‘The Idol’ Episode 1 Recap & Ending Explained: The Explicit Way to Look at the Rough Side of the Celebrity Life

Welcome to Recap & Ending Explained for the first episode of HBO’s newest series — ‘The Idol.’ Created by Sam Levinson, the creator of HBO’s ‘Euphoria,’ along with Reza Fahim and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, who also plays the role of Tedros in the series.

It’s no wonder that this series was created by the author of ‘Euphoria,’ because just like ‘Euphoria’ depicted the lives of high school students and their struggles with drugs, sex, and violence, ‘The Idol’ is now trying to show us that rough and disturbing side of one aspiring pop idol’s life.

When it premiered in 2019, ‘Euphoria’ received generally positive reviews for the cast’s performances, cinematography, and approach, but it couldn’t avoid sparking controversy because of its explicit and sexual content.

Now, take away those positive reviews, and turn up that controversial part to 12 (out of 10), and you will get ‘The Idol.’ The first two episodes were shown last month at Cannes Film Festival, and the critics panned the series for its explicit content and themes. The first episode recently premiered on HBO, and now we’re going to tell you what exactly happened in it and how it sets up future episodes in this season.

From the very first scene, you realize what this series is all about!

The first episode opens in the large villa owned by a young but known singer Jocelyn, nicknamed Joss, who Lily-Rose Depp plays. The first scene depicts a photoshoot of Jocelyn for the cover of her next single. Right from the very first scene, in which Jocelyn wears only a thin silk robe, the series is preparing you for everything you’re about the witness in this episode and most likely in the rest of the season as well.

The opening scene cuts to the series’ title sequence, and in the next scene, we see Jocelyn lying in her bed while her assistant, and best friend, Leia (Rachel Sennott), is coming to wake her up. This morning scene is chronologically set before the opening scene, as Jocelyn starts the photoshoot after waking up and having coffee. At the photoshoot, we see that Jocelyn’s entire team is present, including her managers Chaim (Hank Azaria) and Destiny (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), record label executive Nikki (Jane Adams), Live Nation representative Andrew (Eli Roth), and publicist Benjamin (Dan Levy).

While Jocelyn is busy with the photo shoot, her team finds out about a lecherous selfie of Jocelyn that leaked on the internet. While the team is trying to hide it from Jocelyn and figure out the best way to deal with it without harming Jocelyn’s reputation, she comes to them to complain about the intimacy coordinator, who doesn’t approve of her showing her private parts for the photos.

Chaim locks the intimacy coordinator in one of the rooms while Jocelyn prepares herself to rehearse the dancing choreography for the song. The Vanity Fair writer Talia eventually accompanies her team. During the conversation, we learn about Jocelyn’s last tour, which was canceled due to her nervous breakdown, and about her mother, who recently died. After the rehearsal, Jocelyn eventually finds out about the leaked photo, but to her team’s surprise, it seems that she doesn’t care.

In the next scene, we see Jocelyn in a sauna with her backup dancer Dyanne (Jennie Ruby Jane). The start of their conversation leads us into the next scene, which is happening the night before when Jocelyn, Dyanne, and Leia are out in a nightclub owned by Tedros (Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye). Tedros recognizes Jocelyn in the club and invites her to dance, and after a while, we see them making out in the club’s backstage.

The next scene jumps to Jocelyn coming back home, and next, we see her grabbing her own neck with one hand and masturbating with another, which is one of the most explicit scenes in this episode. After showing us what happened the night before, the next scene jumps to the interview Jocelyn gave to Talia, in which Jocelyn doesn’t want to talk about the leaked photo, despite Talia’s insistence.

Later that evening, Jocelyn and Leia are watching the movie at the villa, and Jocelyn reveals that she wants to call Tedros again, much to Leia’s disagreement. Still, Jocelyn invites Tedros over. While Jocelyn is getting ready, Leia welcomes Tedros and tells him to make himself at home. We see Tedros offering himself a drink and consuming a bit of cocaine before Jocelyn stands before him, wearing the same red silk robe she wore during the photoshoot.

After drinking and talking about her newest song, Jocelyn invites Tedros to her room to play him her newest song. We find out this is Jocelyn’s first song since her mother died. Then the scene then builds an erotic tension with Tedros slowly taking Jocelyn’s heels off and initiating foreplay. The episode then cuts to the credits.

What is next for Jocelyn, and what she got herself into?

This first episode was made to introduce us to the character of Jocelyn and all of the issues she has as both celebrity and a young woman from whom much is expected. The episode managed to build up that drama around her character, but we know the focus will be on her relationship with Tedros, which is something that further episodes will need to depict.

One thing this episode didn’t show, although we already know about it, is that Tedros is a leader of the modern-day cult with a mysterious past (sorry if this is a spoiler for you). After the first episode, we know that something is up with him, but so far, he was depicted only as an owner of the club Jocelyn fell for, kind of the same way Anastasia fell for Christian Grey. We do not doubt that further episodes will examine his character even more as he’s pulling Jocelyn into a complex relationship that no doubt will be full of vices.

After the premiere of the first two episodes at the Cannes Film Festival, the score on Rotten Tomatoes for ‘The Idol’ was 25%. Now, after the first episode’s premiere on HBO, the average audience score is 55%, which indicates that only a part of the audience agrees with the critics. True, the series deals with some really sensitive themes. And regarding the explicit content, we might’ve seen plenty of that in some other TV shows, but in this particular case, we do not blame anyone who finds this kind of content disturbing to watch.

The first episode of ‘The Idol’ is now streaming on Max. New episodes will be arriving weekly on Sunday nights on HBO.