I gotta be honest here, but I did NOT like Season one. Nothing to do with Joe, the charming murderer that would do anything for love, but a lot of things to do with Guinevere Beck. Beck was the typical socialite, yearning for attention from people that would fulfill her "daddy issues," but failing to recognize that some of her own actions are also what caused her to fall into the wrong hands. She was fake on social media, fake with her friends, fake with herself, with Joe, the one person she claimed to have trusted, and through it all after knowing that Joe got cheated on in the past, she did the same thing, and believed that she could hide it from him and still come out all new and innocent. But I am not trying to say that Joe did everything right either. He murdered her best friend, the guy she had a friends with benefits thing with, and many others because he claims that they had deserved it or gotten in the way of his love for Beck. But truth be told, Beck wasn't right for him.
Beck was a hypocrite. She claims that she needs someone who would understand her, and in return, for her to be understanding and caring back. But all she wants was the next guy to fulfill her void. Her "daddy issues" were made from a young age, but the solutions that she chased after from guys like Benji were bad decisions nonetheless. She didn't take account of her own actions nor admitted that she was wrong for cheating on Joe or not being there for her friends. Yes, she was broke, and yes she was trying to run away from her past, but she didn't try to change the sides of herself that needed changing. And yet she constantly blamed others for her own little mistakes. She has deep issues, and yet she always felt like she was better. And after finding out the truth about Joe, she recoiled, even though she doesn't realize, that she herself is the same way.
When You's second season dropped on Netflix, I wasn't really looking forward to it because I didn't think the second female protagonist would be any better than Beck, but boy was I wrong. Love Quinn was vastly on another level. At first glance, she was the strong female protagonist who speaks her own mind and does what she needs to do for herself and for her family. She knows what she wants, and her group of friends is diverse featuring her brother, Forty, and LGBTQ+ members and supporters doing their own thing and succeeding from their own talents. I mean the location was different, it was LA. Joe was trying to get away from his ex, Candace that threatened to expose him for what he truly was and all Joe ever wanted was a clean slate. Not that it was right, but that was Joe's plan. He believed that Candace would not find him if he went to the place that he would go to last: LA.
Joe didn't initially fall for Love Quinn, but he indeed focused on her just like he focused on Guinevere Beck in the first season, without meaning to. But when he did start to obsess over Love, he realized she was different. She wasn't Beck, she didn't really need someone to catch up, and fix her own problems. She just needed that support that she longed for, because her own rich obnoxious family pushed all their responsibilities onto her, for her to take care of her twin brother, Forty when he got obsessed with drug use. Dealing with both difficult parents and a difficult brother at times who wouldn't let her in, she needed someone that understood her, that she could confide in. When episodes went by in season 2, we start to realize that she lost a previous lover to disease and ever since then, she wanted someone to fill that empty void, and so when she sees Joe, she does all the things that Joe did in season one in pursuing Beck.
Little did Joe know, Love was the same. She's pretty much the female version of Joe. She would do anything to protect the people she loved, as far as killing the wrong people and protecting the people that she sees as those she should cherish. And because she grew up in a rich family, they sweep those things under the rug, and so she's well protected from the crimes that she did commit. When Joe discovered who Love really was in a tight situation of his phone, he actually turned into another version of Beck, cowering and wanting to kill Love just to get out of the situation. It was odd seeing Joe finding someone exactly like him; his soulmate, but then refusing to be with her. It felt strange and I remember when I was watching the episode, I was yelling at the screen and telling him to stay with her, even though for obvious reasons, it wasn't going to happen.
I learned that Joe would never stop. He would never stop pursuing women because what he is searching for isn't for someone exactly like him, as he said in season one when he was begging Beck to love him back. He's searching for his mother's love, a pure love that's unconditional. But it isn't possible, because no girl besides his mother can fulfill that tiny hope of his. And thus, Joe will keep looking for the next thing.