Filling the Space: I’m Still Thinking About the Club Scene in Heated Rivalry’s ‘Rose’

[Filling the Space is a flexible column where our writers could vent, deconstruct, and work their way around the emotions brought on by TV, films, books, music, and key moments in pop culture. This isn’t meant to be analytical, but instead, a means of bringing our voice into a space on the internet where there’s often too much going on—a way to step into the sphere.]

In other words, help, I’m still at the restaurant. Though I suppose the restaurant is actually the cottage, which is where I’ve been and don’t plan on leaving. I wrote about Heated Rivalry’s “Rose” very briefly when writing about Ilya and Shane’s phone call scene in “I’ll Believe in Anything,” but every time the club scene crosses by social media feed, I’m right back in the middle of it. Quite frankly, I’ll never be able to listen to t.A.T.u. ‘s “All the Things She Said” without thinking about Shane and Ilya at this point.

As the kids say, it’s buzzy. It’s electrifying. There’s something so visceral that happens to all of us the moment we watch the camera turn with Ilya’s gaze, shades of pink covering him as he realizes that Shane’s at the club, too. The needle drop alone is magnetic—something about it hits right away, but one of the things Jacob Tierney and the editors are so sensational at is how they match the lyrics with the characters’ emotions. The song is Ilya and Shane at this point in their lives, but the moment it all stops, and all we have is the melody with Ilya’s head turn, something shifts completely. Every wavelength around them. Every tide. It all feels visceral.

And when the song morphs into the Harrison remix as Shane realizes Ilya is also there, before he goes to the bathroom, everything becomes twice as electrifying. At that point, I’m pretty sure I jumped off the couch and started pacing around the room because I couldn’t believe how exceptional the execution was. A scene like this on any other show could’ve been ordinary, but the club scene in Heated Rivalry is something else entirely.

It’s a true art form in its writing, directing, and every performance combined to make it the type of scene that’s brimming with depth and profound emotions. There’s not a single moment throughout the scene (the entire episode, really) where Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams aren’t bringing their A-game. Where their facial expressions aren’t wordlessly screaming the emotions that are lodged inside of them—all the feelings beating out of their chests with their hearts inside their throats. It’s messy and complex, and a lot of pain is whirling inside both of them as they hold onto different people and attempt to mask the agony as the strobe lights flash.

There’s so much angst in this scene, but the longing is what makes it so achingly beautiful because you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that all they both want is to hold onto each other like this. They want to kiss each other on the dance floor. They want to hold on and never let go and say all the things that are overwhelming them, but they can’t. And because they can’t, it makes the beat that much more intense and impeccable from a narrative standpoint.

The Heated Rivalry club scene is stunning and heavy, and so perfectly shot from start to finish that how it follows the characters to their eventual joy at the cottage is a true showcase of planting seeds and watching them grow into something bigger. And man, everyone’s just so pretty, and the pink lighting is so decadent, it results in a moment that’s just impossible to get over.

What are your thoughts on the Heated Rivalry club scene? Are you still emotional about it, or are you normal? Let us know in the comments below. In other words, come cry with us.
First Featured Image Credit: ©Crave | Screenshot via HBO Max