I spend too much of my life thinking about this show.
in the show we see vegas at the end of episode 3, and Shane leaves with the “we didn’t even kiss, thought”. Ilya is really pretty shut down and the whole bathroom after they delivered the award to him with his cigarette after Shane leaves is a very different character.
We then see them again in episode 4 where we have the frankly brilliant montage of hook ups (the kissing going up the stairs of Shane’s apartment stands out).
it always feels like we miss something, some realisation within Ilya or fuck it moment. In the bathroom “well…” scene I think it’s clear that he realises he’s hurt Shane and that Shane has caught feelings. “And if you win..” is followed by Ilya kissing him (as far as I remember), which could be signifying that Ilya is struggling with the fact that he maybe feels more than he wants to? That the prize he wants is just intimacy with Shane. But then he does win and we get a very sexual scene with a lot of walls up for Ilya. Shane tries to talk to him but nothing is getting through.
So it’s then a pretty big shift from that encounter to the ones we see in the montage. They are passionate equally and intimate and though they are hookups they are clearly different.
I feel like a scene of Ilya himself realising what he wants is sort of missing. We then get to tuna meltdown and Ilya is communicating terribly but with a big undercurrent of boyfriend.
Also, what did Shane want to talk about when he got there? We know in episode one he tried that and the book tells us that he wanted to talk to stop it but he was just not able to.
Wednesday ramblings!