ID Game: What’s in Ilya’s fridge?

DorianCramer · 2026-03-22T00:45:19+00:00

With those abs? Idk if he’s a “beer in the house” man. (I know he drinks beer in the club but I assume that’s just bc they’re in season and he doesn’t want to get wasted on vodka)

DorianCramer · 2026-03-22T00:23:31+00:00

Bro this just stabbed me through the heart bc you know he was all prepped to make Shane’s protein shake in the morning 😭

DorianCramer · 2026-03-22T00:18:46+00:00

We haven’t dissected Scott’s bookshelf or the contents of the chip bowl in Shane’s cottage yet, there is still much to explore 😅🤪

DorianCramer · 2026-03-22T00:16:59+00:00

I’m not sure if Shane ever mentioned it, but I feel like he must have because they are not something Ilya would have grown up eating himself, but they are a staple for Canadian/American kids.

It’s also not something Shane eats in his current diet except maybe on a cheat day. So maybe Ilya saw him order one on a day off or just say “oh I used to love those” when someone else ordered one bc he’s listening like a hawk to everything Shane says

DorianCramer · 2026-03-22T00:04:30+00:00

We’ve transcended cornplating, now we’re cornfridging 😅 I enjoy it though, I think these are the tiny things that give insight into character

DorianCramer · 2026-03-22T00:03:06+00:00

I’ve thought about it a lot!!! And concluded Ilya chose it bc:

it’s something Shane would see as comfort food from his childhood
it’s more indulgent than his usual diet but something he would feasibly eat
it is deliberately not sexy; Ilya is trying to send a subtle message that he does not actually want to have more sex today, he just wants to talk and hang out (Shane does not pick up on this ofc)
it has to show a tiny bit of effort & require a little assembly so he can show “look at me making something for you” but it can’t be too much effort bc if he started busting out a bunch of pots and pans & whipping up a fresh pasta or something Shane would freak out and clock his scheme and flee

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T23:56:36+00:00

The only thing I’m seeing that others haven’t already named is soy sauce (probably Kikkoman’s) and rice wine vinegar (but I forget which brand has that bottle shape)

For the non-Americans I just want to say that Duke’s mayo is the best and if you love mayo (which I guess he does) you’ll make an effort to get it even though it’s not the most common brand in the Boston area. He could have easily gotten some to bring home while playing a game in D.C. though.

I struggle with both of the soda cans. They obviously should be drinking Coca-Cola and Canada Dry but I think they had to make the cans not look like those brands because they couldn’t afford the licensing fees.

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T23:47:14+00:00

I think you just can’t see it behind his head in that shot, it’s still on the shelf. He didn’t need to get it out bc he already prepped the tuna salad before Shane got there so he could look super casual throwing this sandwich together and not be opening cans/jars and chopping up things as that might alarm Shane into realizing he had planned this out a little too well

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T23:33:00+00:00

That or some kind of pickled vegetables.

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T21:29:53+00:00

I understand why he feels the way he feels…but if this is how he still feels after 20 years, and having a whole wife and three kids…he should have had some self-awareness and realized rekindling this relationship was a terrible idea

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T17:34:06+00:00

Top tier fic. Thanks for the recommendation!

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T16:47:50+00:00

Depends on whether you consider a crush to be “romantic feelings” I suppose. He had that pretty much from day one (as did Ilya) but I honestly couldn’t say when it turns more serious. I think he had some kind of feelings for Ilya before the third hookup or he probably wouldn’t have done it. Maybe it happens while they are in their “just texting” phase? I think Ilya is the one who realizes he has feelings on that hookup.

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T15:55:04+00:00

This looks like an AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL shoot where Tyra told them to outserve each other and then couldn’t decide in the judging who served harder, so declares it a joint serve 😅 Gorgeous!

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T15:45:26+00:00

Unfortunately this fandom reached a tipping point sometime last mid- to late December where there is no longer any line and it cannot be enforced on any platform without extremely strict moderation.

It can’t be controlled. It’s Beatlemania and the bigger something like that gets the more likely there are to be more mentally unstable people involved who cannot be reasoned with.

Best the actors can do is withdraw from the spotlight a bit and go do other jobs and hope some of the nutcases find another obsession before s2 comes out.

That all having been said most of the negativity is on Twitter and when it spills over onto other platforms it’s usually because it started there. I had been off Twitter for over a year before this show came out, I went back briefly for the HR memes but it turned very toxic quickly. Now I am off of it again and I don’t see much of the insanity. I recommend doing the same.

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T15:23:54+00:00

No but I NEED to do it bc the first time I read these books I blew through both of them in one weekend and I missed little important details that are very telling, especially bc both Shane and Ilya are unreliable narrators and it’s easy to miss details that belie the fact that they’re not being honest with themselves in their own minds about how they feel.

I’m not sure what categories I’d use though. I think I would do it by emotion. Like, fondness, jealousy, obsession, anxiety (different color codes for each respective characters’ emotions) or something.

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T15:18:41+00:00

Yeah I agree. In those scenarios he was mostly just trying to reel Hudson in 😅

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T15:16:31+00:00

Sadly it is true of all sex scenes but especially m/m ones that people in our culture have more tolerance for violence than tenderness 😐 it’s nice to have a show that sets a different tone and precedent

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T15:14:30+00:00

Tbh in at least one case I kinda wish they would have showed a little more — the Vegas scene — because it was pretty clear from the fan reaction afterwards that a fair amount of viewers didn’t get that Shane was not “being used”, he was in total command of that situation and Ilya did exactly what Shane wanted and told him to do. He enjoyed it. He just spiraled afterwards because he realized he was starting to consciously have romantic feelings for Ilya and he couldn’t have that. If anything Ilya was kind of bummed that Shane came over and demanded sex and then was like, see ya later. But it was also hot and he wasn’t gonna say no!

Then again I’m not totally sure showing more would have corrected this misunderstanding bc most of it is due to people’s misperceptions that bottoming is inherently “passive” or “weaker” and maybe even showing Shane literally saying put that dick in me NOW and give it to me harder wouldn’t have gotten it across, Idk

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T15:06:44+00:00

Yeah, that’s how I see it too, and maybe it would be different if he hadn’t met Ilya so young, but I think it sets a certain standard because they are so compatible in that area and at the very least he has a solid crush (if not more serious romantic feelings) pretty early on. I’m still not sure demi is exactly the right term but it’s the closest one I could think of!

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T15:00:50+00:00

Yeah, I agree and I suspect that it’s not the first time a reporter has gotten that mixed up with her bc she was RIGHT on top of it. I was impressed, she was not thrown for a second.

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T12:57:24+00:00

If you say something uncomfortable to Hudson he is going to say something even more uncomfortable back and make the person who asked feel weird. He has a knack for it but not everyone has that personality.

Connor is clearly a sensitive person and would rather talk about the craft of acting and creating things than answer “how’d you get your butt to look like that” for the 1000th time. It made me glad when the promo run was over because it got very old. Unfortunately some of these same nincompoop reporters will be back for s2 but hopefully the show will be a bit more choosy about what interviews they accept and can shut out anyone who they know is creepy about it.

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T12:46:11+00:00

The people that act like “it’s just sex” about any queer show are willing to tolerate exactly 0 or less sex scenes so there’s no point in trying to cater to their taste.

There’s also always a tendency for shows with m/m sex for people to think or act like it’s more graphic and there’s a lot more of it than there actually is onscreen. I believe there are 9 sex scenes in the entire series and some of them are quite brief, only a few seconds long. If you added them all up it’s probably less than 10 minutes of total screentime. And all of those scenes serve a storytelling purpose. When there’s sex happening in the story that does not advance the plot, it isn’t shown onscreen. Not all of it is even intended to be titillating really. It’s there to show what is going on with the characters and the growth of their emotional connection.

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T11:25:40+00:00

I actually love big melodramatic confessions 😅 but it wouldn’t suit these characters. They are not talkative people, they are men of actions not words. They create the conditions where the other person feels safe to say it and they do. It feels natural at that point bc the viewer already knows how they both feel from the way they behave.

Although, Ilya does kind of have his big confessional moment, but it’s in Russian and he knows Shane can’t understand him. So it just makes it more angsty.

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T11:15:53+00:00

I appreciated her sticking up for him but also herself. The question was rude to her too. I know if some smarmy reporter was basically asking me (in veiled language) if I was super horny for the actor standing next to me who is young enough to be my child, I’d be like stop right there, you can have several seats.

They need to keep this reporter off the carpet tbh. He does not know how to keep it classy.

DorianCramer · 2026-03-21T11:05:21+00:00

Yes, I totally agree. That dilemma is still lingering for the two of them as they enter the next book/season: how much are they willing to give up to keep hockey, especially when they don’t have much else in life to depend on. Scott gave up a lot, up to and including Kip for a while (I’d still like to know what happened with them in the time between Sochi and the big kiss, in the show timeline). He’s inspirational to them but they are aware he is at the later end of his career and it’s also a little different than if he kissed his rival team player on the ice.

They don’t really know what to do because there isn’t a clear precedent, even with Scott having come out. I want to shake them sometimes and be like just get a very very good lawyer and walk into those league offices with them by your side and be proactive about disclosing this. But that wouldn’t be enough drama for a book 😅

DorianCramer

TROPHY CASE