‘The Idol’: Sam Levinson & Lily-Rose Depp On The Finale Twist That Paints Tedros As “The Victim” All Along
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SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the finale of HBO’s The Idol.
HBO’s controversial series The Idol came to an end on Sunday, and it certainly threw a wrench in the story that the show appeared to be telling across the first four episodes.
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Episode 5, titled “Jocelyn Forever,” reveals that Lily-Rose Depp’s pop star character had the reins the entire time, even when she led everyone to believe she was being manipulated by Tedros (Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye).
“I think a lot of the audience will watch maybe the first few episodes and think that this guy is taking advantage of her,” Depp said in a segment about the making of the finale. “By the end he realizes that she knows exactly what he’s doing and she knows exactly what she’s doing.”
The episode opens with quite a bit of tension, as Jocelyn has become hostile toward Tedros. She’s ousted him from her inner circle, and he’s unraveling at the thought of no longer being in control. Meanwhile, Jocelyn’s team wants answers. When her tour promoter stops by her house to discuss the tour, she puts on quite the performance, insisting that several artists that Tedros discovered will open for her, claiming that she’d been nurturing them the whole time.
Jocelyn’s manager Chaim seems to pay Tedros off to disappear at her instruction, so it certainly raises eyebrows when he reappears six weeks later at Jocelyn’s concert at SoFi Stadium. Even more confusing? There’s an artist pass waiting for him at will call. After the two reconnect backstage, she welcomes him on stage as “the love of her life,” much to the dismay of her management team. As it turns out, she had a plan all along.
“Jocelyn is a very calculated and strategic person. She knows exactly what she wants and she’ll stop at nothing to get it,” Depp explained. “Tedros was her muse and that she got what she needed out of him.”
Creator Sam Levinson offered further insight, saying: “Throughout the season, Jocelyn has been searching for inspiration. She’s looking to go to an uncomfortable place, and it’s just ultimately looking for that next song, that next album. Tedros becomes the conduit for that creative unlocking.”
Jocelyn “needs to devour those around her to feel like she has something to say,” Levinson said, adding that Tedros has actually “become the victim.”
The finale is one of the few episodes that takes the audience outside of Jocelyn’s home. The end of the episode was shot at SoFi Stadium, during The Weeknd’s own After Hours tour. Levinson explained that they were able to film Depp’s onstage speech during the first act of the concert, but they didn’t have much time to accomplish what they needed.
“We basically shoot this with a live audience of 70,000 people. We have two takes to do it,” he said. “We had the Friday night and the Saturday Night of the concert. Either we get it or we don’t.”
In order to stop the nerves from getting to her, Depp simply asked herself what Jocelyn would do.
“I was nervous about going out there for sure, but I just tried to put my Jocelyn hat on,” she said. “It was one of the craziest experiences I think I’ll ever have in my life. Everything that she’s gone through in the season, she’s found something that feels right to her.”
All episodes of The Idol are streaming on Max.
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