Missing White Woman Syndrome
Episode 3 of You Season 3 begins with Madre Linda rocked by Natalie Engler’s disappearance. Reporters are itching for news while Joe is confident things will die down in a week or so. It turns out the pair did give a statement about the lease to the police but beyond that, they’re in the clear. Or are they? The next day, Love shows up at work to run her bakery. Of course, Sherry and the awful gang rock up and decide to start a committee for Natalie. They’re going to try and look for her. Sherry goes one step further though and rocks up on the news, calling out Matthew’s lack of a statement and throws shade at Love, pointing out how Natalie signed off with a lease just before she went missing. And just as Joe starts to realize what bad news this is, the detectives ring and ask to talk. Thankfully, “masturbation saves the day”, as Joe admits to he and Natalie’s exchange in the parking lot was just down to him needing to unwind and find some entertainment. The one who’s not finding any entertainment in the matter though is Love, who shows up at the hospital given Henry has the measles. It’s at this point where chatter about vaccines and covid is brought up. Because that’s exactly what we all watch this show for right? Away from this, the media spotlight turns to Joe and Love, especially off the back of Sherry’s reveal about the lease agreement. A bloody scarf could well call them out but there’s a problem. Joe hasn’t had his vaccinations and he too comes down with the measles. Thanks to flashbacks, Joe reveals that his abusive parents never actually gave him his jabs but thankfully Henry’s fever breaks and he’s in the clear. Joe though is still bedbound and interestingly, he ends up chatting with Matthew about Theo and how he should speak to the media and give his statement. In the process though, Joe manages to get the bloody scarf back, burning the evidence in the sink. After Mathew gives his statement, detectives find Natalie’s ring. It turns out Gil was the one who had the measles outbreak initially and that’s because his whole family are antivaxxers. None of them have actually had their injections, and that’s why Henry was getting ill. So naturally, Love smacks him upside the head with a rolling pin.
The Episode Review
Just like most of the popular shows in the west, You crowbars in an anti-vax/covid storyline into its story in the most haphazard way possible. Because this is exactly what we want from our fictional blood-lusting thriller right? Given it’s not been mentioned once across the three seasons, to suddenly add it in now feels weak and really ill-fitting to the tone of the series. I understand that it ties into Love eventually lashing out and hitting Gil but there’s a million and one other ways they could have written this. The “reveal” at the end ultimately feels like another groan-inducing ploy rather than a genuine shocker. It’ll be interesting to see if the show continues this or abandons it in favour of the actual interesting character dynamic between Love and Joe, which is sidelined this time to get the message out about vaccines. As someone who’s fully vaccinated, the message about antivaxxers is important but not in a show like this and will undoubtedly alienate audiences expecting some escapism. Hopefully the next episode will be an improvement.
