The Idol Finale Has Viewers Asking The Same Question

Spoilers ahead for The Idol finale. After five weeks of theorizing (and more than a year’s worth of behind-the-scenes headlines), The Idol finale dropped on July 2. The episode began with Jocelyn and Tedros on the outs; after Jocelyn learned how Tedros schemed to get into her life, she decided he was a “conman and a fraud” and wanted nothing to do with him. His coterie of artists, though? She decided to become their leader, and enlist them for her musical comeback — which is a success! Six weeks after the events of The Idol, Jocelyn opened a sold-out tour at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

Tedros, meanwhile, was taken down in a Vanity Fair exposé — but it seemed that Jocelyn wasn’t entirely done with him yet. They reconnected in her dressing room on opening night, where it was implied that Jocelyn’s story about her childhood wasn’t 100% true. “I think a lot of the audience will watch maybe the first few episodes and think that this guy is taking advantage of her,” Lily-Rose Depp said in a “Crafting the Finale” featurette on Max. “By the end, he realizes that she knows exactly what he’s doing. And she knows exactly what she’s doing.”

In the final moments of the finale, Jocelyn welcomed Tedros to join her on stage and described him as the “love of [her] life.”

Contrary to several fan theories, no one died in The Idol finale — and Jocelyn and Tedros’ relationship seems alive and toxic as ever. So there’s definitely room for a potential Season 2, if HBO wants to take that route. But in the meantime, fans took to Twitter to express their confusion at the finale’s turn of events.

Several viewers noted the ending felt rushed, and wondered whether there really was a missing episode somewhere. As Vox recently explained, rumors about HBO shortening the season due to poor reviews were not quite true. The show did originally have a six-episode series order, but The Idol pivoted to a five-episode run before ever premiering on HBO.

But still, viewers couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing — or that more time could have been spent building up to that finale twist.

Several viewers, though, felt the twist about Jocelyn and Tedros made sense — citing a full-circle moment from all the way back in The Idol’s very first scene, where the pop star effortlessly transitioned from emotion to emotion during a photoshoot.

The Idol has yet to be renewed for Season 2.