‘The Idol’ Episode 4 Hints at a Head-Scratching Twist
[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “The Idol” Episode 4, “Stars Belong to the World.”]
“The Idol” Episode 4 paints a convincing picture of the chaos wrought by Tedros Tedros (Abel Tesfaye). Opening on armed guards patrolling the mansion and maids pulling dildos out of shower drains, “Stars Belong to the World” only amps up the atmospherics from there. Psychological torture, physical torture, and whatever kind of torture you want to call listening to Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) and Tedros Tedros making music — it’s all here.
Teeing up what’s intended to be a tense episode of television is the one and only Destiny (Da’Vine Joy Randoloph), who — before being sent undercover to investigate the goings-on at Camp Tedros Tedros — tells Chaim (Hank Azaria) the skinny on their target. Turns out, his real name is Mauricio Costello Jackson (“not Italian”). He was arrested in 2012 for kidnapping and torturing his ex-girlfriend, only to be slapped with “a slew of other charges” during the trial. How he’s a free man is a question left unasked, in part because Destiny has already decided the safest course of action for her, Chaim, and Jocelyn: “I think we should kill this motherfucker.”
Chaim calms her down, but the message to the audience is clear: Tedros Tedros has got to go. He’s the threat. He’s the problem. Except… is he? Tucked within the “The Idol” Episode 4 are rather blunt hints that this is all a ruse. That Tedros Tedros only thinks he’s in control, and there’s a much more manipulative and powerful force at work within the shadowy L.A. compound. In next week’s “season” finale (but let’s be real: there’s no way HBO orders more of this), are we about to discover Jocelyn has been in control all along?
Such a twist seems like a dubious, if not impossible, plan to pull off, given what we’ve seen her go through thus far — for Jocelyn, what end could possibly justify these means? — but writer/director Sam Levinson lays the groundwork anyway. Most telling is Xander’s torture scene. Brought in by Tedros Tedros’ muscle to answer for his “lies,” Xander (Troye Sivan) instead paints a rather convincing picture of the abuse he’s suffered… from Jocelyn. “You’re more fucking disgusting, fucked up, and depraved than your bitch cunt of a mother,” he shouts at Jocelyn, while Tedros Tedros contemplates sending more currents of electricity through the bound pop star’s creative director. According to Xander, Jocelyn’s mother made him sign a contract saying he would never sing again (was he a threat to her daughter?), and Jocelyn made him agree to never speak about the abuse she suffered at the hands of the very same mom.
Jocelyn claims he’s lying and orders Tedros Tedros to zap Xander into compliance. But I’m inclined to believe him. For one, the rage Sivan channels in expressing his side of the story sure feels like years of repression finally finding their necessary outlet. For another, that fine piece of acting is matched by an another incoherent yet informative reaction from Tesfaye. “You don’t understand the fucking years this bitch has taken from me,” Xander says. “The fucking career I could’ve had, the life that I could’ve had. She controls everything around her, and everyone, and now she’s doing it to you.” To this, Tedros Tedros stares blankly back at his prisoner. He looks a little sleepy, like a puppy who can’t decide between playing with his toy or taking a nap. But he’s also not being his usual dismissive, know-it-all self. I think, I think, Tedros Tedros is deliberating. I think he’s considering if what Xander says might be true; if he’s the puppet and not the puppeteer.
“The Idol” Courtesy of Eddy Chen / HBO
Another hint at Jocelyn’s as-yet-unexplored intentions arrives when she invites her ex-boyfriend, Rob (Karl Glusman), over for a quick romp. The choice appears to be driven by betrayal. Chloe (Suzanna Son) tells Jocelyn that Tedros Tedros instructed Dyanne (Jennie Ruby Jane) to bring Jocelyn to his club, meaning he planned to meet her, court her, and, quite possibly, control her. So, to get her revenge, Jocelyn has sex with Rob while Tedros Tedros sits outside the door, crying, staring at their beloved Prince portrait. This could very well be all it is: a spiteful act intended to provoke jealousy. But it could also be more than that. As Rob expresses hesitancy over a random hook-up, given Jocelyn’s recent loss — and her grief-stricken social media confession about her mother’s abuse — she assures him she’s fine. “I promise,” she says. “I’m in a really good place.”
On its face, Episode 4 is designed to make you think otherwise. The record label is giving her single, “World Class Sinner,” to Dyanne. Her tour is still in jeopardy. The songs she’s creating now seem to be going over well, but she’s making them in a vacuum. (It’s unclear whether Destiny is still a trustworthy judge of quality by episode’s end: Is she still hoping to get rid of Tedros Tedros, or has she become one of his converts?) Professional ambitions aside, she’s being abused by her boyfriend and embarrassed in front of her friends, strangers, and peers.
Still, despite the unfathomable contention that Jocelyn may be orchestrating all this for her own gain, Episode 4 leaves the door open to that very possibility. Perhaps she really didn’t want “World Class Sinner.” Maybe she knows that rumors of behind-the-scenes turmoil can make people want to see things for themselves, thus stoking her tour’s ticket sales. And hey, those songs could be hits — I don’t want to hear them, but maybe Jocelyn’s fictional fans do.
What’s happened in “The Idol” so far could conceivably twist into Jocelyn’s favor, except… I have a hard time understanding how Tedros Tedros factors in. Is he the fall guy? Is he there for “inspiration,” like Levinson claims in the episode’s making-of featurette? Is he somehow better-connected than Jocelyn, and she’s using him to get to people like Mike Dean? Does she just really love rough sex with a rat-tailed psychopath? Or is her grand plan to burn everything that’s brought her harm and suffering to the ground — the record company, her agents, Tedros Tedros, his followers, and her career to boot? Stars may belong to the world, but Jocelyn may be taking her life back.
If she’s been in control all along, like Xander claims, I have a hard time wrapping my head around why it needed to go down like this for Jocelyn to get whatever she wants. But hey, “The Idol” has one more week to state its case. Otherwise, the true chaos will always remain outside its story, and within the series itself. Here’s hoping after next week’s finale, at least some of this makes sense.
Grade: C-
“The Idol” releases new episodes Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
Source: IndieWire
