Sunday night is no longer sacred. During the time previously spent obsessing over our favorite dysfunctional media dynasty, we are now at the mercy of Sam Levinson and Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd) on Max’s The Idol.
Even those abstaining from watching the show due to the controversies of its creation detailed in a Rolling Stone exposé(opens in a new tab) aren’t fully free from the discourse-generating machine.
Here are the most WTF moments from the most recent episode, titled “Double Fantasy.” From Izaak’s (Moses Sumney) shock collar to that “sex” scene, there was a lot going on.
“World Class Sinner” (Tedros’s Version)
The episode opens with Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) playing her team the remix of her forthcoming single, “World Class Sinner,” she and Tedros (Tesfaye) made after hours in the previous episode. It’s a breathy monstrosity. High-pitched moans punctuate the beats, and Jocelyn unabashedly gyrates to it.
Safe to say Tesfaye’s talents for hit-making don’t translate to Tedros.
Jocelyn and the ice glass
If the remix wasn’t bad enough, then Jocelyn masturbates to it by grinding against a glass filled with ice. The glass broke, cutting up her inner thighs. (The horrors keep mounting.) In another unsettling scene, the cuts are airbrushed in the music video’s final cut.
Tedros’s rattail
In arguably the creepiest moment of the episode, Chloe (Suzanna Son) braids Tedros’s rattail while he talks to Jocelyn on the phone. The less screen time that thing gets, the better.
Jocelyn’s feet
After repeatedly messing up her music video dance sequence, Jocelyn takes a break and pries off her silver stilettos. Her feet are a bloody mess covered in bandaids. Then she has to shove her mangled feet back into the shoes and go back to filming. Yikes.
Izaak’s shock collar
Halfway through the episode, the veil is briefly lifted on what Tedros is up to behind the scenes. We see Izaak dancing sensually in metallic gold shorts in front of numerous bodies laying around him. Tedros sits back in a booth, coaching him. He says, “Make them believe you want to fuck them.” Then things get even nastier. Tedros demands Izaak get lower, and when he doesn’t, Tedros activates a shock collar around Izaak’s neck. If that doesn’t confirm Tedors is running some sort of sex cult, what will?
“No one is a better fuck than you, baby”
These words that no one wanted to hear Tedros say were uttered to, gasp, Dyanne (Blackpink’s Jennie) in perhaps the biggest reveal of the episode. Looks like Joceyln’s bestie is out to get her.
Tedros’s dirty talk
Much of the final 10 minutes of the episode is devoted to Jocelyn and Tedros having sex, or more accurately Tedros watching Jocelyn present herself to him while he watches her unblinking from across the room and narrates his desires. He says lovely things like, “Let me see those titties” and “fuckin’ stretch that tiny, little pussy, baby.” If the dialogue wasn’t cringey and disturbing enough, Tesfaye’s line delivery has all the sex appeal of a retainer. Not to mention this is all happening while Chloe watches them from inside a closet.
Was this supposed to be sexy?
