, Joe is too busy being Joe.

He follows Ryan that night but he’s blindsided in his stalking, as Ryan knocks him down and threatens to call the cops. Joe eventually pushes Ryan over the edge of the building and stabs him, right outside in the middle of the street. Wait, surely there are surveillance cameras right?

Speaking of surveillance, Theo pores over the footage from the USB and notices Joe near the bakery on the night in question. So naturally, Theo goes looking around for Love but she’s nowhere to be found.

Left unattended, Cary and Sherry grab the gun and fire off a round. In doing so, Theo overhears and notices the pair together as he goes sniffing around the basement. Sherry and Cary frantically scramble for Theo to let them out, as the teen scrambles upstairs to find a key that will let them out.

Love returns though and seemingly manages to talk Theo down and encourage him to leave. Love soon senses that this won’t work and that Theo could reveal all – so naturally she smacks him upside the head. Unlike Gil though, Theo tumbles down the stairs, unconscious and lying in a pool of his own blood.

The Episode Review

You’s penultimate episode sees all the perfect dominoes come tumbling down as Love and Joe’s plan goes completely awry – thanks in part to Love’s psychopathic behaviour. Theo poring over the USB full of CCTV footage is certainly a red flag and I’m still curious to see how they’re going to play the situation with Ryan’s murder, given it was right outside that building. Surely there would be CCTV cameras there right?

Predictably it’s Love who ends up ruining everything, putting the whole family in danger. With the Conrad’s in the glass cage, Theo naturally finds them thanks to Love going AWOL.

Given this season started out with he pair trying to connect with Henry and do right by him, they sure are pawning their child off to babysitters a lot, huh? I know that makes things easier as it streamlines the murder storyline but honestly, adding Henry into the complexion of everything, everywhere they go, would be a much better angle and add some real stakes.

Then again, we’ve seen Love and Joe get away with murder numerous times so it’s hardly a surprise. The ending does hint that we’ve got a dramatic finale to come though so we’ll have to wait and see what that brings for us. Will this tepid season unleash out one final spark?