You'll Look Great In Silver (Or Fleece)

Hello Yeeters, Welcome back. 

We are officially in SOCHI! We cover a lot in this episode. There's some heavy discussions about oppressive laws in Russia and how that affected both Shane and Ilya in different ways. 

Thank you to @/ovahimba for their incredible breakdown of what Ilya says in the episode vs. what he's really trying to say.

CALL TO ACTION

Leave KUDOS or a comment on at least one fanfic this after you finish this episode. Our fic writers need a lot of support right now. If we want to keep enjoying what they are freely providing us, we need to protect them.

Fic Recs: 

Predator Instinct 

by elumish

https://archiveofourown.org/works/79759221

Shane Takes Two
by FrequentMoment
https://archiveofourown.org/works/81162566

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:14

Hi, everybody. Hello. This this is Liz.

SPEAKER_05 0:18

And welcome back to Eated Rivalry. And Natalie is here with us. Hi I'm here. Hello. And I would just like to say that we had a moment just now. Yeah. And we were chit-chatting and just reviewing stuff. And all of a sudden Matt looks at me and goes, Do you believe we do this? And honestly, no. The answer is absolutely not. I can't believe that we're this. It's just so comical.

SPEAKER_04 0:50

If you're here again, thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 0:52

Because we can't fucking believe it. Because we're highly entertained. We cannot fathom that other people are actually highly entertained, minimally entertained, quite frankly. But good evening to you all. I would also like to say if you're watching us on YouTube that our names are switched. Did you do that on purpose?

SPEAKER_04 1:11

I mean, you had your name as Nat, so I just changed mine to Liz. Oh my god, you're such a pain in the ass. It's because I'm it's because I'm old and I couldn't figure out how to switch it. So I was like, whatever.

SPEAKER_06 1:20

She'll fix it.

SPEAKER_05 1:21

Look, now they'll know. They fit they know who we are. I think I think you've figured it out by now. So welcome back. We're going to. Do you have your can? Do you have a can of something to open? Look at you. All right, we're ready to go. Open your can of your preferred beverage. Can of whoop ass. Can of whoop ass?

SPEAKER_04 1:37

Oh man. See?

SPEAKER_05 1:39

That's usually my trick. Oh damn, I got on my computer. Such a good, such a good trick. I got on my computer. Oh no. Wait, I got I have to. Um, all right, so as is our custom, what is your most recent reheat, Natalie?

SPEAKER_04 2:00

I watched four, five, and six.

SPEAKER_05 2:04

Do you know that I watched one, two, and three?

SPEAKER_04 2:08

No way. Yes, I did. We are.

unknown 2:12

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 2:13

Oh my gosh. Yeah, I I hadn't watched, I really I don't think I had watched in like two weeks. Because last time I watched was with my mother-in-law. Right. And then the last like two weeks have just been my brain, nothing. No, no brain going on.

SPEAKER_05 2:28

No, no synapses, fire.

SPEAKER_04 2:30

And so finally I was like, you know what?

SPEAKER_05 2:32

I know what I need.

SPEAKER_04 2:35

And so I gave it to myself.

SPEAKER_05 2:37

I feel I see online all the time that people are like, for self-care, please reheat. Four, five, and six. And like, and it does the trick, right? Like it's like it's the hurt comfort thing.

SPEAKER_04 2:49

It's the like I think I watched four and five, and then I and one the like one night and then the next day, or the next night I watched The Cottage.

SPEAKER_05 2:58

Oh so good. And I I don't know why. I just felt like I think we've been talking about we well, it took us you know a year and a half to get through episode one. And so I felt the need to like go back and watch it without feeling like having to be hyper observant or you know, pick things out or anything like that. Just actually just enjoy it and consume it, yeah. Just be be the consumer that I am. Uh and then it just kind of like kept going, and I was like, well, while I'm here, um right? You just kind of just might as well just like ruin myself. And I will say that I have been fighting the urge. So I own I'm an audiobook listener, which I believe I've mentioned. Um, because I I'm very good at multitasking. I'm capable of doing many things, including like having full conversations while an audiobook is actually playing. It's a skill.

SPEAKER_04 3:56

Are you actually retaining the audiobook?

SPEAKER_05 3:59

Yeah, bizarrely. Yeah.

unknown 4:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 4:02

Yeah. I mean, sometimes I mean not always. I shouldn't say always, but like I can it's it's not consistent, much like the rest of my life. However, I have listened to all of the game changers books. I know it's controversial. We'll talk about narrators later.

SPEAKER_04 4:18

But if it doesn't bother you, then I say go for it. No, it wasn't good for me.

SPEAKER_05 4:23

It does at times, but I'm at the point now where I'm like, I'm not a big consumer of the things, but I I feel like I need the books, the actual books. Because I have Heated Rivalry and I have the long game, but now I want the others. So I need to find myself a little an independent bookseller for to purchase.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 4:48

Anyone in the uh Boston area know of any good independent booksellers?

SPEAKER_05 4:53

As if they don't all have my number.

SPEAKER_04 4:57

You fucking goofball. Ugh. So you had you did four, you did one, two, and three. I did one, two, and three. So lovely. You guys split it up, divide in the number.

SPEAKER_05 5:11

We didn't even plan that. No, a little mirror ring of our own. Hey. And five is just so good. Uh I honestly, so our so our interview, our last interview with Katie and Carissa, it something it validated something in me that they also have a deep, deep love for episode five.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:33

Because I almost feel like, oh, it's you're supposed to love the culmination of the story the most. But I feel like so much gets resolved in five, and so it was like getting that from them and knowing that oh yeah, that episode is also their favorite. I was like, aha, my people, I have found you.

SPEAKER_04 5:50

Oh, and speaking of, last night, last night I got a message from an old friend, literally someone that I've known since I was like 16. Nice. We've just still stayed connected via social media and we talk every once in a while. He messaged he messaged me on threads out of nowhere. We have never we have never messaged on threads before, but we do follow each other on threads. And he said, This is at 11 p.m. last night. He says, just finished heated rivalry. Okay, I understand your fandom now. Like it's yours. You own it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 6:26

Thank you for for validating me. Appreciate that. I'm gonna I'm gonna put that on my resume. Thank you very much, sir.

SPEAKER_04 6:33

But it's it's so funny because it's it's like one of my one of my like dude friends from from back in the day. And it's just but now they get it. I love that it I finished it. I I know who I need to message.

SPEAKER_05 6:45

Right now at 11 p.m. I need to check in with Natalie. And naturally I was like, cool, listen to my podcast. I am I am firmly on the if if you know me in real life and you find me on threads, you didn't find me. I like I don't really care.

SPEAKER_04 7:04

Everything I say on threads, I'll say to your face.

SPEAKER_05 7:06

I mean, I will too, in theory, but I'm like, I don't want to no, I don't like if I'll if but then in re it in reverse, it's okay. So if you're like a a friend and then we meet in real life, that can work. But like I think there are only two people on threads who are my friends. What if like known?

SPEAKER_04 7:27

What if your friends in real life found your fan fictions that you wrote? I hate everything about you.

SPEAKER_05 7:36

I hate everything about it.

SPEAKER_03 7:37

Anyway, so do you want to go to Sochi?

SPEAKER_05 7:41

Nobody wants to go to Sochi. Go to Sochi. That's that's fair. That's the understatement of the century.

SPEAKER_04 7:46

Yeah. So let me put it on my my playback speed 0.5. And so everyone that is at has asked, I am not watching it on HBO. I have the episodes downloaded on my computer and it's playing on QuickTime. That's why I can playback at half speed. Sorry for confusing anyone who is frantically looking at the HBO settings.

SPEAKER_05 8:08

I mean, I did it first, and then once you described, I was like, oh duh. Like that's yes, that's exactly like now I understand the world. It's fine. You just need Natalie to explain it to you. So we open Sochi, lovely little aerial, and we've got our announcers doing the voiceover, which actually, while we're doing this, I'm going to turn on my things here.

SPEAKER_04 8:30

Um and talking about how Russia fucking lost, got kicked out after losing to fucking Latvia. No shame on Latvia. No shame. I mean, no, it's not like they I feel like Latvia was catching some strays. Right. Poor Latvia.

SPEAKER_05 8:49

They're like, Latvia! How dare and his his poor little Ilya's poor little face when he's getting interviewed. I know.

SPEAKER_04 8:57

Didn't the US lose to Latvia this year? I don't know. I think they did. I think the men's you the men's hockey team lost to Latvia this year. Nice. Ugh. Ugh. Yeah. Oh my god. So sad. You can just his shoulders are so like pulled forward, just completely, ugh.

SPEAKER_05 9:16

You have to I have to wonder if if it was different and if it had been, I realize, propelling the story and the relationship with his dad. But if it was reversed and if he had won, if it could have been even celebratory for him. Because there's so much duty associated with winning when he's over there and when he's playing for his country, that it it's there's so much heaviness associated with it that it's well, and it's gonna be an act.

SPEAKER_04 9:46

His dad his dad always finds something wrong. Yeah. Like remember in the book what before he he meets with his dad after like for the thing, he he know he knows that everything is perfect, right? That he's done everything right, but that he knows his dad is going to find something wrong, and that's what he says.

SPEAKER_05 10:04

You need a haircut. Right. And you've been picked number one in the draft, but you need to be talking less. Yeah. Like baby boy cannot win.

SPEAKER_04 10:13

Yeah. So even if he won, his dad would have said they should have won by more, or he should have scored more goals, or fucking some shit.

SPEAKER_05 10:20

And trauma dump shout out to anyone who has had a parent like that. Because I think a lot of people have, or had an adult like that in your life who played a big part. That shit weighs on. Yes, and that shit weighs on you. And it fuck you, mom. I'm just kidding. Oh my god, is this now? Is this is this where we start the like the actual okay no?

SPEAKER_04 10:46

All right, I mean no, no, no, but Yuna is texting and she said, Is everything okay? Also, don't forget to write fucking reebox.

SPEAKER_05 10:57

They're always gonna come back for you. So, no, I was trying to I was trying to have a lovely moment for people who might be like triggered by this, right? Like triggered by the heaviness of dealing with parents, and I think as a parent myself, I find lots of moments where I'm like, oh, oh, this is not how my parents handled it. And like I see the reaction in my kids and maybe try to understand what they need in the moment. And I'm like, my parents did not fucking do that for me. And certainly Ilya gets no kind of leeway and no kind of emotional understanding at all since his mom died. And so I don't know. He's just just to be out on that island and also to like lose something he you know enjoys to a certain extent, and losing is hard enough and without all of that other pressure.

SPEAKER_04 11:55

Yeah, and I mean he's he's already been so worried about his dad. We know that this trip is the trip that you know solidifies him knowing that his dad's sick, right? You know, and that's all that's all his responsibility. Alex. He's not gonna fucking do anything. No, he just pieces shit. Oh god, he sucks so hard. Yeah, but that actor's so good.

SPEAKER_05 12:16

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Oh, he's so good. Oh, it's quite lobby.

SPEAKER_05 12:21

Oh, can we wait, hold on. We're I have to time out for season two for a second, and the number of actors that we have to remember are actors playing a role that we hate.

SPEAKER_04 12:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:38

And we don't hate those people.

SPEAKER_04 12:40

Well, the main thing is if we do if we do hate them, they did their job.

SPEAKER_05 12:45

They did a good job. Correct. That is the one. But I'm thinking of like the commissioner.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Oh, I hope I know that it's it's gonna be so good.

SPEAKER_05 12:55

It's gonna be that like I'm already pissed off, but like also I can't I can't fathom what it takes to like walk into a role like that, knowing or researching that a fandom like this exists and that people who are so invested exist.

SPEAKER_06 13:12

And you're like, I'm fucking scared of them.

SPEAKER_04 13:15

I I think I think it's that, but I also feel like for if it was me, I would almost feel more of an obligation to be as fucking awful. Sure. Oh, yeah. I like to to be exactly who they fucking need me to be for the story to because like if this person is not a fucking piece of shit, then the story doesn't work. No, not at all. We don't fucking hate him. It doesn't, you know, justify everything else that happens and all of the hatred that we have for them. Like I didn't even I didn't even buy the colored vinyls because I don't want the Metros colors. I was like, I don't want the fucking Metro colors vinyl. Sorry to anybody that got it. No shame, no shame, just me, just me, just me just give me um just me. Oh my god. You do get it. But I was just like, I'm good. I want that. I want the icy one. Right.

SPEAKER_05 14:04

I and I don't want the vinyls at all. I love it for other people. I don't, I'm not a vinyl girly at all. I just don't inevitably I love that for you.

SPEAKER_04 14:14

Yeah, we recently got like our whole setup. It was like uh like late last year that we finally got everything.

SPEAKER_05 14:21

So I have children, they break things, so I can't have nice things. Maybe that's why it's not really nice. It's I know, but I but I'm I'm like unpacking my like lack of desire to like merch myself. And I think it's just like generally speaking, like I just I have no space, and also my children just break shit, so I can't anyway. Well, you know, we'll get back to that. We can we can unpack that at a later we can we can unpack my my merch, my merch issues later. So merch aversion. I think there's a credium for that. All right, so back to Sochi and Ilya being sad. Yep. Well, right now, Shane is sad. Oh, you're on to Shane already. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 15:10

Because mama texted him and said, Don't forget to wear your rebox. And then this idiot texts Ilya. Oh, goodness gracious.

SPEAKER_05 15:17

Dude, dude, what are you even doing?

SPEAKER_04 15:19

And I love the face that he makes right afterwards. I know. I need to screenshot it.

SPEAKER_05 15:26

You do, you desperately do.

SPEAKER_04 15:28

He looks like he's about to fucking puke.

SPEAKER_05 15:30

Yes. Oh, he is so nauseous and sitting in the and of course we have the appearance of the fleece. The fleece. Which look at him. Oh my god, he is the holding of the head. He he's a mess. Also, I'm a little shocked that he's wearing like earbuds for some reason. Because you know he's not listening to anything, right?

SPEAKER_04 15:51

But we've talked about that. He does.

SPEAKER_05 15:52

I know we've talked.

SPEAKER_04 15:53

Yeah, he does it to take people away from him.

SPEAKER_05 15:55

He does, or it's the positive affirmations. I still, I mean, I maintain that what I'm gonna create those. I'm gonna make the actual positive affirmations that I think he listens to. It's like it's like a combination of positive affirmations and like enya.

SPEAKER_04 16:11

We should do a post and ask people to give us what they like one-liner positive affirmations, and then we can record them.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

You guys just saw an idea be birthed.

SPEAKER_04 16:23

La la. But I also think it's interesting that he has the headphones in, and so we have the you know, we have the the understanding or the belief that he's has those in to keep people away from him, to not talk to him. It's a deterrent. And it doesn't work at all.

SPEAKER_05 16:39

Because Carter So confession from me is that when the stills came out before the show aired, so there were a couple I don't know the sequence, I don't know the dates. Somebody can fact check me if you really care that much, but there was a still released of Scott standing outside the window. And my initial thought was because I knew that that was Scott, I was like, that's Kip.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

Oh, Carter.

SPEAKER_05 17:06

Yeah, and I was like, it didn't not that no objection, no like, but but I was just kind of like I it was more like the position that they were standing in, and like the even just the the um body language of the still shot, where I was like, that's such a weird choice for Kip. Like that doesn't seem right. Then I figured out what it was, even worse. Are you ready for this one? This one's even worse. I saw the still of Svetlana with Sasha, and Sasha's like in the bathtub with champagne or whatever. I thought that Sasha was potentially even Kip. Oh, but then I was like, that doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_04 17:47

I was like, You poor thing, you were jerked all over the place.

SPEAKER_05 17:50

I was a I was an absolute mess with and then when it finally became clear, I was like, oh girl, you gotta just take a fucking deep knee bend because that is you are wrong up and down both sides. That is not good. So Carter and Scott cheating in on uh on their little friend there in his non-macrobiotic restaurant. Yeah, he's not eating anything, but I mean he does like they're all like scoopy-dooping some frozen yogurt or something. I mean, there's there's something happening.

SPEAKER_04 18:27

Didn't wasn't their food put down like right at the beginning?

SPEAKER_05 18:30

Uh I don't know because they all end up holding something. Wait, can I get it can I get a read on whether or not the hat should have been backwards on Carter?

SPEAKER_04 18:40

Can I? Okay, so really quick, the the plate that they set down while Shane is not in focus is a plate of pastries. And and there's a like a espresso coffee cup, and then it also looks like it also looks like you know those um those like coffee cups, but they're made out of chocolate.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:02

That's yeah, that that's also on the plate with the pastries, so it looks like like a strawberry pastry with like stuff over it. So definitely just definitely just coffee shop vibes for this. Love it.

SPEAKER_05 19:16

Explains why he's just sitting in there and just like hanging out using their Wi-Fi, uh, which is not a good idea, and we'll get to that in a minute. But um, I might be willing to share with you my fifth grade school picture because it looks eerily similar to the USA uh jackets that they're wearing.

SPEAKER_06 19:40

I swear to God, it's so bad. It's so bad. I know, but uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 19:47

I I mean I like to have backwards on Carter. You do? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:51

To me, it's it it's a little like Charlie Brown character. Like it just doesn't I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 20:00

It just doesn't to me it it lets me know to me it's it's disarming. Okay, okay like like when I see him with the backwards cap, I see I think this guy's this guy's chill. Whoever this person is, he's he's gonna be like a chill person. He's not someone that's like super strict and super like I have to everything I have to be perfect. He's got his head hat thrown on backwards. Okay, he's fucking chilling in Sochi. I mean, even this comment that he makes about Shane's friend and the few like he's so he's so casual about it all. And I feel like having the hat backwards is just like a says it all to you, a wardrobe version of being like what's up?

SPEAKER_05 20:38

I'm chill. Okay, it's the the wardrobe version of what's up. What's up? Oh my god. All right, I I accept I accept that announcement. I'm tired, okay? Baby, you're doing so good, baby. I know you're so tired.

SPEAKER_04 20:55

You can do it. And then they talk about them losing to Latvia. And then why does everybody ask Shane what Ilya thinks? Like, I feel like this was the first time it happens, and it happens many other times. But like, what did Ilya say? Why the what why would he say anything to him?

SPEAKER_05 21:16

So here's my theory behind that is that I think generally the idea of having rivals within your sport is like a is a fabrication for marketing. Right? And so maybe they don't think they think that he actually hates him.

SPEAKER_04 21:41

But do they? Yeah. That's my that's my point. Like Yeah, when they're when he's watching it, when he's watching Ilya win the cup and they're like, Yeah, he fucking hates him.

SPEAKER_05 21:49

Yeah, but those are not these guys, those are his teammates. His teammates think he hates them. He he hates Ilya. But like these guys, like Scott says, like, oh Where's your boy Rosanov? And just says it like that.

SPEAKER_04 22:05

At that point, you're they're both nominated, so it's like I could see like no. I just I just feel like the fact that they ask if he if he said anything to him. I just I'm like, what when would that have happened? When would he have said something to you? Right.

SPEAKER_05 22:19

Like when would he what he's gonna like roll up to your room at the no yeah?

SPEAKER_04 22:23

Did you guys just like walk by and he was just like, Man, can you believe I lost? Like he's not gonna believe no. So sorry, that that was like one of the things where I was like, Why okay?

SPEAKER_03 22:33

Why would he do that?

SPEAKER_04 22:34

Yeah, read the room, you guys.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

Come on, Jesus. He was just crying over a text message. He's he's worried about his reebox. But he says, He didn't say anything to me.

SPEAKER_04 22:47

I think he knows Canada has this in the bag. And then Carter's like, no way, USA all the way, baby. Oh my god. We get one of our favorite lines.

SPEAKER_05 22:56

One of my favorites. One of my favorite lines.

SPEAKER_04 22:59

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 23:00

No, you do it. You do it. It's one of your favorites, babe. I cannot, I cannot take your thunder.

SPEAKER_04 23:05

I don't remember the first words, but it's like you'll uh you'll look great in silver, Vonnie.

SPEAKER_05 23:08

You'll look great and silver. Amazing. I love them called him Vonnie too. Well, and and this is like funny Shane that Rose mentions in episode five, where you know he's one of the funniest guys. And this that's legitimately funny. I mean, that's a legitimately quick comeback for Shane, who was just like neck deep in his manager mom and yearning, and yearning for baby boy. So that's that's some quick-witted sitch for him, I think.

SPEAKER_04 23:44

Uh in the case, but it does switch to them. Yeah, you are you're right. They're eating yogurt or yogurt.

SPEAKER_05 23:49

They're ice cream, right? Not macrobiotic, just saying, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:56

So all right. I maintain I have shared this on I shared my shame on threads that I love that people want the fleece. I love it for you. I blessings on your house. I hate the texture of fleece. I detest it. I detest it. And I I want to believe you. I want to believe that it's cozy and soft, and I but I see it and I immediately get itchy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:20

It's just not I'm not a fleece person.

SPEAKER_05 24:23

It's not for me.

SPEAKER_04 24:24

But it's great. I hope you guys all love it once it gets released. I want it. I want it for you. And I hope that they do size inclusive choices.

SPEAKER_05 24:36

Oh, seriously. That's the hard that's the hardest and most frustrating thing about clothing and why I why I would not gravitate necessarily towards like clothing or jerseys and things like that because the size inclusivity is usually abysmal. Or e worse, it's it's fake inclusive, and they're like, oh, but you have to pay $50 to $100 extra if you want this special size. I can't. I just I just can't. So anyway, fleece.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Shout out to the fleecers. Flesh. We wish you the best. We wish you the best. Fleecers, we hope it gets released soon. Go team. Go team.

SPEAKER_04 25:20

So they're Shane tells him, ask them about the black mold, which I think is so funny. I mean, the mold, the mold's not funny. The mold's not funny. But mold is not asking about it was funny because definitely is what happened.

SPEAKER_05 25:32

Right? And like, what's that smell? It's it's such a like a real sensory question.

SPEAKER_04 25:39

I mean he's like, JJ thinks it's black mold.

SPEAKER_05 25:41

JJ thinks it's I I think it probably is. Um, yeah, what are they and why are their dishes this no, they're the same. Okay, never mind. But yeah, Carter is like up on his phone. What is on the back of Carter's hat? I don't know. No, okay, all right.

SPEAKER_04 26:01

But he's looking at looks like he was looking at, remember, he was the schedule for the other. So he brings up the the figure skating event, and then Shane's like, My friend's there, and you know, he uh I what did he say? He trained with them, trained with him or something, or went to school.

SPEAKER_05 26:18

Yes, yeah, his what and what's his friend's name? I forget what his friend's name is. Joe Joe? My friend Joe is in that program. I think so.

SPEAKER_04 26:27

And then he yeah, we get the first comment really about like the first direct comment about how it's unsafe to be queer in Russia. And at this point we learned that the laws of that were they weren't super old. Like at this point, it's what is it, 2014? This is 14, and so the laws started in like the early 2000s. So Ilya had grown up in a world that was tolerable, like tolerant of that to an extent.

SPEAKER_05 27:04

To an extent, and then started changing in his adolescence to being very much not.

SPEAKER_04 27:11

Yeah. I wonder if that explains why Ilya wa explored with Sasha. I mean, I think it had it because I mean that would make sense. Yeah. Yeah, there wouldn't be as it wouldn't be as dangerous when they were younger because it wasn't it wasn't criminalized at that point.

SPEAKER_05 27:34

Right. So if it started like what was the first law you mentioned reading about was 2006, was the major change, and so if he met Shane in 2008, so conceivably it could have been right around the time that the laws started to make so fucking crazy, so fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_04 27:54

So yeah, so Carter says, talks about every hit the hit your friend being brave.

SPEAKER_05 28:00

Which I'm assuming your buddy might be gay, and little does he know because neither of these two men has come out in any way, shape, or form, and gay panic has entered the cafe in a different way than it entered 1410. Um but it is definitely there, and they they play the tension differently, but both really, really well. Oh yeah, I think. Um just the way each of them is like buttoned up, but in different ways is interesting.

SPEAKER_04 28:37

It feels to me like Scott feels more like he is in like he's in danger right now because of who he is and where he is. Because he because he knows he's gay. Valid Shane doesn't know. He doesn't know that yet, and so I think in this moment he's not really thinking about him. I think he I think Shane is strictly thinking about Ilya.

SPEAKER_05 29:02

Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 29:03

Okay. Because you know what I mean? Because he doesn't he doesn't know that he's gay. Right. Or he has still he's still trying to convince himself that this is something else. This is a thing, yes. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:15

So so to me that's so he's if anything, he's worried about his friend Joe or Ilya. Yeah. It's not I don't think it's self-preservation. It's like a self-preservation. Interesting. Yeah, I don't I don't think so. Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 29:27

Okay, okay. And and also and also he doesn't I I don't feel like he's ever experienced danger.

SPEAKER_05 29:33

No, I mean not to this extent, right?

SPEAKER_04 29:35

I mean, who can't he's the he's the Canadian golden boy, so he doesn't have to worry about anything, right?

SPEAKER_05 29:42

So and what does it even mean? And yeah, because when Carter says like you'd have to be pretty brave, and yeah, like you can see on his face, he's like, what are you even okay, like what's brave about it? Like, we're just here to compete, and it's just not it's not that simple. It's it's not that cut and dry.

SPEAKER_04 30:05

Also, the guy that they go to see that's figure skating.

SPEAKER_03 30:10

That dude is so old. He said that they trained together. I listen, listen. Where? I don't disagree.

SPEAKER_06 30:26

I don't disagree.

SPEAKER_05 30:28

I don't. I it's you're I will say that when I w the first time I watched, I was like, I isn't that a coach? Is the coach competing? Because it but also we're so used to seeing like 14-year-olds ice skating.

SPEAKER_04 30:48

Right? I mean no, I just didn't think that I was gonna see somebody that looked like he was in his forties. Right.

SPEAKER_03 30:56

Not not that that's a bad thing, but they're fucking they're like 25! They're 21.

SPEAKER_05 31:05

I know. I d listen, I mean, right. At this point, Shane is what? He's probably he's probably like 22, 21, 22.

SPEAKER_03 31:12

But I mean, even Scott. Yeah, like that dude looks way older than even Scott looks. True.

SPEAKER_05 31:20

True. I will I will give that to you. I will give that to you. I don't I don't disagree.

SPEAKER_04 31:25

It's it's somebody explain it to me.

SPEAKER_05 31:31

I mean, I think I think that he knew how to ice skate and was available. Maybe okay. I feel like I I feel like it it was a tall order to locate somebody who could do a treble axle on short notice.

SPEAKER_04 31:52

That's valid.

SPEAKER_05 31:53

Right? It ain't me.

SPEAKER_04 31:56

So once it cuts away from the skater, you see that Shane is not even looking at his friend. He is he is he is looking for Ilion.

SPEAKER_05 32:09

He is scanning. He is scanning.

SPEAKER_04 32:11

Literally, I haven't paused. Carter is in the middle of going, woo!

SPEAKER_05 32:15

And Shane's like, yeah, what but where are oh yeah, he is where baby where baby? Where is baby? Is baby here? Where baby? I can feel him. And this is our numerology friend Lynn. Shout out to Lynn. We love you, Lynn. We love you, Lynn. We um the seat 108 appears yet again. Uh repeat from Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:39

But we see Shane, we see Shane catch Ilya. He's like, Oh, he's up there. I'll go get it. I'm gonna go get him.

SPEAKER_06 32:47

I'm gonna go check it out. I gotta go to the bathroom. Yeah, go go bathroom. I gotta, I gotta go real quick. I'll be right back.

unknown 32:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 32:55

I swear. And then we see the text from his brother where he's like, Where the fuck are you? Dad's so fucking mad at you. Oh my god, who cares? Shut the fuck up, go do more cocaine, leave me alone. I mean, very alone. Yeah, right. Yes. Um truth. And I love the um the thing that uh Rachel wrote for the remix, the Vegas remix. Yep. Um I'm gonna find it here because it's okay on that thing that that person posted. Ilya hadn't seen Hollander off the ice since the Olympics. He hadn't spoke to him since then. He thought about him every day. He thought about the way Hollander had found him in the stands of the Sweden-Finland game in Sochi and asked if he was alright and how he just wanted to wrap his arms around him. And so it's like we know that I love that knowing that when he sees Shane walking up, that his heart skips a beat.

SPEAKER_05 34:01

Oh well, and just is needing so much more than what he can ask for. And ain't that just all of us, right? Like you just and he's certainly in the position where he absolutely cannot ask for what he needs.

SPEAKER_04 34:18

No.

SPEAKER_05 34:20

At all.

SPEAKER_04 34:21

Um, and there's uh a lovely, lovely threader. Um their username is Ovahimba. O V O V-A-H-I-M-B-A. But they did a 10-part thread talking about this whole part, this exact scene of them being in the uh arena and Shane coming up and talking to him. There's a lot of really good information. Some of it is something, some that we covered in our interview with Katie and Carissa talking about the laws in Russia. Um, but what he what this person talks about is what Shane or what Ilya says to Shane and what it actually means. So as we go as we go on, I'll just we'll I'll throw those in there. So oh absolutely, yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 35:08

And just the and it's I feel like even in our conversation with Katie and Carissa having having grown up here in the United States and the way the climate is changing for queer people and trans people, um, today was a bit of a day for the trans community with different announcements made by the IOC and yeah, exactly. Um Natalie is flipping off the camera in case you are listening and you're not watching.

SPEAKER_04 35:40

Fuck you, IOC. IOC.

SPEAKER_05 35:43

Um in case you didn't hear me. Exactly. So just the way they that Katie and Carissa, Carissa in in particular outlined her her understanding and her study of Russia and how things have evolved and what the risks are, is completely outside the realm of understanding for a lot of people, particularly in the United States. And like I put myself um among those. And I I have my work. And we're saying that now. This was 12, this is 12 years ago, not that long ago. Um, and I didn't have a great coming out at all. And there were definitely times that I did not feel safe, but it was never to the extent of what Ilya is fearful of in this particular scene, or or just generally afraid of, more than even in this scene, even when he goes back to the United States and Canada, yeah, um, the dangers that he and anybody he's connected to could be in if he's found out.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Because Russia.

SPEAKER_05 36:50

Because Russia, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:54

Yeah. So Shane walks up. And then he looks away and he says, not here. And not here means this is not safe.

SPEAKER_05 37:10

Yeah, I saw you up here. I wanted to see how you were doing.

SPEAKER_04 37:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:17

He's such a cute baby. He's such a cute baby, and then Elia says, fine, go sit down. Which means they're they're watching us.

SPEAKER_04 37:26

Uh meaning we learned, yeah, is at this time, because of the laws and because it was the Olympics, Russia went full big brother on everything. So all of the athletes, they knew where they were at all times. This is all also from this lovely person's thread, which we will make sure we put their username up so you guys can go check it out. Um, so there all of their text communications and all of any communication at all was being monitored. So it was like even them looking like they could potentially even think anything about each other was basically a prison sentence, a prison sentence, not just for Ilya, but for Shane also. Right. If anybody would have been suspicious of Shane, he could have easily gotten arrested and imprisoned in Russia. That was not out of the like out of the realm of something that could happen.

SPEAKER_05 38:23

So the yeah, so Ilya's motivation here is not just about his own safety, it's actually probably even more so about Shane's.

SPEAKER_04 38:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:34

Because in hit in his mind, he's probably like, I know how to handle myself or I have status or connection his father could help him or not. But Shane, nothing. And he and he couldn't, he he couldn't even admit to like knowing him enough to be able to help if something went south. Oh, baby boy. My love.

SPEAKER_03 39:01

He says, Are you okay?

SPEAKER_05 39:05

Uh no, dude. We're not anything, he says. Go away, Holly.

SPEAKER_04 39:11

Which means you are in danger if you continue talking to me. And he says, No, I did not answer your boring text. Which also means they're watching everything. Right. They're tracking all my communication.

SPEAKER_05 39:27

Right. And we'll see he's gotten it by this point, right? And we see in a little bit that he looks at it again. After he has a conversation with Svetlana and Sasha, he opens his phone again and looks at it, but still doesn't answer it. Because that's the closest he can get right now. Yeah. He can he can only read that Shane was checking on him, but he can't answer back.

unknown 39:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:52

And then the go the go away means if I lose you, at least you will be alive, which is harping shitty. Uh stick a dagger directly. We'll say at the end of the thread, at the end of the ten threads, they did say thanks for reading and put a brick emoji. So I feel like you should have put the brick at the beginning. Maybe try like a maybe a front end brick. Front end brick. Looks like bookend everything.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Yes. Brick at the front, brick at the end.

SPEAKER_05 40:21

Single brick indicator. Yeah. Full brick wall. Incoming bricking. Incoming brick. Is that something else entirely? Oh god. Probably a different scene. Totally different scene. Dear Urban Dictionary.

SPEAKER_04 40:37

Oh God, I miss Urban Dictionary.

SPEAKER_05 40:39

That shit was so funny. I know. It's so good. So we go to are we ready to go to his one-on-one with his dad?

SPEAKER_04 40:47

I do love that after Shane walks away, Ilya does turn to watch him.

SPEAKER_05 40:55

I know. Oh my God.

SPEAKER_04 40:57

He waits, he waits a minute though.

SPEAKER_05 40:58

He waits a few seconds and then he turns and it's just like well and the and just the way Shane says what does he say? He says like fine. Yep. Yeah. And he's again so deeply disconnected from reality. Get with it and actual danger. And again, like the Golden Boy thing. He just he can't in his universe dreams, yeah. Fathom that it's that dangerous. Because in in Shane's world, the biggest danger is kind of like inside his mind, right? Is like admitting to himself who he really is, and that's his biggest struggle currently.

SPEAKER_04 41:42

And for Ilya, or do you think it's more of him realizing that he doesn't know who he is?

SPEAKER_05 41:47

I mean both, but it's it's so much more internal. But for Ilya, it's he feels way more confident about who he is, and it's so much external that he can't control.

unknown 41:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 42:03

Babies.

SPEAKER_04 42:04

I don't know. We're in the bedroom. Ilya looks so snazzy, but we know also from the books, Ilya's dreading this because it doesn't matter how perfect he is, his dad is going to find something wrong. Something wrong. And that's what he says in the books. He's like, he knows that he's his suit, his his tux is perfect, everything is perfect, but his dad's gonna find something, and that's exactly what he says. You need a haircut. Get get fucked. Fuck off.

SPEAKER_03 42:31

His hair looks very good.

SPEAKER_05 42:34

Really good. We really like it, okay? We really like his hair. There might be other scenes where he needed a haircut. This is not one. Okay? So back to it.

SPEAKER_04 42:42

It's also such a fucking trap because he's talking shit and he's like, I can't believe you lost it. And then when Ilya takes a sip, he goes, and still he drinks. It's like, bitch, you handed him the cup.

SPEAKER_05 42:54

You handed it to me. You just poured motherfucking two drinks, walked across the motherfucking room and handed it to me. What do you want me to do?

SPEAKER_04 43:01

Maybe, ooh, maybe. Is this another thing of with the Alzheimer's? Did his does dad already forget that he handed it to him?

SPEAKER_05 43:09

No, I think he's just being a jackass.

SPEAKER_04 43:10

Yeah, I'm giving him too much credit.

SPEAKER_05 43:12

I know, yeah. You totally. I mean, that's that was nice of you, though. That's just good. I mean, we're okay, guys. I promise. It's fine. We're totally chill over here.

SPEAKER_04 43:25

And his face just completely defeated. So like, no, there is no wind in his sails.

SPEAKER_05 43:34

And lighting in this scene. So the scenery in general, the set is you know, more ornate, less modern than we've seen in other scenes. Um, but the lighting in the window is what got me. So it's very, very stark, and it's got more of like the fluorescent kind of blue tint.

SPEAKER_06 43:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:59

Whereas In other scenes, particularly with Shane, it's a lot warmer, a lot more yellow. Um, and you can see he's very distant.

SPEAKER_04 44:12

Yes. Like he's not in there.

SPEAKER_05 44:13

It's all but he's but he's not like bathed by it, you know, like he is in other scenes. In this one, it's it's like just out of reach.

SPEAKER_01 44:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:21

Um, and the light from outside is just very um almost like medicinal, is what it made me think of. Like kind of like operating room lights, like you're yeah, you're under inspection.

SPEAKER_04 44:33

Yeah. Very um, what's the word? I can't think of the word. Fuck.

SPEAKER_05 44:39

It'll come to you.

SPEAKER_04 44:40

Sterile.

SPEAKER_05 44:41

Sterile, nice.

SPEAKER_03 44:42

Good job.

SPEAKER_04 44:43

I got it.

SPEAKER_05 44:44

She found it.

SPEAKER_04 44:44

Good job. Ten points. And then dad starts fucking with the tie, and we get our first official confirmation. Motherfucker sick.

SPEAKER_05 44:55

Mm-hmm. Something is not connecting. He's like, Your mom fucking sucks. Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 45:04

And like Well, he doesn't realize that she's dead. Sorry, sorry. He doesn't.

SPEAKER_05 45:08

He doesn't realize that she's dead.

SPEAKER_04 45:09

But he thinks he's talking shit about her and she's alive, which is even worse.

SPEAKER_05 45:12

Which is even worse. But like, there's the truth of it, right? Is that he's there's some consistency in spite of the illness, there's consistency in how he speaks about her. And how devastating does that have to be for Ilya? That he sees his father losing his memory, but remembering his cruelty.

SPEAKER_04 45:35

Like and and the look on Ilya's face when he has to say she's dead.

SPEAKER_05 45:40

Mm-hmm. And to have to say, oh God. And if I mean it's to what just, I mean, I'm I'm sure that there are plenty of people who who listen or exist in the world who aren't listeners that have helped a family member or even just loosely connected to somebody who's had dementia or Alzheimer's, and it is devastating. Um, and I had my mom had radiation poisoning. Oh shit. So she yeah, so she had symptoms that kind of mirrored dementia later. And it didn't last long and because she passed, but even in that span of time, it is it's another universe that you go to in a completely other type of pain and type of grief to watch somebody that you knew or know kind of slowly disappear. And it's that idea of the long goodbye that it's you know, you're incrementally kind of saying goodbye to this person, and how much more painful must it be for Ilya that it's somebody who he was never all that connected to to begin with. And so now he runs the risk of being kind of forgotten by somebody who was never even able to fully know him or love him. Yeah, and that's that shit is fucking real.

SPEAKER_04 47:12

And I don't know, my grandmother had dementia, and my stepgrandfather um medicated her and kept her sick. So what? Yeah, it was it's a that's a whole other story for another day. Holy fu like what is wrong with the world? Yes. So she died when I was 18.

SPEAKER_05 47:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:35

So I'm named after, actually.

SPEAKER_05 47:37

No kidding.

SPEAKER_04 47:38

Love. Yeah. Is it the Natalie? Her name was Yvonne Natalie Brozgarth was her her maiden name because she's a Jewish.

SPEAKER_05 47:48

What a fucking badass name. That's amazing. Yvonne Natalie Brozgarth. Uh, please change your name to Yvonne. I'm going to call you that from now on.

SPEAKER_04 47:57

Yvonne. Uh, and then um, and then she married my grandfather and became uh Scarola, which is my mom's maiden name. Nice. Italian. Nice Jew and an Italian getting married in Brooklyn. Can't make it any more stereotypical than that. Uh but yeah, then she then they got divorced because my uh grandfather married her best friend.

SPEAKER_05 48:24

So Natalie, you're lying to me.

SPEAKER_04 48:26

I shit you not. They had a business together, and my mom's best friend fell in love with my grandfather, and so she told my grandfather that my grandmother cheated on her. Uh my grandmother cheated on him, and even though my grandfather had had many affairs, it was not okay for my grandmother to have had any affairs. So he divorced her and married her best friend, and that's who he stayed with until he died. I don't know, like eight, eight or nine years ago. And she doesn't talk to us. So her name's Yvonne, too, so don't call me that. Oh my god, her name is not. Yeah. Or no, no, her name's no, is it? No, her name is Rose. She has she named her daughter Yvonne. Okay, so we're gonna skip the Yvonne thing.

SPEAKER_05 49:12

After her best friend. What? Yeah, and then girl, write the book. Write the book right now. Fucking write the book.

SPEAKER_04 49:20

It's fucking ridiculous. It's copyrighted, it's a soap opera. It's and that's just a small little piece of it. But anyway, back to Ilya's family trauma.

SPEAKER_05 49:28

Moving on.

unknown 49:29

Holy shit.

SPEAKER_04 49:33

And you see the the look on his dad's face, just uh uh shit.

SPEAKER_05 49:37

Mm-hmm. Because that's like a momentary acknowledgement. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 49:41

Realizing that, oh, whoops, I got that wrong.

SPEAKER_05 49:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:46

Whoopsie basically. Illy's face just gutted. But we know that he's about to go talk to people. Right. So obviously dad's gonna, you know, gas him up, make him feel good.

SPEAKER_05 49:58

Right. Oh god, what an asshole. What an absolute asshole. Also, that actor, his eyes are so piercing. It is yes, the blue. Oh my god. That casting, I I mean, he's he's so he's so good. And his his eyes alone are like daggers. I don't know, it's it's like it's jarring in a way to like watch the scene.

SPEAKER_04 50:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 50:27

Um it's it's like almost like he doesn't blink. It's it's it's interesting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:33

And then we cut to our first official Ilya dissociation moment. We can see, and I I think that the the camera choice here of like pull like pushing in is supposed to kind of mim mimic how he's feeling where it's like everything's kind of like closing in around him. He's no longer with everything.

SPEAKER_05 50:54

He's yeah, yeah, it's pushing it. Yeah, it's it's kind of claustrophobic.

SPEAKER_04 50:59

And it also goes to show you that he's he's just like he's like a pawn. He's just he's just a piece that he they need to move him here to be okay, and then you go here because they're having a conversation just past him.

SPEAKER_05 51:12

Right, right. He just stands there. He's like the um what's the thing called in front of the ship?

SPEAKER_04 51:18

The the masthead?

SPEAKER_05 51:20

Is that what it's called?

SPEAKER_04 51:22

I don't know. The bow.

SPEAKER_05 51:24

I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 51:24

But he yeah, he's just like the pretty little centerpiece that's that's there to give them all a reason to and the only time his dad acknowledges him is when he talks about leadership and how that's the thing that's gonna get them to win games, and that's why they didn't win this time. And it's just like fucking say it again. Eat a bag of clams, dude. Eat a bag of clams, honestly. Eat a bag of dicks.

SPEAKER_05 51:50

I've trained myself to not say eat a bag of dicks because of my kids. So we say eat a bag of clams, but there's no kids here. Dicks dicks works so much better, so much better.

SPEAKER_04 51:59

Although clams, Gerard loves that. Every time you say it, he's like, That's the most busted shit I've ever fucking heard. So it's so it when you said it on the last episode, he was just like, Oh my god.

SPEAKER_05 52:11

It's I listen. Jen was born and raised here, and and I've been you don't gotta explain it to me.

SPEAKER_04 52:16

I don't care. I know. I just but you know what you do have to explain. Tell me how fucking hot Svetlana looks when she walks up in that fucking dress, babe. And that fucking hair. Girl, you could take my hand and take me anywhere. Anywhere, anywhere.

SPEAKER_05 52:37

I don't care where it is, I'll follow you anywhere. I don't care if they don't serve drinks, I don't care if it is a seat at the bar in hell, I will follow you anywhere. Absolutely anywhere.

SPEAKER_04 52:51

And I love when he's just like, Thank you. And I love the way my fa the thing that always made always made me laugh about this is she says, I know I'm an angel, but the way that the way that the word angel is said in Russian always just makes me chuckle because she's like angel. Angel. And it yeah, duh.

SPEAKER_05 53:08

But the first time I heard it, it just made me chuckle because I'm just like, God, that's funny. It's so good. It's so good. Oh, right now I'm paused on his disassociation face, and it's like oh, I just am I wish they did almost like um, you know, in Shane's scene with Rose, how he has his little like flashbacks.

SPEAKER_03 53:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:30

It's almost like you wish you wish you had what what he was thinking about.

SPEAKER_04 53:36

Someone write the fic.

SPEAKER_05 53:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 53:38

Oh, good idea.

SPEAKER_05 53:40

Uh-oh, brainworm. Yeah. Irina. If somebody if you could get on that. Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap.

SPEAKER_03 53:48

Hello. Irina or Sasha.

SPEAKER_04 53:51

Anybody?

SPEAKER_05 53:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:53

Anyone that's better at it than me.

SPEAKER_05 53:56

Because I've never done it. Can you please get on that? I would really appreciate it. Uh so anyway, back to Svetlana's look. The dress, it's you know what? No, I'm gonna even go past the hair, the dress, the thing. It is Aura and it is swagger on her.

SPEAKER_04 54:11

Oh, yeah. 90%. The dress is not wearing her. She is wearing that dress. She's wearing the dress. 10,000%. You put that dress on anybody. You put that dress on me, I look like a fat piece of shit.

SPEAKER_05 54:23

Babe, I'm gonna look like a lounge chair. I'm gonna look like a motherfucking like lazy boy. Like, they'll be like, why are those chains up in there? What are you mm-mm? No, no, that is not that's not the dress for Boston Lizzie. No, no, no, not happening. But on her, yes, please.

SPEAKER_04 54:42

Are you to the bathroom?

unknown 54:44

Oh, yeah, I'm to the bathroom.

SPEAKER_05 54:46

Also, shout out to this set because the the the camera panning down and the the chandelier and all of that, like the and he you see him loosen up as he comes down the stairs, which is nice. Like she finally releases his hand and he can tell, like, okay, like I'm with a safe person, and I trust that where she's taking me is gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_04 55:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 55:09

And then where does he end up? In the bathroom, face to face with Sasha. Who is what's Sasha doing, Natalie?

SPEAKER_04 55:21

Cocaine.

SPEAKER_02 55:29

You nailed that. You absolutely nailed that. But I also love because they've ended up. I can't.

SPEAKER_04 55:38

That was good. Well, they interviewed Caden Connors and they were asking him about this scene and what he was actually snorting. And I don't remember what he said it was, but he was like, it was awful. It was because he was still because he was still having to actually like snort whatever it was, and he was like, I it was awful.

SPEAKER_05 55:59

Oh no. Oh, I can't imagine. Um, also, I apologize to everyone. I have to get on my mirrors soapbox. Yeah, mirrors go because this one is we're back to the two. Oh, God, and like the maze that it creates of when you have the two mirrors on opposite walls. Fundamentally, I have so many questions about the planning that goes into where the camera angles are and making sure that you don't see like the boom mic and the people moving around, all that stuff. Like the practicalities of that. But symbolically having the images bounce back and forth between either wall and the different positions that Ilya gets stuck in, and where he gets stuck in between Svetlana, who's you know, symbolic of safety and sasha, who's symbolic essentially of danger. Right. Um and of his past, I think. And of his past, sure, absolutely, and just how he goes back and forth between those two as as they move through the scene. I j I mean this this might be this and the funeral scene are my favorite mirror scenes because of of how much it tells you about the story, even without the actors speaking, I think. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. Um, so this is the still so this is the still shot when I was like, why is Svetlana sitting next to a b in a bathtub next to Kip? Oh, you asshole. She's not. She's not, and Kip would never wear that. So who the fuck do you think you are?

SPEAKER_04 57:49

And I think that I think that these shots, like you were saying, of cutting to Svetlana with and you see her reflection, or like the back of her reflection, and then you see sh Ilya's reflection facing her, yeah, and then cutting to him again, it's almost like they they know both sides of each other. Right. So when they're looking at each other and talking to each other, they are talking to each other's like a whole person, whole self, right?

SPEAKER_03 58:17

Yeah, yeah. Damn, you're so fucking good at this. Shit.

SPEAKER_05 58:22

Oh I I hope it makes me mad. It makes me so upset, doesn't it? Don't you get so pissed off when you look at it and you're like, oh, wait, damn it! It fucking worked. It worked so fucking good. I'm sitting here talking about it. I've seen it a million times and I'm a million times.

SPEAKER_00 58:41

Fucking grassbug.

SPEAKER_05 58:42

Also, can I get a head count on who would want to take a fucking bath and that bath? Because that looks good. I would do it. Give me some bubbles. Light me a motherfucking candle from Mount Washington Candle Company.

SPEAKER_04 58:54

Will I almost grabbed it, but it's it's sitting now on my wax warmer.

SPEAKER_05 58:58

And then wax everywhere. I know I just took mine upstairs. Um, but yeah, like fully done.

unknown 59:06

I can grab it. I can grab it.

SPEAKER_05 59:08

Oh, nice. Oh, good job. Mount Washington. Mount Washington. We love you, Will. We love you. But yeah, the the like gilded bathroom, and then all of a sudden, you know, Ilya's like semi-relaxed and you know, jacket off, and he's leaning and you know Well, they're talking hockey now. Well, now, yeah, like it's the topic that he's he's all with.

SPEAKER_04 59:29

Yeah, and she said, You're gonna you can win the cup.

SPEAKER_03 59:32

So of course he's gonna be like, tell me, tell me how lay it out for me. Tell me. I w I want to know.

SPEAKER_04 59:40

And this is so awesome. Like, what a great little monologue from her. And I say that, and right as I said that, it cut to Ilya clapping.

SPEAKER_05 59:52

That's right, Ilya. I did think she does, and she's the way she delivers this so super casually. It's like she's making a grocery list, right? Like, yeah, and she's almost talking to him like he's like he's not plugged in at all, which to be fair, he's not, like, he's not the one with the hockey IQ, like they talk about Shane having. He plays really well, but it's not his life. Yeah, and he even says that when he's talking to Shane about her, she knows everything. Everything, right? And nothing illustrates it better than this, where she's just spouting and she's got it down.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:30

I also just realized that when she first comes up and gets Ilya, her dad's just like, Oh, you you like talking about hockey, and she's like, only when we're winning. And then we come downstairs, and what does she do? Has a whole conversation with Ilya about hockey.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:45

But she's having a conversation about how he's well. That's what I'm saying. She's like, I'm not gonna talk to you.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:49

She's like, I'm not gonna fucking talk to you about it. No, I don't talk to you unless we're winning. Okay, right. I'm gonna go take my friend.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:56

You're you're cranky about losing, so I'm gonna I'm gonna come talk to him. I'm done with you. Oh my god. See, now I'm back on the dress.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:04

I am it's so beautiful. She looks incredible. She does incredible, and I I I just love her hair in this scene too. It's it's just done so well. It's it's it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:19

It's in the the like the swagger aura thing that I mentioned is I don't know, it's just like very much in charge without being motherly.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:31

And it's it's a high best friend energy.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:36

Yeah. Looks like someone who knows who knows what they bring to your table.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:40

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:42

And knows what you bring to their table too.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:44

Right. And nothing says it more, I think, than her just like fully bowing out once she's done. Like once she said her piece, she's like, All right, you guys do your thing, I'm going to bed.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:53

Yeah. All I needed to do was facilitate this. I'm done. And I'm done.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:58

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:59

And then we go to Sasha, which I recently learned. Sorry, Caden, I am gonna say this. Uh apparently his Russia, his Russian is awful. Oh no, I didn't hear. I didn't hear that. Apparently, it's not good. Well, I don't know. I mean, why the fuck would I know? I don't know. I wouldn't know. But I I know that Sasha confirmed it. So no, well, Alexandra. Sorry. We ah got it. Alexandra is also Sasha. Oh, that friend's confusing.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:28

Our friend Alexandra, friend who's also also goes by Sasha. Goes by Sasha, right. That gets very confusing. Yeah, so we'll just we'll stop that.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:36

So um, but yeah, so she did also kind of she also confirmed she was like, Yeah, it's not good.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:41

Oh no. Yeah. Again, I couldn't, I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:44

And then we have Sasha, you know, basically propositioning Ilya. And I think that at this point he's pulling out all of the tricks that he used in the past that got him going.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:58

Right. And he just wants, he's just trying to get Ilya to just talk to him at the start, right? He's like, so Sasha, how do you like Paris? How do you, you know, what's it like? Yeah, the club are great. You know, he's he's fabricating this two-way conversation, trying to get Ilya to participate in it. Ilya wants nothing. He absolutely wants no part in it whatsoever.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:23

Oh, and it's and it's so hot the way that he rejects him because Sasha comes in, he bites his lip, and he lets it go.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:33

And then when he goes to go in again, Ilya's just like, uh I would I would give a kidney to be rejected like that. I'll take that rejection.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:44

And I literally, and that's what he just said. Seriously?

SPEAKER_05 1:03:47

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:49

He's like, I'll let it says serials now. You don't want this. And he's like, I thought this used to be what got you going. A little bit of danger. Mm-hmm. A little bit of a little bit of this, a little bit of that. And Ilya's like, We're not kids anymore, you little piece of shit. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:15

And Sasha's like, You're right, let me grab your dick.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:20

And Ilya's like, that is not what I meant. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:23

I'm gonna try this strategy for my next trick.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:29

And I love this because he does it and then you see Ilya put his hand up. So he said, he's leaned back and he said, No. Right. He said, Are you serious? And now he physically has rejected him. And I think that it's very interesting and or not interesting, it's very important to note that once Ilya has made his feelings clear, Sasha goes away.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:55

True. Also, a beautiful parallel to our consent king having to clearly give the no signal so many times before it's received.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:13

And I just noticed that it's another mirror. And and we are and we're seeing two of each event. So again, we have we have them both seeing all of each other. Even even though Ilya's rejecting him, right? They know they know who the other person is.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:32

They know like they've Sasha knows.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:35

He's like, You're saying no to me right now, but I know that you haven't said no to me before. Before, right? Like this is a position we've been in.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:42

And the look on sh the look on Ilya's face watching Sasha grab his stuff, he looks like he's gonna fucking kill him. Seriously? Yeah, I oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:52

Like fucking eye daggers. I'm like, Jesus. Do you think do you think right before that there's any hesitation on his?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:00

part Iliad's part?

SPEAKER_05 1:06:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:04

Hesitation on what?

SPEAKER_05 1:06:05

Like letting him do it or like he there's the lip bite and then right before right before he grabs his dick. It's it's almost like he like considers it for like a split s I don't know. And it's and who knows who I it's such a like it's such a quick um it's such a quick interaction.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:30

His his arms are crossed the whole time. Sure.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:33

Yeah. So body language is definitely giving giving no.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:38

Yeah he's like so he's like this and he's like we're not kids anymore. And then he grabs him and to me it looks like Ilya tightens up more.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:48

And he's like kind of pushing he's leaned back yeah and I think he's yeah I think he's wanting Sasha to back off and then when he doesn't that's when he gets the handout. Yeah and then he remains he does he like pushes him away and then just recrosses his arms. Yeah just keeping himself totally totally blocked off.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:11

And I love that he watches him get his stuff but then he's like disconnect and he goes and checks his phone and I I swallowed my heart at this point because I was like oh my god he's like wanting to see if there's another message or just read the one that he already got you know and oh hell yeah oh sweet baby poor thing Sasha watches him check his phone and when he sees him check his phone that's when he gets pissed and he's like alright I'm gonna go find another party shot down Sasha farewell Sasha he has a tiny little head shake at the very end who Ilya does after checking his phone yeah he puts it down and when he puts his hands back on the thing he's looking up he shakes his head a little bit oh my god he does damn you oh I hate everything right now oh my god oh yeah we love you we love you so much we're so sorry it's gonna get better oh well I think that's a good place to stop but it's a good place to stop next me crying yeah next will hit spring 2014 oh wow that's in Montreal in Montreal yeah that's the next thing oh yeah yeah mm-hmm mm-hmm next next exil next exilia winning the cup hell yeah yes bitches all right y'all now we have to move on to our fanfic recommendations for the week rex rex ficrex I believe I have mine on my phone but if I don't you may be responsible for you doing yours while I locate mine I can just do mine to start to give you time for yeah do your do yours to start and then I'll find I'll find so y'all listen I just I'm sorry okay all of my my fake my fake recommendations as of late have all been smut which is fine and Natalie do not apologize I'm not I'm I I'm just saying you're safe you're safe here right you're safe here you're right you're right okay right all right all right all right all right okay so this one is uh it's called Shane Takes Two um and I am not fully through with it I think I'm like um like about halfway through with it um and it is uh it's lovely so far it is essentially uh Ilya finding a third for him and Shane because Shane has expressed that he wants that and it is so adorable.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:17

I went into it thinking that I would just read like a couple couple lines and be like okay it's not really for me because you know sometimes that kind of stuff isn't isn't really for me that those stories for these types of characters because I don't know even though ethical nominogamy I understand it all I just I don't know I don't know if I could watch my partner be with somebody else I don't know valid totally that's a little far for me um but it's really cute and so I highly suggest checking it out um let me see what the is there a little a little too long no there's not a too long didn't read but yeah it's a threesome change I love it and somebody else and it's lovely and written very well uh by the user frequent moment so very nice oh that's a good that's a good screen name so mine is called Predator Instinct by I'm gonna spell it E-L-U-M-I-S-H and the summary is Kip likes hunter's teammates more than he expected to which is to say not all that much some of them are good some of them are great some of them are terrible and a lot of them just have no idea how to talk to a queer person oh dear lord it's cute it's good it's a it's a short one I tend to read shorter ones because I can like read it in one go but if I have if I have longer ones I like I find that I like lose my place and I just I'm a hot mess. So this one the the one that I have it's 11,000 words okay this it's not terrible that's not terrible that's the the short ones that I usually read are like 5,000. So I feel like 11,000 and it's like all right I'll do it's like reading two of them.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:05

Yeah right that's I'm gonna compromise and we really need to go we really need to go back through our episodes and see how many times we do like the same thing I'm sorry but like the number of times that we do the stupidest fucking shit at the same time it's ridiculous. All right now oh oh and bogue and vogue all right all right we and we're fine so our final little segment is the yeats the yeats so um I will take the yeet out this week yeah we're fucking mad at you guys well not you guys but not you guys other you not you like specifically but like you other other bays gays and nays uh but today there was lots of chatter about the the art the art that was being farted on the freely given art freely given created uh free of will to use and y'all and people are fucking shitting on it what and I and I can't it drive it's like and the irony of this is that I I kind I've missed some of this discourse because I was I had like a little brain worm and I was like writing one so I kind of honestly it's all the same shit.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:28

I know it's all the same shit and it just and it just gets recycled yeah um but the idea so I use this I use this comparison with with children and I'm going to use it to help you all okay say you buy a bottle of of hair care for for whatever type of hair maybe you have no hair and you buy lotion fine on the back of the bottle there is a 1-800 number right yeah how many people do you think call that 1-800 number to say how much they love their shampoo if any of our users are working in customer service for those lines oh my god please tell me give us information but I I seriously like you because I know that people call they do but they don't they don't call to say like how great they think the shampoo is right they call it a bitch about some people do Gerard's best friend he just sends random emails to random companies being like he sent an email to herbal essences once being like man for some reason every time I use your shampoo it makes me sick and they're like oh no and he's just like yeah I mean I've tried it with so many different types of foods but for some reason it just makes me sick every time and they emailed him back and they were like our products are not meant to be consumed those poor people that have to like he oh he's done it so many times he's done it so many times he's so great.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:00

Shout out to you Craig we love you oh my god what a fucking mess at any rate my point being that this is not an 800 number where you get to lodge your fucking complaints right this is this is not a a product that has been tested and whatever some of these haven't even been beta so like shut the fuck up if you have something to complain about call your fucking mom call your fucking mom mine's dead I can't even fucking call her so I'm gonna call somebody else to fucking complain about that. Wish mine was dead I know we all have problems but fic writers are like real people who are like staying up late at night because they have an idea they can't stop thinking about and they just are feeling brave and want to share it.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:45

So shut the fuck up it's like it's like the people making the edits it's like this is this is stuff that like that it I made I made edits because I could not get an idea out of my head. I don't even make edits right it wasn't good but it was still an idea that I had to get out of my head and I would have been like so sad if someone was like this is fucking shit.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:07

Yes I'd be like people I know because I made it you know and like tell me be a dick about it.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:12

Right. And speaking as somebody who like I don't necessarily consider myself a writer but I like to write that it's so hard to put something out there that you have made whether it is writing or art or put or s or speak it I mean like even this bullshit that we're doing it's so it's so hard to make yourself vulnerable and then the idea that people just feel almost obligated to shit on it in some way when we've got shit coming from all directions people and we don't need to put more of it on each other. Yeah if you have the opportunity to be positive or supportive be excellent to each other. Be excellent.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:58

But yes fuck fine fuck honestly yeah so so we're yeetin' out anybody that is talking shit on these fan fictions and being a bag of dicks shut the fuck up I also would like to I'm gonna I'm gonna give this charge I feel like I feel like anytime we see that kind of stuff we should just all and I think I posted this on threads yeah we should all just mass comment shut the fuck up I mean someone has a post and they say like all this shit sucks and it has two likes and 70 comments and every single comment is shut the fuck up that'd be pretty funny.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:39

That'd be pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:40

That was Gerard's idea.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:42

I mean hats off to Gerard because that's so pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:46

So if you are a fanfic writer and someone's being a shit to you just let us know and we're gonna go tell them to shut the fuck up.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:53

We got you and I'm gonna read your shit and I'm gonna throw you a parade.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:57

Yeah and maybe if Liz is nice she'll send you her fan fiction back and so we're gonna yeet in supporting if you at this point even if you if you're not a commenter that's fine but leave kudos or even even just if leave kudos and then leave a comment that said that says double kudos or something.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:26

It doesn't have to it doesn't have to really be anything specific but like totally literally one of the best things ever that I got on when in the Heartstopper fandom I wrote something and I wrote and it was multiple chapters and one of the nicest comments I got was I wish that I could leave kudos for every chapter. Oh and and that was like the the nicest thing because not every chapter is great and like even you know like you never feel that but like the fact that A they took time to read it and B took time to like make a comment and be like I want to give it more love than I was actually even able to give come on that dopamine that shit lasts you a really long time it really this can be a challenge for everybody.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:12

Ooh leave leave a nice comment on at least at least one fan fiction I love that after after listening to this so if you are listening to this right now you have 24 hours and it will self-destruct if you don't do it we will know no but I think that it just the best thing that we can do in the face of negativity is just counteract it with positivity. Doesn't mean we have to pretend like it's not there. If anything counteracting it with positivity is proving that we know it's there and we're not going to give it the space. Right. So yeah we love all of you fanfic writers please keep writing please don't let any of these fucking creeps scare you seriously people always have a lot to say from behind a screen. They do I know that very personally because my mom talked shit about me on Twitter. My God so lots of little trauma droplets I know this was a very ADHD episode also.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:16

This really was this really was I really did I didn't think my trauma dumps were going to start coming out until like episode four but we're you're starting now I mean I'm surprised we didn't get get it in one to be honest.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:29

I know this is episode 13 crazy honestly that's pretty good. All right loves before we go we did just get update that they it's it isn't fully confirmed yet but they have potentially moved up filming for season two from August to July also yeah in the screenshot that we saw it also had a summary for season two read it read it read it two hockey let me start over two rival hockey superstars disciplined Shane Hollander and cocky Ilya Rosanov yeah he's cocky face unexpected feelings amid intense professional pressure as secret hookups become harder to hide Shane and Ilya must confront whether their relationship is worth risking their careers I mean what now fucking Brad Fucking Brad man Brad ruins everything every fucking time every fucking time Brad douchebag but anyway all right y'all leave a comment on your favorite fanfic do it yeah do it take a screen take a screenshot of it send it to us yeah and then and we'll leave you a nice comment read Liz's fic too oh my god goodnight Nat good night Liz good night Liz