‘The Idol’ Episode 2 Ending Explained: Filming of the Music Video Leads Jocelyn to Nervous Breakdown
Welcome to Ending Explained for the second episode of HBO’s latest drama series ‘The Idol.’ In the first episode last week, we met Lily Rose-Depp’s main character Jocelyn and how she first met Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye’s Tedros, a self-help guru and a leader of a secret cult, with whom she enters into a complicated relationship. This second episode shows the audience even more deeply how Jocelyn struggles with her issues while her team pushes her to do what is expected of her.
The first episode finished with Jocelyn and Tedros listening to Jocelyn’s newest song, “World Class Sinner,” which Jocelyn’s team plans to release soon to get her career back on track after her mother died and her last tour was canceled. However, Jocelyn has all kinds of second thoughts about this song, so she asks Tedros for his opinion, and the episode finishes with Tedros initiating an erotic foreplay with Jocelyn. This second episode begins the next morning.
As she’s trying to perfect her music video, we witness Jocelyn’s breakdown!
After spending the night with Tedros in her villa, Jocelyn summons her entire team, telling them she has a new, remixed version of the song, which she worked on with Tedros. She doesn’t tell them about Tedros, but she plays them the song, and Nikki Katz, a record label executive, immediately declines to release the remix because it isn’t “commercial.”
Jocelyn wants to release the remix herself, but Nikki scolds her behavior, telling Jocelyn that she’ll do what she’s told and that she should be grateful that her team was with her the entire time after her mother died.
Unsatisfied with how Nikki refused her remix, Jocelyn calls Tedros and asks him to meet the day after tomorrow. The next day, we see Jocelyn’s morning routine; working out, taking a shower, swimming in the pool, and having breakfast, before she meets her team to discuss filming the music video for the song. Later, Jocelyn and her team arrive at the filming set, and we witness how Jocelyn isn’t in her right mind.
Trying to perfect the choreography, which she actually hates, Jocelyn overexerts herself with each new take to the point of her mental breakdown, during which she calls out her deceased mother.
Meanwhile, Jocelyn’s managers Chaim and Destiny, are trying to find out who is that mysterious man Jocelyn has been seeing. Exhausted and unable to continue the filming, Jocelyn takes her heels off, revealing her bleeding toes and cuts on her legs.
Although Jocelyn wants to continue, Nikki realizes that Jocelyn can’t continue filming in this condition and ultimately scraps the whole video. After that, Nikki starts talking to Dyanne, in who she sees another singing potential, and later we also find out that Dyanne is actually a member of Tedros’ cult.
Jocelyn calls Tedros again that same night and invites him to her villa again. Tedros arrives with Izaak and Chloe, the members of his cult. Jocelyn and her friend Leia are spending the night with guests at the villa; Leia is given to try cocaine, Chloe takes a swim in Jocelyn’s pool, and she tries Jocelyn’s clothes and jewelry afterward.
After talking about her scrapped music video and her career, Jocelyn and Tedros go to her room, where they start making out and ultimately initiate another erotic foreplay, unaware that Chloe is watching them the whole time. After spending the night together, Tedros asks Jocelyn to move in with her for work purposes, to which Jocelyn, to absolutely no one’s surprise, agrees.
What is next for Jocelyn and Tedros?
In these first two episodes, we witnessed how the relationship between Jocelyn and Tedros and developing awfully fast while the series is also trying to explore Jocelyn’s character further as she’s struggling with her career, mental issues, and she sees Tedros as a solution, although he’d turn out to be her biggest problem. With so much going on in Jocelyn’s life and mind, and with only three episodes left, it remains to be seen where this road will lead her.
The preview for the third episode that HBO revealed today shows how Jocelyn will eventually fall in love with Tedros (if she hasn’t already). One scene shows Jocelyn making a toast while at dinner with Tedros and other members of his cult, saying that she didn’t feel this happy in a really long time.
Meanwhile, Jocelyn’s friend Leia shares her own concerns as Tedros is slowly taking control of Jocelyn’s villa, career, and life, while Jocelyn’s managers, Chaim and Destiny, are trying to find a way to get Jocelyn out of Tedros’ grasp. One scene even involves a gun, so we bet there’s plenty to see in the next three episodes.
‘The Idol’ series was created by Reza Fahim, Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, who plays Tedros, and Sam Levinson, who is known as the creator of the HBO series ‘Euphoria,’ and also directed all five episodes of ‘The Idol.’ Levinson confirmed that ‘The Idol’ takes place in the same universe as ‘Euphoria.’
The first two episodes of ‘The Idol’ are now streaming on Max.
Have you watched the first two episodes of ‘The Idol’? Are you planning to stick to the series until the end? Let us know in the comments.
