A Daybreak Recap:
“Good morning Angel. Get up. Let’s go shopping.” Guess Mr. Tedros Tedros (IYKYK) is all moved in.
Leia reluctantly drives Tedros’ classic Continental while he and Joss hook up in the back seat. There’s a sea of fans on Rodeo, and Tedros instructs Leia to pull over to them. (Did he call these people?) Joss sweetly greets everyone before heading into Valentino. While Jocelyn tries on looks, Tedros thinks one of the personal shoppers is looking too close at his girl and threatens to “curb stomp” him.
Back at the house, Chaim and Destiny have arrived because Leia sent them a “911” text. Chaim calls Leia for details, and she tells them Tedros has taken over the house. Immediately Chaim instructs D to hand him his gun from the glove compartment. He’s not messing around today! However, as Leia describes what she means by taking over the house, Chaim grows annoyed, D calls her “brain dead, and the gun goes back into safekeeping.
Flash back to the kitchen, pre-shopping trip. Tedros says the producer Mike Dean (yes, that Mike Dean) is coming over later and asks Leia where he should set up. She says she needs to ask Joss, and he tells her he’s “running the show now.” (Then why are you asking her? Just put him somewhere.)
When Joss’s long-time hot chef Andres (Gerardo Celasco) asks Joss how the probiotics are working, she says they’re great and shows him her flat AF midriff. Tedros is pissed Andres is touching her and tells him to stop. Joss tries to explain that Andres’s family are doctors, but Tedros slaps him before firing him. Andres defiantly says, “Sorry, but I only take orders from my boss.” Then Tedros makes Joss fire him. So long hot chef. The Bear may be hiring. (Wait, wrong network.)
As Leia frantically tries to convince Chaim that these are signs Tedros has clearly brainwashed Jocelyn, Andrew Finkelstein calls. Later Leia.
Now Fink is panicking. (Chaim can’t catch a break.) Nikki told him Jocelyn has tossed out her only new hit World Class Sinner. He’s scared Joss will make them lose even more money on top of last year’s $6.7 million canceled tour. How does our favorite manager handle this? Chaim tells D to turn up the radio and pretends he’s in the studio working on new material with Joss. D even pretends to be Joss. Genius.
Back to Valentino. Joss challenges Tedros. He says she doesn’t have taste so she calls him gay. He has something to prove, and they start roughly hooking up in the dressing room. She won’t let him finish inside of her and walks out the dressing room telling him to “figure it out.” While Tedros figures it out, Chaim is back on the phone with Leia. He reassures her he’ll be at the house when they return.
Back to the house. Chaim and Destiny finally meet Tedros. The scene is cleverly shot like a Western standoff. When the group moves poolside, the dynamic duo try to get more intel on him. He says he’s from Hollywood. No way! D’s from Hollywood too. She asks where he went to school like the good detective she is. Apparently he wasn’t the best student and got kicked out. How convenient! D says she was kicked out of school too for “beating fake ass bitches asses.” Does Tedros realize she’s warning him?
Tedros tells Chaim the producer Mike Dean comes to his club all the time. Chaim sounds excited AF he was able to get such a major player to work with her. Of course he demands they need to make hits, not songs. Failure is not an option. As they leave, Chaim and Destiny tell Leia how much they love Tedros. Poor Leia’s in disbelief that they’re not seeing what she’s seeing. As Chaim and D get back in their car “I fucking love that guy” and “He’s amazing!!” turn into “I think our girl’s in trouble!” and “My grandmother said you never trust a dude with a rattail.” Well played.
While Joss and Tedros play house, Nikki has Dyanne redoing the World Class Sinner video shoot. Hold on, is Dyanne taking Joss’s pop girl spot? And is that Vanity Fair reporter Talia on set!
Back at the house. Izaak, Chloe, and Joss are singing around the piano. Later while Chloe and Joss are in Joss’s room smoking, Chloe asks why she doesn’t sing about her mom. Joss says it scares her, and she doesn’t want to turn off any fans. She also admits she never sang anything personal before. Chloe suggests she add in a personal lyric every now and then “like a secret.” That’s actually not a bad idea. Chloe asks Joss if it was hard when her mom died. Joss admits she can still feel her presence everywhere in the house. Tears stream down her face, and Chloe wipes them away. Then she brushes Chloe’s hair.
Meanwhile, Tedros is on the balcony with Xander informing him that his creative direction sucks. To his surprise, Xander agrees. Often his ideas are scrapped for whatever the label and Jocelyn want. Tedros asks what he thinks of I’m a Freak. Xander says it’s too “manufactured bad girl.” Tedros goes on to ask what he would do if he had carte blanche. Xander says he would make that leaked Jocelyn photo (you know the one) her album cover. (That’s actually genius. Let’s hope Tedros doesn’t try to pass this idea off as his own.) Tedros likes the idea and invites Xander to do coke with him, promising it doesn’t have Fentanyl in it.
Down in the studio, Izaak is soulfully singing and it’s a whole vibe. (Moses, drop the album!) Izaak tells Joss to sing with him on the next take. She turns him down. Chloe tells her she’d be in trouble if Tedros heard her say no. Apparently they’re not allowed to say no because you’re “denying yourself an experience.” What in the cult is going on here? Joss tells them not all experiences are good to which Izaak replies, “That’s a really simple way of looking at things Joss.” Chloe chimes in that some of the most terrible experiences in life can be the most valuable artistically. For example, Robert Plant wrote All My Love after he lost his son.
Izaak asks Joss how many people tell her that her music saved their lives. “A lot,” she replies. (Interesting. Yet we never hear any of these old songs she speaks of.) Izaak goes more into depth and tells her to imagine if she was Robert Plant and had written one of the greatest love songs of all time.
However, Joss is still stuck on him saying yes to anything. In true Jocelyn fashion, she instructs Izaak to kiss Ramsey. Challenge accepted. (Is Ramsey the person who was unaccounted for last week when Tedros showed up with the party of four?) Joss asks if he would have done that if Leia was in the room. His answer is still yes, even if it hurts Leia’s feelings. (No one tell Leia.) Joss asks if he would kiss her. Now that’s where Izaak draws the line. Smart man. Who wants to be killed by Tedros?
On to dinner. (Who cooked now that hot Andres is gone? Have they ordered in?) Joss toasts her new family and gives Tedros a special shout out for teaching her “how to have fun again.” Guess that’s what we’re calling brainwashing now.
During dinner Tedros mentions Xander has a brilliant idea. Xander is a little reluctant at first, but Tedros convinces him to share. Leia is totally against using the leaked photo as the cover because she’s a role model for young girls and people will look at her differently if she embraces the photo. Plus, the media and internet were so “supportive.”
Joss disagrees. The people making fun of her and the ones defending her are one in the same; both capitalizing off it. However, she’s still uncertain about using the photo. She wants to be taken seriously and have longevity. Tedros says she won’t achieve any of that if she doesn’t take risks. Xander chimes in that it’s all about the “right risk at the right time.” Tedros cuts him off and says there’s no such thing as the “right risk.” That just means you’re trying to play it safe like everyone else. (Are we in therapy?)
Joss asks Tedros why he’s talking to her like she’s new to the industry when he’s the newbie. Leia quickly backs her girl up as she sips her wine. Joss goes on to say she’s been in the industry for over 10 years, and Tedros quickly reminds her that she’s stuck. She says it’s only momentarily, but he asks what the last song she wrote was. (Again, are we in therapy?) Apparently it’s something called Daybreak, a year-old song from her second album that Leia just loves. (Of course she does.) Joss doesn’t see this delay as a big deal. It’s got to be the “right song,” i.e. the “right risk.” Tedros suggests this thinking could be why she can’t write a song. (He may be on to something.)
Xander suggests she’s overthinking everything, and Joss quickly snaps at him. He should know that “it’s complicated.” Xander says she cares too much. Joss says if she doesn’t care what people think, she won’t have a career. However, Tedros suggests if she cares too much, she still won’t have a career. He adds that she keeps making superficial music and can’t make honest music if she keeps caring what other people think all the time. “You make superficial music because you think about superficial things.” He may be a cult leader, but multiple points were made.
Joss doesn’t think it’s superficial to make music that connects with people. Tedros tells her to be herself, but she doesn’t think she’s relatable. Joss asks what he thinks is so relatable about her. He says all the dark shit she’s been through in her life. Joss thinks the dark shit in her life is actually very unique. To Tedros’ surprise, Xander sides with Joss on this one and even calls her mom a “rare breed.”
Tedros asks Joss to explain further, and she shuts him down at first. She doesn’t want to talk about this in front of everyone. Tedros says he doesn’t keep secrets from anyone at the table, and he won’t let her keep secrets either. Joss tells him he wouldn’t be saying that if he knew the details. Tedros says he won’t love her any less, and it’s a safe space.
Finally Joss admits her mom hit her with a hairbrush all the time. To keep her focused. To motivate her. To help her remember lines. To remember dance moves. To finish songs. To keep her from falling asleep. To wake up on time. To stop her from smoking, drinking, and flirting with people she didn’t approve of. If she overate. If she didn’t exercise. If she caught her smiling to herself. The abuse continued until chemo eventually made Joss’s mom so sick she couldn’t lift the hairbrush anymore. Joss never fought back because it was a battle she couldn’t win.
Tedros asks Joss if anyone said anything. Sadly no one did. Tedros turns to Xander and asks why he didn’t step in. Xander says he doesn’t know what they could have done, but he did the best he could at the time. Tedros asks Joss how hard she was hit. Joss replies, “hard enough to break skin.” She mentions Xander was there for her. Tedros questions if the reason no one did anything is because they were all on payroll. (Oop.) Joss insists that no one really knew what the right thing to do was.
Then Tedros inquires if part of the reason why Joss is stuck is because her mom’s not around. “Yea, absolutely.” Tedros (unsurprisingly) asks if she misses the motivation it gave her. “Sometimes.” “If you loved the music you were making, would you have felt like it was worth it.” Joss nods with tears in her eyes.
Tedros tells Leia she looks tired and instructs Izaak to take her to bed. Joss whispers to her it’s okay, and Leia leaves the table with Izaak. Now that the moral center is gone, Tedros tells Joss that she will tap into that trauma and turn it into inspiration. Then he asks if she still has her mom’s hairbrush and tells her to go get it.
Jocelyn gets the hairbrush. It’s the same one she brushed Chloe’s hair with earlier. Also, it’s the same one she was violently brushing her hair with in the last episode. She brings it to the living room. Tedros is standing next to the lit fireplace. He tells her to push through the pain, and it will be beautiful. Then he proceeds to hit her with the brush in front of everyone sans Leia. Though she cries out, she pushes through.
The next morning Tedros draws her a bath. As they sit towel-clad on the balcony, she smokes a cigarette deep in thought. She turns to him and says, “Thank you for taking care of me.” And just like that (not a SATC reference), episode 3 comes to a close.
Hearing Joss’s story of abuse is heartbreaking. While her life may have looked perfect on the outside, it was torturous. This explains everything about her character. The chain smoking. The obsessive hair brushing. The penchant for violence. Her attraction to Tedros and this new cult-like family. Sadly, Joss doesn’t know how to focus without abuse. It’s no wonder she broke down at the music video shoot. Now we know why she doesn’t want to get more personal in her music.
Joss is a prime example of a broken idol. You never know what artists are going through behind the scenes. On top of that, the industry people who are supposed to be their support system may not have their best interest in mind. Fame or no fame, it really makes one see how important it is to give people grace and not add to their trauma. You just never know what they’ve been through and what can trigger them.
On a lighter note, it was nice to see Xander get more screen time in this episode. Troye Sivan plays this character perfectly. It will be interesting to see if his character pushes the boundaries like Tedros is encouraging him to do, or if he will try to play it safe. Hopefully he doesn’t tell Tedros no for his own sake. (Fingers crossed.)
