Daybreak is the title of the third episode of The Idol, and we definitely need a break after watching it. There are improvements in this episode in the middle section somewhere, but it all gets lost in the grand scheme of things. Overall, though, this episode has to be the best one till now if we had to make comparisons. The background score by The Weeknd was definitely a good move, and Lily-Rose Depp’s vulnerable moments have got to be her best. It is possibly the pacing of the episodes that is making it all seem a little too messy to actually make sense of the overarching theme of the “dark side” of the industry. Let’s get straight into the recap to make some sense out of the 3rd episode of The Idol.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In ‘The Idol’ Episode 3?
The opening shot of The Idol Episode 3 is a sleeping Jocelyn being awakened by Tedros instead of Leia. He’s gentle with her and immediately tells her their plan is to go shopping. Leia drives them there, and Tedros is happy to satisfy Jocelyn in the back of the convertible for anyone to see. When they get to the Valentino store, there are fans and paparazzi waiting for them, as if they already knew Jocelyn was going to show up. Tedros appears to be a star himself with how he reacts to these fans, putting out hand signs and smiles to all these young girls who are there to see Jocelyn. In the store, Jocelyn tries on a lot of clothes that Tedros picks out for her. Tedros even gets into an argument with the guy working there because he’s trying to help them pick clothes, but Tedros can’t stand him “looking at his girl.” Jocelyn questions Tedros about his affinity for picking clothes, and he says Jocelyn has no class, so he had to change things up a bit. Jocelyn is shocked by this revelation and tells Tedros he’s gay, and that’s why he likes to pick clothes. Now, it’s obvious he’s actually offended by all of this, but to Jocelyn, it looks like a game. They get on to their business in the changing rooms, and there’s choking and slapping involved, which, again, Jocelyn doesn’t seem very bothered by. Jocelyn has now started to deny Tedros certain things, and we see it getting on his nerves little by little. At the same time, Jocelyn seems to be in a daze still, losing sight of what’s happening occasionally.
At the same time, Leia is completely horrified by Tedros’ behavior at home. She calls Chaim and Destiny, who show up at the house when they’ve gone shopping. They don’t take Leia seriously, but they’re at the house anyway, so they decide to wait and see what happens. Earlier in the day, when Leia was waiting for Jocelyn to wake up, Tedros had told her that he calls the shots now, so Jocelyn’s say isn’t important. He had fired her cook, Andres, because, according to Tedors, he had touched her inappropriately in front of Tedros’ entire crowd. Jocelyn had gone along and fired the man herself, finally. At the same time, Finkelstein is after Chaim because Nikki’s pulled the plug on the “World Class Sinner” which is the first song Jocelyn had worked on in over a year. Chaim pretends Jocelyn is working on new music, managing to deal with him somehow. When they head back, Tedros tells Chaim and Destiny that he has Mike Dean coming over to make new music for Jocelyn. He lies to them about where he grew up because the two have already done the research, and we know he’s spitting lies in their faces. Jocelyn is completely oblivious to all of this and appears to be overjoyed by this interaction. Chaim tells them that in the two weeks they have asked for, he needs three new songs to show the label. Tedros agrees to this ultimatum, allowing Chaim and Destiny to make their move. They pretend to love Tedros in front of Leia, but as soon as they’re out of sight, they speak up about their “girl” being in big trouble. On the other hand, Dyanne has already replaced Jocelyn in “World Class Sinner” and shot the music video as well.
In a vulnerable moment with Chloe, one of Tedros’ “friends,” Jocelyn talks about her true feelings. Jocelyn doesn’t like the fact that she’s not being honest with her audience and making superficial songs. She wants to speak her truth too, but she can’t do that because people will not accept it. It’s obvious Jocelyn is very worried about public opinion, so Chloe offers her a sweet spot. She tells her she can start to slow by adding a line or two in her songs that are her own words, and nobody would know, except Chloe herself. We can imagine Tedros has put Chloe up to this to make Jocelyn more appreciative of Tedros’ work with her. At the same time, Tedros gets Xander, Jocelyn’s creative director, on his side and learns a thing or two about how the industry works. Xander hates what he’s doing and thinks if the label wants to make Jocelyn look like a “bad girl,” they need to do something really atrocious to make it work. He suggests that if he was in charge, he would use the compromising photo of Jocelyn, which became viral earlier, as her album cover, to show everybody how “bad” she really is.
In the studio, Isaak sings a beautiful melody, and Jocelyn is so impressed she tells him she might’ve fallen in love with him. Isaak tells her to sing along in the next take, but she cuts him off with a no. All of Tedros’ friends who are in the room talk Jocelyn into the idea that saying “no” is bad for her alone because she would be missing out on the experiences that would make her a good artist. This conversation escalates to having to lose someone or have a traumatic experience to make a song that could be life-changing to the listener. Tedros has brainwashed all of these people to believe these thoughts, and now they’re doing the same to Jocelyn. It looks as though Jocelyn doesn’t take the bait, but that doesn’t mean she’s not highly influenced by the Tedros gang.
How Does Tedros Pierce Through Jocelyn’s Mind?
At night, they have a large family dinner, and Jocelyn gives a toast to her newfound family. Tedros persuades Xander to tell Jocelyn of his great idea, and in a sensitive moment, Jocelyn opens up about being afraid of public opinion. Especially because she has so many young people look up to her. On the other hand, she doesn’t want to be humiliated either. A big argument occurs, and a stoic Tedros keeps pestering Jocelyn with the question, “why.” He thinks she should be taking real risks, not calculated ones because they’re not risks at all. He tells her to show people her dark side, but Jocelyn knows she’s not going to be relatable to a majority of her fans if she does that. Jocelyn shuts Tedros down by bringing up the fact that he’s new to the industry and she’s been doing this for ten years. Tedros’ little ego is hurt by her, and he brings up the fact that the last time she ever wrote her own song was over a year ago. Somehow this conversation jumps to Jocelyn’s mother, and we finally understand that she was abusive to Jocelyn. This is something very few people know, but Tedros tells Jocelyn he will “not let” her keep secrets from anybody at the table. Leia is very defensive of Jocelyn, but Tedros pulls out the “you didn’t do anything” card on Xander and Leia. He makes Isaak take her away and convinces Jocelyn that she needs to be reminded of her hardships to become great again.
At the end of The Idol Episode 3, Jocelyn is made to bring out the hairbrush her mother used to hit her with, and Tedros uses it on her in the same manner. After it all ends, he bathes her, and she thanks him for taking care of her, meaning she’s now completely taken over by Tedros.
Final Thoughts
The dinner table scene has been by far the best scene on the show. It really makes Tedros look awful and shows Jocelyn’s vulnerability toward such a man and his words. The show would be much more convincing if this was the direction it had taken. Certain things that Tedros says, such as using dated words like “retarded” make it completely impossible to take him seriously as a character. To think this show has come out in 2023 makes such dialogues unbelievable. Lily-Rose Depp is the star of the show, as always, and Rachel Sennott steals the scene every time she’s on screen. On the other hand, Tedros doesn’t come across as scary but as a joke. The middle section of the episode is pretty good, but the first and last half completely spiral it down to the levels of Episode 1 and Episode 2. There’s something extremely distasteful about the whole thing, and that ick is not going away the further down we go.
