‘You’ Star Tati Gabrielle Talks Giving Closure to Marienne With Season 5 Return: ‘She Is Still Strong’

Note: This story contains spoilers from “You” Season 5, Episodes 9-10.

With “You” closing out its final season by finally seeing Joe Goldberg’s heinous crimes catch up to him, it was only fitting for Tati Gabrielle’s Marienne to return to help serve some up justice, which Gabrielle said offers Marienne some much-needed closure after the events of Seasons 3 and 4.

“As we do with trauma, when we try to heal, we try to do all the things, and I think particularly Marienne, is one that has been very intentional with healing her traumas just over her lifetime, so this being an exceptionally hard one … how do you work through that?” Gabrielle told TheWrap, adding that Marienne likely has been working through the trauma of being drugged, kidnapped and kept in a cage by Joe (Penn Badgley) throughout the entirely of Season 4, alone.

In Season 5’s penultimate episode, Marienne returns alongside Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) and Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman), who together trap Joe in his own cage, which Gabrielle said enables the trio to have an empowering role reversal where they could finally condemn Joe in an effort to make him see he’s not a white knight like he thinks.

Also in Episode 9, Marienne has a frank conversation with Bronte, where she tells Bronte that Joe isn’t the savior she thinks he is, which Gabrielle said also helps “mend some wounds that I think that she was wasn’t even aware of or still there, and hopefully mend that for both of them, and … give Bronte/Louise her fire back to be able to go on to do what she was able to do.”

Below, Gabrielle reveals how she inserted vulnerability into Marienne’s return, explains why Joe’s imprisonment is a better ending than death and shares her hopes for Marienne.

TheWrap: How did you want to portray Marienne’s return?

I wanted to show her strength, but also show that this has affected her, that it’s not an easy thing that she went through. I think that sometimes TV and film has a weird way of trying to show strong women and forgetting that strong women can also be vulnerable and also have pain and also are dealing with things. I wanted to, even in that very first moment, show that like, “Yes, she is still standing and she is still strong, but she is hesitant.” This is a scary thing. This is triggering like nobody’s business, to see, literally, her cage all over again.

In Episode 9, Marienne, Nadia and Kate flip the script and have Joe in the cage. What did that reversal feel like?

Excuse my French, I was like, “f–k yeah, let’s go!” Me, Charlotte and Amy — and even Penn — were like, “it’s about time.” That was really fun, being able to have the role reversal of it all and really empowering that you have these three different women that all experience some terrible things with him, but very from very different perspectives and very different versions of them. I like the variance in that and what that could speak to to different women going through whatever situation they might be going through with any particular man that it can look a million of ways, and that they can be empowered or power themselves in a million ways.

Marienne has a very frank conversation with Bronte. Do you think she got through to her? Why do you think she took this approach?

Marienne, by the end of it, I think what she says to Kate is true, she’s like, “I spoke to her. I don’t know.” She can only hope. But I think that she chose to take that approach because being told, as Bronte had been — and Marienne doesn’t necessarily know this knowledge, but she I’m sure she has experienced it for herself at times in her life [because] she was in an abusive relationship — but being told by your friends and family or whoever, “what are you doing? He’s crazy!” and being scolded like doesn’t make anybody feel good. And I think taking this stance, coming at Bronte almost with a sense of love and empowerment, and giving her that power, giving her an opportunity to arrive at it for herself, by just laying out all the facts good and bad … I think that she chose to come at Bronte because I think it was also the way that she would have wanted to become that and those in a situation similarly, and that love always goes further. We think that scolding is love — that’s how people express worry and everything else. But it’s hard to hear and it’s then hard to receive properly. When somebody comes at you with like, “I know where you’re at and that is okay, and you get to choose how you want to move forward — Nobody gets to choose that for you,” I think it gave gave Bronte, hopefully, gave her a sense of empowerment for herself.

I know the last time we spoke you mentioned Marienne said she wanted justice, not revenge, but she agrees to let Kate try to kill Joe. Do you think her thoughts have changed since then?

I do think that, like, her statement of, “no matter what you do, you’re gonna die in here,” was fully out of anger. If Marienne was in a in a calm and untriggered state, I don’t know that she would wish the same thing. Even in the agreeance of letting that Kate do it, I think Marienne at that point was just like, “I said my peace. I feel like I got what I needed, and I can walk away from this now.” I think she would have, in knowing that he’s gonna be locked in a cage forever, I think that she would find that fitting, and … in a having a second to calm down, to just rethink it, there’s more suffering that happens in that he deserved, especially not being, even in the end, not willing to admit into his faults. It’s like, okay, well, then now you have a lifetime to think about it. I think that she would feel good in that, yes, scared, maybe because the justice system can fail, and had failed her many a time, so he can come back out. But I highly doubt that would be the case.

At the end of the season it ended up being Bronte who takes Joe to justice. Was there any part of you that wishes it was Marienne who got that pleasure?

Yeah, part of me, but at the same time, no, because he was so far behind her — it’s been years — the battle that she still had to face, or she was still was going through, was with herself — it was no longer her battle to fight, and that there is another woman that needs this even more. Marienne, I don’t think is one to hold a grudge or to be vindictive — She just wants peace for herself. She just wants a good life for her and her daughter, because that’s never been seen. And if something like this is going to cause more trouble, more turmoil for their mental, physical, whatever the case, then leave that to who has the energy to do that. I don’t think that Marienne had the energy to do that anymore. Not for Joe anyway, not for this situation.

What do you think Marienne thought when she saw the news of Joe’s arrest?

I hope that she’s had therapy. I think the only reason that she wouldn’t have had a therapist before would’ve been out of fear that he’s gonna come back somehow and the patient-doctor confidentiality bends when somebody is in danger. So I hope that she would have gotten therapy, or have taken the time to truly reconcile. I wonder if she’s even maybe shared, or started to share with with Julliette, some of her experiences as a part of her healing process. Once getting the news, it probably would have taken her a second to process, especially if initially she thought that he was going to die, to go through all of the stages of grief, to grieve the self that she was to grieve, the love that she thought she had, to grieve just the experience itself — not grieve Joe — but grieve the experience itself and fully let it go. That’s perfect now he gets to rot in there, and death would have been too sweet of an escape.

Marienne had some complicated feelings about Kate last season. Do you think Marienne has forgiven Kate for the role she played in letting Joe live a happy life?

Perhaps, yes, because I do think that Marienne is a person that seeks to forgive, not forget — never forget — but to forgive. She was a drug addict, she did do some things that she’s not proud of, and being a person like that, you would always hope that somebody would forgive you, and especially if you’re actively seeking redemption, trying to do right. I don’t know how quickly, but I think eventually she would forgive Kate, because at the end of the day, Kate was in the same position that she was. She was blinded by a man and thought that she needed to help him, and was in love with him.

What are your wishes and hopes for Marienne after these events?

I just hope that she finds peace and feels strong about her place in the world. With her upbringing, with Joe, she had to fight so hard for her own value, so I hope that she finally feels the whole of that and that she does have peace and can feel settled. That’s everything that I hope her — peace sounds like an easy thing, but I hope that she find a way to keep living without that nagging in the back of her mind.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

“You” Seasons 1-5 are now streaming on Netflix.

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