Spoilers for Heated Rivalry, season 1 episode 3, follow, so proceed accordingly.
Everyone is dying to see Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov on our screens again after the heartbreaking way episode two ended — the internet may never get over “we didn’t even kiss” — and get to the infamous tuna melt scene, but fans are going to have to wait because Heated Rivalry took a Game Changer detour this week.
Bisexual actor François Arnaud has shown up a few times on the show so far, playing veteran hockey star Scott Hunter, who keeps clocking the heat between Shane and Ilya, but episode three takes viewers away from their rivals-to-lovers story and throws us right into the plot of Rachel Reid’s first book in the gay hockey romance series, Game Changers.
The third episode attempts to speed-run through the entire book, only leaving the ending for later in the season. The episode starts with Scott being visibly shaken at the Sochi Olympics when his teammate brings up that gay athletes who came to Russia are “brave” and have “balls of steel” before the show backtracks to New York four months earlier.
Scott stops for a smoothie while on a run and ends up meeting his dream man instead. Kip Grady, played by Robbie G.K., makes him an off-menu smoothie, and then Scott keeps coming back after the new routine helps him win his next game, but really, it's so he can continue flirting with Kip and keep overtipping him.
Scott Hunter and Kip Grady in 'Heated Rivalry' episode 3.
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Kip, who is working at the smoothie shop while he applies to grad school to study art history, is instantly smitten too, and while his friends tease him about a star hockey player having a crush on him, the two start dating in secret after they run into each other — literally — at a charity event.
Just like the first two episodes felt like an extremely faithful adaptation of the Heated Rivalry book, episode 3 may have changed a few things for the sake of fitting it into a 45-minute episode, but it is truly a condensed version of Game Changers brought to life. Sadly, this means that there are fewer opportunities for hot gay sex since there is so much plot to get through.
But don’t worry, this is still Heated Rivalry after all, so instead of heading to a diner for their first date like in the book, Scott and Kip decide to order in at Scott’s apartment, where the only thing on the menu is Kip.
Scott Hunter and Kip Grady in 'Heated Rivalry' episode 3.
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Their chemistry isn’t as palpable as Ilya and Shane’s, but that level of intensity between actors is a rare thing; it’s just too bad that they’re all part of the same show, so that the comparison is unavoidable. Skip, as they are affectionately called by fans, still have a few hot sex scenes, and their love is playful and affectionate right off the bat. “Wow, you are so beautiful,” Scott says to Skip when he sees him naked for the first time.
Shane and Ilya may be too scared to tell each other how they feel or ever spend the night together, but Scott wears his heart on his sleeve. After their first night together, Kip tries to sneak out, but Scott coaxes him back to bed. When he finds Kip making him his signature smoothie in just his underwear, Scott picks him up and asks if he can “f*ck him?” And then after they finally manage to drink their smoothies, Scott admits that he’s never brought a guy home before, and he can’t come out yet, but he’s falling hard and doesn’t want Kip to ever leave at all. “I really, really like you and I want you to stay,” Scott says. “So I’m asking for what I want. I want you to be here when I get back from practice later, and I want you to be here when I come home from my game tonight. I want you more than I’ve wanted anything in a long time.”
Where Ilya and Shane burn for each other over the course of years as rivals become lovers, Scott and Kip’s story is about insta-love. They fall fast and commit to each other even faster, and it’s only Scott’s deep fear of being outed that causes the inevitable third-act breakup.
Scott Hunter and Kip Grady in 'Heated Rivalry' episode 3.
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But before that, we get more sex scenes — and a hint that the two men are vers when there is a call back to an earlier moment and Kip asks “Can I f*ck you?” — as well as a cute moment pulled directly from the book where Kip gifts Scott a pair of blue socks with bananas on them so that he’ll have his lucky blueberry banana smoothies even at away games.
After months of hiding and lying to his friends and family — Scott even has a panic attack when they go to an art gallery together — they attend another charity event, Scott on his own, and Kip as the date of his close friend Elena (Nadine Bhabha). We learn that Scott’s deep love of hockey and reluctance to jeopardize his place in the sport are because his parents died in a drunk driving accident when he was 12 years old, and a hockey scholarship saved him and gave him a sense of family again.
Scott Hunter and Kip Grady in 'Heated Rivalry' episode 3
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Elena, being the queen that she is, dances with Scott at the fundraiser so she can explain that Kip loves Scott enough to stay with him even though he’s miserable. “Nobody wants to be kept a secret…he’s so in love with you that he’ll put up with it, but it’s killing him,” she says. Later that night, the deception and isolation that come with being forced back in the closet finally become too much for Kip when he realizes Scott won’t even attend his birthday party as a friend, so he leaves and goes home to his dad.
Much like the heartbreaking conclusion to episode 2, the episode closes with the two men no longer together. For people who haven’t read Game Changers, this episode may seem out of place, especially because it ends fairly abruptly with the couple you spent 45 minutes rooting for breaking up, but if you’ve read the series, you would know exactly how it ties into Shane and Ilya’s love story and why director Jacob Tierney thought it was important to include.
Kip Grady and his dad in 'Heated Rivalry' episode 3.
Crave Canada
Shane and Ilya are sadly absent from this episode, except for a handful of cameo moments like Ilya chirping at Scott and Shane and Scott getting into a brawl on the ice after Scott insinuates Shane and Ilya know each other a little too well.
Now the question is, when will we get to see Scott and Kip reunite? Not only are we just about guaranteed to get a satisfying conclusion to Scott and Skip’s episode before the season is over, but the trailer for the show also gave us a sneak peak into a handful of scenes were still waiting to see, including Shane’s relationship with Rose, steamy shower blowjobs, and the infamous “tuna melt” scene, so we still have a lot to look forward to!
