Joe and Love’s Baby Name on Netflix’s ‘You’ Holds a ‘Gossip Girl’ Connection (No, It’s Not Penn Badgley)
The trailer for Season 3 of You on Netflix just came out and it’s destined to be even more dramatic than the last. Both Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) and Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti) — now a Quinn-Goldberg — know every little thing about each other. All the murderous details are on the table and they might not be safe from their newly beloved by the looks of it. But they have a baby now, so that changes things, right? Their baby also has a name, and it interestingly bears a connection to Badgley’s previous hit show Gossip Girl, too.
The new season of ‘You’ is coming and Joe and Love’s child has a ‘classic’ name
On Aug. 30, fans got their first glimpse at Season 3 of You and the release date, which is Oct. 15. That video is a very stylized promo for the season, which shows Joe baking a stark, white cake with some blood, red icing on the inside. At least… it’s hopefully icing. This was also the name reveal for Joe and Love’s child.
“People these days will name their kids anything to get attention,” Joe cynically shares in the promo. “And despite your mother’s background and your Glamma’s determination to refer to you as ‘Forty reincarnated.’ I know better.”
At the end of last season, Love said she had a feeling that she was carrying a girl. However, she was wrong and now Joe has to deal with a mini-Joe walking around.
“Let’s just say I’m hoping you’ll do as I say, not as I do. But for you, I could change. I’ll be a man you can look up to,” Joe promises. “A man you will be proud to call, ‘Dad.’”
While that’s a whole other problem he’s going to go through this season, he then states that Love and he couldn’t name the kid “Forty” after her dead brother, like in the book.
“So what to call you? A name that’s strong and intimidating. Classic, not basic,” Joe ponders. “Literary, of course, because you will grow up in a house full of books. Henry, choosing your name is the first of a lifetime of decisions I’ll make to give you the best life possible to protect you to shape who you will become.”
There’s a ‘Gossip Girl’ connection with Henry’s name
Joe, of course, worked at a book store and then used his vast literary knowledge to get a job at Anavrin. Books are his thing, so it makes sense he’d want to choose a solid name like “Henry,” after someone like the author Henry David Thoreau. However, then there’s the famous Dr. Henry Jekyll of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde fame and well… that might seem fitting for Joe and Love’s offspring.
Regardless, another famous fictional couple that named their kid Henry is fan-favorite Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) and Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester). Chuck and Blair, lovingly dubbed Chair by some, had their ups and many, many lows during their tumultuous relationship on the six-season show. But their intensity was addicting to the on-screen couple and viewers and in the end, they got married and had a kid, aka Henry Bass.
Since Henry Bass is only shown for a couple of minutes at the end of the final episode in the final season, there isn’t a lot of explanation as to why Blair and Chuck name their child Henry. However, if fans of the show dig a little deeper in their memories from a pretty important storyline from Season 4.
Why the name ‘Henry’?
On the Henry Bass Gossip Girl Wikia Fandom page, one person commented that Chuck Bass does have a connection to that name, and it’s not random.
When Chuck runs off to Prague at the end of Season 3, he gets mugged, which includes his passport. This leaves no one a way to identify him. “Henry Prince” is the name he then goes by at the beginning of Season 4 when Blair finds him with Eva. He does know that he’s Chuck, but decides he wants to continue to be “Henry Prince.” He also wants to sell his fortune. This, of course, doesn’t end up happening.
Again, while Chuck and Blair aren’t given enough time to explain their choice for “Henry Bass.” But the user wrote, “Henry Prince is considered as the ‘good Chuck’ perhaps that was the reason chuck and blair chose to name their son henry because they wanted him to be good?”
That time must be a sore spot for Blair and Chuck. They weren’t together, he had just been beaten and left for dead, and he was with another woman. But it was a time for reflection on his behalf. The fact that out of all the names they chose Henry does point to a “Henry Prince” influence. It’s possible that despite the bad aspects of that time, Chuck and Blair have hope for their son’s future.
But for Joe and Love? They chose Henry based on “classic” and “literary” elements. However, one can only hope beyond hope that their kid doesn’t fall in their footsteps, too.
