screaming crying on my knees begging pls share your thoughts on the shower scene in episode 4 i am SO intrigued
Okay so just to preface, I'm not the only person who has thoughts along this line regarding Ilya in the shower in episode four, and I think others have probably talked about it too, and probably more eloquently.
That being said, this has sort of been my interpretation of that scene from the beginning and some of this could be confirmation bias. I have no real direct evidence for a lot of it. However, I really think that there are indicators in the end of that scene that imply we're just fully inside Shane's head at that point. The non-exhaustive list goes something like:
The way that the staircase in Shane's apartment is framed when Rose is going up. There's a kind of vertigo-inducing quality to the whole thing, and I think also a mirrored aspect that we don't see the only other time we see a shot focused on that staircase i.e. when Shane and Ilya are kissing their way up the stairs in the montage at the beginning of the episode. This show is alllll about parallels, and it's crucial to me that everyone recognizes that the All The Things She Said scene could be interpreted as a direct parallel to the My Moon My Man Montage. Kissing up the stairs -> Rose climbing the stairs while Shane watches. Ilya holding Shane's face against the couch -> Shane patting Rose's hair while trying to fuck her. Showerhead Shower Head -> Ilya masturbating in the shower. I say not for the last time: I have no direct evidence for this. But the parallels are there, and they're important.
All The Things She Said by t.A.T.u is diegetic in the scene, i.e. it's actually supposed to be playing in the club. The Harrison version is NOT. To me, this is meant to be indicative of the sort of distortion that being drunk and upset can have on a memory. As soon as the Harrison version of ATTSS starts playing, we're inside Shane's mind--we're replaying the night as he remembers it.
(Small aside here: Another reason I think the Harrison needle drop is the point at which we enter Shane's recollection of the night, rather than what actually happened, is because I don't think Miles was actually kissing the back of his neck like that. If that had actually happened I don't think Shane would have been chill about it. I think that's a weird detail that Shane's very conflicted mind slipped in there when he was thinking about it later--crucially, while mid-sex. I have no evidence for this.)
This is further amplified by the rapidly switching POVs. We see Rose kissing Shane's stomach, and then we see Ilya in the club. We see Shane taking off his shirt and Rose dropping to her knees, and then we see Ilya in the shower. Voyeur perspective, as though watching from around a door. We see him (and this is crucial, I'm so serious) scratching his ass. Clearly, the idea is that he's alone. But the door is open! Who showers alone with the door open? Someone who lives alone, sure, but also--someone who doesn't mind if they can be seen? Someone who's comfortable with whoever might be in the next room?
(The sound of the shower when Ilya leaves the bed after taking Shane's virginity is loud. Almost as if the bathroom door is still open.)
Anyway. Immediately after we see Ilya in the shower for the first time we see Shane on the bed with Rose and he is fully hiding his face. He is not looking at her. He has his head in the bed and his eyes completely closed. Next time we see Ilya, the shot gets brighter. So bright that he's basically haloed. His arm is speeding up, he's getting close.
Ilya in the club again. Standing STILL. And Shane is looking at him and--hmm. Where did the champagne he had in his hand go? I've seen people explain the absence of it by saying that he dropped it when he saw Ilya. I think a large amount of broken glass on the floor would get more attention from the surroundings than is seen in that shot--that is to say, it would get SOME, but Shane is standing alone. So is Ilya. Everyone else is moving around them. More of the memory-distortion. That shot is what it FELT like to Shane, to see Ilya in that club.
Here's the really important part. (It's all important but this is the part that really drives me insane) At the very end of the scene we hear three things: Ilya moaning, Rose moaning, Shane moaning. Ilya's moans are distorted, breathy and have this dreamy quality which implies to me, at least, that they are not diegetic. They are not actually happening. And we only hear them when he's making eye contact with the camera (i.e., Shane). Crucially, the only time we hear Rose moan is at the very end of Ilya's, and they seem to almost bleed into one another. Rose's moans are also non-diegetic, as if they're not actually happening in that moment. The only diegetic moans in that entire scene are Shane's. And his moans are the only ones that don't come through in that weird, airy filtered way.
Interestingly--and you can take from this what you will--when Ilya comes (I think that's the implication of that last shot) it's in a close-up on his face, mouth open. Now obviously there's a Doyalist explanation for this, which is: they couldn't show his dick. But the camera could have stayed zoomed out on his body, on the motion of his hand. But it showed his face. Hmm. The same view you might have of him if you were. I don't know. Under him? While he came?
That's also when Shane comes. So.
Okay well that ended up being way more of an exhaustive list than I thought it would be. I do want to emphasize that the thing that blew this whole thing wide open for me is when I realized that the bathroom shown behind Ilya at the beginning of the scene is NOT the same one we see him in at the end. Various people have put forth the theory that it's the bathroom of the girl he went home with (I know he didn't do that in the book but we're talking show canon and the show never makes it clear what happens with that girl--in book canon, Shane ALSO does not go home with Rose that night, so) but this doesn't make sense to me because why?? would he be jerking off in the shower?? if that was the case.
("Maggie what about what you just said about Ilya in the bathroom after the deflowering--" I know what I said and to be clear SHANE is having a FANTASY. He's blending multiple things in his brain in the hope that one of those things will be enough to get him hard and make him come. So he thinks about Ilya and he thinks about Ilya some MORE and he thinks about Ilya that night when he felt so good and safe and good under him and then he thinks about watching Ilya shower in the aftermath and how intimate it felt and then he thinks about Ilya jerking it at him in the shower and then they all combine in his brain. Like. This is probably very similar to what happens in Shane's brain when he masturbates. 2+2 equals Ilya Rozanov.)
So yeah! I think that whole scene is purposefully framed to imply that Shane is thinking about Ilya while having sex with Rose and if some all-knowing being appeared before me and told me that I could ask it whatever I wanted, this would probably be near the top of the list. DID Jacob Tierney intend for this. I think yes, but I would really love to know.
