Heated Rivalry has captured hearts, minds, and other body parts during its first season. With episode 5 came some of the most iconic moments from the books and while there were a few misses, its a wholly enjoyable episode of television that has me excited for the finale.
First and foremost, Episode 5 of Heated Rivalry is an incredible exercise in adaptation. Jacob Tierney has been respectful of the source material thus far, but found his way into the story and made unique changes. But this episode is on another level. It’s like he got on set, shook the book real hard, and out came the episode. It’s wild to witness this level of dedication to the page and I found that it mostly worked for me. Though I do wonder if that’s more because this was my favorite section of the book as Ilya and Shane finally open their mouths and communicate properly.
However, what is perhaps most fascinating of all is that this episode is bereft of sex scenes. It’s like an episode built for the worst Gen-Z people you’ve seen online who complain about sex and just want illusions to it. This episode is almost puritanical in comparison to the past 4 episodes, and not even to speak of the books numerous Skype and phone sex scenes. Tierney hasn’t missed much during the run of the show, but this felt like a significant miss, given the ethos of how the show views sex and makes the first two episodes feel a bit rote. I have enjoyed the sex scenes, particularly in how they push the story forward, but if the sex had to go to make room for all the character stuff, why was there not a stronger balance in the beginning of truly fleshing out the world (especially as it pertains to Shane’s race, which is still woefully underaddressed)? I absolutely see what he’s attempted to do in this episode, by giving the feelings and declarations of love all the space, as well as allowing the two important women in the men’s lives their moment, but it does feel a bit counterintuitive to what he’d presented before.
This lack of smanging really put the focus on the actors in a way they had not been asked to carry an episode before, and both of the main billed . Hudson Williams continues his rise as Shane finally has to confront some harsh truths and finally gets to speak his mind. The scene with Rose where he admits for the first time he’s gay is some superb work and Hudson really nailed all the nuances. But he’s just as compelling to watch when he’s high on drugs (the less said about the accident scene and aftermath were filmed the better). Connor Storrie, who has taken up the lion’s share of the oxygen, gets to really prove himself as we dig into Ily’as more vulnerable side. It’s so clear as a writer that Rachel loves and understands Ilya the most, and this episode is a showcase for that. Storrie gets the famous monologue where Ilya can finally push past his upbringing and admit his feelings to Shane, but only in Russian. It’s a beautiful scene and he delivers with aplomb.
While I absolutely love the ending of the episode, I must say I did long for a scene with Scott and Kip prior to their big romantic moment. As far as we know in this story they broke up in 2014 and have not seen each other since. While in the book their kiss was a big shock, here we spent time with them, so though it did melt the icebox that is my heart, my brain felt like we jumped to the end of their story so quickly, that it almost ALMSOT, would have been worth not having their episode at all. I wonder if we’ll get a interview scene or have Scott interact with one of the main characters to fill us in on what happened in the interim.
Despite these critiques though, I think episode 5 of Heated Rivalry, much like the chapters this episode covers, really gets at the heart of what can make romance so compelling. Here we’ve got characters that have been forever changed by another person wrestling with their feelings, yearning around ever corner, humor to lift us up, and drama to bring us down. it’s a great showcase for the genre and a fun episode, hopefully leading to a good finale.