I love the way it took ilya 4 separate attempts to find out if shane’s single until shane finally gave him a clear answer 😅
Did you bring anyone with you?
Did someone take you shopping?
This has nothing to do with rose landry?
So you and her……
and then even when he got the answer, he wasn’t completely sure of his vocab so had to look it up to be certain! Ilya was really trying his best in that convo

Connor Storrie is so good in his physical acting the way he expresses how Ilya compartmentalizes, like in ep 4 when he shakes off what he is feeling to go back to the living room with Shane.  It's also the way he displays how Ilya is not that confident in himself and often has to psyche himself up to handle a situation like in this episode where he sees Shane enter the bar, silently mouths "okay" to himself and chugs the rest of his beer.  He will do something like this again in ep 6.

Ilya recognizing Miles for who he is at the club is because he’s been obsessively watching all the paparazzi coverage of Shane an Rose. So even though Miles gives Ilya a “oh you are hot and I’m getting a vibe” nod, Ilya staring back at Miles is for a completely different reason. God I love the details of this show. Definitely NOT something you can talk or doomscroll through.

the police car driving by during their call fucking kills me... ilya puts the phone down and literally watches the oppressive part of his country (and home since his family is all cops) pass by before he can admit that he loves shane

2:45 As soon as Ilya tells his brother that their father asked him to bring home bread from the store in Ep 1, anyone who has seen dementia develop in a loved one can see a whole horror show about to unfold. He doesn’t know what continent his son is on. And by Ep 2 he is forgetting that his first wife is dead and losing the train of conversations. Even the over the top crankiness could be a symptom, as dementia often enhances the worst personality traits.

51:53 In that moment Ilya thought that Shane was going to tell him he was getting married to Rose.

For a little historical context, Russia has enjoyed multiple periods of (relative) openness to sexual diversity, but by the time the series starts, the cultural/legal/institutional rise of homophobia under Putin has already started, and it just gets worse, and worse, and worse, and worse over time, until you have laws that essentially make it an act of terrorism for someone (especially a famous person) to say they are queer, without shame. Ilya's relationship to his home country is a little like a frog in a boiling pot. (Thank goodness his dad passed, frankly, or he might have stayed boiling.)

When they meet it’s 23rd December 2008 episode 1 goes to June 2011.
Episode 2 is July 2011 to June 2014.
Most of episode 3 takes place October to December 2013 but the olympics scenes are February 2014.
Episode 4 is July 2014 to January 2017 (tuna melt sleepover is October/november 2016).
Episode 5 takes place January 2017 to June 2017.
Episode 6 is all July 2017


They were 17 when they met and 26 at the end of episode 6. Their birthdays are may (Shane) and June (Ilya).

In the Tampa bar scene, Ilya is full of fear that he's going to learn that Shane is moving deeper into his relationship with Rose because he doesn't know yet that they're no longer an item.

46:24 When they're talking about Shane centering Ilya, they mean it in terms of their positions on the ice. On a forward line in hockey, you've got a center (the playmaker, like a point guard in basketball) and two wingers (right and left). Ilya himself is a center, and Shane is a center as well, which means they wouldn't play on the same line if they both kept their natural positions. Svetlana is suggesting that Ilya and Shane COULD play on the same line if Ilya moves to the wing (because she knows he can play that position--he's "versatile," let's say lol) while Shane stays center.

Both Shane and Ilya play "center" which is the player that stands at the center of the formation opposite the other teams center to receive the dropped puck when play starts. This happens at the start of the game/period and also every time the game resets after the refs blow their whistle to stop the play (so it happens frequently - about 50-75 times throughout every game). Being the player at center means it's your responsibility to gain possession of the puck for your team first and it's a position for the best players. So Svetlana was saying that Ilya could play Shane's wing instead which is the position on either side (right and left) of the center position. He found the position change suggestion incredibly insulting because she was basically saying that Shane was the better player. Haha

maria to scott "he deserves sunshine, and so do you" and then the song that plays is singing about sunshine for the kiss 😭it makes me cry every time

One more is arriving to the cottage soon. We're all there for more than a month now

We’re all waiting for you at the cottage, my dude. ❤

I'll believe in anything is overshadowed by all the things she said as the show's perfect needle drop but that "i need sunshine" in the lyrics squeezes my heart in the best way!!!

You're absolutely right about the importance of the music to understanding the characters and action. When Shane finally says he and Rose are not compatible, the background music changes, sounding like the DJ is just doing their job, but the beat is faster and the music more upbeat, reflecting Ilya's happiness that Shane and Rose are no more. Check out the lyrics you can hear in between the dialogue in the big Skip kiss scene. Of course there's "I need sunshine," the callback to episode 3 (Tierney's first job once the series was green lit was to get rights to the Wolf Parade song, because he'd integrated it so completely into the scripts), but you also hear "I'll share a life and you'll share a life" and when they get on the ice together "I could give you my apologies" and "I could take away your shaky knees" describing what Scott and Kip, respectively, are doing in that moment. Tierney's a genius.

Edited to add: I love how their goodbye in the hotel at the All Star game (the last hotel hook up in the series) mirrors their first in episode 1. This time, Shane is leaving Ilya's room, and Ilya is on the bed dealing with his feelings after Shane leaves.

Call me a sappy romantic, but I'm such a sucker for a scene where one member of a couple is really good with kids, and the other watches on fondly (clearly picturing what it would be like to have a family one day).

Yes, as an older gay man who in my youth tried to perform with a girl, (Like Shane I had to picture a hot man to keep it up!) Shane’s experience is very real. I also came up with a plausible deniability. Luckily, she was my Rose! I left with my manhood and integrity intact! I can only hope she was as cool with her own sons, should that have been the case!

46:45 Shane and Ilya both play the same position (center) and each team has only one center out at a time. When they talk about Ilya getting "centered", they're referring to pushing Ilya into a different position (right wing) so that they can both play in the same shift. Svetlana suggests that Ilya is a sufficiently adaptable player that he would do well at the all-star game even playing in an unfamiliar position

The monologue on the phone. The absolutely gacked Shane after his injury with Ilya in the hospital room. The Scott and Kip celebration and reactions from everyone, but ESPECIALLY Shane and Ilya.
I have died. I have been resurrected. I have cried. I have squeed like I haven't in aeons. Truly, what a time to be alive.