‘The Idol’ Finally Makes Jocelyn as Manipulative as Tedros – Good!

Almost every day of her life, Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) is woken up by her personal assistant and best friend, Leia (Rachel Sennott), who draws open her curtains and tells her it’s time to start the day. But in the fourth episode of The Idol, Jocelyn woke herself up for once, and this time, it was to the reality that she’s being manipulated by Tedros (Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye).

It’s tough to tell if this is all a game on her part just to get attention from Tedros, though for the sake of Jocelyn and the audience’s sanity, we’re hoping that she’s realized just how brainwashed and numb she’s become to Tedros’ way of living. Even though everything is going down at Jocelyn’s house, Tedros has essentially taken over the entire operation, from ordering Leia to cancel Jocelyn’s important meetings to literally performing shock therapy on Xander (Troye Sivan). Perhaps the latter is what woke up Jocelyn, but whatever it ultimately was, it’s a much-needed sigh of relief to see her (somewhat) looking at things from a different angle.

RELATED: ‘The Idol’: Chloe Is Tedros’ Most Tragic Follower

‘The Idol’ Episode 4 Turns the Manipulated Into the Manipulator

In Episode 4 of The Idol, we watched with mouths agape as Xander was physically shocked into compliance by Tedros, all while his supposed good friend, Jocelyn, watched on and demanded her quasi-cult leader of a boyfriend shock him even more. This was written off as punishment for him lying about Jocelyn’s mother and her handling of his career, and though it all seemed pretty true to us as the audience, it’s not something that Jocelyn was ready to believe for herself.

While it appeared that she didn’t care whether Xander lived or died in that moment, later on in the episode, Jocelyn pulled off a move that went directly in opposition to Tedros, a major first for her. During a post-recording session celebration at Jocelyn’s house, she decided to give her ex, Rob (Karl Glusman), a text, inviting him to come over. Moments later, he shows up at her door, and almost immediately, he comes head-to-head with Tedros himself, who basically challenges him to a drinking contest à la shots. With Tedros almost gagging towards the end of their contest, it was clear who came out as the winner.

Afterward, Jocelyn led Rob up to her bedroom and locked the door; with Tedros banging on the door to be let in, the two ended up sleeping together, and it’s as if Tedros was all but a distant memory to Jocelyn. At that very moment, Jocelyn finally became the manipulator of the situation instead of the one being manipulated; and though manipulation isn’t something normally celebrated, in this series, it’s a much-needed tool for Jocelyn to use.

What Tedros’ gang of brainwashed followers will think of Rob is a completely different story, as even Xander seemed to be playing some sort of game with Rob to set him up. It’s clear that the shock treatment actually did have an impact on him, as he had a girl playfully pose and take photos with Rob just as he was leaving Jocelyn’s house in a seeming act to gain damning ammunition to expose him to Jocelyn. While it’s likely that Tedros put him up to the task, perhaps Xander acted alone, having seemingly become just another one of Tedros’ followers. Whether Jocelyn chooses to believe those photos later on will be a different story altogether, which will ultimately test her loyalty to Tedros or to her gut.

Is Jocelyn Finally Waking Up on ‘The Idol,’ or Is It Just an Act?

Let’s not forget that we are dealing with Jocelyn, here, who has proven herself to be nothing but easily influenced by those around her. If she really is in deep with Tedros, then perhaps her act of sleeping with Rob was just that: an act. She’s seen him in the past become touchy-feely with other women, and this could be her version of giving him a playful taste of his own medicine. From what we’ve observed in the past of him, however, Tedros isn’t one to take these sorts of games lightly: he’s someone who takes everything way too seriously, which means that if this is a ploy on Jocelyn’s part, his reply might be violent.

That’s the problem with Tedros: he can dish it out, but he can’t take it in return. He can be set off on a dime, as we’ve seen in the past with the way he treats Leia and more recently with his drinking-game interaction with Rob. There’s no messing around with Tedros, as even something so simple and innocent as a joke can launch him into a state of fury, which puts Jocelyn in quite a vulnerable position, regardless of whether her sleeping with Rob was an act or not. Because she’s been under Tedros’ spell for a while, she hasn’t been able to see everything he’s capable of, which puts her at a significant disadvantage.

Given that all of her “friends” are seemingly under the spell of Tedros (save for Leia), Jocelyn doesn’t have many people who would be able to rush to her side and throw her a life preserver if things go awry with Tedros in the finale. The only ones who would be able to pull her out of this mess would be her managers, Chaim (Hank Azaria) and Destiny (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), but even with those two, Tedros has proven time and time again to be tough to stop.

With one episode left to serve as her last saving grace, it’s safe to say that we’re all hoping that Jocelyn finally puts the nails into Tedros’ coffin and bids him adieu one last time. While a change in heart like this is quite the 180-degree turn, sometimes that’s just how change occurs: instead of being a slow burn, it’s a slap in the face with an instant call to action. Things have been going wrong for too long for Jocelyn not to pick up on it, which means that this final episode of The Idol will either reveal her ultimately standing up to authority or her downfall as someone who was successfully brainwashed.

The season finale of The Idol premieres this Sunday on HBO and Max.