‘You’ Season 5 Slyly Called Back to a Fan-Favorite Season 1 Character

Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for “You” Season 1 and Season 5 through Episode 6.

In its final season, “You” brought Joe Goldberg back to NYC, so naturally, he ran headfirst into some loose ends from all the murdering he did in Season 1 – but probably not in the way you expected. It’s not any of the survivors we already know who come back to take Joe down, but a new batch of characters, including Madeline Brewer’s Bronte, aka Louise. But there were plenty of cameos — and one sneaky callback you might have missed!

At the end of Episode 5, “Joe” lashes out violently to rescue his mysterious paramour Bronte from an attacker, and that’s when two of her cohorts burst in, phone’s out, live-streaming the death for all to see. Bronte was playing Joe the whole time, and Episode 6 spells out exactly how she came to suspect him and how her crew came together to expose him. In short, they found each other through subreddits about the Guinevere Beck murder — in fact, Bronte knew her; Beck was her TA in college. There are a lot of Season 1 callbacks, actually. The guy Joe killed? That’s Dr. Nicky’s son, another member of Dante’s group of sleuths.

But there’s one you might have missed, a quick reference that Bronte makes when she’s talking to the cops. During her conversation with the police, Bronte mentions that someone online, using the username MintyFresh, said, “She said she saw a cage in the basement of the bookstore with her own eyes.”

So, who is MintyFresh? It’s pretty clearly a callback to Karen Minty, Joe’s ex-girlfriend from Season 1, played by Natalie Paul.

As a refresher, Karen and Joe dated after he and Beck broke up and their relationship was shown in Episode 108, “You Got Me Babe.” Joe was uniquely horrible to Karen compared to his usual relationship in that he was never violent or possessive with her — because he was still completely obsessed with Beck. In fact, he cheated on Karen with Beck over and over again, then ended things with a blasé “It’s over.” Not his usual type of awful.

For her part, Karen became a fan-favorite for all the right reasons. She was smart, confident and a damn good friend. A professional nurse, Karen took care of her friend and Paco’s mom, Claudia, while Claudia was going through withdrawals. That’s when she saw Joe’s cage under the bookstore, where he offered to let Claudia ride out her symptoms so Paco wouldn’t have to see.

When Joe broke up with her, Karen calmly collected her things, saying, “We’re adults, it happens,” and completely side-stepped every bit of dramatics or toxic behavior Joe was anticipated. Although she wasn’t on the show for very long, Karen Minty made a big impression as one of the most mature and composed characters in the entire series run. While we never saw her again in the show, it seems all that side-eyeing when she first saw the cage wasn’t for nothing — after Beck’s death, she took her suspicions online and helped lead Bronte to the truth.

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