The finale of ‘The Idol’ sees Jocelyn and Tedros’ darkly sexual romance and working relationship come to a head.
“The Idol” — or at least its first season — came to a conclusion after five episodes on Sunday night, but not without the usual dose of darkly sexual ups and downs for its jewel-eyed, rat-tailed stars.
Titled “Jocelyn Forever,” the episode begins with Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) at her home, working on a song with prolific Mike Dean (played by himself). As she sings lyrics Tedros (Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye) prompted her to write — “My kinda love / Force me, choke me ’till I pass out” — it becomes clear that the ex-pimp’s coke habit has caught up to him. Sweating, with his hair beginning to fall out of his famous rat-tail, he interrupts the jam session to give some notes. Jocelyn lets him know he isn’t welcome to do that anymore.
“You’re gonna kick out your only source of inspiration?” Tedros jeers. Jocelyn shoots back, “I think you’ve served your purpose.”
Their whirlwind romance is over after Jocelyn realized at her recent house party that Tedros had worked with her backup dancer Dyanne (Jennie Kim) to not only steal her single “World Class Sinner,” but to infiltrate Jocelyn’s life and home. For vengeance, she slept with her ex-boyfriend Rob (Karl Glusman) as Tedros listened through the door.
But knowing that Tedros and his crew’s entrance into her orbit was orchestrated à la Taylor Swift’s “Mastermind” isn’t a total loss for Jocelyn, who adores the followers who moved into her house with Tedros. Later in the episode, when Live Nation executive Andrew Finkelstein (Eli Roth) says he’s coming over to discuss Jocelyn’s upcoming tour (and whether she’s mentally stable enough to do it), Jocelyn invites Izaak (Moses Sumney), Chloe (Suzanna Son) and Ramsey (Ramsey) to be her opening act. Tedros is livid that he wasn’t alerted about the meeting or consulted about the openers, but none of the underlings react as their leader lashes out. Jocelyn has stolen his cult out from under him: “These are my people now.”
There’s one outlier: Tedros has a hushed conversation Xander (Troye Sivan), whose trust he gained at the end of the last episode, telling him he can’t let Jocelyn cut him out of the tour.
Jocelyn gets glammed up while the rest of the house prepares for the meeting, wearing as little clothing as possible per Tedros’ instructions.
