Show Review: Heated Rivalry

Podcast Episode: https://rss.com/podcasts/pittlgbtcommuseum/2760815/

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            Welcome folks! I’m Al and this is the podcast of the Holiday Pride, a Pittsburgh LGBT+ Community Museum.

            This episode will be a little different. If you’ve seen our book reviews, you’ll see that I’ve read some fictional gay books recently. The Well of Loneliness and The Price of Salt. Since we’re talking about media and the way queer folks have been presented to the public through things like TV and movies, it only seemed right to also discuss the way queer folks are depicted in particular movies. Sure, we talked about tropes, but that was mostly from a historical and social perspective. How are those tropes shown? How are they depicted or utilized or deconstructed? There’s a lot to say about the artistic decisions that go into creating a story and some of those things are easy to lose when only talking about the historical president in the general. Queerness permeates everything a person does. When something is made by a queer person, the unique habits and qualities of the queer community shine through. On the flip side, it can be really easy to tell when a gay story is presented and written by a straight person. Not only does it lack that quality of writing and expression, but a lot of the time it doesn’t even capture the reality of a queer relationship.

            So, no conversation about queer folks in media would be complete without dissecting and reviewing some of the media itself. If I just talked about how the movie got made and by whom, we’d be missing the entire point of them making the thing in the first place!

            I thought there would be no better place to start than a series that very suddenly got very popular. Heated Riverly is only a few episodes about the growing relationship between two professional hockey players (plus a bonus gay relationship that’s plot relevant). It’s based on a book, specifically the second book in a series by the author (NAME).

            Now, I have a few theories myself for the advent of all of these gay hocky romances, and I will admit I have done absolutely no research on this theory, but I just like thinking about it. I remember a very good web comic called Check Please which was about a young man going to college far from home—he was originally from the deep south—and being apart of their hockey team. The captain of that Hockey team is the son of a famous professional hockey player who, due to a number of sad circumstances, couldn’t join the professional hockey league at the same time as his peers and had to step away, thus going to college. The comic follows Bitty’s, the baker from the deep south, time at college and falling in love with Jack, the captain of the team, who also returns his feelings—it’s a very cute and sweet story.

            When it ended, in the direct aftermath of Jack and Bitty kissing on the ice after Jack won the Stanely Cup, I noticed a number of hockey romances suddenly populating the shelves of bookstores. I don’t know if Heated Riverly was a part of that, I don’t know when the first book was published and, yes. I could do a quick google to look it up. I won’t, I like my silly little theory. Regardless, it’s one of a number of stories about gay hockey players.

            It also happened to be made into a show by a gay man. Since it’s release, it’s become wildly popular and will be getting another season. My wife, Abbie, and I wanted to watch it anyway, but since I was in the middle of making these episodes about LGBT+ people in media, I thought it would be worth reviewing the show while I was at it.

            To preface, my wife and I are both very asexual/demisexual, we’re high school sweethearts who have known each other for about 12 years and have been married for 3 of those years. I am also a historian and can’t help but inject it into everything I do, so there will be some talk about the historical precedence that this show draws from. Abbie is not a historian and just enjoys things for what they are. I’ll include quotes here and there from the comments we made while we were watching as I go through the plot, the things we noticed, the history behind it, the fascination with the story, and what is just so queer about two hockey players kissing besides the obvious.

            I only make this warning because one of the major draws of this show was the pretty accurate sex scenes depicted in this show so…also take this as a warning that this review probably won’t be for general audiences! There are also some curse words here and there from my lovely wife and I.

            Because of this, and I will be honest here…we got really bored by the sex scenes. There were just so many and we got bored! We’re not overly sexual people, so it’s hard for us to remain engaged with that many sex scenes. Although I did start to wonder what the ratio of sex scene to plot had to exist in a show before it started crossing some lines.

            Anyway! I’m going to talk about the plot of the show in a relatively stream of consciousness fashion. I’ll keep to the shows plot timeline for easy of understanding what in the world is going on, but I’ll probably go on a few tangents here and there. That all said…

            Episode one starts in 2008 and we cold open with an incredibly awkward conversation between our main dudes, Shane and Ilya. Shane is from Canada and is Asian in decent (which is only kind of relevant) while Ilya is from Russia. They’re both competing to become professional hockey players and their teams are playing against each other. Shane…tries his best to have a normal conversation with Ilya. He mostly just introduces himself by telling Ilya—who is standing under a ‘No Smoking’ sign—that he shouldn’t be smoking. Meanwhile, Ilya just stares at him. Shane seems to take this as a very standoffish response, but to me, it looks like Ilya has ‘I’m going to tap that’ eyes.

            The next scene is a little bit of them playing hockey, and don’t get used to that! There’s very little hockey in this gay show. The announcer tells us a little bit about Shane and Ilya, mostly that Shane is known for being awkward and socially awkward. Just incase you missed it. I know that’s a little nitpicky, but I just found it funny that the show had to tell us something it had already shown us. I will say that it does a good job of keeping that as part of who Shane is. Even after one of the few actual hockey scenes, Shane is shown to be leaving nearly all of the conversations with people at a party to his mother.

            At that party, both Shane and Ilya are hired onto professional teams after Ilya’s team won the game. Shane in Canada and Ilya in America. The conversation Shane’s totally zoned out of—and Ilya is watching him as he’s zoned out—is about how he is…basically a diversity hire. For those that don’t know. Hockey is an extremely white/Eastern European sport. Americans, Canadians, and Russians make up the majority of professional hockey players. There are people of other ethnicities and races, but for the most part, it’s those three groups of white people. I thought, when we heard this conversation, and even when Shane’s mother tells him, to his face, that there’s a lot of pressure on him to represent Asian Canadians and Americans in the league, that this would amount to something…it doesn’t. It doesn’t even come back up again. I don’t know why we bothered to talk about it.

            No one bothers Shane about being of Asian descent. No one cares, no one comments. Those two moments are the only times it comes up. I haven’t read the book, but I somehow have doubts that it matters there either. Another thing that doesn’t really come up…something we’re told more than shown, is that Ilya and Shane are rivals. I’m not going to lie to you. They could have entirely removed that part of the story too and the story wouldn’t change at all. I think the only time that they’re on different teams and are said to be rival in the media matters is when it comes to Shane’s mother who only dislikes Ilya because they’re supposedly rivals.

            The ‘diversity hire’ conversation and the ‘their rivals’ thing matter next to none to the story we’re shown. I know the rivalry thing has to exist because of the title, but it’s so unimportant to the overall story. We got all that we needed about them being rivals without being told that they were and even then, they weren’t really rivals just kind of annoyed at each other sometimes and they were on different teams in direct competition with each other. That’s as deep as that element of the story got.

            Anyway! After the party, Shane is frustrated with the loss, and perhaps with the extra pressure his mother is placing on him, so he goes to the hotel’s gym. While he’s on the bike, Ilya appears and gets on the other bike and the subtext is non-existent. It already sounds like they’re about to have sex with the grunting, panting, and straining. The closeups? Absolutely scandalous. According to my notes, this is what Abbie and I said as we watched:

            Abbie: Don’t fuck in the gym!

            Me: I hope not. There’s no need for it to sound like this.

            Abbie: It sounds like they’re fucking.

            Me, after a moment of the scene getting more intense: They’re fucking in the gym!

            Abbie: No!

            So that scene ends with them sitting across form the each in the gym, sensually touching hands as they share a water bottle while giving each other bedroom eyes. Now, I knew the sex scenes were great, but I had also—perhaps wrongly—assumed this would be a bit of a slow burn, where the second half of the show would have the sex scenes. I still assumed that with this sexual tension gym scene. I thought it was just another ‘show don’t tell’ moment establishing that there was sexual tension between them and we’d get some time of them being…rivals. Boy was I wrong, but I’ll get there.

            After the gym, we see Ilya on a call with his brother whose having a party back in Russia. I hate this guy. He has wife and a baby, but’s he’s drunk and partying it up and it’s implied there’s also drugs. Ilya is asking him about their father who is also a jerk! He berates Ilya for losing a game to a different Eastern European nation because it would be shameful for Russia. Instantly these two conversations told me a lot about Ilya’s family—and this part was done really well! One of the times that we were left in the dark without an answer being told to us right away. Ilya’s worry about their father is that he was asking for bread and seemed confused. I believe this scene also establishes that Ilya is sending money to his brother to specifically take care of their father. It also establishes, to me, that Ilya’s father has to be someone high ranking within the Russian government. When I first watched that scene, I instantly got a hunch that was why Ilya losing to another Eastern European county on team Russia would be a disgrace. However, the need for Ilya’s useless brother to take care of their father but also their father’s confusion led me to think that their father had dementia.

            Meanwhile, Shane’s mom is being a helicopter parent and momager. She’s telling Shane about all of the brand deals he has to do, all of the responsibility being an Asian man on a Canadian professional hockey team…something, something, none of that matters, but it does establish that Shane and his mother are really close. Even though she appears relatively little throughout the story. It is also clear that she really loves Shane. We all briefly see Shane’s dad and he’s—a classic dad. Kind of goofy, just coasting on vibes and being a dad. He’s also white, but again, none of that matters a whole heck of a lot. He does remind me of my Dad a little bit which endears me to him.

            So, after those family development scenes, Shane is in the shower and Ilya enters. There’s a shot of their butts, which I will give them an accuracy point there. They have hockey butts! Which is a well-known thing. Skating on ice and the way you play hockey leads to players building pretty good ‘hockey butts’. This scene also includes Ilya…masturbating…while staring right at Shane…

            They’re alone, by the way. Abbie and I were in shock. Like, bold movie, my guy. Ilya’s gaydar is damn good, he could have gotten in so much shit if Shane wasn’t a gay man oblivious that he’s in the closet. It’s also just a wild thing to do in a relatively public bathroom?? Anyone could walk in??? And like—your professional hockey players?????

            I don’t know, it just seems like a wild thing to do and Shane pretends that he wasn’t turned on by it, but when given the chance, he invites Ilya to his room. There is a cute moment, when Shane is waiting for Ilya to show up, where he tries to dress up a little, like this would be a date before dismissing the idea in embarrassment. That was sweet, but then Ilya shows up and….seventeen minutes into the first episode of this show and the main leads are kissing and about to have sex.

            There goes any thought that this would be a slow burn. That the sex was held off to the second half! Now—allow me a tangent.

            I’ve ready the David Kopay story, which is a biography Kopay had help writing about being a gay professional football player. There are a few reports from some very brave people in professional sports explaining that there are gay professional sportsmen and that they do wild things like this. There’s many players who slip into each other’s hotel rooms and have sex. Kopay has a story where he and one of his teammates shared a bed and masturbated together. There’s also a culture of free sex and casual sex within the G part of LGBT+. Take the era before AIDS for example. Bathhouses were places were men could go from stall to stall and have sex with whoever was there. Gay men often had multiple partners and open relationships where they slept with new people but returned home to a partner to tell all about what happened.

            While this show doesn’t touch on the hypermasculinity professional sports players face when it comes to the public or even entirely between teammates and coaches, in the real world those things do factor in. In the real world, gay players sneak into each other’s rooms and have sex, don’t talk about it, and pretend like they’re straight to the wider public. They hide away in the closet because in such a toxically masculine space, being gay could be career ending. So, while some who wanted a slow burn were a bit upset that there wasn’t one at all, some others wanted pinning and believed having sex seventeen minutes into the first episode prevented the pinning, there’s a bit more nuance there.

            There was pining in this story, it wasn’t don’t overly well in my eyes, but it was there. Gay male culture includes friends with benefits, frenemy sex, but also a sexual release for gay men in an environment that spits vitriol about queerness. In all honesty, to me, them having sex this soon and yet also pining for each other, and also their romance being centered on sex, is a very authentic gay male experience. I really have to applauded the cast and crew for nailing that part so well and that is probably why the show is so popular among queer audiences as well.

Jacob Tierney is the director of the show, and he is a gay man. Most might know his other popular work, Letterkenny. Tierney didn’t just direct the show, but he also helped write and produce the show. I am of the opinion that queer folks have a particular way of writing and telling stories. There’s something out of the box about it. Even if the story is bad or ill written, there’s something identifiably different about how it. I can see that in Heated Riverly. It’s more than just the fact that a gay man helped produce and write the show, giving it an air of authenticity to the community. It’s in how people talk, act, and believe.

I’m not sure if it’s related to what we often wish people would say or do, or what we wish we could say or do, but people act, in my opinion, more realistic when it comes to queer works. There’s this feeling of realness. There’s always humor, probably because most LGBT+ folks use humor to cope with the reality of who we are and how society handles who we are. There’s also this feeling that no matter how wild and crazy a situation gets, someone has a reasonable reaction to it, even if they’re different kinds of reactions. Someone is really excited to jump into a new world where there’s magic when they come from a world without magic almost with reckless abandon. Or something wild and crazy happens and they respond with a dead-pan and sarcasm.

I don’t know if ‘realistic’ is the word I want. I also don’t know how to describe the feeling I get when I read a story written by a queer person and, without knowing who the author is, can just tell that it is. I often find mainstream stories and romances, often written by straight people, kind of dull. There’s a terribly lack of communication that’s almost out of proportion with what a real person would do. I can easily relate to straight characters, so that’s not the feeling I’m having. I also think that straight folks can write really, really good stories. That’s not the thing I’m talking about either.

Maybe it has something to do with communication, maybe it has something to do with the fact that queer people watch and mimic straight and cisgender people so much that we tend to notice things straight people never would. Whatever it is, Heated Riverly has that same feeling. It’s written by a queer person about queer people and it’s really well done. It captures a culture and feeling I don’t think many people who aren’t gay men or even more specifically gay athletes, would experience.

I haven’t read the book Heated Riverly, but I have heard from fans of the show who instantly sought out the books that they’re very different stories. The writing and characters just weren’t the same. Rachel Ried, the author of the book series the show came from, explained that she wanted to write a book series about the National Hockey League and how homophobic it was and a world where maybe that didn’t matter so much. She wanted to criticize the NHL. To the fans of the show, it read completely differently in other ways as well. Ried maybe a queer woman, I’m not sure and she has no obligation to tell us, but from what little I did read of Game Changers, another book in the series, I never got that feeling that it was a story written by a queer person—which again, is entirely my opinion and based entirely off of a vibe, not fact. Reid very much could be bisexual or pansexual. She is married to a man and has two children and writes books about gay men.

There’s something to be said about even a queer woman trying to write about a fundamentally very gay male space, they’re going to get something wrong, they’re going to miss nuance here and there. Perhaps my gut feeling comes from someone of a particular identity writing a story from the perspective of someone of that same identity. There’s something very—wonderful about that.

Okay…I’m done being on a tangent now…where was I? Uhhhh (scrolling noises) Oh right! So, seventeen minutes in, they’re having sex. And I’ll refocus with how Abbie and I reacted to them having sex;

Abbie: Ilya’s is even taking his socks off!

Me: His socks are off, that’s how you know it’s gay.

Abbie, staring at me in confusion so now I have to pause the show to explain that there was a joke at some point there was an internet joke that it’s not gay if you don’t take your socks off while having sex with your bro.

Abbie, once the show is on again: Shane left a sock on! It’s not gay!

Which causes me to laugh so hard we have to pause the show again.

Regardless of us making jokes, the sex scene is really well done and shot. Of course, my brain starts to wonder how they shot this scene and all of the others without laughing their asses off. There’s also a really nice conversation about consent in this scene! Which we loved. We watched a different show about a gay couple which was just—so strange and that sex scene…made no sense. We were trying to figure out if the filming angle was bad, if the actors were just awkward, or if the one guy’s asshole was on his belly button, that’s how bad it was.

So, we get the praise for the sex scenes, but we are plot people. So, moving on, I’m probably not going to talk about the sex very much unless it’s important to the plot. The last thing I’ll say about the scene is that we’re told that Ilya is a cold jerk, and he can be pretty cold, but he’s also a very sweet person. He’s gentle and kind when Shane is nervous or a bit panicked, even if the way he does it seems kind of crass or rude.

So, moving on, the next major scene is a press converse featuring the two of them. I will say that the show does little to explain the hockey world to us. I grew up watching hockey, but I don’t remember all these press conference things. But I also take this as the show knowing what it is and who its audience is. Hockey is second to the actual plot and characters. However, at this press conference, Ilya struggles to answer a question right away, so Shane jumps in to give him time to form his thoughts. Under the table, they press their feet close together in a show of support which shows us the kind of people they are. Ilya has a cold exterior, and Shane is kind and supportive. It’s a very nice scene and I like it a lot.

Now we’re approaching the end of the episode and my final notes on it are that Shane’s team are great and very supportive of each other. They’re bantering and quiet cute, it’s adorable.

Then we’re on to episode two which takes place in 2011. We’re greeted by a montage of Shane and Ilya texting each other (in their phones, the other is labeled as a woman). That’s quiet a leap in time without physically seeing each other, but that’s pretty realistic, some teams rarely see each other especially if they’re in different divisions. The text conversations do make it seem like they have been talking a lot off screen which helps build the idea that they do know each other relatively well.

When they do meet each other in person again, they try to beat each other up the long, skinny flight of stairs to Ilya’s apartment and end up just laughing at themselves, which is kind of funny. There is a little bit of a pretense that they dislike each other in some way, but it comes off more as a front than I think was supposed to be intended. Once they’re together and alone, it kind of just goes away. I think mostly because they both know it’s an act…well, Ilya does. Shane’s a little oblivious and doesn’t catch a lot of cues from Ilya that he actually cares about Shane a lot.

We learn more about Ilya’s family in this episode. It’s made clear that he’s friends-with-benefits with a girl he knew in Russia. She is the daughter of a minister—I think. Her linage gets a little confusing, but its implied that the minister had come to America and had a relationship with a black woman at some point, resulting in Ilya’s friend who has citizenship in both countries. She’s also the sister of the boy Ilya has had sex with before who also played hockey with him. I think…again, it’s a little muddied how they’re all related, but they’re all friends. This is also when its confirmed that Ilya’s father was high up in the Russian police.

Ilya’s team also moves on to the Stanely Cup games in this episode. Shane and his team are watching the game and the only one of his teammates who seems to have a partner is Hayden. This guy is Shane’s good friend moving forward with the recurring joke that he and his wife keep having little girl after little girl. Abbie gleefully pointed out that he’s the only one getting some on the team. Regardless, they’re watching Ilya’s team win the cup a bit dower since they didn’t get the playoffs.

I’ll tangent here only a little bit to say that the stand in they have for the Stanely Cup is so funny. It’s so bad. It’s square and awkward and looks nothing like the actual cup. I know they couldn’t have the actual cup nor could they make an exact replica, but this looks like the prop department took a bunch of random trophies and glued them into a pyramid shape and it’s so funny. Something they got accurately was how wooden and awkward Hockey players are when faced with being in an advertisement or being announcers at an award show. Ilya and Shane present an award together.

Shane’s annoyed with Ilya during this scene and the following scene where they both end up in the bathroom and have a—suggestively dom-sub dynamic thing going on. Abbie had scoffed and said “Ah yes, smoothly slide into the bathroom and ask for sex. That’ll fix it.”

Granted, neither of us know what needed to be fixed. We weren’t overly certain what Shane was angry about, even watching other reviews of the show, it’s either skipped over or they couldn’t remember why he was upset either. I think it was just because they’re supposed to be rivals…or something. I’m not sure. Maybe there was a deleted scene, but it really was an avenue for more sex. Which is something Abbie and I didn’t overly like. We were practically shouting for them to just have a normal conversation. They don’t, not until the end, but I think the idea is that at this stage, there shouldn’t be feelings involved in this sex thing between them, but there clearly is. Earlier Ilya rejected his former teammate and Shane doesn’t really have anyone else. So there’s clearly feelings brewing, but they really aren’t supposed to be. This is an instance where they didn’t show us enough and didn’t tell us either, leaving us guessing.

This takes us to episode three which is mine and Abbie’s favorite episode. I know other folks weren’t as interested in this one, but we’re domestic gays and we like other domestic gays! This episode focuses on Scott, another hockey player that has popped up here and there throughout the first two episodes, and Kip, a worker at a smoothie shop.

They meet when Scott takes a pit stop into the smoothie shop after his run. He’s under a lot of pressure for not performing as well as he could be in games. When he comes in, he and Kip, a clearly out gay man, flirt while Kip has absolutely no clue who Scott is. It’s not until Scott leaves and Kip’s friend freaks out that he realizes that Scott’s a professional hockey player and then proceeds to make hockey his entire personality as we gay folks are known to do. Scott uses the fact that they won the game after getting that smoothie from Kip to keep coming back to the smoothie place and flirt with Kip. As a side note for those who don’t know, hockey players are really superstitious when it comes to games. Some won’t shave the entire time they’re in the playoffs because it’s bad luck to do so and any amount of bad luck or change in routine will case the team to lose.

Kip, meanwhile, is trying to get into graduate school, he’s working multiple jobs, and lives with his really chill dad. While working with another friend catering a fancy event, Kip takes a tray of food out of the kitchen and runs right into…Scott! They flirt a little, again, and then Scott asks Kip if they could meet up for dinner after the fancy event and Kip agrees. When most of the restaurants around are full, Scott invites Kip back to his apartment where they have sex, although this scene isn’t as long as the others with Shane and Ilya. In the morning, Scott thinks Kip has left, instead Kip is making him his game winning smoothie. They briefly talk, Scott explains that he really wants a relationship with Kip, but it can be difficult because he’s in the closet and can’t come out and he fully understands if Kip doesn’t want to deal with that. However, Kip tells him he understands that and wants a relationship with him anyway.

There’s a short montage that starts with Scott returning home from practice to find Kip on his couch still and he’s just so happy that he actually stayed that he tackles him. Cue Abbie and I squealing in excitement at how cute they are. This is our kind of story!  Not that we disliked Shane and Ilya, but we definitely have more fluffy and domestic tastes. We are married and domestic queers ourselves.

But anyway, despite saying he’s okay with being in the closet, so to speak, dating Scott is still hard on Kip. Scott panics when they’re out and about together, which Kip is understanding of, but still upset by. The only time they get to be together is in the privacy of Scott’s apartment, which leads to Kip not seeing his father or friends very often. He can’t tell anyone and when his friend guesses that they’re dating, struggles to deny it. That friend confronts Scott at one point, telling him that hiding like this is hard on them both. Abbie and I weren’t thrilled with how she did this, it felt very catty and unnecessarily pushy and mean. She had a good point, but we thought she was taking the decision out of either Kip or Scott’s hands. Although, Kip does ask to take a break before Scott can.

We were so heartbroken and upset. They were so cute! And clearly adored each other! And communicated like normal people! Alas, they go their separate ways for the moment, ending the episode with Scott peering in on Kip’s birthday party he couldn’t bring himself to attend with determination.

Then we go right back to Shane and Ilya and every other scene Abbie and I whining about where Scott or Kip are. We’re simple creatures.

Buuuut, back to the dysfunctional duo—which I know is why people like them. I know. Just not my cup of tea. Regardless, and this is a testament to how good the show is, we were going to stop after episode three, but it had then crossed into the wee morning hours and we’re determined to finish.

Episode four contains a bit more development on Ilya and Shane’s deepening feelings for each other. Ilya gets caught by his friend watching shows and documentaries that Shane is apart of, they also cuddle a bit after sex one time leading Abbie to say; “That’s not very friends-with-benefits of you!...wait, that’s not very situationship of you!”

However, the main feature of this episode is Shane meeting an actress, Rose and beginning to date her. Shane, in his socially awkward way, tends to pretend he knows how to talk and like girls. Rose is a sweetheart that Abbie instantly got heart eyes for (to clarify, Abbie is feminine leaning, I’m just an exception). While they’re dating, Rose goes to hockey games and it feels very much like Taylor Swift going to football games. The announcers talk about her, her fans are getting into hockey—it’s a whole thing. Ilya finds out about it because he does, in fact, watch everything Shane appears in and is jealous and upset. At one point, they’re both at the same club and see each other. Ilya dancing with a girl to make Shane jealous while Shane is smooshed between Rose and her gay best friend who is way too friendly with Shane. They’re both jealous and weird about it, keeping their eyes locked until the scene ends with Shane following Rose to her room and attempting to have sex…it doesn’t go well.

I will warn that the club scene features flashing lights and to the best of my knowledge, there was no warning about them. I don’t have epilepsy, but flashing lights does make me a bit nauseous so I would watch that scene with caution.

Anyway, Episode five basically opens with Rose asking Shane if he’s gay, which is the first time he’s even been able to admit it to himself that he is. She’s super chill about it, I don’t think they were dating long to be fair, and they remain good friends which I thought was good. Shane didn’t really have friends, let alone ones he could tell about his gay woes, so I loved that she insisted on staying friends with him.

Shane and Ilya see each other again, and, like typical, don’t talk about anything. Instead there’s a sweet scene where they’re at a pool and Ilya plays with the kids at the pool which clearly makes Shane love him a little more. It’s very cute. In private, they talk, actually talk, mostly about Shane being gay, which is hard for him, even if Ilya is like “yeah, duh? We’ve had sex?” Shane kind of broaches that he wants a relationship, but Ilya instantly rejects the idea, it would be dangerous for him to come out. He could genuinely never return to Russia, and his father, despite having dementia, is still there. Shane tries to ask more, but Ilya deflects and they have sex.

Then, suddenly, Ilya is called back to Russia because his father died. After the funeral, Ilya’s brother tries to intimidate Ilya for money since Ilya’s money to care for their father has been fueling his lifestyle. Ilya fights back snapping that he never wants to see his brother again but he will have money set aside for his niece and his niece only. His friend separates them and Ilya goes outside to cool off. He ends up calling Shane and struggles to express how he feels or what’s happening in English so Shane, despite not understanding Russian, suggests that he just tell him in Russian and see if that helps.

Ilya’s actor Connor Storrie did a wonderful monologue about how upset he is, how angry, how sad, how frustrated he is. And that he loves Shane so much but can’t express that because it’s not really an option for them. And I’ll note that Storrie didn’t know Russian before this show and he does so well. It’s a beautiful monologue with the dramatic irony that Shane can’t understand him (although I really wish Shane could have pulled a ‘I’ve known Russian all along’ thing, would have been amazing, but alas). So, we the audience now know Ilya’s true feelings.

When Ilya returns from Russia, they return to normal-ish. They’re clearly closer now and more friendly even on the ice…which is a perfect time for Shane to be lambasted while on the ice and get knocked unconscious. Ilya’s so freaked out, he doesn’t care that there’s cameras or both of their teams, he just wants to know that Shane is okay. He is, but he ends up in the hospital and Ilya goes to visit.

Shane, hopped up on pain meds, asks Ilya to go to his cabin with him in the off season, but Ilya tells him it’s a bad idea. Then a nurse comes in, makes a joke about Ilya trying to kill Shane—because they’re supposed to be rivals if you’ll recall—and the scene ends…I had to summarize this scene for Abbie because once she saw the hospital room, she started listing off everything wrong with it. She works in a hospital, for reference and is studying to be a nurse. I just found it funny.

Anyway, neither of their teams make it to the Stanley Cup final, but Scott’s team does. They’re both watching with their respective friends and teammates as Scott’s team wins. Then as Scott beacons Kip, who attended, down to the ice and then they kiss on live TV. Abbie and I were screaming while Shane and Ilya hurriedly make plans to stay together at the cabin. We don’t know how it happened, we don’t know if those two worked out an agreement, because Kip’s dad was there. We don’t know and we really really want to know! But! Maybe next season. As for this one, we go onto the last episode!

This entire episode is Shane and Ilya finally talking. They talk about their feelings and wants and plans. They explain themselves and are very close and cute and not just having sex every five minutes. It’s really nice. Do I wish all this talking happened sooner? Yeah, but at least it did happen on screen. Ilya tells Shane about his mother and how he found her after she, sadly, killed herself. Shane talks about being insecure about things but wanting to be better.

Shane comes up with a somewhat solution to their rivalry issue (which, again, isn’t really a huge issue) and Ilya’s Russian citizen situation which includes the two of them creating a charity for those with mental health issues, Ilya cries and hugs Shane tightly. It’s a really sweet end to the series. The only loose ties (not counting Scott and Kip which does drive Abbie and I crazy) are Shane’s parents. Midway through their time away from the world, Shane’s dad drops by and sees them kiss and…books it, clearly not sure what to do with himself.

They follow him back to Shane’s parent’s home and have a very awkward dinner where they explain that they’ve been on and off together since they met which I believe is about a decade from that point in the story. Shane kind of has an anxiety attack about all of this and Ilya gently calms him down, calling himself Shane’s boyfriend and pretty much proving that he’s a good fit for Shane…also side note Ilya approaches everything with an air of uncaring. He clearly cares, but also knows things will work out. Which compliments nicely with Shane’s awkwardness and caring far too much about things.

There is one moment where Shane’s mom walks out to take a breather. Shane follows her and they have a very lovely conversation where he tries to apologize or explain himself, but his mother stops him and tells him he doesn’t have to do any of that. In fact, she’s not upset, or mad at him for being gay or having a boyfriend. It’s really sweet and certainly comes from a place where most queer folks wish their parents would say the same.

The show ends with Shane and Ilya returning to Shane’s cabin while the credits roll. It’s a really sweet ending to a very hot and steamy show.

Despite my gripes, I really liked the show, and I can’t wait to see what the next season brings. Abbie liked it as well, even if it got to the point where we would just talk through the sex scenes or skip them because we were so tired of them. It’s not perfect, there are clearly things I think they could have done better, but it was awesome!

For those in the appropriate audience, I highly recommend watching it!

That was a review of the show Heat Rivalry by the Holiday Pride. Thank you for listening and thank you for sticking around.