Joe Goldberg's love interests rarely survive a relationship with him, yet in the third season of You, his latest girlfriend (girlfriend?), Marienne, managed to make it out of a romance with the serial killer unscathed. The librarian and aspiring children's book artist was confronted by Joe's wife Love about their affair, but after a nail-bitingly tense scene, Love let Marienne live when she realized that killing Marienne would mean leaving Marienne's daughter without a mother. In the third book in Caroline Kepnes' series, however, the character that seemingly inspired Marienne wasn't quite so lucky.
While the Netflix series stayed fairly true to the first book in Kepnes' series, Season 2 and Season 3 strayed away from the source material, with the third book — titled You Love Me — being written alongside the third season. Yet while much of Season 3 and You Love Me are drastically different, You's character of Marienne and You Love Me's Mary Kay share some key commonalities that go beyond their names.
Both work in the local library; both have a daughter (in Marienne's case, her daughter is about eight, while Mary Kay's daughter, Nomi, is in high school); and both have a partner with substance abuse issues (for Marienne, it's an ex-husband, but for Mary Kay, he's her current spouse — until Joe gets his way, of course). Both women also create much rage inside Love, who is jealous of Joe's new affection towards the librarians. However, it's not Love or Joe who ends up killing Mary Kay in the book.
Joe's obsession with Mary Kay begins the moment he volunteers at a library on Bainbridge Island, his new home. Mary Kay, who is a bit older than him, is smart, well read, and seems like a great mom — all things that Joe thinks he needs in order to have the family Love denied him after she took his son, Forty, away. Joe stalks Mary Kay, gets rid of her husband and awful best friend (hmm, sound familiar?) and, eventually, moves in with Mary Kay and her daughter, Nomi.
Yet at Mary Kay and Joe's wedding ceremony (which isn't exactly legally binding) Nomi hits on Joe. She incorrectly interprets Joe's fascination with her mother as a means to get closer to her. Mary Kay comes home to find Nomi making a pass at Joe, and while Mary Kay doesn't believe that Joe is actually interested in Nomi (for the record, he definitely isn't), the two get into a heated fight. Nomi pushes Mary Kay, and she falls down the stairs, hitting her head in the process. She ends up in a coma, and eventually, Nomi removes Mary Kay from life support, as Joe never legally became her husband.
It is a dark tale, to say the least, so it's pretty great for Marienne's sake that the show didn't go in that direction. Of course, there's still time for the series to borrow a bit from You Love Me, as the show is already renewed for a Season 4. Kepnes is also reportedly working on a new book in the Joe Goldberg series, so if this is a closed chapter on Marienne, there's likely to be a new love interest down the line who we will need to worry about. Marienne got lucky, but Beck, Candace, and now Love certainly did not.
Images: Netflix