Introduction
The point at which a serial killer’s prey becomes a person to fear is a narrative change that will inevitably shock the audience. This dramatic shift of the story occurred in the critically-acclaimed and viewer-beloved Netflix series You. When the audience first meets Love Quinn as a new love interest of the protagonist, Joe Goldberg, they worry for her life and safety, knowing the latter’s tendencies of initially over-romanticizing the relationship, which later turns unhealthy and violent. However, Love Quinn turned out to be not the type of person who could get victimized by Joe but rather was a match to him in many ways, including obsessive behaviors, violent tendencies, a history of committing murder, as well as dysfunctional relationships with her family. Thus, when the protagonist tried to idealize his new victim and protect her from the outside world, the supposed victim herself felt that she had to do everything in her power to safeguard the relationship despite its visible dysfunctions. Considering these facts, what the TV show does with the character of Love Quinn is that it presents her in a way that makes the audience relate and sympathize with her despite her being a psychopath.
Discussion
The third season of the TV show unravels the nature of Love’s character in greater detail, connecting her present and past behaviors. The audience is already used to the fact that Joe is a vicious individual who does not hesitate to confine people in a glass cage in his basement, stalk women digitally and physically, and dispose of the bodies of those he has killed. He can hide beneath the innocent façade of a regular ‘guy-next-door’ to lower the degree of suspicion toward him. Notably, Joe has a severe savior complex, which makes the women for whom he preys appear helpless ‘damsels in distress in need of his help and attention. Such a trope is quite common in popular culture and warrants a further discussion of the characters from the perspective of feminism.
When Love Quinn enters the picture, she shatters Joe’s view on womankind. She appears to be a step ahead of Joe, with her thoughts being much darker and more sinister, rooted in traumatic childhood characterized by severe neglect from her parents and codependence with her twin brother. Like Joe, the murderous streak of Love begins when she was a teenager and was in self-defense, similar to Joe’s experience. However, even when acting with good intentions in mind, Love chooses to cover her tracks and blame others for her wrong-doings as it appears easier to her. The tendency for murder that she has tends to emanate from both insecurity and jealousy, which is why she murdered Joe’s former girlfriend and another woman who had suspicions of him, convincing Joe that she acted to protect him.
Despite the heinous tendencies of Love and her lack of remorse for her actions, her character develops in such a way that makes her relatable to the audience. As she and Joe have a child and move to a new family-friendly neighborhood, she encounters the challenge of being a new mother, being constantly tired, hemorrhaging sleep, and struggling to maintain her sense of self. Like many other women who have just had a baby, Love is dissatisfied with her postpartum body and gets deeper into her insecurity when others start commenting on it. Women who struggle with their bodies, whether after giving birth or not, can sympathize with Love because she is on her own with the issue, and no one can help it go away except for her to gain confidence back. Moreover, motherhood in itself is obliterating as it changes a person’s perception of themselves, puts a strain on relationships, and requires significant physical and mental labor.
Despite the sociopathic traits, the relatability of Love in areas such as womanhood and motherhood prevails, making the audience, particularly the female part of it, sympathize with her. The fact that she and Joe do not connect well as parents is another relatable aspect, as many young parents feel disconnected from one another when a new member of the family appears. In the very first episode of the third season that introduces the new routine of Love and Joe, there is a scene encapsulating the push and pull of being first-time parents and trying to find a role in a new family. In the scene, Joe and Love arrive at their house and head to the kitchen, putting the baby car seat in the adjoining room. Love looks around the mess everywhere, the unwashed baby bottles and dirty dishes, distressed and disappointed. She instantly feels overwhelmed at the prospect of having to clean up the mess while being already sleep-deprived.
The human qualities inherent to Love not only make her relatable but also allow the audience to understand the reasoning behind her horrific actions and crimes, even though the show emphasizes their immorality. At no point can one justify her violent behaviors; however, some of them are understandable. When a person does not feel like themselves, nor is there enough support on which they can count, irrational actions are likely to take place. What makes her even more relatable is that most of the murders she commits stem from her fear of losing her small family. To a certain degree, this happens in many marriages or relationships – either or both parties agree to sacrifice something to make sure that they stay together with the other person, whether it is one’s career, relationships with other people, or other choices. Moreover, to preserve relationships, people in real life may act irrationally and out of emotion, which also characterizes Love’s actions.
The initial portrayal of Love Quinn in the series aligns with the stereotypical ‘damsel in distress trope as Joe jumped to any opportunity to safeguard the seemingly innocent and naĂŻve young woman against the perils of the violent and scary world of which he was a part. This classic trope usually portrays the man as the hero or a prince who is there to jump at the opportunity to save his beloved (Carling 5). Joe, with his persistent savior complex, feels that it is only he who can protect Love from her family and anyone else who may hurt her. Love, on the one hand, accepts Joe’s intentions as she feels that he is the first person in her life to care about her honestly. On the other hand, she breaks down this stereotype later by showing her true colors, pointing to the fact that it is her from whom the world should be protected.
Notably, the ‘damsel in distress character Ark is usually broken down in superheroes and other fantasy movies that show the physical and moral strength that heroines have. They usually fight for what is right and push the message of moral good to the audience (Carling 6). In You, however, Love does not fight for what is morally right when freeing herself from the damsel trope. Instead, she assumes the worst qualities that Joe also happens to have and acts in selfish interests. It is common for the characteristics of femininity to include kindness, love, care, and nurture, all of which align with Love’s personality. Nevertheless, her aggressive and toxic behavior border on masculinity and can be seen as transgressive on the part of a woman. When Love overpowers Joe both psychologically and physically, she prevails in their relationship as the dominating figure whom, at some point, Joe fears.
A unique outcome of Love Quinn destroying the ‘damsel’ trope is that despite her relatability and the hardships of being a new mother, she becomes the villain in the series, making the audience sympathize with Joe. Such a turn speaks volumes about the fact that pop culture has consistently romanticized male serial killers, presenting them as mysterious and vulnerable at times (Spychaj 3). Even though both Joe and Love are terrible people who are dangerous to society, the narrative shifts in a way that favors Joe in the end (Moore). From a feminist lens, regardless of the severe mental health and self-perception challenges that Love experiences, her character does not get a pass in the long run, while Joe does and goes on to have his life with Love dead.
The character arc of Love Quinn in You does not deserve to be romanticized because she is a bad person, even some of her qualities make others sympathize with her. Love has a distorted view of relationships and life because of the experiences she had earlier in life. She had to deal with neglectful parents, judgmental neighbors, and her new estranged and psychotic husband, in addition to postpartum body issues, troubles adjusting to life with a toddler, and being a good wife. What is unique about Love’s character is that even though she knew that her actions and behaviors were terrible, with each act of violence, she became more detached from the situation, trying to shift the blame. On the one hand, for a viewer, her impulsivity and jealousy make it easy to despise her as a character. On the other hand, the traits and circumstances that cause her behaviors make the viewer sympathize with her.
Conclusion
As with many people, Love’s desire to be accepted and loved often clouds her judgment, with emotions overtaking her. Love Quinn breaks down the ‘damsel in distress trope that is common in the popular culture narrative by showing that psychopathic tendencies are not only inherent to men. Instead of being the one to be saved by Joe, her character transforms into a person from whom Joe seeks safety even though he possesses the same negative qualities as her. What remains problematic in the series is that as soon as Love becomes more violent and relentless, she is considered the villain of the story, which illustrates the bias of pop culture in favor of romanticizing psychotic male characters like Joe.
Works Cited
Carling, Rylee. “Damsel in Distress or Princess in Power? Traditional Masculinity and Femininity in Young Adult Novelizations of Cinderella and the Effects on Agency.” BYU Scholars Archive, Web.
Moore, Sam. “We Need to Talk About the Treatment of Women in Netflix’s You.” I-D, Web.
Spychaj, M. “Serial killers are interesting, they’re not heroes”: Moral boundaries, identity management, and emotional work within an online community.” Wilfrid Laurier University, Web.