“we didn’t need Episode 3” oh yes we did, for two reasons
1) It’s important to know that it’s not just Shane and Ilya who are struggling, and that struggle is not unique to them. Like, it's very easy to assume that they're afraid of admitting their feelings for each other solely because of their own personal hang-ups. It's very easy to assume that, if they could just acknowledge how they feel – that it's not just a casual hookup with no strings and Shane is gay gay – they could happily drive off into the Canadian sunset together and all would be well.
But we know that's not the case, because we have Scott and Kip.
Scott is way more advanced in his career, he’s a lot more confident in flirting with a total stranger, he asks Kip to move in with him the morning after they have a first date that’s almost entirely sex and Kip agrees… and it doesn’t matter.
There is absolutely no ambiguity about their gayness or interest in each other, they are incredibly good at communicating their feelings, they do nothing but love and support and understand each other, they're practically married after like a week and a half, and it doesn’t matter.
Scott is still legitimately terrified of being outed. Literally the only thing holding him back from living with Kip in openly gay wedded bliss is hockey, but that’s enough.
The only similarity between Shane and Ilya’s messy slowburn fuckbuddies-to-lovers arc and Scott and Kip’s coffee smoothie shop romcom is the overwhelming dread of losing the career to which you’ve dedicated your entire life (to the point that you have almost no marketable skills or significant relationships outside of it and have repeatedly hurt yourself physically and mentally in service of it) because of the homophobia inherent in the culture surrounding it.
But that similarity is hanging over the entire plot like the sword of Damocles.
Which is also why Scott outing himself by kissing a man on live TV after winning the cup is so powerful that Ilya immediately drops everything and decides to come to the cottage instead. If Scott can have all of that hanging over his head and choose to knock it down like a fucking piñata, if Scott can see the disaster coming and invite it in, if Scott has all the same fears that Shane and Ilya do about coming out and can still say, "Fuck you, I'm doing it anyway, and in the most spectacularly public way possible," why not hang out for a week or two in (theoretically) complete privacy with the person you've been in love with for nearly a fucking decade?
Why not take the lifeline of hope Scott's providing and grab it with both hands?
Without seeing Scott and Kip's full story (not just the kiss we see at the end), the stakes for Shane and Ilya aren't as obvious. We need Scott and Kip so that we fully understand exactly where Shane and Ilya are coming from.
you're fourty-five years old!
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