Heated Rivalry
Episode 3
Season 1
Episode 3
Editor’s Rating
While it’s thrilling for there to be another gay hockey player, this week’s episode feels especially PG after the show’s near-pornographic launch.
Photo: HBO Max
Did you think there were only two gay hockey players? Well, as it turns out, they’re all gay. At least, one more is — Scott Hunter — and three is enough for me to assume that all hockey players are gay until proven otherwise. The third episode of Heated Rivalry takes us into a totally different story, based on a different Rachel Reid book in the series, Game Changer. It focuses on the forbidden romance between Scott Hunter (whom we previously saw hanging out with Hollander in Sochi) and his juice-bar barista, Kip. It’s forbidden because hockey players and smoothie-makers should never mingle. Just kidding — it’s because they’re both boys. But don’t worry about things getting repetitive, because their cheesy, wholesome (with a W) love story is markedly different from Hollander and Rozanov’s rough-and-tumble tryst.
That romance, which we watched play out between the two rivals in the first two episodes of the series, was initially driven by physicality and sexual tension. We watched their fascination with each other grow and evolve from stolen glances in the shower to bold (yet strategic) invitations to hotel rooms. Dick pics taken from perplexing angles were shared, massive butts were on full display, body parts were put inside other body parts — with their contentious rivalry lending itself to their sexual dynamic. But just as we were settling into that compelling story, the show pulled a bait and switch. Hollander and Rozanov are cut from the metaphorical team, and their dynamic slow burn is traded in for something much more cliché and formulaic.
Unlike the drawn-out situationship we saw last week, Scott and Kip hit the ground running the second Scott (wearing a skintight Under Armour shirt that you can see his abs through, a ploy to win us over) steps into the smoothie shop, and the pair flirt over the euphemistic addition of an extra banana. He even gives Kip a big tip — and does so again later in the episode, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. After a few run-ins like this, Scott even invites him to one of his games (an ill-advised — but in this case successful — attempt to win over a gay guy). While Kip’s certainly infatuated, he’s still not certain if Scott is even gay.
But the real turning point in their flirtation comes via a run-in at a fancy gala that Kip is working at as a cater waiter. And given the genre, this is, of course, a literal run-in. But after Kip cleans up the tray he spilled on Scott, who’s there as an attendee, the hockey player asks if he wants to get Mexican food after the event. Gay or not, Scott clearly is inexperienced with caring for bottoms. But when the restaurant is packed, Scott pivots and invites Kip back to his place to order takeout — a move so smooth I wonder if he knew it would be impossible to get a table. While all signs have been pointing in this direction, it’s only once they arrive at Scott’s apartment that we finally get proof that he is, in fact, gay: There is no overhead lighting.
And while all those warmly lit lamps are our first bit of confirmation, that’s quickly followed by Scott stripping down and the pair having sex. At least that’s what I think happens; the scene is so dark that you can barely make it out. It’s too bad he didn’t have more of those lamps in the bedroom. Afterward, Scott asks Kip to stay and spend the night, and thank God for that, because in the light of day the next morning, we see that the smoothie barista is also built like a pro athlete. “Can I fuck you?” Scott asks him after he makes him yet another one of these magical smoothies, but in a twist of cruel and unusual punishment, the show skips right over that. You’ll have to turn to apps other than HBO Max to get your nooner fix. Are we sure this is the same television program we watched last week?
Even after two (barely visible/off-camera) rounds, the admittedly intense Scott reiterates that he wants Kip to stay and be there when he gets home. But what’s the deal with this insane U-Hauling? As it turns out, it might have something to do with the fact that this is the first time Scott has ever brought someone back to his place, because (you guessed it) he’s closeted. To quote Abby Lee Miller, “Boring! Yawning! Sloppy! Lazy!” I’m generally disinterested in stories where the only conflict is “being gay.” At least when it came to the also-closeted Hollander and Rozanov, their identity struggles were perhaps the least important conflict playing out across those episodes. There were several far more interesting issues at hand, which made for a much stronger and more dynamic story.
But in this case, it’s painfully simple: They fall in love, but one is closeted for whatever reason, so it has to be a secret, but the other one doesn’t like being a secret. Roll credits! But naturally, Kip at first thinks he can facilitate Scott’s needs, and a honeymoon phase persists. He has Kip holed up in his gorgeous apartment like a kept man, and we see their horny frolicking play out via a montage of them making out and rolling around naked as well as a ten-second scene of them having sex that just barely keeps this episode from being fit for Hallmark.
But the cracks begin to show (not the ones you’re thinking of) when an incognito Scott decides to accompany Kip to an art gallery, but since we all know art is gay and could reveal his big secret, he panics and runs out. Despite keeping his relationship with Scott a secret (or at least trying to), Kip finally confides in his friend Elena, who is rightly wary. She goes on to tell Scott as much herself when they’re all at yet another one of those galas that hockey players and smoothie-makers are always crossing paths at. She tells him that Kip is miserable being kept a secret and says, “He deserves sunshine, and so do you.”
But despite this conversation, Scott drops the ball (or puck?) at his first chance to give him the sunshine he deserves and needs. When Kip tells him that his friends are throwing him a small birthday party, Scott tells him that he can’t handle going. While he insists that he wants to tell everyone and be out in the open, he can’t just yet. Give it a few years, he says, just like Aidan putting his relationship with Carrie on ice while he went back to Virginia. I didn’t like it on And Just Like That …, and I don’t like it now. It’s at this rejection that Kip decides to finally leave Scott’s place for what feels like the first time since they met, and much like the bananas that started this all, they split.
Kip returns to his life and has a melancholy birthday, which Scott watches from outside the bar for dramatic effect. As for him, when it comes time for the Sochi Olympics (a good reminder that this show takes place in 2014, back when Ellen was still the only gay person), he puts on the lucky banana socks that Kip gave him, then puts a pair of athletic socks over them. It’s a nice sprinkle of symbolism to mark the end of this cute but basic episode, one that feels especially PG after the show’s pornographic launch last week. While part of me does appreciate that we’re getting a wide range of gay stories on this anthology-esque show, from Hallmark to smut, it’s a tough adjustment after last week and feels a little like typing in “love” as a search phrase on Pornhub. But we’ll adjust if it means more hockey asses on television. Speaking of …
Let’s keep track of all the butts in this show. Here, a handy guide:
• 26:54: Blink and you’ll miss Scott’s hockey butt during this naked make-out.
• 27:23: And it’s back again, this time featuring Kip’s hand gripping his tree-trunk thighs while he’s on top of him … just two Brody Jenners in love.
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