Getty "You" star Victoria Pedretti is pictured at the 2019 MTV Movie and TV Awards at Barker Hangar on June 15, 2019 in Santa Monica, California. She portrays Love Quinn on Season 2 of "You."
This article contains spoilers for Season 2 of the Netflix series “You.”
Love Quinn is the new character on Season 2 of Netflix’s You. Played by The Haunting of Hill House star Victoria Pedretti, Love is a kind widow who bakes to ease her anxiety, has a close group of friends and looks out for her troubled twin brother Forty. She is also the only person in the series who has been able to match the brutality of serial killer Joe Goldberg, portrayed by Gossip Girl alum Penn Badgley.
Like his previous infatuation with Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail) in Season 1, Joe soon becomes obsessed with Love when he moves to Los Angeles to escape from his ex-girlfriend, Candace Stone (Ambyr Childers).
Joe uses his dangerous charm to insert himself into a woman’s life yet again. What he doesn’t know is that Love also has a penchant for stalking. It could be the perfect relationship, except for a dark twist: Love is capable of committing the same caliber of brutal crimes as Joe.
There’s another problem for Joe on Season 2. Candace changes her name to Amy Adam and seduces Forty in an attempt to get closer to Love, who she fears could become Joe’s next victim. It turns out to be a grave decision for Candace. After escaping Season 1 alive, she’s murdered by Love in a plot twist that left viewers stunned.
She does this to protect Joe, but murder is not a trait he admires in a partner. After seeing her for who she really is, Joe might have killed Love himself had he not found out about her pregnancy.
In a warped happy ending, Joe and Love decide to cover up their crimes, get married and start a family together, but the psychological thriller leaves us on yet another cliffhanger. The final episode teases that Joe might have his eyes set on the new neighbor.
Here’s what you need to know about Pedretti’s character, Love:
1. Love Wants to Be the Pure Woman Joe Fell in Love With
GettyActress Victoria Pedretti is pictured during day 3 of Argentina Comic Con 2018 at Costa Salguero on December 09, 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Love doesn’t want to see herself as a murderer, even if she killed her childhood nanny, Candace and Joe’s neighbor, Delilah, who knew about one of his murders.
Love presents herself as the unassuming widow who works in a grocery store, meditates and tries to mend the fractured relationship with her mother. That’s the person she wants to be.
“I think she wants to not have all this fucked-up-ness in her life, but she didn’t choose that, to a certain extent. In the same way, Joe didn’t choose that [life], we are very aware of the person he wants to be,” Pedretti told Elle in a December 29 interview. “But I think she wants freedom. She doesn’t want to be tied down by judgment, and these ideas about image that were hammered into her head growing up.”
2. If We’re Comparing Murderers, Pedretti Says Joe is Worse
GettyActress Victoria Pedretti wipes away a tear at day 3 of Argentina Comic Con 2018 at Costa Salguero on December 09, 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
It might be delusional, but Love murdered women to protect the men she loves. Unlike Joe, her killings were never premeditated, Pedretti argues.
Joe was never defending anyone except his own fantasies. He started with the planned murder of Beck’s ex Benji and went on to kill at least eight people over the course of two seasons.
“I don’t think any of the behavior she presents, the murderous kind, is premeditated,” Pedretti told Bustle in a December 26 interview. “It’s always out of this very animalistic need to protect.”
“I think that she actually is protecting him,” she continued. “He never actually is protecting anybody.”
3. Did Love Lie About Her Pregnancy?
GettyVictoria Pedretti is pictured at SiriusXM Studios on January 06, 2020 in New York City.
Some people aren’t convinced that Love is really pregnant with Joe’s baby, PopBuzz wrote, citing a popular fan theory. She only told Joe about her pregnancy when she thought he was going to kill her. The move saved her life, but it might have just been a tactic to reel Joe back in.
After Joe and Love breakup in the series, she briefly dates her ex-boyfriend Milo Warrington. Joe catches them hooking up through his telescope, so there are some who think Milo is the real father of the baby.
Another theory claimed Love might have used in-vitro fertilization to become pregnant. In a flashback, fans see Love and her late husband fighting about having children. While she feels comfortable taking money from her parents to help start a family, he doesn’t want to. The theory claims she used her family’s money to become pregnant and then telling Joe he’s the father of the child.
4. She Doesn’t Think Anything She Has Done is Wrong
GettyVictoria Pedretti is pictured at the Netflix FYSEE Event for “Haunting of Hill House” at Raleigh Studios on May 21, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.
Love doesn’t feel remorse for her killings and only sees how the deaths of the people she murdered will benefit her life and the people she cares about. She feels justified in her actions.
First, she killed their au pair when she found out she was sexually abusing her twin brother. Then she killed Delilah and Candace so the family she always wanted would not be ruined.
“I think that this woman is so deeply in her delusions that she feels so right in everything she’s doing,” Pedretti told Bustle. “She’s breaking apart people’s lives, destroying people’s families. She’s not thinking about that, she’s just thinking about herself.”
5. Love Doesn’t Kill Anyone in the Book
Victoria Pedretti is pictured at the Netflix FYSEE Event for “Haunting of Hill House” at Raleigh Studios on May 21, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.
As noted by PopBuzz, Season 2 of You is based on Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes. However, Love’s character in the TV series and the book are very different.
In Hidden Bodies, it’s Joe who murders Delilah and Forty. He drowns Love’s twin brother in a hot spring in the Nevada desert because he doesn’t want Love to be smothered by him anymore. In the Netflix series, Forty is fatally shot by Detective David Fincher and Love kills Delilah.
In the book, Candace doesn’t exist. Instead, Joe escapes New York to get away from Amy, the girl Candace pretends to be in the series.
Ultimately, the book and TV series end the same. Even after Love finds out about everyone Joe has killed, except Forty, she accepts him and wants to start a family together in suburbia.