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| “ | Runner's high is better than sex. And for some, may last longer.
―Peach teasing Joe Goldberg
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” |
Peach Anaïs Salinger is a main character and an antagonist in the first season of Netflix's You, serving as one of two main antagonist. She is portrayed by Shay Mitchell.
She was one of Guinevere Beck's closest friends, with a secret to hide. She is obsessed with and crazy in love with Beck, just like Joe Goldberg is. And for years, Peach has been manipulating and stalking Beck, even going as far as to take nude pictures of her when she's asleep. And even drugging her.
Biography[]
Peach is a privileged young woman, born into a notable literary family with wealth and vast resources. After meeting at Brown University, Peach assumes the role as the controlling queen bee of Beck’s inner circle of privileged friends. She takes an immediate dislike to Joe, assuming that he has sinister intentions.[1]
In the series, Peach appears to care about Beck's interests but is truly only interested in trying to win her love. They have been friends since college. Initially, she admonishes Beck for pursuing a relationship with Joe on the grounds that she needs financial support to live as a writer, having free time to hone her craft. Peach looks down at Joe as a bookstore clerk for his inability to provide. Though this is simply a cover for the fact that she herself has her own dark obsession with Beck and wants her for herself.
Peach is manipulative, emotionally toxic and often parasitic. In regards to Beck, she frequently engages in sabotage and passive-aggressive behavior against her. She wishes to have Beck near her at all times, even faking suicide attempts when she feels she is distant.
Out of all Beck's friends, Joe notes that Peach has a level of cruelty and determination that makes her dangerous. Ironically, Joe is not incorrect as Peach puts herself in situations and then expects Beck to be with her or take care of her. In one fight, she states that Beck writes "self-absorbed poetry."
In another incident, Peach posts anonymously a drunken video of Annika using racially-charged language, knowing that it would harm her career as a social media influencer as revenge for posting a picture of Peach before her nose-job. As she once casually stated to Beck, people don't pay her to be fair.
Peach has been deeply infatuated with Beck for a long time. However, her feelings have been shown to be largely unrequited. Beck loves Peach as her friend and consistently supports her but, for Peach, this is not enough. Her anger, her demands, and her agitations show that she does wish to coerce a romance if necessary. In this regard, she and Joe are very much alike.
In "Amour Fou" she finally has Beck in her bedroom and starts kissing her. Later on, Beck questions her about her attraction, which immediately makes Peach hostile and mentally abusive towards Beck. It is then implied that Peach's family is highly homophobic, which means she is denying her sexuality so that she is not disowned. Beck says she loves Peach as her friend and has come here to care for her after her injuries but Peach retorts with an insult that she is always taking care of Beck. Finally, Beck has enough and leaves realizing that Peach will not admit she is lesbian/queer and that she takes out her frustrations on others.
She confronts Joe and starts realizing things about him only to learn that Joe knows private things about her too, such as the naked pictures of Beck on her laptop. Joe then makes Peach angry when he says she should go to Paris, as she was planning, and settle down with a French Girl as Beck would never want her the way she does. This ignites her fury and they fight, leading to Joe murdering Peach. In his view, he was "saving" Beck from a toxic friend.
Appearances[]
Season 1[]
Romantic Relationships[]
James Franco
- Status: Ex-Boyfriend
- Started and Ended: "Pre-Pilot"
Relationships[]
- Guinevere Beck - Best friend
- Annika Attwater - Best friend
- Lynn Lieser - Best friend
- Raj - Friend, Hookup
- Roger Stevens - Friend
Trivia[]
- In the books, Peach isn't very suspicious of Joe, though she does think she has a stalker, but doesn't believe it is Joe.
- Her death is also very different from the TV series, where she was shown to have been shot by Joe and to pretend that it was a suicide, also leaving a note on her laptop. In the books, Joe drowns her on the beach, sending a strange note to Beck, while leaving her phone with her body while it's dragged to the ocean. Also no one is aware of Peach's death and there's no immediate commotion surrounding her death.
- Peach claimed to have a rare, chronic, and painful bladder disease called interstitial cystitis.
- Although not officially confirmed, it is heavily implied that she is a bisexual, and comes from a homophobic household.
- Peach throws annual parties around the time of her parent's divorce.
- Peach was addicted to or used Adderall, as Roger Stevens says that he's known her "since her Adderall days."
- Peach had a dog named Dalloway, who was a purebred bichon frise that eventually ran away.
- The dog's name is likely a reference to the novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, which is about a high-society woman in post-WWI England.
