The Idol: Was Jocelyn Lying About Abusive Mom All Along?

It's been two days since the finale of Sam Levinson's The Idol aired on HBO — not that the episode was highly anticipated, but lots of people were certainly keen to finish watching the off-putting story. And in fact, the final Episode 5 proved to be somewhat better than the previous four, shocking fans with a surprising twist about Lily-Rose Depp's pop star Jocelyn.

As it turned out, Joss has been the main villain on the show all along, manipulating her lover Tedros and using him to reach stardom. Now that the tables have been turned, people are confused about some of the details Jocelyn shared about her life in previous episodes. Was the singer's mother really abusive, hitting her with a hair brush? As one of the finale scenes suggests, Joss may have made up that whole story.

In the first episodes of The Idol, we saw lots of disturbing, violent, and harmful things that Jocelyn was able to put up with. So, when the star revealed that her mother was mentally unstable and used to beat her with a hair brush, the audience readily believed her and thought that was the reason why Joss agreed to suffer in her abusive relationship with Tedros. But the final episode made it clear that things weren't as simple as they seemed initially.

When Tedros saw a hair brush on Jocelyn's table and asked her if it was the one her mother used to beat her with, the singer said yes. Then, however, Tedros noticed the hair brush was brand-new — and to that, Joss' face broke into a cunning smile. So, does that mean she made up everything about her mother's abusive behavior?

Jocelyn is a mastermind manipulator, but it looks like her past traumas aren't made up after all — especially since some of the other characters, like her creative director Xander, support her allegations against her mother. However, Joss seems to be using that part of her life to her own advantage, exaggerating certain details and making people feel a certain way with her story (sympathetic or in control, as in the case of Tedros).

Of course, this view is mostly speculative, since the first five episodes don't give us enough backstory about Joss and her family problems. But it looks like HBO is not closing the door on The Idol Season 2, so perhaps this mystery will be solved in a future season.