You Season 5 was about to take inspiration from a fan favourite M. Night Shyamalan film 

You season 5 almost replicated one of M. Night Shyamalan's most iconic horror film plot twists. As revealed by showrunners Michael Foley and Justin Lo, an alternative ending proposed for the You season 5 finale would have seen Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) turn out to be a ghost after being shot by Bronte (Madeline Brewer).

This plot twist would have been similar to the The Sixth Sense twist, where Bruce Willis' character unknowingly spends the entire film as a dead spirit. This was eventually dropped to make sure Joe was made to pay for his offenses with real-world consequences.

The final version of the ending shows Joe imprisoned, with his surviving victims moving on with their lives. The writers’ room prioritized a definitive conclusion where Joe could not escape accountability, a decision Penn Badgley supported. The supernatural angle was dismissed to preserve the show’s grounding in psychological realism, avoiding a genre shift.

The scrapped supernatural ending of You season 5

Showrunner Justin Lo confirmed that one of the suggested endings included Joe being fatally shot by Bronte in the woods, and the audience would have no idea he was dead until the very end of You season 5. Lo explained,

"I was even remembering a version where he was shot.". And [the audience] didn't know that he [got] shot until the last episode, and then he finds out that he's a ghost."

This twist was straight out of The Sixth Sense, where Bruce Willis' character discovers his ghostly existence only at the climax.

The authors toyed with this concept in initial brainstorming but dropped it to prevent undermining Joe's responsibility. A supernatural finale would have turned the series into a horror-fantasy crossover, a tonal misfire for a program grounded in reality-based consequences.

Why the writers rejected the ghost twist

The creative team collectively concluded that Joe's finale must capture complete justice.

Lo recounts, the writers' room thought that Joe "wouldn't get away with what he'd done" and would have to "confront himself."

Ghostly destiny would've let Joe skip out on Earthly consequences, violating the program's moral guidelines. Secondly, The Sixth Sense-style twist threatened to overshadow the narrative emphasis on Joe's victims.

The concluding scenes of Kate (Charlotte Ritchie), Marienne (Tati Gabrielle), and others prospering in Joe's absence would be less impactful if his own story were left ambiguous. The writers opted for closure for both Joe and the victims he traumatized.

The final ending of You season 5: Justice over spectacle

The selected conclusion of You season 5 shows Joe in prison, deprived of his deceptively charming exterior and compelled to deal with his offenses. Imprisoned, he hallucinates arguing with Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti) and other victims, indicative of his psychological reckoning. This final scene serves to underline the show's overarching theme: responsibility.

Bronte's genital photo darkly comedic reference to Joe's predatory nature, leaving him physically and psychologically shattered. The writers chose this fate to ensure that Joe suffered as much as he made his victims suffer. As Lo insisted, the crew wanted to "put him in a veritable cage" metaphorically and practically.

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The choice to pass on the Shyamalan-esque twist maintained You's credibility as a grounded thriller, so that Joe's fate would feel both punishment and poetic justice. You can watch all five seasons of You on Netflix.

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