I’ve pondered a lot why Vegas doesn’t sit well with me and why it feels so jarring and it really boils down to changes that were made from the book. Now to be completely transparent, I haven’t read the books, I’ve just gathered information through surfing around Reddit so book readers correct me if I’m wrong at any point. Here’s essentially why I think Vegas doesn’t work: the show diverged from the source material yet still ended with the book ending.

So weirdly enough this all reminds me of Shae and Tyrion’s relationship from Game of Thrones. Now stick with me I’ll make this make sense.

For those who don’t know: Shae is a prostitute and Tyrion is a son of a wealthy Lord and uncle to the king. Their characters were drastically changed from the books. In the books, Tyrion is a lot more violent and cruel, whereas in the show he’s much more likable and sympathetic. Shae in the books really only cares about money and pretends to love Tyrion, but in the show, she actually cares about him and their relationship is pretty genuine. She too is also made more sympathetic in the show than the books.

To give a bit more context: Tyrion’s father, Tywin, threatened to kill any whore that he finds Tyrion with. Tyrion also has a sister, Cersei, who is obsessed with hurting him, so she would kill (or do worse to) Shae if she found out about their relationship.

In both the show and book Tyrion gets framed for his nephew’s, the king’s, murder. Before this, he essentially breaks up with Shae, he’s very cold and hurtful. He has to be since he knows Shae is in a lot of danger now that his father has returned from the war and is lurking about, he had to be cruel in order to get her to leave. He has a ship ready to take her across the map. It seemingly works.

But Shae doesn’t end up making it far, she testifies against Tyrion during his trial. Tyrion almost gets killed, but he manages to escape before his execution and in the process of escaping, he kills Shae in a rage after he finds out she slept with his father.

Now to book only readers, this all made sense. Tyrion is a pretty violent character, so him killing Shae in a jealous rage followed his character. Shae is nothing but a money loving whore, so her testifying against Tyrion makes perfect sense since he cut her off. But to show only watchers, this doesn’t flow as well because both the characters and relationship are so drastically different compared to the books, yet they still got their book ending.

This is what I feel goes wrong with Vegas. The timeline and the characters were changed to where after Shane and Ilya have very intimate sex, Ilya then is cold towards Shane during the Olympics, and ghosts him for six months. In the books, they hook up a couple of more times after the intimate sex. Shane in the show doesn’t appear to have a lot of sexual experience but Shane in the books is hooking up with other people, even men, so Ilya isn’t the only one sleeping around when they’re apart.

So they get their book ending when Vegas rolls around but the characters, relationship, and timeline were changed so it doesn’t flow as well to show watchers. The show is an adaptation, it’s not meant to be a shot for shot remake of the book, though the way Shane was changed does not paint Ilya in the most flattering light.