(Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of “You.”)
Marienne (Tati Gabrielle) got the heck out of dodge before getting too twisted up with serial stalker/killer Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) at the end of “You” Season 3, thanks to an info dump about the true nature of her new lover from Joe’s wife, Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti) — whom Joe then killed soon after Marienne and her daughter had fled.
But Marienne’s fate was almost that of Love’s, given that Love was originally planning on killing the librarian after tricking her into coming to Joe and Love’s home, with the plan being to murder Marienne just feet away from where Joe lay hidden and paralyzed with poison, unable to stop his scorned wife from doing away with his new obsession out of anger and jealousy. It was Marienne’s young daughter Juliette who ended up saving her mother, simply by entering the Quinn-Goldberg home in need of a restroom, hitting the maternal nerve in new mom Love, who thought of Baby Henry, and didn’t want Juliette to lose her mother.
So instead, Love tells Marienne to run and hide, because Joe killed Marienne’s abusive ex-husband Ryan, and plenty of other people before him, and is not at all who he pretends to be. And before Marienne goes with her daughter, she actually tells Love to get her baby boy Henry and get out herself, if that’s really who Joe is and what he’s capable of.
But Love doesn’t get that chance, because Joe combats his paralysis with adrenaline and manages to kill his wife instead, then leave their baby on a friends’ doorstep and run off to France in hopes that is where Marienne, who grew up there, has gone.
See TheWrap’s interview with Gabrielle about that big Love-Marienne showdown and what she thinks the future holds for Marienne if Joe ends up finding her in France in “You” Season 4 — which was just picked up by Netflix ahead of “You” Season 3’s Friday launch.
TheWrap: First off, was Penn Badgley actually lying over there on the floor acting paralyzed in that dining room when you and Victoria Pedretti were shooting the scene between Love and Marienne?
No, he was not (laughs). I had that question as they were calling me, too, I was like, “Is Penn going to be on the floor through it?” And they were like, no, no no. And great, because that would be so sad for him to have to have to stay there through that whole thing. And it also helped me, because I wasn’t supposed to be able to see him. And in the orientation of the set itself, of course on screen you can’t see this, but in the orientation of the set, I would be able to. So I was happy that he wasn’t there, that it wouldn’t be like, “But he’s right there, though!”
OK, now that that’s out of the way, how did you approach Marienne’s thought process during the conversation, where at first she doesn’t seem to believe Love, but then ends up not only leaving, but giving Love the advice to save herself from Joe, too?
So I feel like in the beginning of the scene, she is skeptical of Love because, of course, it’s like a scorned wife. I feel like she’s playing the game of like, “OK, you’re going to try to steer me from this.” But when it does turn and when Juliette does come in and when she sees this fear, pain, sadness, all in Love’s eyes in an instant and it’s like, “Wait a minute. OK, wait a minute.” That is when it sort of hits her that maybe she’s telling the truth. I took it that when Marienne leaves, I don’t know that she has necessarily still fully accepted all of what Love has told her, because she still, of course, you can’t fall out of love that easily with someone, no matter what you know about them — or at least doesn’t want to believe it. But, yeah, in that moment, when it becomes very serious and it’s very real and she’s like, “Oh my God. OK. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.” And I think at that point, she drops it. This is not about a man. Let’s speak as women and understand. And being that Marienne is a woman that’s trying to fight for her power back in that moment, or has been fighting for her power back from Ryan, that she’s like, “We can’t let this be a cycle among women in general. And if I can help you, despite the messiness of this, I’m going to do that.” I feel like Marienne, in that way, is just a very honest, real person. And it’s like, “Uh-uh, I can’t let my girl go down like this.”
Do you think Marienne actually went to France, given that had been her plan and where she grew up, but Love told her to go where Joe couldn’t find her, and he knew that’s where she wanted to go with Juliette?
I do think that Marienne is in France, because I feel like that that’s where her heart was calling to and where it was pulling her. And that’s her roots. And I think, just in terms of rebuilding oneself, it’s always wonderful to return to your roots.
What do you think will happen if Joe, who is now France, does find Marienne in “You” Season 4?
I would be interested to see, if he does find her, I know for sure– I don’t think that Marienne would go back, like, definitely not. Though, I do think she would award him a conversation. Because, again, her heart was played with, for one. And I think for her own healing, she needs a freakin’ conversation, she needs to hear it from his mouth. She wants to hear it from the horse’s mouth and not give him a chance to explain himself — but like in a way, give him a chance to explain himself, but still very well knowing like, “OK, great to know that you are that,” and be frightened, terrified, disgusted, all the things by it. But I think it will give her a sense of peace… And I really want Marienne to like expose Joe, as well. I want that. Just, yes, I need that.
Read more of TheWrap’s “You” Season 3 coverage here and check back for additional interviews throughout the weekend.