“Heated Rivalry” takes a break from Ilya and Shane to follow another player who also has a simmering undercover romance.
After two solid episodes to start the series, “Heated Rivalry” keeps the momentum going by breaking it. Rather than continuing Ilya and Shane’s simmering years-long affair, Scott Hunter (Francois Arnaud) and Kip (Robbie G.K.), a smoothie shop employee (do we have a name for those? Berr-istas?), take the roles of our dashing superhero-built romantic leads for episode three: “Hunter”.
It’s a bold move for a show to completely ignore its main storyline just three episodes in, but showrunner Jacob Tierney clearly has a mind for pacing a season. The episode breaks up the complex emotional push and pull between Ilya and Shane (it allows us to actually experience the timeline of their affair) and elicits different feelings of yearning that both recontextualizes all that’s come before it.
“Heated Rivalry” is streaming on HBO Max.
In many ways, “Hunter” plays like a typical rom-com. Scott, the captain of the New York Admirals (in many ways a literal Captain America), is in a slump. He’s in the latter stages of his career and has city and reputation weighing on his shoulders. Perhaps a change of routine is in order? Enter Straw+Berry. Actually, Scott enters Straw+Berry to find Kip adorably napping behind the counter holding a book on art history (we love a man that takes his passions seriously!). There’s some swoon-worthy back and forth banter before Kip hands him his smoothie (with extra super secret ingredient… banana!) and Scott’s off, which is when Kip’s coworker Maria (Bianca Nugara), watching the interaction slack-jawed from the back, screams a gay battle cry, “girl!?”
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Those side characters are a huge part of the success of this episode of “Heated Rivalry” which up to this point felt staid whenever Ilya and Shane weren’t together on screen. “Hunter” often feels like an episode of “Friends”. We meet more people in Kip’s orbit like his friend and sometimes boss Shawn (Brandon Ash-Mohammed), his highly supportive dad (Matt Gordon), and the bartender at a gay bar he frequents Kyle (Matthew Finlan who was terrific in “Orphan: First Kill” a few years ago). This more fully-inhabited outside world feels so dynamic and colorful.
After some kiki-ing with his friends teasing him about the encounter and a few more adorable encounters with Scott at the Smoothie shop, Kip is invited to a game with his no-nonsense, girl’s girl, face card never declined friend Elena (a sensational Nadine Bhabha). Bhabha is one of the actors in the first three episodes that goes toe to toe with any of the now four leads of the show. She has more agency and, despite not knowing much of her backstory, feels lived and three-dimensional. It is largely her encouragement that convinces Kip that Scott is interested in some way. Another meet-cute between the pair at a fundraising event Kip is working (how he has time to maintain that body we may never know), and a series of happy mishaps, land the pair in Scott’s apartment where he hilariously takes off his clothes unbeknownst to Kip and mutters, “Do you want the full tour now or…?” Kip picks the latter. Based on the first two episodes, we know exactly what that means.
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It’s a lighter episode than the first two. It is a different but refreshing energy that is perhaps closer to what I expected when starting the show. It doesn’t take itself quite as seriously with witty banter replacing the sexually-charged back and forth between Ilya and Shane. For this short respite in the season, you feel warmth as the pair live in domestic bliss in Scott’s penthouse apartment. Yes, the basically Uhaul after the first date. That is until Kip and Scott remember that he’s a famous hockey player in a league without an openly gay player.
Arnaud and G.K.’s playful chemistry keeps you hooked, even if the writing sometimes veers into rom-com tropes. Arnaud in particular, physically imposing and brooding, finds lightness in Scott, similar to Connor Storrie’s performance as Ilya. When the romantic mirage of their courtship starts to break, it makes fallout all the more devastating. The weight of the secret dawns on Kip and, thanks to Elena’s intervention at a fundraiser in a standout scene for Bhabha, Scott. It leads to a quiet but heartbreaking confrontation where Kip invites Scott to his birthday party but refuses afraid he’ll be outed. He offers that in a few years after he retires they can be like “normal people.” Devastating for anyone, but particularly queer people.
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The episode ends on a stunning directorial note from Tierney as the camera pulls out of the bar where all his friends and dad surround Kip with a single cupcake a candle to reveal Scott watching from outside. While episodes one and two give you all the sexually-charged energy you want from a show with this premise, “Hunter” expands the more sustainable possibilities for the world and confirms Tierney understands the story he’s telling. Had we been introduced to Scott and Kip as a proper B-plot in previous epsiodes, the isolation Ilya and Shane feel as, so far as they think, the only two gay players would be undercut. This allows the show’s slow burn and emotional core to remain intact. Now, how will the pair return? I guess we’ll have to wait and find out.
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- Cannes 2024: Three great movies in Un Certain Regard
- “Heated Rivarly” episode 6 recap and review: “The Cottage”
- “Heated Rivalry” episode 3 review: “Hunter”
Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter and Letterboxd. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.
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Hey, I’m Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven’t yet seen represented. I’m also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.