Goodbye, angels.
“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. Bianca (Bianca Ghezzi) plays cocktail waitress for the night, practically giving Finkelstein a lap dance. Upon meeting record label executive Nikki (Jane Adams) for the literal first time, Tedros calls her a “Judas” and a “cunt” for signing Dyanne without consulting him first. Fink squirms and threatens to leave if Jocelyn doesn’t appear soon, but one of Jocelyn’s managers, Destiny (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) convinces him, her co-manager Chaim and Nikki to stay and watch Jocelyn’s new openers perform. The impromptu amateur showcase is awkward at first, but the talent on display is undeniable and Fink starts to drink the Kool-Aid.
Meanwhile, Jocelyn’s assistant-slash-BFF Leila (Rachel Sennot) is in crisis. She’s been trying to get Jocelyn’s attention all day, and we see why as she steps out to take a phone call: Rob, an actor with an upcoming superhero movie, has been accused of raping someone at Jocelyn’s party. Leia promises Rob that she believes his innocence, and panics when she realizes that it’s Xander’s “friend” who framed him.
Back inside, Chaim and Destiny whisper about how they can monetize Chloe, Izaak and Ramsey’s talents while Nikki and Tedros do the same on the other side of the couch. Leia confronts an apathetic Xander, and soon, Nikki reads a headline about Rob aloud to the group, which now includes Jocelyn. A single tear runs down Jocelyn’s face as she looks at Tedros, who can barely conceal his grin. She doesn’t know about Xander’s involvement, but it’s still obvious to her that the whole scheme trails back to Tedros. Jocelyn freezes as everyone discusses Rob being digitally removed from his movie, and on Tedros’ cue, Xander takes the opportunity to make his big return to singing after Jocelyn’s mother (and potentially Jocelyn herself) took that dream away from him long ago. Jocelyn runs out of the room, grabbing Tedros to confront him about Rob, and telling him him (for the third time this episode) that he needs to get out of her house. She re-enters the performance room and whispers to Chaim to “pay [Tedros] whatever he wants to get out of [her] life forever.
As Fink declares that Jocelyn’s will be “the tour of the century,” she pulls Xander into a hug while making eye contact with Tedros through the doorway, signaling that she control’s Xander’s career, not him. She sets up to give a performance of her own as Chaim makes Tedros a drink and tells a souped-up version of “Little Red Riding Hood,” casting himself as the hunter who saves Red and brutally murders the Big Bad Wolf.
Jocelyn plays one of her new singles and performs her own choreography, choking herself, pulling her own hair and giving Fink a second near-lap dance. As Fink looks simultaneously turned on and terrified, armed guards pull Tedros into a car outside, where he ceremoniously rips up a $500,000 check offered by Chaim in exchange for leaving their lives forever. Grinning, Chaim initiates what he calls “Plan B.”
Chaim tells Jocelyn that he paid Tedros off, but instead goes to meet up with Vanity Fair journalist Talia (Hari Nef), promising her a big story. Leia packs a bag and leaves a note on Jocelyn’s bed, presumably quitting her job. And Nikki meets with Dyanne, telling her that the label, for undisclosed legal reasons, won’t be able to release her single after all. As the elevator doors close on her, a heartbroken Dyanne asks, “It was Jocelyn, wasn’t it?”
Then we jump six weeks into the future. At Los Angeles’ SoFi stadium, Chaim, Nikki and Fink laugh about using Talia to get rid of Tedros, who has apparently lost ownership of his club after Vanity Fair’s big story about his criminal history. But he’s not as far away as they think. While Chloe, Izaak, Ramsey and Xander rehease their opening performance, a meek Tedros checks into the stadium with a pass left for him by Jocelyn — under his real name, Mauricio Jackson. Destiny is waiting for him, warning that she doesn’t care about his past but that she’ll kill him if he hurts Jocelyn.
The couple reunites, with Jocelyn saying, “None of this means as much without you.” After they embrace, Tedros notices something on the counter: “Did you say this was the brush your mom beat you with? It’s brand new.” Jocelyn just smiles. The implication seems to be that her stories about her mother weren’t completely true, and that she’s been in control the whole time.
That’s how it feels onstage, too. Shocking her team, she begins her concert by introducing her fans to “the love of [her] life,” and brings Tedros onstage. They kiss, and pleased with herself, she tells him, “You’re mine forever. Now go stand over there.”
Looking defeated, he complies.