'You' Season 3: Is Joe Goldberg's dangerous obsession linked to his dark past?
It's a solid given that Joe Golberg is a straight-up psychopath, there's just no sugar coating this one! It's alarming and beyond scary to even start to think how his mind works. A random woman catches his attention and he goes all sorts of crazy almost instantly - wondering what she does for a living, what her favorite color is, how she likes her eggs in the morning, if she's borrowing a sad romantic book because her life is meaningless, and so on.
Simple questions that arise on the surface in his head eventually lead to all-out assumptions about the woman's personal life, career choices, and preferences!
Joe's continuous and constant fixation on his current obsession makes you want to hit the pause button more than just once, not being able to believe that this is an actual man, stalking a woman, taking (or rather, stealing) any sort of item that may belong to her to stash away in his box of memories. All in all, this whole phenomenon is nothing short of frightening.
Joe Goldberg is easily one of those rare breeds of sociopaths who come across as very charming, at first, of course; his gait and even the way he carries himself in front of people could be possible reasons. What's more disastrous is that we never know what he's thinking, although it just looks creepy, from a third person's perspective. Joe has mastered the art of manipulation, using his looks and charm to fool people.
Having said that, his heinous behavior could be traced back to his nightmare of a childhood. His father used to abuse his mother, beating her till she couldn't take it anymore. As a result of an act of protecting her, Joe killed his father and hasn't fully resolved this childhood trauma. Ever since his mind is fixated on protecting women.
Incidentally, Joe happens to fall in love with women who he thinks need his help, or rather, his protection. Although he is plain wrong the majority of the time, he likes reading the minds of his next target. He also believes that he knows women best, loves children, and has an unwavering feeling of wanting to shield their childhood for the very same reason.
Needless to say, Joe thinks very highly of himself and even thinks he is a passionate lover. If it comes to saving himself from a world of trouble, he will willingly kill his girlfriend too, without a shred of guilt or regret on his face.