The Idol season 1 episode 5 (finale): Lily-Rose Depp on ending
For us personally, we tend to the think that the biggest issue with the final episode is simply the pacing — because of the way in which certain things are told and glossed over, you never have a clear sense as to who learned what and when. It also makes it really hard to grasp onto the ending, where Jocelyn tells Tedros that he’s effectively the love of her life — but only after everything he’s had insofar as his public image is completely destroyed. The show seems to be trying to paint The Weeknd’s character as a victim all of a sudden, but his past actions are so despicable that it’s hard to ever get there. Meanwhile, there are certain parts of Jocelyn’s own personality that needed to be built up further.
Speaking in an HBO featurette (watch here) after the finale, here is what Lily-Rose Depp had to say about the final scenes:
“Jocelyn is a very calculated and strategic person … She knows what she wants and she’s going to stop at nothing to get it. What we realize at the end is that Tedros is her muse and that she got what she needed out of him.
“I think a lot of the audience will watch a few episodes and think this guy is taking advantage of her … [However, by] the end she realizes that she knows exactly what he’s doing and she knows exactly what she’s doing.”
We do think that The Idol was trying to say something about the relationship between toxicity and fame, but it never quite got there. Maybe it was due to the small episode count, or maybe it was due to the narrative focus of each episode. There’s still a chance at a season 2, but in our mind, it’s hard to imagine it happening.
Related – Get some more thoughts following The Idol season 1 finale now
What do you think about the end of The Idol the day after?
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(Photo: HBO.)