There are many things to love about You, the utterly ridiculous Lifetime-series-turned-Netflix-binge that’s one part romantic comedy, one part social media cautionary tale, and one part slasher flick, all blended together into the absolute best of guilty pleasures.
The series follows the story of Beck, a graduate student who doesn’t have sense enough to buy curtains for the gigantic windows in her first floor New York City apartment, as she is stalked and manipulated into a long-term romance by nerdy book dealer Joe Goldberg. Joe is a complete psycho who presents as a considerate, nice guy, and the character exists at the center of an uncomfortable nexus of charming romcom tropes and utterly toxic masculinity—not to mention he’s a straight up murderer.
Reams have already been written about Joe and the way that many viewers have reacted to him. Actor Penn Badgely has even taken to Twitter to remind people that his character on You is, in fact, a dirtbag who kills people, even if he does have an oddly adorable demeanor a lot of the time, but the real downside to everyone’s Joe crush is that it’s distracting us all from properly appreciating the true and best breakout character of the show: Peach Salinger.
Peach is Beck’s best friend, a stereotypical spoiled, gorgeous rich girl with buckets of money, an entitled attitude, fabulous clothes, and a sharp tongue. She judges everyone, including her friends, refuses to call anyone by less than their full names, and is 1000% intense about everything, whether it’s the threat of bed bugs in her palatial apartment, or her unrequited, years-long crush on Beck.
But what would you expect from someone whose name is Peach Salinger, and who is somehow also a long lost relative of the famous author?
“Like J.D. Salinger?” intones Joe incredulously at one point.
“I mean, yeah,” says Beck, like it’s the only possible solution. And maybe it is. There’s something about Peach that certainly feels larger than life.
Despite her less than stellar attributes—of which, we should be clear, there are many—Peach is nevertheless a surprisingly complex and interesting character. She’s an expert manipulator, willing to lie and deceive anyone to get what she wants. She’s incredibly passive-aggressive and petty. She’s spoiled, rude, and often horrible to her friends, even though they’re the only people who seem to be able to stand her.
“None of us liked Peach,” her friend Lynn explains at one point, “but we all loved her.”
Yet, for everything about Peach that’s basically a soap opera come to life, there are also unexpected layers. She’s intelligent, observant, and an excellent reader of people. She’s the only person who figures out from the jump that there’s something off about Joe, declaring immediately that he shouldn’t be trusted, and she repeatedly tries to get Beck to see the truth about her new boyfriend, as well.
Peach and Beck in You.
Peach comes so darn close so many times to exposing Joe that it’s incredibly disappointing that the season ends not just with her dead, but with no one acknowledging or even realizing just how right she was all along.
While Peach is incredibly over possessive when it comes to Beck, her controlling nature is about more than just an obsessive crush that rivals Joe’s. She sincerely wants her friend to do well, make smart choices, and basically just live her best life. She picks up Beck’s bills when she struggles, tells her hard truths about the way she’s living, and tries to help her figure out what she wants from her future.
Her feelings for Beck—both friendship and otherwise—are genuine, and it’s easy to see that she honestly cares about what happens to her (and has for a long time).
Plus, Peach gets every single great line on this show. It’s hard not to bow down before that kind of sass.
Though the revelation that Peach has a secret hard drive full of illicit pictures of her BFF is pretty damning, it’s difficult not to feel some degree of sympathy for a young woman who’s so clearly struggling to come to terms with her repressed feelings for Beck. That she acts out in such damaging ways is often as sad as it is outrageous or appalling.
For example, Peach fakes a suicide attempt to get Beck to forgive her after an argument, which is horrendously manipulative, but is also clearly the action of a lonely, messed up girl.
Unfortunately, You doesn’t bother to really address Peach’s sexuality in any substantial way, beyond the revelation that she’s harboring hidden, closeted feelings for her closest friend. That twist is generally played for shock value, as if Peach’s crush on Beck somehow is the great equalizer between her and Joe, and makes her as bad as he is. (Spoiler alert: It does not. Peach needs therapy; Joe needs prison.)
But Peach is clearly someone who just doesn’t know how to express her feelings in a real way, which is why she ends up using a drug-fueled house party to make a pass at Beck instead of a conversation, and needs her friend to run away to Paris with her in order to feel like a special and valued part of her life. There’s so much story going on in the background here, and it’s a shame we never get to see it.
Peach is terrible, to be sure, but so is everyone else on this show. Truly, in the grand scheme of things, in the world of You, she’s really not that bad. Fine, she has a laptop full of stalker photos of Beck, and spends way, way too much time trying to manipulate and control her best friend.
Neither of those things are great, but at the end of the day, she respects some boundaries. (She decides to sleep with Raj after Beck pulls away from her kiss, for example, rather than throw anyone in a basement death cage. Looking at you, Joe.) And she knows that just because someone says they don’t want to be with you romantically, it’s not grounds to murder them. On this show? That’s practically hero material.
Rest in peace, Peach. You deserved better, and here’s hoping the breakout secondary character of You Season 2 at least gets to survive it.
(featured image: Barbara Nitke/Netflix)
Lacy Baugher is a digital strategist and writer living in Washington, D.C., who’s still hoping that the TARDIS will show up at her door eventually. A fan of complicated comic book villains, British period dramas and whatever Jessica Lange happens to be doing today, her work has been featured on The Baltimore Sun, Bitch Flicks, Culturess, The Tracking Board and more. She livetweets way too many things on Twitter, and is always looking for new friends to yell about Game of Thrones with.
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