Heated Rivalry Season 1 Episode 4 Review: Rose

After a brief interlude last week, Heated Rivalry Season 1 Episode 4, “Rose,” brings Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov back into focus as their relationship starts to develop beyond casual hook ups. “Rose” is a great episode to bridge the gap between Vegas of 2014 to the events of the 2016-2017 season that book fans are excited to see play out.

As with the previous Shane and Ilya episodes, this one continues to use texting and text messages to speak while the visuals tell the true story. As the seasons pass very quickly in the opener, we see just how their behavior toward each other is shifting and changing as well.

Because so many things have to take place during the span of this 42 minute episode, choosing to use a texting montage to get them from Summer 2014 to the start of their 2016 season is a great editing choice. Even better, it allows us to see how this passage of time is much different than the 2 years between Heated Rivalry Season 1 Episode 1, “Rookies,” and Heated Rivalry Season 1 Episode 2, “Olympians.”

Ilya Starts to Be More Exclusive

As stated above, the start of “Rose” does a great job of serving the plot by quickly showing the passage of time. But it also serves to really drive home two things about Ilya Rozanov, that he is bisexual and that he is hooking up casually with women while also being with Shane.

However, we slowly see his interest in these casual women at the clubs in Russia wane over time. In the Summer of 2014 he is happy to dance with Svetlana and many other girls. By the next summer it has severely diminished to phoning it in as he dances with girls.

Then, right before the 2016 season starts we see him at the club. Only this time he is hanging out at the bar, ignoring women, staring at his phone, and looking sad and lonely.

The way Jacob Tierney uses these moments to subtly show the shift in Ilya despite how he talks a big game is very important to level against his hookups with Shane. Between these summers Ilya is hooking up with Shane more and more. We even see them go from hotels to Shane’s house as the situation starts to feel more intimate.

Which gets us to the bulk of the episode, which is Shane and Ilya’s day together at Ilya’s Boston home. At this point we can now see Ilya only has eyes for Shane, but he knows he still has to play it cool so that Shane doesn’t freak out.

So, when they are relaxing on the couch talking and Ilya brings up Svetlana he is using it to test Shane. To get a read on just how committed Shane is to him or this thing that they have together.

He still can’t say it out loud, but he’s curious if Shane is seeing others outside of their arrangement.

Then when he calls himself lazy, we see just how much he appreciates that Shane disagrees with him. That fondness is also there later on when he returns from his call with his father and Shane asks how his father is. 

Ilya has officially caught feelings and it’s clear that he isn’t going to go back to his previous ways any time soon.

Shane is Terrified of His Feelings

While Ilya is confident in how he feels but insecure in determining whether or not its all one-sided, Shane is freaking out. Shane is a constant state of anxiety and pressure about all of it.

We see it from the montage at the start clear up to when he shakingly tells Ilya, “I can’t do this,” right before running away. Shane is starting to crave Ilya like he hasn’t ever craved him before and that scares the crap out of him.

His more distracted during their time away. We see it in just how disinterested he becomes with the commercials and the publicity. He even gets told off at one point for being on his phone. 

Shane is only ever smiling when he’s texting with Ilya or hooking up with him. Outside of that, is when Shane has time to think about what he’s doing and it stresses him out to the point of misery.

There is a war going on inside Shane’s head and no one can see it, not even Ilya, until it’s too late and the bomb has detonated. During his day with Ilya we see him let go of that fear and anxiety for a while but it comes and goes.

A great visual of that is them waking up together, cuddled in Ilya’s bed with Ilya’s arm as Shane’s pillow. Then, it cuts to them sitting on Ilya’s couch and there is this great divide of space between them and the conversation is stilted. 

But then Ilya serves him a tuna melt sandwich and they are back to sitting side-by-side with no space between them. The only time space shows up between them is when Ilya brings up girls and then while Ilya walks into the other room to talk to his father.

The use of visuals on Heated Rivalry to show just how much Shane wants Ilya, but is terrified of that makes the moment he leaves hit that much harder. They’ve just let down all their walls, spoken each other’s first names, and then comes the panic. It’s all so devastating. 

Rose Landry

As much as we want there to no longer be any discord between Shane and Ilya, there needs to be some progress made on Shane’s part before that can happen. Ilya is all in with them as evidenced by his behavior during their day together: cuddling, asking Shane to stay, buying Shane his favorite drink and stocking his house with it, his fond looks at Shane.

But, Shane, Shane is still stuck at the precipice. He needs a catalyst to get him over that final hump. That catalyst? Rose Landry, a famous actress he meets at one of J.J.’s parties. 

Right before he meets her we see him in a very tense mood, snapping at his parents, demanding control over food and fitness. Then, his mom tells him, “I don’t want you to lie, that’s not who you are.” 

It’s as if a light switched on in Shane’s brain with that. His mood shifts, he becomes more personable, and then the next second we see him going to a party with friends and meeting Rose Landry. It’s as if he thinks that by dating her he will be able to convince himself he isn’t lying.

But, a few weeks into his relationship with Rose, Montreal goes up against Boston and we see Shane shily flirting with her over text message. But then the commentators in the background say something about Ilya Rozanov and Shane scrolls through his messages to his chain with Lily and clicks into it.

Based on how Ilya checks Shane against the boards during the game he’s feeling hurt. And based on how Shane was with his phone before the game he’s not over Ilya. Oh when will they ever get on the same page. My goodness.

So, meeting this stereotypical beautiful, famous woman has allowed Shane to slip back into the shadows. To pretend this thing he has with Ilya isn’t serious, that they aren’t in love.

But the club scene does a great job of visually telling us how they really feel, with little to no dialogue, and none between Shane and Ilya.

The Club Scene

For those of you who are fans of the book, this scene was so intense in the book that we all worried how it would translate to screen. I am here to say that Jacob Tierney’s direction and the acting choices from Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams during this scene makes it come to life in new ways.

On top of them intensely watching each other from across the room we have the song All the Things She Said by t.A.T.u. playing. The lyrics to that song are all about two people who have broken up but can’t stop thinking about each other. Perfect.

Honestly, because we can’t get the internal dialogue that made this scene what it is in the book, having those lyrics is a perfect alternative. It gives the moment edge and intensity, while also showing just how much they are both trying to fool the world.

Having the episode end with this is also a perfect choice because while it isn’t overtly happy it does speak to a realization. Which is necessary to get us over the finish line of their love story. 

There is hope here where all the previous episodes left us praying for a spark of joy. Shane and Ilya might still be broken up, but the visuals tell us that while they are with their respective dance partners they only have thoughts of each other.

Stray Thoughts

• Hayden is such a disaster dad
• Svetlana calling Ilya out about Jane and Hayden doing the same to Shane about Lily, I need these two besties to meet.
• Also, Svetlana knows Jane is not a girl. I mean right after she tells him Sasha said hi…so…
• Ilya alone watching Shane’s first cup win and smiling vs. Ilya watching his second cup win with his team and jokingly complaining. No notes, the boy is down bad.
• Ilya watching Shane’s TV spot about his cottage like he is a king reigning over his castle, so hot.
• Can we please talk about the fact that the outfit Shane came to Ilya’s house in is NOT the outfit he left in. That means Ilya has a set of Shane’s clothes at his place…and Shane has a set of Ilya’s clothes with him.
• To that effect, did Hayden question Shane at all when he came back in totally different clothes?
• Also, shout out to Harrison Browne, real life trans hockey player, as one of Ilya’s teammates. He really shines in the few scenes we see him.

 

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Heated Rivalry airs Fridays on Crave and HBO Max.

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