heated rivalry: the socks!!! (1.04 rose)
*brennan lee mulligan voice* hello one and all! welcome back to another thrilling episode of the socks!!! carrying on the series analyzing the symbolism behind sock usage in the show (here on tumblr and here on ao3. i meant to get this done much sooner but i needed to go over shane and ilya's costumes in the first texting montage in ep 2 (on tumblr here and ao3 here) first, which required also going over all of shane and ilya's costumes in ep 1 first (on tumblr here and ao3 here). crossposted onto ao3 here.
okay so while in the first texting montage, shane and ilya's costumes gradually become similar to signify them getting on the same page, in this texting montage their costumes remain disjointed. they never fully line up. i'm gonna pull out a few moments from the montage to talk about and save a thorough analysis for whenever i get to ep 4 in my costumes meta series (tumblr, ao3).
ilya's alone while watching shane win his first stanley cup, so of course he is sock-less to match him openly being fond and proud of shane.
meanwhile, shane's back to having his emotional guard up around ilya. another fight in vegas, and while this time they did have sex, shane still leaves feeling unsettled. ilya's made it clear to shane that their relationship is purely sexual, and so shane's pulling back emotionally in order to still enjoy the sex. although this is not the first time we see shane's socks during the montage if you really pay attention, i chose this moment for the pan-up shane's body starting at his feet juxtaposed with ilya's text. ilya's reaching out again to a shane who is keeping him at a distance even if this distance also now includes sex.
this is the only commercial scene where we see shane's feet, and he's barefoot. i feel pretty confident in saying shane's comfortability doing thirst trap commercials comes from ilya awakening his sexuality. shane's commercial during the 1st texting montage is of him in a suit, and during his ep 3 commerical is shirt is unbuttoned down to his navel. by ep 4, he's now doing wet t-shirt commercials and underwear modeling. of course, shane's not excited to do these thirst trap commercials, but he doesn't look uncomfortable either. i doubt the guy who initially put on a full suit for his first hook-up with a man, and whose face shows every emotion, would be able to pull any of these commercials off if he was uncomfortable.
the debut of ilya's black ankle socks! at the draft, he's wearing white ankle socks, and white socks of indeterminate height at the 2nd international prospect cup. during his first hook-up with shane, he's wearing black socks in between crew and ankle height. considering that this texting montage includes a lot of ilya partying in moscow, these black ankle socks tell me that ilya's settled into his bad boy persona along with his sexual relationship with shane and caring for his father. a bad boy who is unexpectedly vulnerable.
i love these two swoopy shots around ilya and shane's feet. it's the same kind of swoopy shot that goes around scott and kip during their big kiss, and it again shows shane and ilya doing the same thing in different ways. ilya's on the treadmill wearing black sneakers with red accents, black tread, and black ankle socks. shane's on the rowing machine wearing his white sneakers with orangey-yellow tread and thick, white crew neck socks. interesting to note that in their first gym scene at the draft, ilya was wearing white socks and white shoes with orange tread, while shane was wearing black shoes with white accents and black and white tread, and white socks. there's an exchange going on here, where both shane and ilya have settled into their respective roles within the hockey world and within their families, as well as their sexual relationship. ilya's the bad boy of the hockey world and their relationship, with the red accents referencing his competing desires between playing professional hockey, taking care of his father, and being with shane. meanwhile shane's orangey-yellow tread represent him being the golden hockey boy, covered in the expectations of being canada's golden hockey boy, a high-achieving asian man within a white sport, and all his brand deals, but he still has phone between his feet, waiting for a text from ilya to come in.
shane's white sneakers first made their appearance during the 1st texting montage in ep 2, and his black sneakers showed back up when he's chatting with ilya in the stairwell after their first penetrative time. another indicator of shane returning to keeping ilya at an emotional distance.
i am fascinated by this little snippet inside ilya's apartment. i want to know everything about ilya's apartment in moscow so i can compare it to his place in boston. agh! anyway. ilya's father has deteriorated, he's seemingly living in ilya's apartment, and ilya's likely arguing with andrei/alexei (based off ilya's shoulders being up near his ears and all the gesturing). and grigori's wearing heeled shoes? inside? a russian home? i don't know enough about dementia or russian culture to really comment on this, maybe his hands can't handle untying shoes anymore? i would be worried about a potential increased fall risk, idk. it certainly feels pointed! if someone has a better idea, please let me know! meanwhile ilya's in his slides because he's a dutiful russian boy wearing his indoor shoes. also i love the way his slides work metaphorically, where he's still protected and not as much as before. like he's still being vulnerable in taking care of his abusive father and arguing with his brother over their father's care, and also has to guard himself from his brother's abuse and his father's deterioration. his slides work on so many levels!!!
SHANE IS NOT WEARING SOCKS. I REPEAT, SHANE IS NOT WEARING SOCKS. he's wearing boat shoes, he's relaxing at the cottage, it's the one place where he doesn't have to guard himself emotionally :,). also those are the shoes he wears during ep 6. also also, the boys are paralleling, both in shoes without socks right after each other while interacting with their fathers. once again, so similar and so different at the same time.
we can't see ilya's feet while he's watching the cottage documentary because he's hiding how he really feels about it and shane from everybody, including himself.
meanwhile shane's again wearing no socks! he's wearing slides for the talking bit, and barefoot with no shoes in sight for the yoga. he's comfortable allowing this controlled glimpse of his vulnerability.
ah, my beloved tuna melt sequence. i did have some people asking me why shane the good asian boy and ilya the dutiful russian son would both be okay with shane wearing his outdoor shoes inside. i think what's at the heart here is that this little interaction shows how shane and ilya don't really know a lot about each other. it's a similar tentativeness they have when trying to small talk later in the sequence. i can also read a metaphor here of shane wanting to take his shoes off and not knowing if he's allowed to paralleling how he initially wanted an emotional connection with ilya in the first two episodes that ilya both responded to and shut down. and then ilya really wants to make shane comfortable and doesn't fully know how to do that: shane would be more comfortable with his shoes off, and he would be more comfortable if ilya picked a different conversation topic or conversational approach than he does during the girls conversation. ilya's slides also represent how he's both being emotionally vulnerable and keeping a protective layer of plausible deniability between them. they're not on the same page, and they barely know each other outside of hockey and sex, so in trying to make the other comfortable they both make each other uncomfortable.
when ilya beckons shane back into his bed after their first round, we can briefly see shane's bare feet, representing shane's comfortability with their relationship as it stands. he's accepted his sexuality to a point, and he feels comfortable enough being vulnerable around ilya to stay the night. meanwhile, as is repeated throughout this sequence, we can't see ilya's feet. i would assume that he's sockless and naked under the covers, but i can't say for certain since he's hiding that part of his body. in a similar manner, he's hiding his true intentions from shane. he deliberately presents his plea for shane to stay the night casually to hide how desperately he wants shane to acquiesce.
a similar thing plays out in the kitchen when ilya's making the tuna melts. we can see shane's whole outfit, including his bare feet, while ilya's lower half is hidden by the kitchen island. we can only see the top of his sweatpants. he has an established habit of walking around his place in slides with no socks, but again we can't say for certain, in a similar manner to how shane can't say for certain whether ilya's being casual or serious.
when they move to the couch to watch a hockey game, we get another one of those swoopy shots, which hides, then reveals, then hides their feet again. when the shot is head on, we can see that shane's still barefoot and ilya's in his slides with no socks. ilya's feet are revealed first, as he reveals another side to ryan price that shane doesn't know. that reveal, of ryan price being different than people would think, draws a parallel to ilya also trying to reveal to shane that ilya is not what people would think. which of course shane already partially knows, given the way ilya treats shane and shane refuting ilya's assertion of his own laziness. shane's bare feet are slowly revealed as he actively listens to ilya and responds openly. his feet are completely hidden by the coffee table when ilya brings the conversation around to people's perception of shane. i think that conversational turn briefly shocks shane back into a bit of emotional guardedness since it reminds him of the oppressive layers of expectation on him. shane's face falls out of the smile he had at his own joke and he's only mollified by ilya turning his comment back into a boring joke.
in the next part of the sequence, ilya has moved to stretching out his legs on the chaise lounge and so took off his slides. he is really opening up to shane here, openly being charmed by shane and talking about his oldest friend. but his feet are still off-screen because shane still can't get a read on ilya, can't figure out why ilya is talking about his other sexual arrangements and questioning shane's attraction towards women.
when they move to eat the tuna melts, both of their feet are now hidden: they're both hiding behind plausible deniability, trying to connect without fully exposing themselves. i'm gonna leave the phone call for my costumes meta series since we can't see ilya's legs at all during that scene.
i think it is important to note that shane's feet become visible when he straddles ilya's lap. shane wants to take care of ilya, and so far ilya's rebuffed every attempt to do so. shane initiating sex in this scene is him hoping that ilya will allow at least this kind of caretaking.
but then shane freaks out and retreats. his feet are hidden again as he hides behind excuses and slips into his media training voice. there's the briefest glimpse of his bare feet when he says "i'm sorry" as a brief acknowledgement that he's just hurt ilya.
so of course ilya's back to the black ankle socks and black and red sneakers. he can't his upset from marlow/marleau, but he can hide the exact cause of his upset (i don't think marlow/marleau fully buys ilya's stubbed toe explanation, but he doesn't press ilya on it). ilya's also going to lean back into his bad boy persona that he started getting tired of during the texting montage, which puts him in direct competition with rose landry for shane's attention at the club.
which is nicely paralleled with shane wearing black socks while walking up the spiraling staircase of doom to have sex with rose landry! meaning shane was wearing black socks during the entire club scene! the club scene and this night of sex with rose landry are when shane can no longer deny to himself (for a short while, at least) that he really wants ilya. when he confronts the fact that he can't replace ilya with a woman in order to fulfill his role as the canadian golden boy of hockey. there's also an element of how much trying to fulfill that role with rose pushes shane out of himself: he's going out to a restaurant to mingle with people he doesn't know, he's drinking beer, he's going to a club after a game. he and rose have that text exchange where she promises she won't make him dance and he calls her bluff; yes, shane's smiling while he does so, and we also never see rose do what shane wants to do during their short relationship. shane does need people who will push him, and he also needs people who will enjoy shane's comfort zone. rose can't do that if they are dating because she's only shown to push shane out of his comfort zone and never join him in his comfort zone. so all in all, shane's black socks during these two sequences underscore how differently shane has to act in order to be the kind of person who dates rose landry. we don't see whether shane wears socks during sex with her, because the preceding scenes already establish emotional guardedness.
while we don't know if shane is wearing socks while having sex with rose, we do know for sure that ilya is not. ilya's in the shower, fully nude, getting himself off to thoughts of shane, because he can no longer deny to himself that he wants shane specifically. in the book, he fully intended to sleep with the woman at the club but the woman called it off; we get no such indication in the show. so instead of sleeping with a beautiful woman obviously into him, ilya instead chooses to jerk off to thoughts of shane having sex.
like i said with the texting montage, shane and ilya's costumes never fully align; they're always disjointed, at least a little out of step, this whole episode. white crew neck socks vs. black ankle socks; barefoot vs. slipping in and out of slides. rose landry unknowingly acts as a catalyst to get shane and ilya on the same page, first by influencing shane to wear black socks in this episode, and then by helping shane confront his sexuality in the next episode. foreshadowing!
