‘You’ Season 5 Has a Cardi B Cameo You Might Have Missed

The Netflix psychological thriller You has finally come to an end with its fifth season. Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) returned to New York, finally free to go by his real name once again. With wealthy wife Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) in tow, who knows about his inner darkness (albeit not all of it) and a shifted narrative that makes him look like the hero who escaped his deranged ex-wife, Love (Victoria Pedretti), he’s on top of the world.

But eventually, everything comes crashing down on Joe. He finally gets his comeuppance while the ladies he has wronged, at least those who survive his wrath, expose him for who and what he is. The series has attracted die-hard fans, including celebrities who have openly expressed their love for it. Arguably, the show’s biggest celebrity fan even managed to score a subtle but hilarious cameo in the final season.

In Season 5, Episode 7, “#JoeGoldberg,” Joe is dealing with the fallout of the events in Episode 6, “The Dark Face of Love.” He was caught on camera by Dominique (Natasha Behnam), who was livestreaming Joe and Bronte (Madeline Brewer) in her parents’ cabin. The intent was to catch Joe off guard and show him for who he truly is. But what she caught was the vicious scene of Joe fighting and murdering Clayton (Tom Francis). How can he possibly get out of this jam when the entire world has now seen his darkness and there’s definitive proof that he murdered someone?

Joe seeks the help of Maddie (Amma Camp), who happens to be the “vague” PR and crisis manager for Lockwood Corp. She knows today’s media landscape and has a talent for shifting narratives in the media. She sets him up for an interview with a popular TikTok “journalist” who she says will help Joe reach the very people he needs to reach to build sympathy.

As he talks, the screen shows an outpouring of comments, some in defense of Joe, others calling him a manipulator. But most are expressing the fact that they’re questioning things now. Maybe he is really a good guy who was just put in a bad situation.

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Later, back at home, Joe is looking through his phone at social sites like X, where #joegoldberg is now trending. The comments vary, but many show support for him, saying they wish he were their prince charming, or even darker ones, like that they wish he would kill for them. “Gotta hand it to Maddie,” says Joe through his inner monologue, “her plan is working.”

As he scrolls through the comments further, there are ones like “My heart belongs to Joe Smolderberg” and “Aww, but I love a guy who’s strong enough to cry.” Keen-eyed viewers will have noticed one particular comment a little bit down the line. It comes from the account of music artist Cardi B, complete with her profile photo.

The camera closes in on the posts, and hers reads “when there are allegations, but he’s a 10 #joegoldberg.” The post has 3,000 comments, 167,000 re-posts, 8.7 million likes, and 34 million views. In the finale, after Joe is arrested, Bronte narrates as viewers see a very different take on Joe’s hashtag. The posts poke fun at the fact that his arrest photos show him with a bleeding groin. While pleading for Bronte to kill him, he charged at her, she fired the gun, and that’s where the bullet happened to land. Among these posts is, again, another one from Cardi B. “He WAS a 10,” it reads, “now he’s a 2…inches.”

This subtle cameo appearance was several years in the making, a fun way to incorporate Cardi B into the show for a second time. And there’s a specific reason for that.

Cardi B’s History with the Series ‘You’

Cardi B has long been a fan of the series and particularly of Penn Badgley. It all started when Cardi B started making her love of Badgley known on X, known then as Twitter, back in 2021. She tweeted a complimentary message to an account that posted an interview with him. In response, Badgley changed his profile photo to one of Cardi B, and she posted her all-caps excitement that he knows who she is and that she’s now “famous famous.”

In return, Cardi B changed her profile photo to one of Badgley as Joe, sitting in his cage. She even received a gift box from his character, a baseball cap that read “Hello, You.” She posted her fake panic that “Joe” knew her home address.

She continued her fandom of the show with an X post on the @YouNetflix account with clips including Joe and Love in Season 3, where she watches and gives her reactions to the new season.

Cardi B’s love for You and her online camaraderie with Badgley on X is one of the sweetest, most wholesome celebrity TV show obsessions in recent memory. The respect between the two is mutual, so this little cameo from Cardi B in the final season is a sweet way to honor her longtime support.

Narratively, it also propels the scene in a way that backs up the point it’s trying to make. With a smoldering look, charm, and thoughtful words, Joe was able to convince the online universe, even a huge celebrity, that he wasn’t a stone-cold killer after all, but just a hopeful romantic who was in love.

Stream You on Netflix.