Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) isn’t what you’d call a guy’s guy. Even the thought of raising a bouncing baby boy — rather than a daughter — in You Season 3 sends chills down his spine. Yet a surprising thing happens as Joe settles into his new London life as university professor Jonathan Moore in Season 4. Joe befriends a man: upstart political figure Rhys Montrose, played by Outlander and Downton Abbey alum Ed Speleers.  

The simple fact that Joe actually likes Rhys is enough to make you wonder who this man is and what makes him special. Well, there’s a simple answer to that question and a more complicated one. Let’s unravel this mystery like Joe trying to crack the whodunit plaguing his world in You Season 4.  

Who is Rhys in You? 

Rhys is the only member of his ultra-posh friend group with a working-class background. Rhys was born into poverty to a single mother, which makes him a “kindred spirit” to Joe, Speleers tells Tudum. Unlike Joe, however, Rhys learned he was the son of a duke and turned his life around. Rhys met his present day BFFs — like art dealer Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) and academic cad Malcolm (Stephen Hagan) — at Oxford. These friends forgive Rhys, who was arrested multiple times as a young man, for his “checkered past,” as Speleers calls it. 

Rhys was ushered into the political arena thanks to his book, A Good Man in a Cruel World, which Joe praises as one of the best memoirs he’s ever read. 

“Rhys doesn’t wear every little part of him on his sleeve. But he has a fierce curiosity of the world. He wants to understand people and humanity,” says Speleers. “Rhys [suggests] that everybody has things in their life that they might not be proud of, but they’re all worthy of getting a second chance.” 

Rhys really prizes that outlook, which further connects him to Joe according to Speleers. During Part 1, we see the pair have heart-to-hearts about privilege, redemption and, eventually, the reality of their social circle.  

“Aside from his intense relationships, Joe has probably struggled for true connection with people,” Speleers says. “Rhys has as well in a different way. He’s been able to tread the line between many social paths, but he’s probably lacking that true connection. They see that in one another.”  

  🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐

Who is Rhys really though? 

Apologies to everyone (including Joe), who was just getting used to knowing Rhys as  the Eat the Rich Killer. Because… he’s actually a figment of Joe’s increasingly splintered mind. It’s a surprise that leaves even Joe reeling — and his brain created “Rhys.” So you definitely deserve an explanation. 

At first, Rhys seems like a wonderful friend to the wealthy and London’s political messiah. Then, in the Part 1 finale, Rhys reveals himself to Joe as the serial killer he’s been hunting. A two-episode cat-and-mouse game ensues, as Joe works to outsmart Rhys, a homicidal schemer who conveniently makes Joe look like a hero in comparison. 

Then Joe tracks Rhys down in the countryside and accidentally kills him for supposedly kidnapping his ex Marienne (Tati Gabrielle). While Rhys’ very real corpse sits in his barn, Joe’s frenemy “Rhys” remains — and has slipped into an immaculate new Paul Smith suit. Suddenly Joe realizes something is very, very wrong. 

“Once the cat was out of the bag, Rhys needed one distinctive look. And the suit was great …  it was juxtaposed to the madness that was taking place,” says Speleers. “It’s almost like a second moment for the shackles to come off [after the Part 1 finale]. The energy just changed … the glint in the eye took over.”   

As Rhys explains to Joe in Episode 8, he’s an amalgamation of all of Joe’s most ruthless impulses and darkest behaviors. His existence also reveals Joe has unwittingly been the Eat the Rich Killer this whole time. Like Lady Phoebe's (Tilly Keeper) stalker, Joe has been suffering from erotomania, which is characterized by the delusion that one is the object of another person’s desire. He imagined his entire passionate (if antagonistic) relationship with Rhys, a man he actually barely knows. The Eat the Rich crimes have been taking place during Joe’s fugue states. 

Signs of Joe’s erotomania surfaced between Season 3 and Season 4, when Joe kidnapped Marienne (but his condition has been brewing for years). To put it in Fight Club terms, Rhys is Joe’s Tyler Durden; in fact, Speleers watched the classic 1999 film at least four times in preparation for You.  

“Although the themes are similar, and there are similarities in what Rhys and Tyler are up to, the actual storytelling is very different,” Speleers says. The actor relied on careful blocking and guidance from executive producers Michael Foley and showrunner Sera Gamble to maintain the illusion of Rhys until the very last moment. 

Did Joe ever talk to the “real” Rhys? 

Not really. Joe and Rhys’ season premiere meet-cute at Sundry House was a hallucination, as was their heart-to-heart at the bar later in the episode. Although Joe and Rhys shared many public conversations, no one else was actually part of those discussions. Even their threatening text conversations were imagined. 

Joe only had two encounters with the real-life Rhys: a polite nod at Simon’s (Aidan Cheng) funeral in Episode 3 and the countryside confrontation that ended in genital mutilation and death for Rhys. Thankfully, Speleers knew the truth about his character before he was officially cast and could portray Rhys accordingly. 

“The thing with the real Rhys is that I didn’t have to differentiate him too much from [the] imaginary Rhys because they are still coming from the same person,” Speleers explains. As we see in Episode 8, Joe has painstakingly studied Rhys for months — his mental re-creation of him wouldn’t be that far off from the actual person. Plus, the real Rhys doesn’t say too much. He’s very quickly bound and gagged by Joe in Episode 7. 

“The real Rhys only had one real scene with Joe,” says Speleers. “He just had to be terrified — which is not beyond the realm of possibility when a complete stranger knocks on your door, knocks you out, ties you up and tortures you by your privates. So your imagination as an actor can take over.” 

Rhys Clues You May Have Missed in You Season 4These hints point to the real Eat-the-Rich Killer.