Jacob Tierney | Heated Rivalry (Season 1, Episode 4: Rose) / 2025 [TV series]

the women

by Douglas Messerli

 

Jacob Tierney (screenwriter and director, based on the novel Game Changers by Rachel Reid) Heated Rivalry / 2025 [TV series]

 

Season 1, Episode 4 “Rose”

 

Just when finally one might have imagined the relationship between Ilya and Shane is deepening, particularly as they hook up again in 2014 to 2016, there begin to be problems. Once more, some of the tension is simply due to the long periods between their love making, during which we are

asked to believe that Shane, at least, remains without another partner. But Ilya also seems to be rather celibate waiting out the periods to have sex with Shane instead of actually carrying out his affairs with other women which are nonetheless gossiped about. That handsome young men of their age are going for long periods without any sexual encounters stretches the series into incredibility.

      Those around them begin to note their constant texting and they are understandably challenged by their teammates for more details. Neither seems to participate in the standard locker talk of their colleagues, and both deny any serious relationships.

      In Boston they meet up at Ilya’s place for a sexual evening that begins to probe a bit further into their lives, Ilya, inviting Shane to spend the night, and promising to make his famous tuna melt sandwiches. But mostly new tensions arise. Ilya is worried about his father’s worsening health, but clearly is also dealing with problems with his brother. The two finally join in a pleasurable moment of frotting, calling out each other’s first names, but in the middle of their joy, Shane, for reasons not entirely explicable but certainly arising from his growing realization of his gay sexuality and the frustration of being in such a relationship that he can't even fully share with his companion, suddenly leaves.

     The act unsettles the entire relationship, spiraling this episode somewhat out of control. When friends finally insist he join them for a few drinks at a local bar where several movie actors have also gathered, Shane can no longer refuse. There he meets the star Rose Landry (Sophie Nélisse), an intelligent woman with obviously far more sexual experience than Shane. She’s also quickly charmed by the noted hockey player, and before Shane even knows what has hit him, they have entered into a very public relationship, with Rose attending many of his games and gossip of the relationship between the couple moving at a faster rate than their real friendship. Although Ilya is a noted “womanizer,” he now becomes jealous.

     After a difficult match in Montreal, they both show up in the same nightclub with friends, basically trying to outdo one another by dancing with and romancing their women, a truly gestural act that threatens, nonetheless, to possibly undo their love.

     This episode closes, however, with what we know to still be the truth, as Ilya masturbates thinking of Shane, and Shane has a frustrating time in bed with Rose.

      In all, we might describe this interlude as the least likeable episode of the series, as the two reveal to themselves and to us that it’s not really women they want.

 

Los Angeles, February 7, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (February 2026).