Reddit users have compared one person’s account of their girlfriend keeping a “creepy” box of his possessions to events on the recent Netflix smash hit You.
You‘s first season, which debuted on Netflix back in December, tells the story of Joe Goldberg (played by Penn Badgley) as he becomes dangerously obsessed with aspiring writer Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail).
One aspect of Joe’s alarming behaviour on the show has been referenced by Reddit users who responded to a post which was written by a man about his girlfriend on the group Relationship_Advice.
Titled ‘My [21M] girlfriend [20F] has a creepy box above the wardrobe’, the user says that, although he had “never noticed anything strange about her behaviour”, “boredom got the better” of him one day when his girlfriend went to a university lecture.
“I found a box which was like a Ted Baker cardboard box that a handbag had come in or something, and when I opened it I found so many random things that I used to own,” he wrote. “There were odd socks in there that she has taken. A toothbrush that I thought I had lost after our holiday. Bits of hair from (presumably) my comb. Toe nail clippings. Receipts that I assume she stole from my wallet. She even has things like empty wrappers of food that I know we’re mine. There was a piece of glass in there but I don’t know where that is from. A USB phone charger. A half used bar of soap. Boxer shorts. Used gum. A spoon. Used plasters from God knows when.
“Honestly the things in the box were so random, but I recognised a lot of little bits that had gone missing over the past year. The most worrying thing was a used condom I found in there. I don’t even know how she managed to keep that?”
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Asking for advice, posters on the subreddit began comparing the situation to that which is presented in You, where it’s revealed later on in the season that Joe keeps a box of trophies from his victims.
“Sounds like the female version of the stalker character in the show You,” one wrote in response, while another suggested: “I’d say OP should ask his gf to watch YOU with him.”
“I haven’t seen it,” the original poster wrote. “She isn’t stalking me. We spend all our time together and always have done. She would have no reason to stalk me.”
Last month, a Netflix-edited version of scenes from You without Joe’s narration were posted online, with fans of the show finding it even creepier than the original.