Evidently, even the words are different in "The Idol" multiverse. After episode four of "The Idol" [1] debuted on 25 June, fans were ripped away from the saga of Jocelyn's chaotic music career at the sound of two unfamiliar words: "carte blanche." In the scene, The Weeknd's rattail-wearing lead, Tedros, brought a little additional flair to each syllable, pronouncing the word "cart-ay blanch-ay," amusing viewers everywhere in the process. "Worth watching the idol for the weeknd's inventive pronunciation of 'carte blanche' alone," one Twitter user wrote [2]. Another person agreed, tweeting [3] that they were "forever haunted" by the creative elocution.
As amusing as the initial moment was to witness, many were quick to point out that the mix-up was more than likely a purposeful character choice made to emphasise Tedros's false sense of grandeur. "I'm not on record as the biggest fan of THE IDOL, but pretending the mispronunciation of 'carte blanche' is a technical goof rather than a deliberate character-based joke is maybe not the angle you want to be taking," one Twitter user wrote [4] in defence. And to their point, even The Weeknd has made it abundantly clear that he is not his character.
"He's despicable, a psychopath — why sugarcoat it?" The Weeknd said about Tedros in a 14 June Billboard [5] interview published after episode two's controversial sex scene [6]. "We did that on purpose with his look, his outfits, his hair — this guy's a douchebag," he continued. "He cares so much about what he looks like, and he thinks he looks good. But then you see these weird moments of him alone — he rehearses, he's calculated. And he needs to do that, or he has nothing, he's pathetic. Which is true of a lot of people who are a fish out of water, put into these scenarios."
But the question still remains: what exactly was cart-ay blanch-ay meant to prove? Does "The Idol" really want us to see Tedros in a pathetic light, the way they claim? And if so, why allow Tedros to give a brief lesson about the Latin origins of the word "family" in the very same episode? Perhaps some things are just better left unsaid.
