Spoiler alert: The following contains details of The Idol finale.
From the start, there has been a lot to talk about when it comes to HBO’s buzzy series The Idol, which was co-created by and co-stars Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye. The drama followed a pop star, Jocelyn (played by Lily-Rose Depp), who’s recovering from a nervous breakdown when she meets Tesfaye’s Tedros, a secret cult leader.
No surprise that the unexpected turn on Sunday’s finale left much to be discussed, in addition to the topics that had already surfaced, about everything from the controversy to the cast. Here’s a look at not just one but multiple burning questions surrounding the HBO series:
How did the season end? What was the big twist?
In the final episode of the show, viewers learned that Jocelyn, whom we thought was being controlled by Tedros, was, in fact, manipulating him. We watched as Jocelyn booted Tedros out of her life, calling him out as a “con man and a fraud.” Her manager even offered him $500,000 to go, and a news reporter wrote a prominent story about his background as a pimp. The show then jumped ahead six weeks, and picked back up with a publicly shamed Tedros, who’s now dealing with financial issues because of the negative media attention, attending the opening night of Jocelyn’s latest tour.
There, Tedros realized that Jocelyn had been lying to him about her background and using him for her own purposes the entire time. He’d never really been the one in control. She brings him onstage, where she kisses him passionately and declares him the “love of my life.” “You’re mine forever,” she then told him. “Now go stand over there.”
Depp explained in a behind-the-scenes clip on the making of the episode that Jocelyn, the supposed victim of manipulation, is “a very calculated and strategic person” who “knows what she wants and she’s going to stop at nothing to get it.”
Depp added, “What we realize at the end is that Tedros is her muse and that she got what she needed out of him.”
Will there be a Season 2?
It’s unclear whether there will be additional episodes of The Idol. What we do know is that on June 15, HBO refuted a report that the drama wouldn’t see a Season 2, noting that a decision had not been made on that front.
At the same time, co-creator and showrunner Sam Levinson wound up making five episodes instead of the six that had been planned under The Idol‘s previous leadership. A source close to the production told Decider that that’s all Levinson needed to “capture his vision.” This does not bode well.
For what it’s worth, HBO referred to the episode as the season finale.
What was all the controversy about again?
Yahoo readers had asked from the show’s earliest days about the scandal that shadowed it even before it debuted on June 4.
For starters, The Idol‘s original, female director and an actress departed the series early on, reportedly because Tesfaye thought the show was “leaning too much into the female perspective; He denied this is the reason. Additionally, in March, Rolling Stone published a report in which 13 unnamed members of the cast and crew said the second version of the series had “gone wildly, disgustingly off the rails” and had become “sexual torture porn.” One crew member said The Idol had gone from a story of a woman falling prey to a toxic figure in the industry and fighting to “like any rape fantasy that any toxic man would have in the show — and then the woman comes back because it makes her music better.” There was a lot more.
The network defended the show. “The creators and producers of The Idol have been working hard to create one of HBO’s most exciting and provocative original programs,” officials told Yahoo. “The initial approach on the show and production of the early episodes, unfortunately, did not meet HBO standards so we chose to make a change. Throughout the process, the creative team has been committed to creating a safe, collaborative, and mutually respectful working environment, and last year, the team made creative changes they felt were in the best interest of both the production and the cast and crew. We look forward to sharing The Idol with audiences soon.”
Despite all this backstage drama, HBO said, per Variety, that 913,000 people tuned into see Kim and the rest of the cast in the premiere of the first of the season’s five episodes. Those numbers fell by 12 percent for the second ep. By comparison, another show from Sam Levinson, one of Tesfaye’s co-creators, Euphoria, premiered to an audience of 1.2 million on HBO in 2019. At the same time, according to NPR, the final episode of the network’s dark comedy Barry, which aired May 28 of this year, attracted just 700,000 viewers. Of course the numbers went way up in the following days, when people could watch when they wanted. Ratings for the finale aren’t in yet.
Was that Jennie Kim of Blackpink in the cast?
Yes! Kim’s appearance had thousands of Yahoo users asking, “Is that Jennie Kim in The Idol?” It was indeed Kim (who’s also a solo artist known simply as Jennie) as Dyanne, one of Jocelyn’s backup dancers. The confusion about whether it was Jennie on screen might have come because Kim’s credited on The Idol, her acting debut, as Jennie Ruby Jane.
The star noted that her background had been helpful in playing Dyanne, who was burned by Jocelyn in the final episode.
“I didn’t have a lot of time to learn the choreography for the dance scenes,” she said in the below behind-the-scenes clip (at about 2:54). “But, thankfully, I do this all the time, so it came naturally to me.”
Kim has been a member of the K-pop girl group since it began in 2016, when she and the other teenage members were selected to form Blackpink. As part of the phenomenally popular ensemble, that’s shattered records, including becoming the first K-pop girl group to headline Coachella, she’s sold millions of albums and toured the world. Choreography is what she knows.
In 2018, she released her own album, Solo, which did so well that Jennie became a face of Chanel, Calvin Klein and more. The video for the title track quickly became the most viewed by a female Korean artist of all time, and it currently has a staggering 933 million views.
But she continues her work with Blackpink. On June 11, during a show in Melbourne, Australia, she had to leave the stage during one of the shows, after she fell ill. Footage from the concert showed Kim holding onto the side of the stage while appearing to breathe heavily before leaving.
“We regret to inform you that during the BLACKPINK WORLD TOUR [BORN PINK] IN MELBOURNE performance on June 11 (today), member JENNIE was unable to complete the stage due to her deteriorating condition,” YG Entertainment said in a statement. “JENNIE expressed her strong determination to carry on with the performance until the end. However, following medical advice on site, we immediately took measures to ensure she receives ample rest and stability.”
By the end of the month, though, it looked like she was feeling better.
What other music stars were part of the show?
The Weeknd:
Of course, there’s Tesfaye. The Canadian singer has been releasing music for more than a decade. In 2013, his debut studio album, Kiss Land, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, and it’s been up from there. Over the next few years, songs off his next albums, like “Can’t Feel My Face,” “Die for You,” “Blinding Lights,” “Starboy,” “The Hills” and “Save Your Tears” became radio staples. And No. 1 hits. He’s won 4 Grammys, and he’s been nominated 13 times.
When the New York Times asked the music artist whether he worried about how The Idol would be received at a time when conversations about race, gender and representation are “so fraught,” Tesfaye dismissed the idea.
“When I first started making music, it was the exact same thing,” he said. “It was provocative, and I knew it was going to be tough for people. And a lot of people didn’t like it. Not to compare it, but I feel that this is kind of like that again. This is not going to be for everybody, and that’s fine. We’re not politicians.”
Troye Sivan
Like The Weeknd, the Australian singer-actor got his start performing on YouTube more than a decade ago. By 2014, he won a Teen Choice Award for his video for “The Boyfriend Tag.” Now 28, he’s had six songs in the Billboard 200 — 2016’s “Youth” went to No. 23 — stateside and has toured the world. His music career has propelled him to jobs modeling for the likes of Valentino and Calvin Klein, as well as the clothing lines of Rihanna and Beyoncé, plus other acting projects. He’s teased a new single, “Rush,” coming soon.
Sivan, who previously appeared in movies such as Boy Erased and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, plays Xander, Jocelyn’s creative director and close friend.
Moses Sumney
Sumney released his critically acclaimed debut album in 2017, and his songs have been used in TV shows, including HBO’s Insecure, Westworld and Euphoria; Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black and Dear White People; and movies like Creed and Venom. He released an album in 2017 (Aromanticism) and a double-album, the well-reviewed Græ, that ended up on many best of the year lists, in 2020.
The following year, he dropped the album Live from Blackalachia, which was accompanied by a concert film.
Sumney, who’s been recognized for his visual work by the SXSW Film Festival, portrays Izaak, one of Tedros’s loyal followers.
Ramsey
LA Weekly predicted in August 2016 that the singer-songwriter/-electronic producer, who was born Rebecca Fisher in the late ’90s, would be a pop star. Her songs had already been listened to millions of times on SoundCloud, less than a year after she began releasing it.
“This has all happened very quickly,” Ramsey said of her success in that 2016 interview. “It’s weird.”
In 2019, her song “Love Surrounds You” was featured in the first season of Euphoria.
Ramsey plays Ramsey on all six episodes of The Idol.
Tyson Ritter
He’s previously appeared in shows such as Parenthood, 90210 and House, and movies including The House Bunny, but Ritter is best known as the lead singer of the All-American Rejects. The band rose to fame in the early aughts, with songs such as “Swing Swing,” “Dirty Little Secret, “Move Along” and “Gives You Hell.” While he’s continued to perform with the hitmakers, they last released music in 2020.
His as yet unnamed character debuts on the June 18 episode.
Mike Dean
Long a composer on music videos for Travis Scott, Kanye West and others, Dean made his acting debut on The Idol, for which he’s also credited with working on the tunes. He collaborated with the Weeknd on the show’s theme song, “The Lure,” and several other tracks.
