‘You’ Season 3: How Much Older Is Dylan Arnold Than His Character Theo?
In You Season 3, Joe Goldberg and Love Quinn move to the suburbs of Madre Linda to raise their baby. In the Netflix series, Joe quickly becomes obsessed with his new neighbor, Natalie Engler. Natalie’s husband Matthew has a son named Theo, who also takes an interest in Love. In You Season 3, Theo is played by actor Dylan Arnold, and many viewers have wondered about the age of the actor and his character.
![You Season 3 Dylan Arnold as Theo getting into a Ford truck.](https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/You-Season-3-Dylan-Arnold-as-Theo.jpg?strip=all&quality=89)
How old is Theo in ‘You’ Season 3?
Theo introduces himself to Love while she is loading groceries into her car. He is pretty clearly flirting, despite Love telling him she is married and has a baby. Theo later begins working at Love’s new bakery. The two become close and Theo kisses Love. In a later episode, the two have sex in the woods while Joe is away.
Love’s mother Dottie constantly reprimands her for sleeping with a college student. Love’s age is never expressly stated in the series. However, the book on which the show is based, Hidden Bodies, reveals that Love is 35 years old. The series seems to be depicting Love as quite a bit younger than this, considering Victoria Pedretti is only 26 years old.
It’s probably safe to assume that Love is at least supposed to be in her mid-to-late 20s. Later in the series, Love mentions that Theo is 19-years-old. “This person does really seem like he’s trying to offer her as much as he has and nurture her,” Pedretti said of Theo to Newsweek. “But it’s also like, deeply inappropriate.”
Dylan Arnold is older than Victoria Pedretti in ‘You’ Season 3
There is definitely supposed to be a significant age gap between Love and Theo in You Season 3. However, the actors actually aren’t far apart in age. In fact, Arnold is 27 years old, a year older than Pedretti. It must have been a bit strange for Arnold to portray a character so much younger than him, but he and Pedretti certainly had fun in their roles.
In one scene, Theo holds a boombox playing Lorde’s “Supercut” outside Love’s house, referencing the 1989 romance movie, Say Anything. “According to all the rom-coms of your generation, this is is what the guys are supposed to do to get the girl,” he tells Love. “First of all, I’m not that old,” Love replies.
“Holding the boombox outside the house is so iconic, so I’m glad I got to experience that,” Arnold told Teen Vogue. “It’s actually funny, because I’m a year older than Victoria [Pedretti] and much older than my character, so those moments where she’s referring to me as a teenager were always really funny because I’m older than she is.”
“But yeah, we had a lot of fun with those scenes, but it’s also very heartbreaking,” Arnold continued. “We figured out a way to make it fun and charming.”
How did things end for Theo in ‘You’ Season 3?
Unfortunately for Theo, Love turned out to be just as dangerous to him as she was to everyone else. Love hits Theo over the head in the bakery and he falls down the stairs. He nearly dies, but luckily Joe decides to drive him to the hospital. The final episode of You Season 3 shows Matthew picking Theo up from physical therapy.
“I think it’s definitely going to be hard for him to trust anyone to love again after that whole debacle,” Arnold said of his character to US Weekly. “I definitely thought about, it could be interesting if he goes and tries to avenge her. He’ll probably try to move on with his life and figure out how to be happy after all of that.”