“Is he okay? Fucking tell me!”
“Go to your bench, Rozanov. I’m not going to tell you again.”
There are a million reasons why the concussion scene works, but what hit me the hardest is that it emphasises one of the biggest costs of being closeted: Not being considered Next of Kin.
If Ilya was Shane’s acknowledged partner, he would be given information immediately and supported to follow Shane to the hospital. Instead, he drifts backwards on his skates, all alone in an arena where the only person who understands why he *needs* to know is unconscious.
This has been the cost of the closet for as long as queer people have lived under the radar. Partners get injured, or die, and the love of their life isn’t “family” enough to be in the room. In that moment, Ilya understands so much more about what’s at stake.
