A Double Fantasy Recap:
The first episode of The Idol drew an outline of the series’ key players and plot points. In this week’s episode we start coloring in more details of the characters – their histories, motivations, and intentions.
Double Fantasy kicks off with the team summoned to Jocelyn’s house. She has remixed World Class Singer with Tedros and can’t wait for them to hear it. The track starts off with a lot of moaning and heavy breathing. As she sings along and dances seductively in a black crop top and low-rise denim complete with an exposed black thong with gold hardware, it’s clear that the team doesn’t know what to make of it … and maybe her.
However, the only person to voice her opinion is Nikki (of course). She’s completely against it. The new song is not commercial enough. The original is going to be a hit. They’re already scheduled to drop the new single next week. Plus the video’s being shot this week, and the label’s already spent a million on it.
Jocelyn pouts and threatens to release the single herself. Nikki counters by rehashing how Joss refused to cancel her tour after her mom died and had a mental breakdown a week before her big MSG show. The tour was canceled. Tickets were refunded. Joss took 8 months to get healthy. The label spent millions so she could work with producers to create an EP full of hits. In other words, the label lost a fortune, and she owes them big. Suck it up, and do what you’re told.
Joss storms upstairs to her room. Chaim later comes in and reassures her that he still believes in her.
Cut to Joss later on in her studio listening to the part of the audio track where she’s moaning. Suddenly she’s placing her glass between her legs when she’s interrupted by a call from Tedros. “Why did you play them the song? You know it’s not done, right?” he asks.
Tedros says he’s at the club catching up on work alone and about to go to bed. In reality, he’s literally surrounded by a ton of girls, one of whom is braiding his rattail. Across the room from him is Isaak who’s on the phone with Leia. We learn she’s from New York, and Isaak’s never been. Now back to Joss. She wants Tedros to come over and work with her, but he’s “busy” and she has a video shoot. They make plans to see each other in a couple days.
As we watch a montage of Joss going through the motions … working out, “eating,” scrolling on her phone and seeing that leaked photo of herself, totally checked out in a creative meeting for the video, and aggressively brushing her hair (she is not okay) … we hear the rest of her conversation with Tedros.
She tells him she has to go back to the original version of the single because her manager doesn’t think they’re going to be able to use the new one. Cue Tedros planting seeds. “Well maybe you need a new team. You should be surrounded by people who believe in you and trust your vision.” When she says she doesn’t think she has a vision, he responds, “I think you know exactly who you are and where you want to go.” Well played sir.
Finally we get to the video shoot we’ve been hearing so much about. When Joss sees the set she freezes. It’s not what she thought it would be. Xander reminds her he showed her everything and she approved it. Is he referring to that meeting we saw in the montage? Did he not notice she wasn’t paying attention? Oh Xander.
In the meantime, Nikki whispers to Chaim that Jocelyn was three and a half hours late to set because the makeup team had to airbrush cuts on her inner thighs. “I can’t have another incident like this.” Well buckle up Nikki.
Joss gets on stage with the dancers doing the same choreo we saw in the first episode. Nikki questions whether the scene is sexy or not. I’m sorry, is this not the same woman who said “Mental illness is sexy” in the last episode? The irony. Xander disagrees and says, “I think she looks like a really hot woman dancing at a strip club with hot strippers.” Kim the director (real-life director Kimberly Hunt) says the first take is great. Joss says it could be better and goes to redo it. And redo it again, and again, and again, and … you get where I’m going here.
Talia, the Vanity Fair writer we met in the first episode, is on set. Putting everything into context, she says Joss is “down.” Her mom died of cancer. She had a mental breakdown. And she was cheated on by … *checks notes* … “heartthrob Rob.” Excuse me, who’s he?
After one too many takes, everyone is exhausted. Nikki notices Dyanne has been outdancing everyone and wonders if she sings. Sings? What are you up to Nikki?
While everyone is taking a break, Joss tells Chaim that she wants to call it a day so they can tweak some details in the video. They can redo everything tomorrow, and she’ll even pay for it herself. Chaim brings her back to reality. The video costs $450K a day. If she delays it, the label will wonder what’s next. The last thing she needs is for them to cancel her tour. Unfortunately she’s just going to have to continue filming today and prove she’s still got it.
In another corner, Talia and Xander talk “off the record.” Xander says he’s in “hell” and this has been the last five years of his life. Talia says he could always go back to singing and dancing. When Talia asks if he’s fulfilled by his work with Joss, Xander admits he never gets an actual say and is only here because he loves her. When he goes to check on Joss, Talia takes out her notebook. Off the record, hmm.
Destiny shows up and tells Chaim she has intel on Tedros, or should we call him by his alleged government name “Tedros Tedros.” He’s a nightclub owner who’s indebted to a lot of people. Apparently he dropped off the radar after he lived in Hawaii. Chaim later corners Leia. He inquires about Tedros, but all she can share is that he’s black. She also tells him that Joss said a glass broke on her thighs.
Back on set Joss is having another meltdown, and the director is over Joss directing her.
Chaim tells Destiny about the cuts on Joss’s thighs. He doesn’t know what to do. D tells him they have to step in. Jocelyn’s mother is gone, and they promised her they would be her “new parents.” She pulls Joss outside for the ultimate pep talk.
“I’m telling you right now, these people in here are gauging whether or not you still got it. So this is what you need to do: You got to go in there, and you got to give it your all. ‘Cause I’m telling you right now, if you don’t, these people are gonna fuck up your career. But, if you do, your fans are gonna say, “Jocelyn is my motherfucking idol.””
Now that’s how you pep talk!
Meanwhile on set, Dyanne is auditioning for Nikki. She likes Dyanne’s voice and instructs an assistant named Aubin to take her to another stage to record a song immediately. I’m sorry, are Dyanne’s dancing services no longer needed? Are we not still filming this video?
Joss sees Talia outside and tells her that the video’s bringing up a lot of grief over losing her mom. “So, I just – I really hope you take that into consideration when you’re writing the article.” Talia reassures Joss she will. We’ll believe it when we read it.
Joss returns to set determined AF. She absolutely nails her take. Unfortunately the camera was out of focus the whole time. All of that was for nothing. Joss is devastated. Her feet are bleeding, and now the makeup covering up the cuts on her thighs needs a touchup.
We leave the music video set for a minute, and find ourselves on a different set at Tedros’ club. Izaak is wearing gold shorts and hovering over a harem of girls while thrusting in the air. Tedros tells him to keep going and starts zapping him with a remote control dog collar. “You’re not a human Izaak, don’t forget. You’re a fucking star.” No cameras seem to be rolling. Can someone tell us what this is for?
Back to Jocelyn. She’s clearly done, but says she’s ready to do it again. Such a trooper. Suddenly she starts crying out for her mother. Uh-oh. Chaim asks if she’s calling for her mom. She says no, but still crying we hear her whisper, “Mommy, I need you.” It’s the saddest thing to watch. Lily-Rose really captures Joss’s exhaustion trying to be the perfect pop star.
D goes over to Joss. Time for another pep talk. She reminds Joss no one would be there or employed without her. Joss tells D she can power through. As D walks away Joss starts laughing and says she’s fine. Chaim looks on horrified.
Nikki comes over and tells her it’s time to go home. Joss asks if they can redo the shoot again tomorrow. Nikki agrees, probably just to get Joss to leave. Leia and Xander walk her to her car. Joss is so spent she falls over outside.
Inside Nikki tells Aubin to bring Dyanne in. She instructs Talia to sit and says, “Your story’s about to get a lot bigger.” What’s she scheming about now?
Back at home, Chaim tells Joss that Nikki is scrapping the music video. We learn he’s been paying for a lot of Joss’s expenses and can’t keep doing it if she’s not putting out any “commercial music.” Joss tells him she wants to be a “once-in-a-generation artist” whose music has longevity. Chaim gets real with her once again. She’s hanging by a thread, practically broke, not putting any music out, and unfocused. “At the end of the day, it’s not what you say, yeah? It’s what you do. It’s what you make. It’s what you sing.” Points were made.
We learn Chaim first saw Joss perform Fever when she was 11 years old at Fox Hills Mall. (Now Westfield Culver City.) He just wants her to use her gifts, and Joss asks him not to give up on her.
Later Jocelyn calls Tedros and asks if he can come over. He says he’ll be there.
Now here’s where things get really interesting. He hangs up the phone and staring back at him is … Dyanne! And she has some interesting things to say:
“So, is she a better fuck than me?” A better what! What is your relationship with Tedros exactly girl?
“You didn’t tell me it was a setup.” Setup! What setup? What is Dyanne talking about?
“You said it would be good for the club.” Okay, this one makes sense. Remember, Dyanne was the one who brought Joss to the club in the last episode.
Apparently Nikki wants to sign Dyanne now, and honestly, who can blame her? She needs a backup plan in case Joss crashes and burns. Who better to take her spot than Dyanne, who has been waiting in the wings, possibly under the orders of Tedros.
Hearing Dyanne’s news, Tedros replies, “Great. I can finally get that return on you. Have Nikki call me to negotiate.” Return on Dyanne? Negotiate? Is he her manager?
Tedros rolls up to Joss’s house in a vintage convertible with Izaak, Chloe, and another girl whose name we never learn and who we don’t seem to ever see again. Chloe is in awe of Joss’s home, especially the pool. She strips down and dives right in. Leia is shocked when Izaak walks in. She didn’t know he knows her mortal enemy Tedros.
Everyone’s doing shots and feeling free, especially Chloe (Suzanne Son) who’s nude and dramatically playing the piano. Tedros even gets normally buttoned-up Leia to do coke. Shocker. Everyone goes their separate ways.
Joss and Tedros are slow-grinding by her indoor pool. She wants to toast to the end of her career. Tedros refuses, and she tells him about the video shoot gone wrong. Cue another pep talk for Joss. “You are fucking Jocelyn, okay? The American Dream. Rags to Riches. Trailers to Mansions. That’s you, right?”
Leia and Izaak end up in her room, and we find out Izaak’s origin story. He sang at his father’s church in Ladera, and Tedros was there one day. After hearing him sing, Tedros signed Izaak to his label. Label? Is Dyanne signed to this label too? Back to Izaak. He tells Leia that Tedros transformed him, “By pushing me further than anyone’s ever pushed me before.” Is that what he was doing with the dog collar? Pushing him?
Meanwhile Chloe is galivanting in Joss’s closet. While she’s playing dress-up, Tedros and Joss return to the master suite. Joss asks him to get the robe from her closet and blindfold her. Chloe literally hands Tedros the belt from the robe.
Tedros blindfolds Joss, and foreplay with him sounds like porn. Fitting. In case you were wondering, Chloe is still watching them from the closet wearing one of Jocelyn’s gowns. The scene unfolding before her seems to be turning her on.
Tedros continues to slowly manipulate Jocelyn by telling her they should spend the next two weeks working on three new songs for her label. Oh, and he should move in “for work purposes.” Hold up, move in? Well-played. Not surprisingly, Joss agrees.
They hear Chloe playing the piano and singing downstairs. Guess she found her way out of the closet while Tedros and Joss were preoccupied. Her singing brings everyone back together. Soon Izaak starts singing with her.
The lyrics of the song appear to be quite intentional.
“That’s my family. We don’t like each other very much. Oh, I’m okay with that. But it breaks my mother’s heart.”
Surely Joss’s mom wouldn’t approve of this new family gathered around the piano. Notably, while Leia sits with a look of trepidation plastered on her face, Tedros stares at her very intensely as he wraps Joss in her arms. What is running through his mind?
Cue Love to Love You Baby. IYKYK.
There was a lot of progress with character development in the second episode. Everyone’s intentions are becoming much clearer.
Chaim and Destiny seem to truly care about Joss. They feel responsible for her now that her mother is gone, and they’re scared they won’t be able to keep saving her. They’re probably also equally scared for themselves. If she goes down, so do they. She is the reason they’re employed after all.
Xander and Leia also seem to care about Joss. However, one has to wonder if Xander will soon become frustrated. Not having a real say in anything can wear on you. He did seem a bit annoyed that Joss wasn’t into the video shoot even though she had approved everything. Will he quit and focus on his own career?
In the meantime, Nikki is secretly setting up plan B – make Dyanne a pop star. Makes sense. Joss is a walking red flag, and the label can’t afford to lose any more money because of her. Nikki has to do what she needs to do whether it seems insensitive to Joss or not. Dyanne being more closely aligned to Tedros than we realized is a shocker, but makes total sense the more you think about it.
While Talia seems sympathetic to Joss’s situation, she also has a job to do. Until that article of hers is finally published, we can only guess where her loyalties lie.
Tedros is clearly manipulating Jocelyn. Work on three songs? Move in? What’s next, a proposal? I also wonder if Izaak really likes Leia, or if Tedros is just using him to distract her so he can get closer to Joss. The theory is not far fetched. Remember in episode one when Leia abandoned her search for Joss in the club because Izaak asked her to dance? Exactly. Leia seems like she can be lured away easily; however, don’t underestimate her. She was collecting intel on Tedros and hooking up with Izaak at the same time!
I just want to know if we’ll ever meet this “heartthrob Rob” or if he’s just a footnote in Jocelyn’s origin story.
Now what do you think the Double Fantasy title of this episode referred to? Tedros’s girl Dyanne getting a record deal, and him working on more music with Joss? Or him simultaneously turning on Jocelyn and Chloe?
Catch up on the latest episode of The Idol on MAX.
