You Had So Many Hidden Clues About The Eat The Rich Killer's Identity
It's wild that Joe didn't figure it out sooner.
Joe Goldberg may have finally found his perfect match. No, it’s not Guinevere Beck, Love Quinn, Marienne Bellamy, or even the new woman he’s obsessing over — it’s another serial killer who thinks just like him. Throughout the first part of You Season 4, Joe was constantly outwitted by the anonymous Eat The Rich Killer, until the murderer was finally revealed at the end of Part 1. And honestly, Joe should’ve put the pieces together a lot sooner, because You Season 4 was full of clues about the Eat The Rich Killer’s true identity.
Spoiler alert: This post contains major spoilers through Episode 5 of You Season 4. In the first half of its London-based season, You transformed from a blood-soaked psychothriller to a full-blown, Knives Out-style murder mystery. That’s because, for once, Joe wasn’t even responsible for the killings, at least not most of them. An anonymous murderer dubbed the Eat The Rich Killer taunted Joe via disappearing texts about his deadly escapades, all the while pinning the deaths on Joe, who’s actually innocent for once. With a sprawling new cast of ultra-wealthy, complicated suspects, Joe tried to figure out who the killer could be for the entire first half of the season, only to find out he got it completely wrong in Part 1’s final moments.
Joe may be great at stalking people, but he really needs to brush up on his detective skills, because it honestly shouldn’t have been that surprising to him that manipulative author Rhys Montrose was the killer all along. I mean, he’s basically just the British version of Joe — of course he’s a self-important murderer!
The season laid the groundwork for the big reveal with a ton of little hints and clues that perceptive viewers probably picked up on right away... long before Joe did. Here are some of the big ones:
1. Rhys’ background is similar to Joe’s.
The biggest giveaway that Rhys was the killer was how much attention the show gave to all the striking similarities between Rhys and Joe. Like Joe, Rhys was also raised in poverty “by an unstable single mother,” as Joe said while researching the author. Even Joe himself couldn’t resist remarking on the eerie similarity to his own upbringing, which should have been a clue that Rhys may also have the same killer instinct as Joe.
2. Rhys called Joe his “brother in arms.”
Rhys’ very first introduction to Joe is also much more eyebrow-raising when seen in retrospect. After bonding over their terrible childhoods, Rhys formally introduced himself by saying, “Pleased to meet you, brother in arms.” By the end of Part 1, it’s clear Rhys really does view Joe as his “brother in arms” in a much deeper sense, revealing he wants to team up with him to kill off the entitled upper class together.
3. Rhys hates the Sundry House crowd as much as Joe.
Sure, Rhys may still hang around his old college buddies, but the very first conversation he had with Joe was all about how he actually couldn’t stand how they behaved. Joe himself even noted it was the first real chat he’d had that night, having finally found a kindred spirit who hated the reckless, hard-partying crowd as much as he did.
4. Rhys’ book title is Joe’s whole self-rationalizing worldview.
Even before meeting Rhys in person, Joe was struck by his book: A Good Man in a Cruel World. It’s no surprise Joe was drawn to the title — it’s pretty much the mantra he uses to rationalize all his murders. Joe has always seen himself as the only good person who has been forced to murderous extremes by an unjust world, and it’s evident Rhys thinks of himself in the same way.
5. Rhys’ political ambitions are a red flag.
It’s TV Drama 101: Anyone climbing the political ladder is probably going to kill someone. Upon hearing rumors Rhys would be running for London’s mayor, Joe should have been looking at him a lot more suspiciously, especially since his whole platform was built upon fixing class inequality. He and the Eat The Rich Killer clearly had the exact same ideology, but Joe didn’t put that together.
6. Rhys’ alibi the night of Malcolm’s murder fell through.
Before Joe woke up to find Malcolm dead on his table, Rhys informed him that he was flying to Berlin that night for some interviews. However, after Joe cleaned up Malcolm’s body, he ran into Rhys at Sundry House, who claimed that he was able to go to Berlin and back in just a few hours. Clearly, the Berlin trip would have been a great alibi for Rhys, if only Joe didn’t catch him in London mere hours later.
7. Rhys’ advice to Joe suggested he knew about Malcolm’s murder.
Rhys also overplayed his hand in the chat he had with Joe the morning after Malcolm’s death. He seemed to immediately tune into the fact that Joe was reeling from some sort of mistake he made the night before, and offered him the advice of not dwelling on whatever it was and to just move on, because redemption is always possible. The whole conversation seemed way too on-the-nose for someone who shouldn’t have possibly known what Joe was really dealing with.
8. Rhys’ response to Simon’s murder was telling.
Joe gravitated toward Rhys at Simon’s funeral gathering since, in his eyes, he was the only genuinely grieving person there. However, Rhys’ conversation with Joe at the event wasn’t super mournful. He even seemed to rationalize Simon’s death by calling it somewhat karmic following the revelation that he’d stolen from his assistants. He said he was sad his friend didn’t get to live to become a better person, which Joe took as authentic grief, but really sounded more like a killer trying to justify his actions.
Joe and Rhys’ cat-and-mouse game is expected to continue when Part 2 of You Season 4 arrives on Netflix on March 9.
