a man being shoved into plexiglass by another player and then smash cutting to him getting fucked by the same guy. this show is fulfilling fantasies for me that i didn’t even know existed
had many many favourite parts of that episode but I did love shane’s mom being like ‘so do you love your team ilya?’ and ilya so confident he knows how to answer this question right like 'not as much as i love your son mrs hollander’ and shane’s mom being like EH ❌🙅🏻♀️ WRONG ANSWER and shane being like mom what the fuck??
the casual homophobia in heated rivalry hits sooo hard because they dont even react to it. it barely registers. shane’s mom acts like a man getting penetrated during sex is a punishment. montreal boys calling ilya a cock sucker as an insult, his brother calling him the f-slur. guys talking about fucking other guys they don’t like as some kind of place putting act devoid of interest or attraction just violent aggression…like! here’s shane who loves getting railed and banged open like screen door in a hurricane and it’s the most natural thing in the world for him and he’s sitting there with all these guys he likes and respects and is the captain of and it doesn’t even register. it’s so!!!!! ugh so good
I love how, once Shane decides that he wants this relationship with Ilya, nothing will stop him from being into it 100%.
When Ilya jokes about how this is just Shane enjoying being bad, Shane doesn’t let it stay at that, because this is real for both of them and he needs Ilya to know it.
When Ilya says he’s thinking about signing with a Canadian team instead (to be closer to Shane, to lock in a Canadian citizenship instead of a Russian passport), Shane starts obsessively thinking about it and comes up with the plan for the Irina Foundation and how they can ease up the rivalry narrative. It’s the middle of the fucking night and he’s waking Ilya up because he’s so locked tf in.
When David stumbles over them and Shane freaks the absolute fuck out, that he’s so terrified he feels like he’s going to die, he never rejects the relationship with Ilya to try to protect his relationship with his parents. He leans onto Ilya instead, leans into Ilya’s touch and tucks his face against Ilya’s shoulder, puts his arms around Ilya’s neck, confesses how scared he is, seeking shelter with Ilya.
When Yuna says, “But you hate him.”, Shane says, no, actually he loves Ilya. This isn’t just fucking around, he needs his parents to know that it’s not just something real, but that he loves this man. He won’t downplay Ilya even to his parents.
Shane struggles to come to terms with a lot of things, he can make a lot of missteps because he’s an anxious flower, but once he gets there, he is THERE. He puts his whole heart into this. Yeah, Ilya may have fallen first, may have said the words first, but never doubt that Shane Hollander is a competitive freak and CAN and WILL put just as much of his whole entire soul into this relationship as Ilya does.
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