'You' Season 2 Episode 2: Beck manifests as Joe's consciousness and goes on to control his sanity and establishes moral grounds
Spoiler alert for 'You' Season 2 Episode 2
"Sometimes, we hurt the one we love. Right?"
In the previous season, we see that Joe gives Beck his all but gets only deceit, lies and betrayal in return. Enraged by her actions, he slays her straight, only to keep her locked and etched into his memories forever. In Episode 2 of this season, Joe begins to see Beck here and there as if she's a wandering soul.
As he is forming a close bond with Love, he sees Beck in random places and disappears all of a sudden. Joe has trapped her unwittingly in the cage of his mind.
It is revealed that Joe is up to no good right now as we see his plan unfurl with him stalking Love about a week ago. So far, we believe that he actually runs away to escape Candice and he never makes a move until he has an ulterior motive in place.
It becomes clear when Joe narrates the fact that he has been stalking Love for over a week and he also explains his plan to make Love fall in love with him. This is something that he had done at the time he became obsessively infatuated with Beck in Season 1. Seems like Love is his escape plan from New York, which is why he fled immediately after meeting Candice.
With Beck making random appearances in the middle, it signifies that although she is just a piece of Joe's mind's fragments, her character is still very powerful as she can maneuver his thoughts in a particular direction.
Joe has a way with women and negging them makes him more powerful than his targets. In this case, it is Love. Fortunately or unfortunately, he has learned something from the way things went down with Beck and he is trying to be a better person. Too bad he cannot change the person that he is, but there is no harm in trying or is it?
Beck is deep inside his head and the trauma is very much real, so he is able to see her everywhere even when he is with Love. Beck just looks at him and she knows what Joe's next move is. Perhaps because she lives in his head and steers his mind.
When he's trying to pull a classic Joe, she appears before him looking rather tensed and worried. He meets a girl once and literally throws himself at them, in an attempt to "trying to do it the right time," as opposed to what he did with Beck.
As an audience, we know what he did to Beck was wrong, but he does not see it. A part of his conscience refuses to accept the way things ended with Beck. He is living in denial as he still believes that he did everything he can to keep her with him.
Beck's presence and her monologue were integral in this episode as it should ideally help Joe see Love and approach her with more clarity so that she doesn't end up like Beck.
She reappears when Joe kills Jesper in an attempt to save himself from him. Joe is really unstable and needs help, but he can't see it yet. Beck constantly reminds Joe that he hurt her and that could be his innermost conscience that may stop him from hurting Love in the future.
He isn't scared that Love could hurt him, but he is afraid that he will be the one to hurt her instead. She is basically trying to be his good conscience as she shows him a picture of the kind of monster he is.
Watch 'You' Season 2 premiering on Netflix on December 26.
