This week on The Produce Stand the gang recap and review Heated Rivalry Season 1, Episode 4: “Rose.” Joining Al, Tanya, Mat, and Victor is Manisha, host of the award-winning Archery Parent Podcast.
Shane and Ilya’s arrangement starts getting complicated when an overnight invitation, a tuna melt, and the use of first names threaten to turn their hookups into something more. The panel debates Shane’s panicked exit, Ilya’s vulnerability, and whether these two are protecting themselves or shutting each other out. Naturally, Mat has a theory involving tuna.
Meanwhile, Shane meets actress Rose Landry, and their budding public romance leaves Ilya watching from the sidelines. We discuss Rose’s introduction, the contrast between Shane’s public and private lives, and the jealousy-fuelled club sequence”
Plus, we tackle listener feedback and react to I Kill the Bear bloopers featuring Jared Keeso, Jonathan Torrens, and Georges St-Pierre.
Ratings:
- Al: Clearance
- Mat: Clearance
- Tanya: Fresh
- Victor: Compost
- Manisha: Clearance
Episode MVP:
- Al: Ilya
- Mat: Rose
- Tanya: Shane
- Victor: Rose’s French Fries
- Manisha: Svetlana/Rose
Links:
- Archery Parent Podcast
- Openin Theme: Rightfully Mine by Poised For The Worm
- Closing Theme: Inebriation by Poised For The Worm
- TPS on Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky | YouTube
- Join Our Patreon
Allan: [00:00:00] That fresh produce stand there, that’s a beauty.
Tanya: What do yous listen to?
Clip: My Favorite Murder podcast. Taggart and Torrens podcast.
Allan: The Produce Stand.
Tanya: Ah, fucking sexy.
Allan: It’s finally Friday, and that means we are once again hanging out at The Produce Stand, the podcast covering everything in the universe
I know what you’re thinking. There are a lot of other Letterkenny podcasts out there, but this one has never been kidnapped. I’m Al, your host, and joining me in the room, as always, is lovely Tanya. And online we’ve got Squirrelly Matt and the very heated Victor. And joining us tonight, she’s an archery mom, uh, Therese, who’s the Canadian National Men’s Recurve Archery Team, and as such, she’s also the host and producer of the Archery Parent Podcast, and winner of the 2025 Canadian Podcast Award for Outstanding Kids and Family Series.
And she’s the latest member of [00:01:00] the TPS Discord, and a great gal. Please join me in making some noise for Manisha. Wondrous.
Oh, my Gord.
Oh, my God. Oh,
my God. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Take it. Oh my- Take it. Take the heat. I regret nothing.
Allan: Welcome to The Produce Stand. Manisha, how are you now?
Manisha: Thanks for having me, Al. It’s so great to be here. It’s a great Friday night.
Allan: Yes, it is, and thank you so much for joining us. Now, you and I have met on, on many occasions, ’cause, uh, we, we, we frequent many podcast events around, in and around Toronto.
But I- I’ll introduce you to, uh, the rest… I mean, y- you’ve met n- our, my, my guests here. You’re here to help us talk about Heated Rivalry. So let’s talk about, first of all, like, your experience with Heated Rivalry, the, the show or the, or the books.
Manisha: I have not read the books. Okay. I do know a few people who have, so they’ve kind of given me a few little, uh, [00:02:00] similarities and drips and sort of things like that.
Allan: Mm-hmm.
Manisha: Maybe pardon the pun there. But, um-
Allan: All right, you’re gonna fit in.
Tanya: Yeah, girl.
Manisha: And so I did watch it the first time it- Mm-hmm … aired and broadcast, and very pleased that I did. And then when you mentioned that you were looking for someone to assist you, I jumped right in.
Allan: That’s amazing. Thank you so much for doing this.
So let’s talk really quickly about your podcast, because it is a very, we’ve talked about this in the past, very niche kind of subject. You, uh, you do a pod- podcast for archery parents. I mean, we’ve heard of hockey parents and soccer parents and football parents, but I guess you don’t hear a lot about archery parents, but they must be out there because there are archers out there.
So talk a little bit about what, uh, possessed you to start a, an archery podcast.
Manisha: Well, uh, The Archery Parent Podcast is what archery parents need to know to best-
Allan: Oh, you, you’re cut- Archery … you’re, sorry, you cut out [00:03:00] there. You, us to know what? Sorry.
Manisha: Oh, so the Archery Parent podcast is what archery parents need to know to best support their archers.
Allan: Okay.
Manisha: And I like to say moms are like other moms-
Allan: Hmm …
Manisha: but we’re just cooler.
Allan: Okay. Well, I mean, other hockey parents or whatever, they, they can lose their shit on, you know, like the refs- Mm … and the umps and stuff like that. What’s the equivalent in archery? Like ’cause I mean, the, the, the com- the, the competitors, they’re armed, so you don’t go after them, right?
But do, do they still go after the, uh, the officials?
Manisha: No. We, I, I think we’re very passive aggressive that way.
Allan: Okay.
Manisha: So archery is not really a yelling kind of sport. No. It’s a sport where you kind of seethe and you mutter under your, your, your breath-
Tanya: Mm-hmm …
Manisha: if things don’t work out, but usually it’s a very, very supportive community, and everybody’s kind of rooting for everyone else.
It is a very different sport compared to those highly … It’s not that it’s not [00:04:00] competitive, but very
Allan: Right. Now- I guess
Manisha: I’ll make that difference …
Allan: you’re, you’re in Canada, but I mean, you’ve, you’ve traveled all over kind of North America at least, right? Uh, with, with, with your, I guess with your son on, on archery meets and stuff like that?
Manisha: Yes. I think we’ve been to 14 US states, and we’ve been to all of the provinces.
Allan: Wow
Manisha: All the provinces except for Labrador and Newfoundland
Allan: Oh. Well, y- you’re missing the nicest one, actually. Well, Newfoundland, anyway. I’ve n- we’ve never been to Labrador, but, uh, we can- Mm-hmm … we can attest for Newfoundland being the, the more beautiful province, I think, of all of them.
Mm-hmm. Um, amazing. Now, your son is on the national men’s team. Does that mean w- can, will he go to the Olympics?
Manisha: So he was an alternate for the Paris 2024-
Allan: Oh, cool.
Manisha: Wow … Olympics, because in archery, you can either only qualify three or one, so three as the team. We only qualif- would have gone.
Allan: Hmm.
Manisha: [00:05:00] But yes, he’s working towards qualifying for LA, which is 2028 in Los Angeles.
Allan: Amazing. That’s exciting. So, uh, we’ll be definitely following along. Uh, uh, so where can folks, if they wanna listen to or, or I don’t know if you also have a, a YouTube component, but, uh, check out your podcast, The Archery Parent Podcast?
Manisha: Yes.
Allan: Where, where can-
Manisha: It’s- …
Matt: where can… Go ahead.
Manisha: Oh, sorry. It’s, uh, o- you can find it at archeryparentpodcast.ca, on YouTube, Instagram, or on your
Allan: f- Favorite podcast app.
Okay. Amazing. Uh, that’s… And I love your background. It’s it’s the bullseye, but if, if the people who are gonna watch the video of this can see- Yeah … uh, real cool. But,
Matt: uh- One, one qui- one quick, uh, fun fact, I, I was a bit of an archer when I was a kid.
Allan: Oh, interesting.
Matt: Mm-hmm. I actually lessons and, um, it was something that I spent a lot of time around Dad for a couple years.
My, my old man’s a, a grew-up a hunter, and he was bow hunting [00:06:00] and all that, but he, he had me trained, and I, and I had quite, quite the shot there for a minute, but then I just stopped for no particular reason. But, uh, yeah- Oh
I can believe it. Uh, but yeah, we had, we had an archery target set up in our backyard. My dad would go out there and shoot all, would shoot for hours.
Allan: Hmm.
Manisha: Yeah. It’s a lifetime sport, so you can pick it up if you ever wanted to.
Matt: Yes. Yes, I absolutely could.
Allan: I don’t know-
Matt: It was fun, though …
Allan: if Matt should be trusted with, with a weapon.
Matt: I was a hell of a shot. That’s all I’m saying, all
Allan: right? Okay. All right. We, we, I-
Tanya: I remember my dad- I split an arrow before … I remember my dad having a bow and arrows. I, I remember them being on the wall, and I remember going, um, once to an archery club and seeing the, the targets and thinking how cool the place was.
We were actually… I was, I was scheduled, um, during the pandemic, my son and I took fencing lessons, and the next lesson we were gonna take together was archery. Hmm. And that’s when we were in the [00:07:00] shutdown, so it never happened. Yeah. But I was so looking forward to it. I did a dodge ba- dodge ball archery birthday party once.
Yeah. I was terr- That was, that was kind of fun … I was terrified of it. I, I thought, “Oh my God, this sounds like the scariest thing ever, and kids are gonna get hurt.” It was basically a marshmallow on the end of a, of a- an, an arrow. And, um, I got so into it. Like, I was sweating-
Allan: It’s like paintball except everyone had bows and arrows and, and with- And-
with those …
Tanya: I was like- It was pretty fun … I have a… Somebody took a photo of me. I was, like, on one knee and bracing myself with the other, like, like, Robin Hood or something- … and, and, like, taking headshots. Now, we are not supposed to take a headshot, but
Allan: I- Everyone’s wearing helmets …
Tanya: everybody’s wearing helmets
Allan: and- So everyone was aiming for the head.
Tanya: Yeah. And because that’s all… Their heads are just popping out, right- Yeah … around a, a thing, and I ended up pinging them and, um, it was super rewarding.
Manisha: Yeah, you can get out your, uh, [00:08:00] frustrations-
Tanya: Yeah …
Manisha: politely, I guess-
Allan: I think I took a unit of ar- … in something like that … I, I took a unit of archery in, in f- like, uh, high school phys ed.
I was not good at it, but, uh, it was fun.
Tanya: All I know- It was fun … is that when you, um, uh, when you accidentally, like, pull back and hit your wrist- Mm … with the bloody, um- That’s why they have wrist guards … oh my God, like, repeatedly, it, it, it leaves quite a mark and a sting.
Matt: Yeah. So you need the guard.
Tanya: Mm-hmm.
Allan: All right.
Let’s get this thing started, shall we? How are you now? Tonight’s lineup is going to be myself, Matt, Tanya, Victor, and our guest Manisha will have the last word. And I guess I start on how’s your week. Um, my week’s been busy. We… You can’t see, uh, we’re still not in our regular studio. Uh, but it’s done. Mm-hmm.
The painting got done, and we’ve moved everything in. The only thing we haven’t moved in is my studio, so hopefully next time we record, we’ll all be in my new, uh, digs and, uh, be able to show it off a bit. Uh, it doesn’t look n- anywhere near as nice as, uh, Matt’s AI fake background there, but, uh, you know, we’ll, [00:09:00] we’ll get there.
Um, and then in terms of watching stuff, uh, I watched an interesting movie, The Bride, which is, uh, a remake of The Bride of Frankenstein, uh, written by Maggie Gyllenhaal, starring, uh, what’s his name, um, oh, from Bat- Batman, The Dark Knight, uh, Batman, uh, uh, Ba- Oh, damn
Victor: Psycho?
Allan: Yeah, the American Psycho guy.
Christian Bale. Christian Bale as, as, um, Frankenstein, and I forget the actress’s name who played the bride, and she was amazing. It was a very messed up movie. Very… Uh, I think it’s gonna become a cult classic because it visually was really cool. Is it new? It’s new. I think it’s from l- last year. Oh,
okay. Um,
Allan: it’s, it’s really…
It’s pretty cool. Anyway, I watched it. I- I mean, I don’t know if I’ll watch it again, but it was, it was an interesting movie to watch. And, uh, so if you’re into… It- it’s not really horror. Um, like, I didn’t find it scary, [00:10:00] but, uh, it’s, um, definitely artsy and, uh, and different. Uh, because the original Bride of Frankenstein, the, the bride y- doesn’t say anything, and she’s, she only has so much screen time.
So Maggie Gyllenhaal wrote it so that it’s more from her perspective and her point of view and stuff. Oh, cool. And, uh, but she’s kind of twisted and demented and- Wow … and schizophrenic and stuff. Wow. It’s, it’s all really-
Tanya: Well, you would be too if somebody tried to do all that to you.
Allan: Well, you… With your… If you die and then you get reanimated.
Yeah. Yeah, that’ll- That’d be a little upsetting, I think … that’ll fuck you. Anyway, it was an interesting movie. Uh, if anyone’s l- looking for interesting movies, that’s definitely one to check out. Matt, how was your week?
Matt: Yeah, it’s been a, been another week. Interesting one. Kids, kids have been sick. Hmm.
Allan: Hmm.
Matt: It’s been very busy. Um, we had a small incident last night. Luckily it was no real damage, but uh, a number of cars in our neighborhood all got broken into- Oh, geez … so that was fun.
Tanya: Oh.
Matt: Yeah.
Allan: We’ve had that happen here.
Matt: Yeah.
Tanya: They break stuff?
Matt: Per vehicle. Uh, it was a, it was this [00:11:00] fucking piece of shit people who are just walking around in the middle of the night looking for open doo- open car doors-
Tanya: Yeah
Matt: and then grabbing whatever they can get. But, uh, they went around and hit basically our entire street, so there was about four or five different people who said that they, um, had s- had some things missing. My neighbor had a backpack with all kinds of his gear and stuff- Oh … taken. It, it sucks, right? Like s- and there’s nothing you can do about it, either, right?
Right. Like, you can call the cops and make a report and they’re gonna go, “Yeah, thanks.”
Tanya: When it happened- But it’s
Matt: like-
Tanya: When it happened on our street, uh, a bunch of people caught the person on the doorbell cam- Oh … and, um, uh, we actual- uh, well, well, one of the houses that he went to, um, he f- he struck gold and h- got a, um, a Visa, a, a credit card.
Yeah. And then he went, um, across the street to the, um, variety store and bought a bunch of, um, um, cards, a bunch of, um- Mm-hmm … um, um- Gift cards … gift cards. Yeah. And he was caught- Okay, yeah … real nice on their camera, [00:12:00] and so it didn’t take very long to put the pieces together. Oh, that’s good. Yeah, it was, it w- Yeah
it, it actually worked out pretty perfectly. Oh, he’s an idiot
Allan: for… He took, he, he stole a card in this neighborhood and then went to this neighborhood’s- … convenience store to use it. I mean, like at least walk-
Matt: Yeah, that’s- Yeah. I mean- … I feel like these are like, they feel like acts of desperations, but I think this- Yeah
almost felt coordinated, like we could… and it was an area of mine. Didn’t pick anything up specifically. My neighbor did. Hmm. But even in his view, you could see there was a car parked on the road in front of our driveway. Hmm.
Hmm.
Matt: Um, so clearly they pulled up and just hopped out, and they just don’t give a shit.
Like, you can see, just casually walking. And it- she walked up, you could see she had a dress on- Mm … underneath her coat. Um, and just casually walking up and grabbing door handles and- Yeah … looking for the ones that were open. And, uh, again, thankfully for us it was, like, we, we have just a bit of a mess in the car, but it was seven bucks.
But it’s-
Allan: Yeah … still,
Matt: it’s invasive
Allan: and shitty. We learned early on to not leave anything in the car and, uh, and so- But
Tanya: it feels shitty, doesn’t it? I know. Yeah, it does, for sure. When you, when you, [00:13:00] when you go out to your car and all of your stuff is out- Rifled through … and you feel like, “Somebody was in my car,” and- Yeah
it’s just like, it is a, an invasion kind of feeling, right?
Matt: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It sucks, but I mean, it is what it is. Uh, we’re in Toronto, you know, and this is the worst of things that have happened, so yeah, we’ll take it. Yeah. Um, on a more positive- Just watching, uh, the Season 2 of Chad Powers. Um- What’d you think?
really, really liked it.
Allan: Yeah. It was fun.
Matt: Um-
Allan: It was fun.
Matt: I know I, I know I talked about it. And, and I enjoyed the first season- Mm-hmm … but I found the first season a little hokey.
Allan: Mm-hmm.
Matt: Um, ’cause the concept is a little hokey, but- Yeah … um, it, it, it definitely played off that. But when you get into Season 2, it really takes a serious note.
Um, there’s still sort of the fun as-
how, how far can you take this character? Mm-hmm. And, um, I actually really, really enjoyed… I, I was watching the finale and didn’t realize even- I was even watching the finale-
Allan: Yeah …
Matt: which was a really annoying feeling when it ended. I’m like, “Oh, I can’t wait to see what happens next,” and there’s- Yeah … no other episode.
Yeah. [00:14:00] And I’m like, “Fuck.” Uh, but no, um, re- really enjoyed it. Glen Powell’s a blast. Um- Yeah, he’s fun. Steve Zahn is in it as the coach, and he’s… Uh, Steve Zahn, is that the name? I think, I think it’s the guy- Greg- … who plays the coach.
Allan: Uh, yeah, Steve Zahn. Yeah. Yeah,
Matt: I really
Allan: like- I was gonna say Greg Zahn, but no, that’s the, that’s the former Blue Jay.
I know. It’s Steve Zahn.
Matt: Yeah, yeah, Steve, Steve Zahn. Uh, which is great to see him in a role like this, ’cause normally- Yeah … you know, he’s always historically been the goofy actor and doing all kinds of fun stuff, but- Yeah,
Allan: no, he’s good …
Matt: it’s funny he’s the, the coach in it, and I really liked him in it. So, uh, if you haven’t watched Chad Powers, it’s a fun watch.
Is it the most amazing show out there? No. Um, but it’s a fun watch, and, and actually now I’m more than psyched than ever to see where, what season three brings. So- Mm … uh, yeah, that was fun.
Allan: I also finished, uh, Reacher, uh, which was very violent finish and, uh, like Reacher would be- … as you would expect. Great, great, uh, show though and, uh, if, if anyone- Great
wants to hear
Matt: it. Yeah. He’s, he’s popping up everywhere right now. Oh, man. I’ve seen endless photos of people in, like, Orange… What was it? Orangeville and a couple other, uh-
Allan: Yeah …
Matt: s- in the Toronto area. Mm-hmm. Uh, he j- Allan Rich then just seems to be out there [00:15:00] taking pictures with everybody. ‘
Allan: Cause I think, yeah, they just finished shooting the next season, and they’re already green-lit for the, the following season.
Yeah. So yeah, it’s doing all right. It’s, it’s, it’s doing well. Tan, how have you been?
Tanya: I have been checking things off my to-do list. It is a great feeling. Um, I’m super stoked about that. Uh, we have decided to have, um, a Thanksgiving brunch, um, which is a twist on, I guess, the Thanksgiving dinner. But um, all the same stuff is gonna be there, it’s just gonna have…
with eggs.
Um, um, yeah, so we have, uh, family coming to our place, and um, some extended family, and it’s gonna be a full house, so just preparing as best as possible. Um, hence the reason why the front room, guest room is getting a, a, a refresh. Um, which, yeah, as Allan mentioned, uh, we’ve been really working late. All weekend last weekend was, um, helping my family and, [00:16:00] and trying to help us, um, get things moved forward.
Um, thankfully, we had the loveliest person come and, uh, help us out, and so, so, uh, happy, and shout-out to Dee for, uh, painting our- … our, uh, room for us, um, last minute, and doing such a great job.
Allan: Did an amazing job.
Tanya: Oh my God.
Allan: Yeah. Wow. Way better than we would’ve done,
Tanya: for sure. Oh, yeah. Let us know if you need a painter.
Locally, of course. Um, yeah, she was amazing. Um, yeah, so it’s, it’s just, yeah, trying to get things done. We got a birthday party coming up. We’ve got, um, um, just so much, so much. October’s a pretty busy month. Um, but uh, yeah, looking forward to all the celebration.
Allan: Victor?
Victor: Yes, sir. Uh, it’s been a good week. Um, you know, we do a semi-hockey show right now, and uh-
I think I have to be the first one to say it, hockey season’s started.
Allan: Right.
Victor: Um, so-[00:17:00]
Last year I kind of took the year off of caring about hockey. The Leafs made it really easy to do. Uh, and all the garbage with the, with, with, with all the terrible stuff that was happening. But, um, yeah, I’m excited for this season and, and, and, uh, the last, uh, two games between Vancouver and Edmonton, there was 27 goals scored between them in two games.
Allan: That’s crazy.
Victor: So, I mean, it’s kind of crazy. There’s all kinds of shit going on. And a
Allan: goalie goal scored last night, um.
Victor: And, yeah, yeah, Shesterkin scored a goal.
Allan: Yeah.
Victor: Um, the Leafs won one, lost one. The Devils won one. Um, Hughes didn’t get hurt yet. Uh, so all kinds of good stuff going on, so I’m excited for that.
Um, uh, I spent, uh, on Wednesday, six hours, uh, playing beautiful, my new beautiful friend. I don’t know if you can see it.
Wow.
Victor: Um, but, uh, yes, so I got myself a new guitar, and [00:18:00] it is the best guitar in my collection. And I’ve been just enjoying it, falling in love with it. Um, so having lots of fun with that. And, uh, let’s see what else.
Um, w- I w- I told you we’re re- re-watching Fargo, so we’re in season three now, so with our friend Mark Forward, who’s, uh, uh, you know, plays a, I guess a supporting character in that
Mm. And I think we’ve only got one episode left of Lanterns. Uh, so, you know, again, if you’re into DC, that’s a good show. Watch it. Uh, don’t expect too much superhero action, but it is, uh, one episode left, and it’s hopefully gonna be a day
Allan: All right, uh, be-
Victor: Been here with this show …
Allan: before, uh- So Sorry, uh, we’re having some connection issues, so I think what I’m going to do-
Victor: Uh-oh
Allan: uh, is, uh- Is everyone
Matt: getting that? ‘Cause I’m f- Yeah,
Allan: yeah … I’m getting it as well. I’m getting a lot of dropouts and, and, and I’m- Are you guys getting them? I’m getting unstable connection with, with Zoom [00:19:00] and stuff. Mm. So, uh, I’m gonna stop Zoom and restart the exact same Zoom, so use the same link. So give me 30 seconds.
Okay. Let’s, let’s try, let’s hope f- All right … for a better connection. Let’s do it. Okay. All right? Yeah. Let’s do this.
Matt: Sounds like a good idea.
Tanya: Thank you.
Allan: Uh, all right.
Tanya: The VPN was on. The VPN. We’ll just blame it on the VPN. All right.
Allan: So where
Matt: were we at?
Allan: Uh, well, well, we all s- we all did our how’s your, our how’s your week, so why don’t we start with, um, why don’t we get going with the rest of the show, all right?
Matt: Sure.
Allan: All right, here we go. Um, here we go, yeah.
Previously on Letterkenny.
Allan: Last week we recapped and reviewed the third episode of season one of Heated Rivalry, Hunter. That episode was one, our first unicorn of the series, getting a fresh rating from all of our panelists, including our guest, Awesome. And this week, we tackle episode four, called Rose.
I did my homework. Matt, did you do your homework?
Victor: Hell yeah. Fuck yeah.
Allan: Tanya, did you do your homework?
Manisha: Yeah, baby.
Allan: Victor, you do your homework?
Victor: No . Uh, Manisha,
Allan: did you do your homework?
Manisha: I did.
Allan: All [00:20:00] right. Well, don’t bore us, get to the chorus. I’m going to share my screen.
Jack is his friend.
Allan: Oh, shut up. All sorts of, th- like this is what you do for, um, you know, doing live to tape or live to pod, in our case, is, uh, we get to hear it all.
One job,
Al, one
Tanya: job. Well, you could edit.
Allan: No.
Tanya: It’s an option.
Allan: Well, I’m gonna have to edit tonight, ’cause- … what, uh, what our li- or what our listeners won’t, um, know, because I’ll have edited this out, is we had to restart the li- the, the, uh, Zoom because we were having connection issues, which I hope have been resolved.
Um- So
Tanya: far so good. Knock on wood.
Allan: So far so good. No one’s dropped. Splicing
Victor: is ahead of you.
Allan: Oh, man. Mm. And I gotta line it up with the video now, ’cause now we do video. What a pain, I know. Tiny violins for Al here. Luckily, I’ve got nothing going on tomorrow, so.
Victor: Don’t you have time code?
Allan: Yeah, I can do some
Tanya: stuff.
I got lots going on tomorrow. I
Allan: know you do. You
Tanya: wanna paint a front door with me?
Allan: Absolutely not.
Tanya: You can sand the front door.
Allan: No. All right.
Tanya: Oh, come [00:21:00] on.
Allan: All right, I’m sharing my screen. Here we go. We open on a game between Boston and Montreal in Montreal. Boston leads 2-1 in the third when Rozanov scores his second of the night.
The announcer points out that Hollander has been on the ice for both goals. Shane is having an off night. Ilya’s having a great one. As they line up for a face-off, Rozanov chirps Hollander and promises a hat trick, and sure enough, he delivers. The Montreal crowd boos its own team as they go down. Uh- 4-4-1.
Anyway, next, uh, next up, we jump to the summer of 2014 and a montage set to Feist’s My Moon, My Man follows Shane and Ilya back to their separate worlds, Shane in Canada and Ilya in Russia. The text, the texting continues as the, and as does the training, but their downtime couldn’t be more different. Ilya drinks and parties.
Shane goes to bed early alone with a book. Both keep checking the schedule for their next matchup and their next chance to hook up. When the 2014 season ends, [00:22:00] Shane and Montreal hoist the championship tr- trophy for the first time in 16 years. Watching from home, Ilya looks happy for, for Shane. Uh, that rhythm continues into 2015.
Shane’s off-ice life revolves around training, reading, and increasingly sexy endorsement shoots. Ilya’s rev- involves training, but considerably more partying and women. Uh, once the season starts, both mark their calendars and make most of their ch- mo- make the most of every chance they get to see each other.
The 2015 season ends much like 2014. Montreal wins another championship, and Ilya watches from home. This time, Sasha, Svetlana, and, and others are there to console him. Meanwhile, commentators start wondering whether Montreal is building a dynasty. By the summer of 2016, little has changed. Ilya seems more determined to stop Shane from winning a third straight championship and less interested in partying and women.
Uh, we also see him caring for his father, whose condition appears to have worsened. Uh, when the season starts, both players once again check the calendar for their [00:23:00] Boston-Montreal games, and then we get the title card All right, so that was all a montage to open, or basically the cold open for this, uh, ep- episode.
So let’s talk about that. I guess I start. Uh, again, we have a time lapse i- in the f- in the, during the cold open of three, well, two seasons, 2014, 2015, and then 2016. We see, uh, Shane winning two championships during that time. We see the difference in, in their li- in their lives. Uh, you know, Shane being very focused on working out and, and getting better as a player, and Ilya focused on partying.
A- and, well, the first couple of years partying, but also us- we see him taking care of his father and stuff like that. Until he sees Shane winning his second championship and then Ilya starts to, I guess, take things more seriously. I, I, I really enjoyed that. A lot of storytelling happening in that first, before the credit even, or the, before the title card even starts.
I’m starting to think, and Manisha, this might not mean anything to you, but we used to [00:24:00] talk a lot about these m- musical montages done in Letterkenny and in, in Shoresy, and think… Well, not think, but l- like surmise that a lot of that was Kiso because he’s such a big music guy. Like, he picks all the music for those shows.
And maybe we weren’t giving Tierney a lot of credit because we’re seeing that a lot here too. Mm. A lot of storytelling over musical montages, not, with not a lot of dialogue, but showing, not telling, and we’re seeing it a lot in this, uh, especially in this episode. We’re gonna see it a lot in this episode.
Tanya: Or maybe Tierney saw what Kiso was doing and appreciated it and, and took it to- Well- … and applied it to this.
Allan: I mean, it was Tier- Tierney was the director, so, I mean, Kiso wrote the scripts and stuff, but I don’t know. I, I feel like Tierney probably had a lot more creative input into how- Mm … they were being shown.
Uh, anyway, I, I enjoyed this opening, and it told a lot of story in that, that, and it set things up a little bit. Uh, Matt, what did you think?
Matt: Yeah, I mean, not, not a whole lot more to add. I mean, from a production value, I think [00:25:00] the calling out these montages is great. Like, I think they are really, really well done.
Yeah. Um, they’re, they’re fun to watch. They cover a lot of ground. Um, you know, it was, it was… They’re, they’re clearly time jumping a c- few years here. Um, you get to see some, some more, some big wins. Uh, their relationships carrying on. Looks like they’re having a good time. Mm-hmm. Um, nothing, nothing wild or spectacular, just going about their yearly motion.
Um, but I mean, put that aside, I thought from a production standpoint, it was, it was really, really well done, and I, and I really enjoy the cold open from that, from that perspective. With the music being spot on- Mm … to carry the, to carry the whole mood.
Allan: Yeah. Uh, Tanya, what’d you think?
Tanya: Um, I was kind of putting some thought into it, thinking that, um, you know, I w- I wonder if they were showing us how each of them, um, um…
Their personalities are so different, right? And as you were, um, uh, refer- refer- referencing, um, you know, one’s partying and one’s [00:26:00] putting time into, to work and stuff. Um, missing each other and trying to fill that void of not seeing each other, I think that’s, you know, what we were, what we were watching.
Mm-hmm. And, um, how they were, were spending that time away from each other and then with each other again, and how intense and passionate when they were with each other, um, you know, those feelings were again and, and y- checking the calendar and marking the time and, um, really looking forward to seeing each other again.
Mm.
Allan: I think they were both working hard. I think Rosanov was also working hard, but he just had oth- different priorities in terms of he also played hard, and he also had his dad to take care of, ri- uh, to, to take care of, right? Mm-hmm. Whereas Shane- Very
Tanya: stressful …
Allan: I feel like he, he, uh, deprived himself of, of, like, enjoying some of his success by, by- Mm
being so strict on himself, right? Uh, Victor, what did you think?
Victor: Uh, let’s see. Um, y- I, I, I mean, from a [00:27:00] production, uh, point of view, it was, it w- I agree with Matt. It was, it w- and, and maybe I think you said it as well. I think it was fine. Yeah. Uh, it was, it was very well done. But I, I found it just very monotonous, tiresome, and very disappointed, to be honest.
Uh, you know, after such a great episode with s- with great storytelling through dialogue- Mm-hmm … uh, it, I felt like we went back to the, to s- the same old- Mm-hmm … um, from the first two episodes. And it’s like, come on. I thought we, I thought we had some momentum here. We’re gonna m- step right in, and now we’re actually gonna get a little bit more depth between these two dummies.
And instead, we, it goes back to the same, to the same type of storytelling, where it felt like forever that we’re just watching this unfold without any dialogue, some texting, montages, and time jumps. And it’s like b- been there, done that. Mm. Can we move on, please? Can we actually… There’s only two or three episodes left.
Can we get into s- start to kind of peel [00:28:00] some layers to w- to this story that I’m still waiting to unfold?
All right.
Victor: Uh, because again, I haven’t watched the show. I haven’t read the books. I don’t know how it ends. I don’t have that kind of, um, I don’t have that, right? Mm-hmm. So all I can do is judge these episodes based on what has been told and shared with me so far.
And to this point, Ilya’s still a jackass. Yeah. And, uh, I don’t really care that he’s got a, a, a father. Like, we all have somebody in our family that is dealing with some issues and whatever. That doesn’t give you a license to be a jerk, right? So, um, uh, so, so the beginning of this, this episode for me has not set a good tone.
Allan: Okay. Victor setting his own tone. Victor’s
Matt: back.
Allan: Yeah. M- Manisha, what did you think? I don’t, I, I don’t know. Uh, you’ve listened to these, so you, you were w- forewarned about Victor.
Manisha: I, I do have the same similar feeling to the way Victor has described it. Mm-hmm. You know, you come off episode three as, [00:29:00] like, there’s so much warmth.
Mm. And then you go back to, oh- Okay. We’re back to this, which it’s not that I didn’t mind the first few episodes, but I really enjoyed three a lot more- Mm-hmm … as Victor was saying. But for the running scenes when Ilya is running around what is supposed to be his house-
Mm-hmm …
Manisha: that’s… You know that that’s in Hamilton, right?
No. No. Dun- Dundurn Castle. I did not know that. You can drive by it all the time. I- It’s a castle? … drive by it. It is an actual castle- Oh … in Hamilton. Nice. It’s not far from downtown, so you can actually go and hang out there.
Allan: There you go. Yes. Jeff, Jeff, are you listening? Uh, put it on your map for when, when next time you come up here, ’cause I know he will.
Tanya: What castle
Manisha: is it?
Allan: Yes. What’s it called?
Manisha: It’s called Dundurn Castle. Dundurn. So… And it’s on Dundurn Road at Queen, I think.
Allan: Okay.
Manisha: It’s, it’s spacious. Lots of movies are shot there. Mm. Lots of TV shows. So, you know, I enjoyed that first beginning, but as soon as I saw, I’m [00:30:00] like, “Wait, I, I know that place.”
Matt: Mm.
Manisha: Hold on a second.
Matt: Yeah.
Manisha: And then when they confirmed that it was Dundurn Castle, I was like, “Knew it.” Yeah. Nice.
Matt: I g- I guess in the area when your budget can’t include Casa Loma, you go to Dundurn. Which is
Manisha: still a castle.
Matt: It’s still a castle. So
Allan: Dundurn is the Temu Casa Loma. Is that what you’re saying, Matt?
Manisha: Oh.
Matt: Oh,
Allan: I don’t wanna go that far.
You’re about to make a lot of enemies over that. Oh. Uh, people
Manisha: in Europe- I think you, you- … would
Victor: call Casa Loma- … right, even use those words … the Temu castle.
Matt: Yeah.
Allan: Casa Loma’s a Temu castle for l- European castles, but- Oh … it’s our castle. A lot- So.
Manisha: It’s our castle. Well… Yes, it’s our castle. Yes. Um, but yeah, a lot of, a lot of the show was actually filmed- Mm
within a few blocks of Dundurn Castle.
Allan: Interesting.
Manisha: Yeah.
Matt: Are you in Hamilton, Monisha?
Manisha: I’m not far from there.
Matt: Okay.
Manisha: I’m, I’m in Niagara, but I’m- Gotcha … in Hamilton all the time.
Matt: Okay.
Manisha: And yes, I… Where the, the shop, the smoothie shop. Mm. Like, I’ve, I’ve been in there.
Allan: You’ve been in that smoothie shop?
Manisha: It’s, it’s called Relay [00:31:00] Coffee House.
Allan: Oh.
Matt: Okay.
Manisha: It’s on King William.
Allan: You
Matt: were- Do they make the same smoothie?
Manisha: I don’t think they make smoothies at all. Smoothies. They have a great breakfast sandwich, though.
Allan: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah. Fake news.
Allan: That’s hilarious. What’s that guy doing making a smoothie with a coffee machine? Anyway, let’s move on. Coming out of the title card, it’s October 2016 in Montreal.
Shane and his teammate Hayden take Hayden’s kids to the Montreal Aquarium. Hayden announces that he and his wife are expecting their fourth child. When Shane’s reaction is less than enthusiastic, Hayden decides it’s time, uh, it’s, uh… Hayden decides it’s Shane’s love life that needs attention
Jackie is his friend, right?
Paid. What? Dude, she’s fucking hot. She teaches, like, mommy yoga or something. I don’t know, maybe it’s just stretching, but she’s seriously fucking hot, and she’s funny.
Clip: Swear jar two times.
Oh, fuck. Three. Okay, come on, man. Why not? Can, can I just show your Insta? Fine. Yes. Okay. Look, Jackie will be happy.
Clip: We both have to make your wife happy now?
Yeah, damn right we do if you want [00:32:00] her to keep making your gross food and keeping my house stocked with ginger ale. Oh, Jesus Christ. Ruby, you’re gonna kill him.
Clip: Tell your dad to leave me alone. Um,
excuse me. Are you Shane Hollander?
Yeah.
Oh my God. Can we get a picture with you?
Um, I kinda have my hands full at the moment.
Um, could you hold his baby for him please so we can get a picture?
Hold his baby? I’m sorry, buddy. Hey, first of all, it’s my fucking baby. Four times. Yeah, and second… Oh, wait, do, do I have other kids? Oh, you’re the worst one.
Clip: You can’t say stuff like that to her.
It’s true, and second, they didn’t even fucking recognize
Clip: me. Ding, ding, ding. We’ve hit five times. That’s when I’m supposed to text Jackie.
Oh,
come on.
Clip: Narc. Narc, narc. Narc. I’m getting a vasectomy. Way too late.
Tanya: Way too late. [00:33:00]
Allan: Over in Boston, Ilya’s- Mm … watching television when a segment about Shane’s Quebec home comes on. He pretends to be uninterested while paying very close attention. Later that night, Svetlana asks about his love life. Ilya asks where, whether she’s jealous, uh, though he, he knows better, better than that.
Uh, then she brings up Jane, snapping him out of his malaise. She knows he’s been texting Jane for years and thought it might be serious. Ilya sh- Ily- Ilya assures her it’s not. The next time on Shows in Boston, Shane tells Hayden, his n- his roommate on the road, uh, that he’s, uh, meeting a friend for dinner.
Hayden immediately assumes Shane is finally getting laid with Lily. Uh, Shane gets defensive, which does nothing to ease Hayden’s suspicions, but, uh, this hookup looks different. For the first time, Shane goes to Ilya’s house instead of a hotel. They have sex, but afterward Ilya asks him to stay
I should go[00:34:00]
Or you could stay
Już to wiem I’m not done with you. And we have afternoon game tomorrow, so no morning practice I
Clip: told Hayden
Said your mother
Clip: No
No, he’s not
Clip: Fuck off Be
careful what you told Hayden
T
Allan: All right. Let’s, uh, let’s talk about these two clips. Uh, Matt, we’ll start with you this time
Matt: Yeah, I mean I don’t know. Not, not a, to me, not a lot of, a ton to talk about. I [00:35:00] mean, we’re starting to see them here. Um, there’s a lot of apprehension that, that I’m seeing, uh, from Shane’s side, which again unfolds more into the episode.
Um, what was the first clip there? Oh my God, that went so fast.
Allan: Hayden, uh, ha- announcing he’s having his fourth kid,
Matt: yeah. Oh, right, right, right, right. Um, yeah, I mean, we’re just seeing different sides of the- their life. Um- Mm-hmm … I don’t know if it’s adding… Like that scene, I don’t know what its, what its value was, um, in terms of, like long-term for the story.
Maybe there’s more to it, but-
Allan: Well, I think the symmetry that, I mean, well, I guess I’ll wait my turn, but I think they’re showing symmetry- No, no, of course … ’cause th- they’re both being asked about other relation- like female relationships, right? Hayden’s asked- Yeah … is, is kind of getting pressure. Well, Shane’s getting pressure from Haylen- Hayden, and Ilya’s getting pressure from Svetlana, right?
So, um-
Matt: Yeah. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, it’s fine. I, I just, it’s cute to see them hanging out like this, but it, it’s so… It, it’s funny to me how the idea of staying there felt so foreign.
Mm.
Matt: You know, they’ve been, they’ve been doing this for years now, um, [00:36:00] off and on, and that question just-
Yeah
Matt: kind of railroaded him a bit, which I find quite shocking. Um, but I guess that’s the relationship they have. Mm-hmm. So, you know, is this a sign that Ilya’s like, “Okay, I, I’m ready to take this more”?
Allan: Mm-hmm.
Matt: And Shane’s hesitancy suggests the opposite. Um, I don’t know. It’s, it’s a hard one to read and, and I found that throughout this episode a lot of troubles reading what, what was in front of me on this one.
Mm-hmm.
Matt: Um, but yeah, they’re, they’re both getting called out about relationships. Um, Sp- Svetlana clearly has a better understanding of Ilya, and I think that she’s probably one of the only ones that under- on, only people in the world that truly understand him.
Yeah.
Matt: Um, I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it’s important to have that person in your corner.
Um, but Shane I don’t think has. Mm. Well, doesn’t have. Um, but no, I mean, it was fine. Um, I just, I’m, I’m, I’m ready to see this progress a bit more.
Allan: Yeah.
Tanya: Um, [00:37:00] I, I thought that the whole Hayden and Shane, um, moment was pretty funny. Um, Shane is, uh, an absolute mess, um, as a father . Um, um, losing his children, but sh- how, how Shane reacts to it all and he just seems so childlike, where this other guy is, like married and with kids, and I,
Allan: I- Shane’s just amused watching the other guy.
He’s like, “You’re not selling me on this lifestyle.”
Tanya: Yeah.
Allan: This whole having kids and, and making someone, some of your favorites and others you’re not. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tanya: Um, I wasn’t quite understanding. Um, Shane went to Ilya’s house. Where is his house? I thought-
Allan: In Boston, in Boston
Tanya: He has a house in Boston?
Allan: Yeah, ’cause he plays in Boston.
Victor: He, he has, he’s rich. He has many houses. They make, yeah- … they make millions.
Tanya: So I, I, I think that’s where I got lost for a second, ’cause he’s always going back to, um, where his d- dad and his brother and-
Allan: Yeah, in the summer for the off season. But during the season,
Tanya: yeah … and we never, and we never saw a house.
[00:38:00] And yeah, it’s
Allan: a little bit- Right. That’s, that’s why this is a big deal. This is his first… This is the first time they didn’t have a ho- hotel room hookup. Right. He went to his house. Like, this was a, a big, a big deal. I don’t know.
Victor: They’ve been to Shane’s house.
Allan: They’ve been to Shane’s house- Yeah … but he’s never been to Ilya’s house.
Yeah. Yeah.
Tanya: Right. Right.
Allan: And Shane, it was… Well, it was a condo, I guess. It, it was his home, but yeah.
Tanya: I, uh… Yeah, I found the, the ask of him to stay, and, you know, Shane feels to me like a bit of a people pleaser. Like, he’s always pleasing his parents and, you know, trying to stay on the, the right path and do what’s right, and, um, you know, that fear of being caught, and he, this is, seems to be his, his personality.
Um, and, and saying yes, but there seemed to be, you know, that hesitation. But at the same time, it’s like the two of them can be themselves with each other. Yeah. Um, and so that kind of relaxed, kind of, “Okay, we’re, we’re about to see what that relationship looks like on next level.”
Allan: Mm-hmm. [00:39:00] Victor, what’d you think?
Victor: So, um, uh, before I go in, so this second scene that we were watching, um, it, it obviously continues- Yeah … and I think even more important things happen in this scene. Um- Yeah. We’ll get s- we’ll get to some of those. Yeah … we’re not, we’re not, we’re not going into that yet, right?
Allan: Yeah, no.
Victor: Okay. All right. So, g- uh, so Hayden, I guess, is what?
Like his-
Allan: Teammate- … like, close? … slash roommate. Yeah.
Tanya: Teammate. Uh,
Victor: s- so i- it’s like, I f- f- f- like, that part of it, I didn’t really care so much about it because it’s kind of a superficial friendship. Mm. If he doesn’t know that he’s gay or bi or whatever he is, like, it’s not- But no one on his
Allan: team knows he’s
Tanya: gay.
No one knows that. No,
Victor: no, but that’s not the- And if I’m, if I’m not- … that’s, that’s not my point. That’s, that’s not my point. I’m saying, like, their f- the friendship part. Mm. The friendship part of that. Yeah. It’s kind of superficial, right?
Tanya: Because- Is he not the same guy, though, that said, “Come over to my, my h-” Yeah
“my wife wants to make you” Yeah. Their, his wife- Oh, yeah, yeah, it is that same guy. Yeah … his wife is the- Same, same guy … is the- It’s
Allan: Camilla, yeah … uh, Camilla.
Tanya: It’s Cami-
Allan: Yeah.
Victor: Yeah.
Tanya: Yeah.
Victor: It’s just a superficial [00:40:00] friendship because he doesn’t know who Shane really is. Mm. And Shane ca- is not comfortable in- No, even his parents-
letting him or
Allan: anybody else …
Victor: don’t
Allan: know who he really is. That’s the thing, though. No, no, l- uh, I, I get it … Hayden is his closest friend probably outside of, um- I
Victor: know …
Allan: yeah.
Victor: I, I know that. Yeah. All I’m saying is that it’s a superficial friendship. Okay. Whereas Ilya and Svetlana- Mm-hmm … they have a slightly- Oh, all right
closer-
Allan: If you’re p- comparing those, yeah. Oh, sure.
Victor: No, it’s, it’s a, it’s a completely different situation, right? Yeah. But even, even in that scenario, Ilya doesn’t feel comfortable letting Svetlana know that he is dating- Yeah … uh, Shane. Mm-hmm. Um- But she knows … for various
Allan: re- She knows.
Victor: Well, maybe, yeah, maybe she knows.
I don’t think they talked. They, they- No … haven’t let us know that she knows. No.
Allan: No, you’re right. Right? But I mean, uh, the reason I say this, ’cause when he’s watching the, the, Shane do his yoga in front of his, the- Yeah … new house he’s built or whatever, she sees him looking at that- Oh, 100% she does … and pretending that he doesn’t care.
Well, I
Tanya: think that’s why she said in the car- Yeah … um, that- Yeah … that other guy said h- to say hi.
Allan: Yeah.
Tanya: Yeah, yeah. Just, she was like-
Victor: No, no, f-
Tanya: Yeah …
Victor: it’s, all I’m saying, it’s a, it’s a- I think she does … they, they have a different friendship where Ilya- Sure … can be [00:41:00] more himself around her. For sure. Where Shane doesn’t really have anybody that he can be, um, himself with.
But I- So that’s, that’s, that’s the main thing I take away from that scene- Yeah … is that he, one, is a superficial friendship, and the other one is a genuine friendship,
Tanya: right? But I think that’s the kind of friendships that, that Shane is comfortable with because the fact that Shane knows that the fifth swear means that he has to text the wife, he knows them pretty well.
Allan: He’s spending a lot, the, the, the reason- He, yeah … yeah, that’s the purpose of that scene, to show how much time he spends-
Tanya: Yeah …
Allan: with Hayden and his family.
Tanya: But, but the fact that they don’t know him- Yeah … at that level- Yeah, yeah … I think that’s what, what, what we’re supposed to see. That’s the sad part. Right?
Allan: Yeah. Yeah. What do you think, Misha?
Manisha: So I thought, well, in the aquarium, it did take me aback the way Hayden was like, “Man, she’s hot.” So he’s been checking out his wife’s friends. I’ll just leave that one there. I think.
Yeah.
Manisha: And then in the, in Ilya’s house, [00:42:00] you can see that Ilya’s trying to break down that facade that he always has to carry.
Mm-hmm. And it seems like he just wants to be softer and- Yeah … intimate, and just be more inviting into, well, obviously his home, but- Mm … just h- you can see, though, that Shane is still uncomfortable with that. Mm-hmm.
Allan: Yeah.
Manisha: So one, the one that has typically been seemingly cold, he’s finally breaking down and wanting- Mm-hmm
more, where it was kind of the opposite. The one who’s questioning is still not figuring it out, and he really doesn’t know himself.
Victor: Mm. And yet as the scene progresses- He’s still confused … things flip. Mm. So we can get into that. Yeah, we’ll get there. We’ll get there.
Tanya: Yeah, and I think, I think Sh- Shane’s, Shane’s guarded, right?
Like, I think with all this talk of, you know, uh, being, um, con- connecting him with a girl, um, I think it’s gotten in his head.
Allan: Well, Shane’s a control freak, right? [00:43:00] He’s a control freak. We’re gonna… We’re, uh, we’ve seen signs of that already where, you know, Ilya likes to party and, and have, you know, have fun, let loose a bit, and Shane goes to bed with a book every night, and doesn’t drink alcohol.
He drinks g- ginger ale is his drink of choice, and, and he, uh, he’s all business, and works out, ’cause, ’cause the pressure-
Tanya: But he’s also perception, right? And the fact that- Yeah, absolutely … now somebody’s point, put that seed in his head of, “Yeah, maybe you should, you know-
Allan: Well, yeah, his entire life- …
Tanya: connect with, with someone.”
Allan: He’s, he’s told he needs to be a role model for all these Asian kids who wanted to play hockey or whatever. Mm-hmm. Like, yeah, the, the pressure is there, and, you know. Anyway, well, let, let, let’s move on, ’cause yeah. Okay. There’s some scenes up, coming that, that kinda tell, uh, the story a bit more. So after, uh, Sh- uh, Shane decides to stay over, they fall asleep together and wake up cuddling.
It’s comfortable and intimate in a way their hotel encounters have never been. Uh, then Ilya does something unexpected. He offers to make Shane a tuna melt. He even has Shane’s favorite drink: ginger ale. [00:44:00] They sit on the couch, eat, and actually talk about what else but hockey.
Clip: Jesus Christ.
You know this guy, Ryan Price?
Yeah, from playing against him and not wanting to fight him. You did a season with him, right?
Mm. He is not what you would think.
How so?
Like, he’s quiet. Mm, doesn’t talk, keeps to himself. Not bad guy. Doesn’t make friends.
Well, he gets traded every season. Tough to make friends that way.
Yeah. And probably he wants to get traded again. Buffalo is terrible.
Yeah, and their team sucks, too.
And people say you’re not funny.
They do?
Yeah. They say you’re boring, too.
Who says that?
Me.
Allan: The conversation turns to their favorite cities to play in. Ilya picks New York because it’s New York, and [00:45:00] because they hate him there. Shane reminds him that they hate him everywhere, except Florida, but that’s full of Boston people.
Uh, Shane picks Ottawa because it’s his hometown, followed by other Canadian cities like Toronto and Winnipeg. Ilya laughs at how boring his answers are. Neither admits what they really mean: their favorite stops are each other’s cities, for obvious reasons. Uh, then the conversation turns to women. Ilya mentions Svetlana, an old friend he likes very much.
Shane seems a little jealous, but Ilya describes their relationship as friend- a friendship with a little bit of fucking. Uh, he adds that it’s nice to have a regular woman around. Ilya asks whether Shane likes women, too, and Shane says he does, but explains that privacy’s important to him. Obviously, Ilya admits that he likes girls, uh, but he also likes Shane.
Their conversation is interrupted by a panicked call from Ilya’s father. Unable to help from America, Ilya grows frustrated. He angrily, angrily calls his brother, Alexi, and tells him to check i- in on their dad. That’s what he’s paid for. Uh, when Ili- Ilya arri- uh, returns to the couch, Shane asks how his [00:46:00] father’s doing.
Ilya doesn’t really answer. Instead, he pulls Shane close and they go back to doing what they do best, replacing emotional in- intimacy with physicality. Uh, but this time, something changes. During their sex, they call each other by their first names. Ilya seems pleased. Shane freaks out and quickly makes an excuse to leave.
Jo, kom an. Ja
Clip: I should, uh, I should go. Um, I shouldn’t go. I, I shouldn’t stay. I can’t. Team meeting in the morning, I forgot, so… Okay. You forgot team meeting. Thank you for the tuna melt.
Matt: Mm.
Clip: Um, uh, I’m sorry. Just, I can’t
Wallander. [00:47:00] I just, I can’t, uh, I can’t do this
Andre I’m sorry
Allan: That second Hollander is killer. Dan, what’d you think? Oh, that was
Tanya: me.
Allan: And I think- Shut up. I didn’t… Pause.
Tanya: Um-
Allan: One job. I know, right?
Tanya: I, I love, um… I love how the actor played that scene. Mm. Uh, Shane’s, uh, uh, I d- don’t know his name name. Um, Hudson? Yeah. Is it Hudson? Um- Hudson Williams, I think … the breath that he was taking, um, and that, that it, it was the way he was breathing as he was delivering the line, and you could feel the, that, [00:48:00] that sense of panic that he- That’s what it
Allan: is, it’s panic.
It’s-
Tanya: Yeah … it’s- It was, it was a, like it was a f- it was like a f- a, what a panic attack is- Mm-hmm … and how he, his breath was, was affected, and how he was stuttering his words and couldn’t get the f- the feeling was so intense and so emotional, and everything was just flooding him so quickly that it was just, “I have to leave.”
And I thought it was really, really well done, and how, um, yeah. I, he, he did a phenomenal job.
Allan: Mm-hmm. Now Victor, what’d you think?
Victor: Uh, I’ve, I thought the same thing as Shane. I think he and I both had exactly the same feeling from the beginning of this episode right up to the end of that scene.
Oh,
Victor: God. Um, and, and, and in that scene, he basically broke the fourth wall and said, “I’m out of here.
I’ve had enough.” Um, you know, just th- they, you know, that whole scene, that [00:49:00] whole scene and kind of the, uh, where you start to see little breaks. So is Ilia finally gonna, you know, come, uh, y- you know, b- break through with his emotions and kinda let Shane in, and all that kind of stuff. Um, and it all kind of, all h- kind of falls apart because after that phone call with his father and then, you know, Shane is trying to kind of, uh, get Ilia to open up, and instead Ilia says, “No, let’s go.
Let’s fuck again instead because I’m too small of a person. I can’t open up.” Wait- “I’m not gonna let you in.”
Allan: You, you think Ilia instigated that? That was Shane. I think Shane instigated that. Shane for sure. Shane is the one who is- Yeah … is, is avoiding-
Victor: Shane did the- yes … intimacy … and it happened at y- Listen, no, no, you’re missing my point.
Uh-huh. You’re missing my point. Clearly. Yeah, clearly you’re missing my point. Mm-hmm. After Ilia shut him down, then Shane realized the only way I have an in with this idiot is through sex- Mm … because this guy’s not capable of, of having a serious conversation. Yeah. That, that conversation that [00:50:00] they had on a couch, I felt like that was, that’s a conversation you have on your first or second date.
These g- these guys have not been able to have a serious conversation, I don’t know how many weeks they’ve been together. No, because they can’t have a date.
Allan: They haven’t been able to have a date.
Victor: It’s not that… No, Al, that’s not why. It’s not why. It’s because of Ilia. He’s closed he, he shuts Shane, Shane off.
Mm. He w- every time Shane has tried to break in after their encounters, Ilia had never had, never wanted to have anything with him. Oh, we read this one
Allan: so, so
Victor: opposite. And, and, and- Okay … and, and, um, after Shane basically was again hit a, h- hit a, uh, a closed door with him, he said, “Okay, well, we’ll go back to doing what we always do.”
Clip: Yeah.
Victor: So it’s not about who instigated it, so but it’s the fact that he again closed him off and said, “Fuck you.” Mm. “I’m not opening up to you, so deal with it.” Yeah. And then, and then Shane realized that he can’t do this anymore. No. It’s, there’s, it’s, it’s pointless. It’s, it, there’s ab- It’s, it’s not going anywhere.
So he-
Allan: It’s amazing we’re watching the same [00:51:00] show.
Tanya: I, I, I really, I feel like the conversat- Uh, sorry. I, uh, I don’t know what the, I’m, uh, that, right. I’m so ending. No, go ahead. Um, I feel like the comment when Ilia said about the girl And, and I think he ha- I think Shane had some jealousy, and I think when they had that, um, intimacy again and they used each other’s names, I think he, uh, I think the flood of emotions is that they can never be like that in public.
They can never be with each other. Yeah, but
Victor: you’re dismissing… That’s fine. I, I, I don’t disagree with that, uh, Tanya, but you can’t dismiss the other things that happened in the scene. And the mo- and the thing that happened just before the second encounter, the second sexual encounter, is that whole thing with his father.
Mm. And right afterwards, Shane asked- Shane tried to- … tried to ask him- … sure … questions about it, and Ilya says, basically told him, “Fuck off. Don’t ask me these questions.” He did no such thing. And that’s
Allan: when sh- He did no such thing. He did
Victor: exactly that. He did that with
Allan: his- He la- [00:52:00] he found it amusing that, that, uh- Shane
Shane knew the word, the Russian word for father. Yeah. And then he pulled him in to cuddle with him, and then it was Shane who instigated the, the, the sex. Yeah.
Victor: Then you, you, you just don’t get it, and that’s fine. Yeah. And that’s fine.
Allan: Whatever.
Victor: You just don’t get it.
Allan: I- It’s fine … totally get it. Yeah. ‘Cause well, and well, when I get to my turn…
Anyway, I’m gonna shut. Go, go ahead. What, what
Manisha: do you think? So the way I saw it was- You pay for this. Yeah. So I saw Ilya wanting to finally take care of Shane.
Allan: Yes.
Manisha: He finally wants, like on purpose wants to take care of someone- Absolutely … where he’s been forced to take care of his brother, his niece, his father, make sure that Polina is somewhere taking care of his father.
So he went from a relation- or several relationships where he was forced to take care of someone to finally wanting to care and put effort into the relationship. Shane doesn’t know how to deal with that. So that’s the first thing I saw. Mm. And, I [00:53:00] mean, a tuna melt is so basic, but that’s- Mm … all that he can give at that time.
And
Allan: then during- Watch Shane’s reaction when Ilya’s making him a fucking tuna melt. He’s panicking already. He’s in the kitchen panicking because Ilya’s making him a sandwich.
Manisha: Right. Right. Mm. And then what I noticed during the phone call with his father, I noticed the artwork in the back. So you’ve got two panels that are kind of chaotic.
Yeah.
Manisha: And then you’ve got two panels that have two circles that are light and dark, and I think that was sort of indicative of what they want you to show, that there’s chaos around him. And then the two pieces of art, the panels in the middle, there’s light and dark and showing the two differences, the two, two different lives that they each have to share and, and act out essentially.
Mm.
Manisha: And then I- uh, sorry, just looking at my notes
Mm-hmm
Manisha: I think there was a little bit of improv [00:54:00] in this one. Mm-hmm. So I think that after the phone call, Ilya comes out, he’s obviously upset. I thought that Shane was trying to make him feel better-
Hmm …
Manisha: and that’s why he instigated. But I think there was a bit of improv in there when it seemed like when he put his hand out in front of his mouth and Ilya spits into it, I think they’re kind of getting really comfortable with each other and really comfortable with being on, on camera that way.
Hmm. So I thought that was kind of interesting because they’re a little more connected. Mm. But then Shane pulls back, and you can see how devastated Ilya is when he’s… He just bared himself- Yeah … in all ways, and then all of a sudden he’s being shot down by Shane, and he looks broken.
Allan: Yeah. The two
Manisha: Hollanders.
And he’s pleading. Yeah. Yeah, he’s pleading with them.
Allan: Exactly.
Manisha: Like, “Please, just- Yeah … stay, and why are you making this up?” Yeah. And [00:55:00] you can kind of see the, the questioning that he’s doing. Mm-hmm. Like, what just happened?
Allan: Yeah. Well, a- I mean, insofar as Tanya saying that Shane’s been acting, or, um, um, W- Hudson Williams acting there is really good, I really liked Connor Story’s- Yes
too. Just Hollander. Hollander. Like, the way he did, like, “Come on.” Like, “What are we doing here?” Um, I thought was really, really well done. Mm-hmm. Il- Shane i- is a control freak in his entire life. He can control the hookups, he can’t control when it gets messy, and this was getting messy. He started freaking out when he…
A, he, it took him a while to say yes when, when, when Ilia asked him to stay. When Ilia offered to make him a sandwich, watch his face. He looks like he’s about to panic when, when he sees Ilia making him a sandwich. And then afterwards, Il- Ilia’s the one who says, “Yes, I like women, but I like you.” Now, he follows that up with some negging, [00:56:00] yes.
He follows up saying, “Uh, y- you got a great mouth,” or whatever. But he’s the first one of the two of them to admit his feelings to, to the other. “I like you.” And then, yes, he had that difficult conversation with his father. You could see him compose himself before, before going back to the couch. Yes, Shane, uh, asks, asks him about his father.
But I feel like that was him out of obligation asking. Mm. Like, this, this awkward moment just happened. We can’t hide- I disagree
Victor: 100% …
Allan: from it, so I’m gonna ask him about it. When Ilia doesn’t say anything, yes, Shane initiates that. But then it gets too real again when they use each other’s first names.
Shane panics again and leaves. Like, how do you not see that? It was right there. Anyway.
Victor: It’s right there. Shane, Shane is the one that got shut down, not the other way around. Yeah. And then he realized, “I’m a fucking loser.” Yeah. “This guy’s never gonna let me in. I’m out of here.” Because this is, all this is is a sexual relationship, and we can’t have any real conversations.
Allan: All right, Matt, what did you see?
Matt: So you’ve all made some good points. [00:57:00] Even Victor, there’s a couple things I could- Even Victor … I could bite onto. Well, even Victor, there’s a couple of things I could bite onto. But I, I, I feel like, and you guys have all hinted at the problem in this scene, but no one’s had the courage to say it.
We are not giving enough credit to the tuna melt. Okay?
Manisha: Oh my God.
Matt: There is-
Manisha: I called it basic, sorry …
Matt: basic, basic, yes, but there is nothing sexy about a tuna melt.
Allan: No, you’re right.
Matt: No t- no time in the history of ever- Yeah,
Allan: fishy breath and stuff afterward. Yeah, yeah …
Matt: right, no time in the history of ever has someone said, “Hey, let’s have a tuna,” and then make out and have sex and all that.
Never. And like when, even when he spit on his hand, it was a few mo- few moments later when Shane backed off, ’cause he’s like, “Oh fuck, there’s tuna on his
Allan: dick now.” And it goes back to that Squidli- Dan, uh, s- uh, line. You c- it’s hard to get tuna out of your dick hole.
Matt: To get… Yeah, exactly. See? Oh. So you guys are way overthinking this. This is way overthought. It
Allan: all goes back to Letterkenny, people.
Tanya: Oh. Have you ever seen that jo- that you, [00:58:00] you, you, uh, put your fingers in the- What?
tuna can, uh, for women? It- it’s all, all out. What? There was a, a joke. Oh, God. And the w- and the woman puts, uh, a little bit of tuna juice on her inner thighs. Mm-hmm. And then, and then the guy puts his head on her lap to lay down and watch a movie. Great. And then they start gagging ’cause they don’t know. And, and it’s a joke that the women are playing on the guys.
Right.
Matt: Right.
Tanya: It’s hilarious.
Matt: Guys, in general, are not very complicated people. But, you know, we’re idiots- It’s true … but we’re not that complicated. So like we’ve… Like, you guys have all hinted at it. Mm-hmm. Like even when the look- It’s hilarious … in Shane’s face when he started making the sandwich. Even Shane’s like, “Fuck.”
Like- Oh,
Allan: so the panicked look was because I’m gonna have to smell tuna later?
Matt: Like, like, can we at least brush our teeth? No, they didn’t do that. So- Oh
Tanya: my
Matt: God … listen, I think
Allan: the answer
Matt: to
Allan: all this- Thank you
Matt: for bringing sense and sanity- You fucking idiot … is far less- Yeah … far less complicated than you guys are all making it.
Tanya: Oh, I-
Allan: Uh-huh …
Matt: I’ll leave it at that.
Allan: Thank you for bringing sanity back to that conversation.
Tanya: All I know is that the next time I see you, I’m bringing a case of tuna with me. Oh my God.
Allan: All right. Let’s move on.
Tanya: [00:59:00] But I wanna say- Mm-hmm … I’m actually not, uh, I’m like a little bit Victor. I’m not, I’m not 100% Victor, but I think Victor has a little bit of a point because- Watch the scene again.
Watch the scene again I
Matt: think he, I
Tanya: think he’s onto something with that, though … because when, uh, this is why. Because I think Shane has s- s- put his wall up because I… That whole scene i- when he was in the elevator and when Ilya blew him off and he left and he did the, that hurt kinda, “We didn’t even kiss,” I think that’s when Shane was just like, “All right.
You’re just purely sex. You’re just for play. Like, that is, that’s where the line is drawn. I’m not letting you in.” And I think maybe that’s where I, I’m a little bit see what Victor’s saying is that, “You know what, bud? This is what you wanted, and whatever you’re doing right now, you’re screwing around with me,” and no, that’s why he’s panicked.
If, if you’re making me sandwiches and inviting me to stay… [01:00:00] It was three things, right? Inviting me to stay overnight, make me a sandwich, and, um, have a, have a conversation, call me by my first name is too many things. That’s, that’s where the panic happened.
Allan: All right, let’s move on. We cut to Shane at a restaurant with his parents.
They’re discussing an invitation to attend Wimbledon as guests of Rolex. Well, his parents is, are discussing it. Shane is actually distracted after, uh, his encounter with Ilya. His mom tries to sell him on seats next to a Swedish princess. That doesn’t sway him. He doesn’t wanna miss training. Uh, his dad asks whether everything’s all right.
Shane seems tense, but insists he’s fine, and suggests they go without him. The problem is, Rolex wants Shane there, so he floats the idea of accepting, then calling in sick at the last minute. His mom tells him not to lie, that’s not who he is. That comment strikes a nerve. Shane apologizes for being in a weird mood.
Later that night, a teammate calls to invite him to an after-hours party at a friend’s restaurant. Some of the cast of the X-Squad movie will be there. That gives Shane… That gets [01:01:00] Shane’s attention. Uh, Shane arrives at the restaurant, much to his teammate’s surprise and delight. He heads to the bar, orders a ginger ale.
When the bartender gives him a funny look, he switches to beer. The bartender refuses to take his money. He’s a big Hollander fan. Uh, they, uh, as they chat, Shane learns that Rose Landr- Landry, one of the stars of X-Squad, is at the party. That perks him up. He orders a second beer. A few beers later, a wobbly Shane slides into a booth without realizing Rose is already sitting there.
She offers him some fries and introduces herself. Shane already knows who she is. He’s a big fan. Turns out she’s a fan of his. She’s from Michigan, has three brothers, and knows her hockey. Even, she even chirps him on behalf of her Detroit r- uh, Detroit team. Uh, they have plenty in common, and immediately hit it off.
Clip: Um, I was eight, and I played this girl who gets kidnapped and held for ransom- Oh, wow … by Bill Paxton.
That is terrible.
He was actually pretty nice to me, and it was good practice.
Getting kidnapped?
I’ve been kidnapped in [01:02:00] no less than four movies, including the one I’m doing right now. Fuck. You- You didn’t hear
that.
You know, they will literally have me murdered if they find out I told you.
My lips are sealed. Okay.
Your turn.
Well, I’ve never been kidnapped. I mean, there have been threats. No,
not what I meant. Shane Hollander, eight years old. Paint me a picture
Well, I’m definitely on the ice somewhere. The, the scouting and crazy stuff doesn’t start for another couple years, so probably just having fun.
Did it stop being fun?
No. Uh, well, I mean, kind of. I, I love it, but it got more intense, so I guess I kind of got more intense too, if that makes sense.
[01:03:00] Yeah, it does. And I, I bet that being the only Asian kid didn’t make it less intense.
I wasn’t the only one. There was one other. He hated me, though.
Mm.
I have a Western last name, so it’s like the other kids kind of forgot to make fun
of me.
And I bet you’re pretty fucking good too, right?
I was all right. Mm.
Allan: Production note: Rose- That’s his
Clip: friend, right?
Allan: Rose is played by Sophie Nélisse, a Canadian actor from Windsor, Ontario, known for Yellowjackets and The Rest of Us. Uh, another montage, this time set to Richie Jay’s Andana, uh, shows Shane and Rose enjoying each other’s company during a poker game with Shane’s friends.
Rose puts her hand on his leg, uh, he puts his hand over hers, and voila, Shane has a girlfriend. Soon, photos [01:04:00] of them are everywhere, uh, holding hands, going out to each- uh, going out together and attending his games. Rose even blows him a kiss on live TV. Uh, news reaches Boston, where Ilya can’t believe what he’s seeing.
The coverage keeps coming. Even E Talk follows the power couple’s activities, much to Ilya’s annoyance as he watches the TVs at the gym. Two weeks later, Montreal plays Boston. Before the game, Shane texts Rose. She invites him to a club afterward and promises she won’t make him dance. He knows she’s lying.
Uh, before putting his money, uh, his phone away, uh, Shane scrolls down to Ilya’s last message, sent after their most recent hookup in Boston. Uh, Montreal wins one-nothing, but the announcers notice something unusual. Hollander and Rosanov barely factor into the game. All right, before we go into the final part of this, we’ll, we’ll have a quick discussion over th- this scene, meeting Rose and, and what that means.
Victor? Did we start with… Yeah, yeah, go ahead
Victor: Yeah, I love, I love that scene. Yeah. Um, so that kind of brought us… I think that was the first time we saw, um, Shane have an [01:05:00] adult conversation with anybody. Mm-hmm. Um, so what I loved about that scene and the way that it was done, uh, is, um, it wasn’t forced. It was completely organic.
It wasn’t like Shane s- oh, I’m gonna show that Ilya, who was telling me about his, you know, Russian girl- girlfriend or whatever. Uh, that had nothing to do with it. That was not the motivator here. He, he had absolutely no preconceived intentions of doing that. It was a very natural, organic thing. He sat down at the booth, and they just had a really nice…
The same kind of conversation that y- you know, any of us were having when we were- Mm-hmm … you know, young and meeting people for the first time. And, uh, it just, it takes you back and thinking, “What a lovely, nice conversation.” You see the spark. And, and I feel like this kind of a spark is so much more meaningful than that spark that we were talking about that Erin was going on about with the cigarettes and, uh…
Was it Erin? Or no, it was Michelle. Mm-hmm. I think it was Michelle was telling us about that scene where the, the [01:06:00] spark of the cigarette… Like, uh, whatever. Like, this was so much nicer. This was, like, organic. They’re having conversation. The prize-
Allan: Well, that was also metaphoric, you know?
Victor: Yeah, yeah, whatever.
Anyway, so, so I, I loved the scene. Uh- I loved how it developed. It w- he wasn’t trying to find a beard, right? It was, like, an actual person that he actually enjoyed having time with, and it developed into a friendship and, and, and it’s fine. Like, I- we’re not thinking that he’s somehow using her or anything like that in a way to get back at Ilya.
It’s just an, it’s just, they found each other. Mm-hmm. We wish nothing but the best for them at this point.
Allan: Okay. Uh, Manisha?
Manisha: Yes. I… So he actually said no to a ginger ale. Mm. He’s drinking beer. Mm-hmm. So he’s kinda loosening up. He’s kind of-
Allan: Yeah … ready for the
Manisha: night. Right
Allan: after the scene where, where his parents ask him for, if he wants wine, and he’s- By
Victor: the way, what kind of a restaurant- Right
doesn’t serve ginger ale? But anyway.
Allan: A hoity-toity Montreal restaurant. Uh, yeah.
Manisha: Right.
Allan: Yeah.
Manisha: And [01:07:00] the, um- Sorry, I’m gonna get a little squirrely again. So the lighting- Mm … when he and Rose are talking, you know, both of their faces are illuminated fully.
Mm-hmm.
Manisha: I kinda noticed how different it was when, back in episode three, when Scott was confessing in the kitchen to Kip.
Mm-hmm. Half of his face was dark, the other half was light. Mm-hmm. So they play with light a lot- Right … I find, and it- Mm … was revealing, for example, over the french fries as they’re talking, they’re opening up. What got me in particular about that scene was talking about him having fun as a kid. So as a parent of a high-performance athlete, I know that conversation.
Mm-hmm. And I know when you lose hav- when you, when you stop having fun with the sport that you have loved, and you’ve moved into a high competitive phase. Mm. And then it changes. So that saddened me, and it hit me- Mm … [01:08:00] in a different way than a lot of the conversations were. So I definitely felt for that conversation, but I’m so happy that he’s actually able to have it.
It seems like he’s always missing out on social cues, but he was totally connecting with Rose.
Allan: When you see… This… Actually, you bring up a great point. When you see the, the relationship between Shane and his parents, especially his mom, because she’s, uh, the, her def- his de facto manager. She’s the one managing all of his endorsements- Mm
and all that stuff. How do y- how does that make you feel? Like, do you look ba- Like, uh, you’re… Like, are you Reese’s manager, or does he have, like, somebody who represents him and stuff?
Manisha: So I am not his manager. At the beginning, you know, I was driving him all over the place- Mm-hmm … and, and organizing things, and sort of a, o- for overall, like, I was a team manager.
Mm-hmm.
Manisha: Not just for him. Um, when I see what she’s doing, I see that she’s doing it for him, and- Yeah … because he’s not gonna do it, and why not keep it in the family? [01:09:00] Why pay someone else- Yeah … to manage? Oh, the other thing that also got me was talking about him as a, um, mixed racial individual- Right … or mixed race individual, and that- The code switching that he’s had to do- Mm-hmm
especially with his last name, and that whole dynamic- Mm … definitely-
Allan: Yeah …
Manisha: definitely hit me differently. But yeah, seeing his parents, how they’re acting, yeah, is interesting. I kinda think of, uh, Kris Jenner, but not as bad.
Allan: Right. I mean- You know? … I, I don’t think they’re, they’re awful. Like, they’re, they’re j- Mm
they’re just, they’re just- They’re just
Victor: oblivious …
Allan: they’re, they’re oblivious. I think they’re oblivious to the pressure they’re putting on him, right? And, um, and he’s probably not being great about, you know, vocalizing it either.
Mm-hmm.
Allan: But, uh, yeah, it’s, it’s pretty funny. Or not funny, but interesting. Um, yeah, I, I love that scene with his parents because, again, it shows what a control freak he is f- over his own [01:10:00] life.
Yes, his m- his parents put the pressure on him, but no one’s telling him to do something a- and he doesn’t do it if he doesn’t wanna do it, right? His parents are, “Oh, come on, relax. Have a glass of wine. Like, what’s…” “No, I’ll have ginger ale.” “Come to Wimbledon.” “No, I’m going to stay… ‘Cause I only get two, two weeks off a year.
I, I’m g- gonna stay home and train.” But
Victor: you’re saying this as if it’s somehow, like, a bad thing. Like, I think having discipline and I think b- by saying he’s a control freak is a bit extreme. He’s just disciplined. He’s- He has a disciplined lifestyle. No,
Allan: he’s disciplined, but, uh, there-
Victor: A lot of athletes have a disciplined lifestyle.
Allan: Okay, but to the point where y- you start panicking when you s- when, when a little bit of that discipline goes away or, or where you lose control of a situation? May-
Victor: maybe. Maybe. I do know- I also th- I just think it’s a little extreme the way you’re describing it, that’s all.
Manisha: I do know someone who, if she cannot get to bed by a certain time, she does get very, very anxious.
Mm-hmm. And she is an Olympian.
Allan: Yeah.
Manisha: So there are athletes who do have to have certain, certain things certain ways. Sure, you
Allan: need a
Manisha: regi- Especially- … regimen,
Allan: yeah, yeah. [01:11:00]
Manisha: Yeah. Um, but I think there’s, there is more to that for Shane- Mm-hmm … to keep up his comfort-
Allan: Yeah … as
Manisha: well.
Allan: And, and there’s, I mean, there’s a part, uh, that doesn’t show in the, in the show that we’ve been made aware of through the books that apparently Shane, in the books, is represented as somebody, like, in, on the spectrum.
We don’t see that in the show. Um, but we do see sign- hints of it here and there in his reaction to certain things and, and the way he acts in certain situations, but it’s never explicitly said. Um, so when I say control freak, okay, that’s probably putting it- I’m, I’m, I’m, yeah, overstating it, but I am saying that’s the reason his re- uh, his reactions are so strong for certain things.
And so, yeah. And that’s why maybe the panic bubbles up a little faster than him. Same with Hunter, Hunter in, in last episode. When, when he was out in the, in the art gallery and he didn’t feel in control of the situation, he had a panic attack and he had to rush home. This is kind of the same thing what happened to Shane [01:12:00] at Ilya’s house.
He looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack. He needed to get out of there. Mm-hmm. Um, uh, Matt, what did you think of this?
Matt: So the, the… See, with the parents, I found interesting and, and may- maybe I’m completely misreading it, um, but I’m a little annoyed with the parents. Mm-hmm. Um, I feel They, they’re obviously not, not strangers to who their son is and, and his caliber, and I feel more at this point their motivation is skewed.
It’s less… It f- in this scene in particular, it felt less about what’s best for Shane and more what’s best for us. Mm-hmm. What’s good for us is going to Wimbledon and sitting next to a princess- Mm-hmm … center, center court and having a really good time. You should come, ’cause they’re not gonna let us in if you don’t come.
Allan: Yeah.
Matt: Um, you know, like a- and, and it’s sad, um, and I, and I feel like it… But it’s portrayed in a way that if it’s intentional, I don’t know what the book says and- Mm … and if there’s, if it gets into, into that more. [01:13:00] But it, it, it’s like they’re, they’re almost oblivious to their own- Mm … reaction at this point- Mm
where she’s playing this role, the manager, but, um, I, I think the motivation is changing and, and I’d really… I kind of felt his frustration in that. Um, he’s like, “I don’t wanna fucking go. Like, I don’t wanna waste my two weeks.” They’re like, “Well, we’re just like- Yeah … it’ll be fun. We’ll go to London.” “Well, no, it’s your…
Mom and Dad wanna go to fucking London.”
Yeah.
Matt: Um, and the only way we can go, Shane, is if you come- Yeah … and get us all access to all the cool things because you’re Shane Hollander. So, um, that’s the vibe I got from that and was very disappointed in the parents from that scene. Mm-hmm. Um-
Victor: I think you’re spot on
so, mm-hmm. I think that’s… They’re, they’re superficial. They’re just kind of-
Matt: Yeah …
Victor: c- c- cut out parents. Yeah. Like, they’re…
Matt: Yeah, yeah. The, the second quick point, um, ginger ale. Is it, is it losing market share ’cause… Or is this tyranny going, “Guy, we, we need to bring it back to the public,” ’cause every s- this, this constant- Oh
obsession with ginger ale. It’s-
Allan: When Hudson Williams appeared on whatever, was it Kimmel or, [01:14:00]
Matt: or whatever? Did
Allan: he have ginger ale? Whatever late night show he was on, they had Canada Dry Ginger Ale for him. Yeah, no, it became a big deal, so Canada Dry is- Okay. I
Victor: think it’s-
Matt: Okay …
Victor: okay. I think Trump changed it to A- America Dry.
Allan: Careful, Victor. We’re gonna get, we’re gonna get that hate mail.
Matt: No, no, no. Oh, damn. No, no, that’s a val- I, I, I recognize the, I recognize that statement. Um, so yeah. No, that, that was, that was just something funny I laughed. I even wrote it down, “Ginger ale, does it have… Does its market share drop?” Um, the… We’re, we’re just learning and getting to know her, but the, the Rose character, um, I don’t know much behind the scenes, but I love this casting.
I don’t know her. Um, you mentioned a couple things. I think I’ve probably seen her in, in one of those mentions. I can’t remember which one it was. Um, but I love it. I, she feels very natural, very, like, there, there’s chemistry there- Yeah, yeah … between the two of them. There was n- Yellowjackets.
Allan: She’s in Yellowjackets.
Matt: Yes. I did- Yeah … I did watch some of Yellow… I watched the first season of Yellowjackets- Yeah … so if she was in that, I, I probably caught it. But, um, yeah, it’s a, it’s one of the most natural [01:15:00] scenes- Mm … and, and you called it out right away, too, in this, in this whole show. Um- There was nothing uncomfortable about it Yeah
and that’s the kind of, um, organic… Actually, it was Victor was talking about these, these organic conversations. I loved it. A- and, and she is a really good introduction to the show.
Tanya: Yeah. Mm. Mm. Um I just wanted to let you know there is actual, um, YouTube clip of, uh, Shane taste-testing different ginger ales- Right.
Yeah. … um, and trying to call out- Really? … trying to call out which one is the- Canada Dry … Canada Dry. Yeah. It’s like the
Matt: Pepsi taste
Allan: challenge?
Tanya: Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is. I
Allan: th- and I think he successfully, uh, uh-
Tanya: No, he did. I don’t- He did? I don’t recall that.
Allan: I think he did. I think… Well, I can- I- … tell the difference between Sh- Schweppes and Canada Dry.
Canada Dry is way better. It’s, it’s the superior ginger ale. But anyway, we will-
Tanya: I’m gonna taste test with you now. I’m gonna, I’m gonna buy some- You have big words. Well, we’ll, we’ll have to, we’ll have to d- do that challenge. Uh-huh. I like it. Um, so, um, I love all your points, and, um, uh, I love [01:16:00] the, the, um, things that you’ve pointed out with the light on the face and, and, um, at the restaurant and how Rose and, um, Shane are, are talking.
And I, I, I think… I, I didn’t see that. I’m gonna have to watch it again ’cause I think that’s a, a really, uh, great, great thing to point out. Um, uh, I agree, um, Matt, with the conversation on the parents. Um, but I’m gonna take it one step further. The part that really got me on that scene was when the mom said, um, “You, you can’t lie.
You, we, you, you’re not a liar.”
Allan: Yeah. “We didn’t raise you to be a liar,”
Tanya: kind of a… Yeah “We didn’t raise you to be a liar.” And that hit me so hard- Yeah … because they don’t even know who he is. Like, he’s had to hide who he is. Yeah. And he doesn’t even have that comfort- True … with them- Yeah … to tell him, to tell them.
Um, and they don’t recognize it to ask [01:17:00] him, um, y- you know, and, and to check in with him. Like, there’s all this stuff going on, but let- let’s check in. How are you doing? What’s going on with you? What’s… L- like, let’s, let’s talk about you and, and, and how things are going. Mm-hmm. Um, and I, I really… That was my big takeaway on that whole scene, was, um, the whole lie bit and how they aren’t, um…
They, they, they’ve, they’ve completely missed. And, and he doesn’t have that comfort with them in that moment. He even had a facial expression, I think, when she- Oh, yeah. He,
Allan: it, it hit her. It him when, when she said, “You’re not a liar,” and-
Tanya: Yeah …
Allan: yeah, for sure.
Tanya: Isn’t that when he excused himself? Yes. The… Yeah, he did.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. At that moment. Yeah.
Allan: All right, uh, final part here. After the, the loss, Ilya tells his roommate he needs to get laid. Cue tattoos all things she said. Ilya drags his teammates to a club in Montreal. Shane arrives at the same club to surprise [01:18:00] Rose. She’s happy to see him and congratulates him on a good game.
Shane isn’t so sure about the good part. Uh, he needs a beer, but R- but Rose pulls h- him onto the dance floor. At the bar, Ilya spots one of Rose’s friends and immediately starts looking for Shane. He finds him on the dance floor with Rose. Everything slows down as Ilya watches. Then Shane notices one of Ilya’s teammates and starts searching for him too.
Ilya finds a woman to dance with, making absolutely sure Shane can see him. Shane watches. Ilya watches Shane watching. The club sequence is intercut with scenes from later that night. Shane leaves with Rose and they go home together and have sex. Uh, meanwhile, Ilya goes home alone and masturbates in the shower while thinking about Shane, and we fade to black That is the end of that episode.
Uh, so first we go with, uh, first impressions. No ratings yet, just, uh, uh, you know, the episode as a whole. We can talk about th- that last scene as well. That last [01:19:00] scene. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Maneesh, I’ll start with you. So first that last scene, and then, you know, the episode as a whole
Manisha: I loved the music that they were playing- Yes
in that- It’s a
Allan: great song, yeah …
Manisha: in the club. And I kept thinking, you know, the pulsing beat of the music, but their hearts when their eyes met.
Clip: Mm-hmm. Mm.
Manisha: You know, it was… it wasn’t in any comparison. But, you know, they, they went from jealous to trying to make each other jealous by dancing with their respective female partners, and then they…
That one scene near the end, that is part of the trailer- Mm … for the entire show.
Yeah.
Manisha: Where they’re… where Shane is standing by himself and Ilya, her- his partner, is, like, dancing around him, where they’ve locked eyes and it’s pretty intense. Uh, that was… They went from jealous to, “I really do need you.” Mm-hmm.
And that’s where… well, right before Rose kinda has to [01:20:00] have that discussion with him.
Clip: Mm-hmm.
Manisha: But yeah, it was, it was a good scene. The club sequence, um, their feelings were coming out. You knew where, where they st- they each knew where they stood with each other, I think.
Allan: And, and overall, the episode was… You know, without giving a rating, how, how did you like this episode?
You know, compared to the, the first th- four we’ve seen, or three that we’ve seen.
Manisha: There was a lot going on. Mm-hmm. So at the beginning it was kinda like, “Oh, we’re back to this again.” Mm-hmm. And then there was some warmth and then some confusion. The… There were a lot of emotions going on. Mm. And there were some walls broken down and walls put up, and there…
you know. Yeah. There was a lot going on.
Allan: Yeah. Uh, yeah, that last scene there, I mean, um, well, t- we’ve talked about, excuse me, uh, Tierney, you know, being director for Letterkenny and Shoresy. The lighting is no surprise. It’s one of his things he does so well in, on, uh, on his other shows. This last montage is very much something y- we would’ve seen in Letterkenny, where everything [01:21:00] around them is in slow motion, but they’re not even moving.
They’re just standing there staring at each other while stuff’s happening around them, b- oblivious to them. They’re, they’re just seeing each other, and nothing else is happening around them. But everything’s happening around them at the same time, uh, to a great soundtrack. Uh, he’s done it before to great effect.
That’s why I started… I’m… Like, after watching this, I think all of that musical montage brilliance, even though it was- Mm … Kiso’s musical picks, uh, I, I would say m- uh, 70 to 80% of it was Tierney’s direction. It had to be.
Tanya: Tierney, just hear us. Yes. Come on.
Allan: Come on, J- Jacob. Come on, ’cause this-
Tanya: We need to know.
Allan: Yeah. Uh, it is just really, really well done. So overall, this episode, uh, y- you’ll notice, I think I only clipped five clips, and, and the la- the first three I had, like, nine clips each. There wasn’t a lot to clip because there wasn’t a lot of dialogue, as Victor- Mm … I’m sure, would mention. There were three very long extended musical montages, and then, you know, there’s some, some banger scenes in between.
But this, [01:22:00] this, uh, episode is very much a mood episode in terms of set to music, but also a lot of storytelling during those, those montages. So, uh, it was, it was interesting. I think it, it definitely, even though the relationship broke, it did move their relationship forward to the point where it broke, but we’ll see what happens in the future.
Uh, yeah. That’s all I have to say about this episode. Matt, what did you think of the last scene and the episode as a whole?
Matt: So I’ll speak to the episode whole, then get into the- Sure … scene. Um, and this might be unpopular opinion or rate aligned with other co-hosts with me here. Um, but there were, what?
There’s what, a 45-minute episode?
Allan: Mm-hmm.
Matt: I felt the first 30 minutes were throwaway. Um- I did. Like honestly, it was- I was watching it and, and, you know, I was respecting from a prod- production standpoint. Like this is s- like it is, it is a very well done show. I’m not gonna ever dismiss that. It is extremely well done.
Um, but [01:23:00] yeah, the first 30 minutes felt like episodes one and two all over again, which I enjoyed at the time, but at this point when it’s only, what, six episodes on the season, uh, I’m like, “Okay, let’s… Okay, enough’s enough. We, we get it.” They, you know… They could have just done the montage and then dove right in to the last 15 minutes and stretched it out into something more because from the moment Shane walked out to the end, I’m like, “Cool, now something is fucking happening.”
Yeah. Right? Yes, there was a couple hints early on- Mm … that, yes, you can tie and say that was important, but they could have done without it and no one would’ve noticed. They could have gone right to that scene, you know, and, and it would’ve been fine. ‘Cause I think the, the last 15 minutes of the episode were very solid storytelling.
Mm.
Matt: There was some real progression in what’s going on. Am I confident in even speaking to it? No, because I’m really confused.
Mm-hmm.
Matt: Um, which I’m okay with, right? Mm-hmm. It’s the, th- this new dynamic and the entrance of Rose and, you know, th- they both like each other a lot [01:24:00] clearly, but they’re both into women.
Okay, yes. There’s, there’s a lot going on here, and there’s nothing wrong with that. They’re, they’re, they’re exploring their life and, um, but trying to make sense of it all and having a hard time- Sure … in terms of where their heads are at.
Allan: Yeah.
Matt: Um, and, and maybe- Well, I think
Allan: what it is, what, what they’re looking at is trying to take the easy road.
They can’t be themselves with each other, so they’re looking for a more acceptable- Maybe … relationship that they can have- Yeah … out in public, right?
Matt: Yeah. A- and maybe, and, and maybe Shane, I know you mentioned a little bit about- It’s
Victor: mutually exclusive. I wouldn’t use the word they ’cause it’s two very different scenarios.
Mm.
Matt: Yeah. But like even the last scene at the club, I don’t even, even… I don’t even think it crossed Shane’s mind about jealousy until he realized Ilya was there. Like-
Allan: Yeah …
Matt: he, I, I, you know, the way they portrayed at least, he’s very happy. He looks like this, i- like there’s nothing ingenuine about this growing relationship with Rose now.
They’re having a good time. They, like n- not even a moment, like you don’t even see a moment of him looking kind of sad around her- Mm … [01:25:00] which they could have easily done if that was the case. Right. If he was truly missing Ilya, you’d think you’d show a cute little scene of them together and her say something cute to him, and then him just kind of go and give a half fake smile.
But no, you didn’t get any of that. Like, you’ve seen that in movies before where they’re playing it off and, and pretending. I don’t get that vibe at all. Um, so I didn’t get the impression that he was trying to make Ilya jealous at all. He’s just- I’m trying something different. Mm-hmm. This is, this is working.
This is quite happy. And of course, Ilya has come around to a whole new level, and we’re getting some really reveal- That whole scene was very revealing on him, I believe, more than anyone in terms of how he’s reacting to it and then how he carries it out. So I, I think he’s had more, much more control over them up until this point.
And now that Shane’s taken over and be like, “You know what, man? I’m doing my own thing now.” Ilja’s feeling it, and he’s digesting it and, and trying to make sense of it all. So- Yeah … um, like I said, the first 30 minutes, right or wrong, [01:26:00] throw away in terms of the story. I don’t think it progressed anything.
The last 15 minutes, really well done.
Allan: Mm.
Matt: Continue this into five and six, and I’ll be very happy. Um, but yeah, that’s my thoughts.
Allan: There was a little bit of sloppiness in that last scene, I thought anyway, ’cause there was no, there was no reason for Ilja when he saw Rose’s-
Manisha: Miles …
Allan: friend-
Manisha: I think his name is Miles
Allan: at the bar. Yeah. And, and expecting to see Shane there too. Why would he expect to see Shane there? A, Shane, he knows Shane doesn’t like going out drinking and partying. And B, how does he know Miles? Like- Yeah.
Matt: Exactly … yeah, I thought that for a second too.
Allan: Yeah. You know- Yes … that was, at first I’m like, “Is that another, uh, teammate of Shane’s, not Miles maybe?”
What, whatever. I, no, it, it was Miles. And- W-
Victor: sorry, which one is Miles?
Allan: Uh, uh, Rose’s- Rose’s friend … friend. The, who’s I, look, I think he’s also-
Victor: Oh, the, the, the queer friend.
Allan: Yeah. Yeah.
Victor: Right. Okay.
Allan: So Ilja sees Miles at the bar, and then looks around, uh, expecting to see Shane- Well, I have a
Victor: different take on that- Okay
Allan: but
Victor: I’ll, I’ll tell you
Allan: when- Yeah. They do kind of share a look where it looks like he’s hitting on, but, uh, so I don’t know. Anyway. It, it, it [01:27:00] felt kind of- It- … clumsy there. It was kind of weird. Anyway, Tam, what’d you think of that scene? It, it
Tanya: did. I, I was gonna call out, so, um, it looked like Miles was hitting on Shane- Mm
and hitting on Ilja, and I was completely expecting something to happen with him-
Allan: Yeah …
Tanya: because it, it felt like there was almost- Oh, Shane
Allan: was like the meat in the sandwich, a m- a Miles and Rose sandwich on the dance floor.
Tanya: Which I was also- Yeah … um, I thought I was waiting for Shane because, uh, always when anything public happens, Shane just is so awkward- Yeah
about things. Yeah. And so, uh, conscious, uh, cautious and conscious about how he’s gonna be perceived- Right … right?
Allan: And at that point he didn’t even
Tanya: move. And he didn’t even- Yeah … move or, or- It was
Allan: a little weird …
Tanya: I, I, again, I think he just had Ilja in his head- Maybe … and, um, you know, I, or I, I don’t know, or maybe he was drinking or he’s so tired from the game and- Mm-hmm
but again, he’s people pleaser. He’s, he’s, he’s there even though he’s tired and he didn’t [01:28:00] necessarily wanna be there or dance or whatever. Yeah. But didn’t they… Okay, so when he’s having sex then with Rose, didn’t he have a flash of being with Sh- with Ilja? Or am I making that up? Well,
Allan: so while that’s happening, there’s cut back and forth between him having sex with Rose, Ilja alone in the shower masturbating, but then right at the end- Shane looks up like during the climactic period, Shane does look up, and there’s a really quick flash between both their faces to, I guess, indicate that they’re thinking- Questionable
Tanya: and- Thinking
Allan: of each other
thinking of each other, as opposed to- … him with his mind on, on what he, on his current task, if you know what I mean.
Tanya: On his current task. Not, not,
Matt: not everything immediately is. Wait, no, explain it
Tanya: to us. Yeah. How does the current task work? Um, so, um- Oh,
Matt: wow, if you’re still trying to figure that one out Tanya, sorry.
Tanya: Um, the, that, and by the way, the, the breathing and the facial reactions and wowzers, like, they did such a, a, [01:29:00] a great job again of, uh, um, pr- f- facial perform. You know what that reminded me of?
Facial performing. Facial performing. That’s a new thing. I’m gonna make it. We, do you, you know what that reminded me of when in Letterkenny they were doing the whole
Allan: Oh, the, the prostate bit.
Tanya: The prostate, and the fa- Do you remember when, when all of a sudden- The reaction, yeah … all you see is the reaction of the face coming up when they zoomed in on his face?
Mm. Different scenario, but of course, um- Much
Allan: different.
Tanya: Yeah. Um, uh, yeah. So I, I thought that something was gonna happen with the, the Miles guy, and, and that was where the, um, jealousy was going to come into play. Um, but I think there’s just so much feeling, so much emotion, so many things that they can’t control, and they’re both controlling people.
Um, and that’s just a lot to not know what to do with yourself or, or, and, [01:30:00] and, and how to, um, navigate being… You wanna be with each other and, and not be with each other, and it’s just, it’s a, it’s hard. Mm. Yeah.
Victor.
Manisha: Tanya, do you think… Oh. Sorry. No, go on. Do you think it’s because they’ve… Well, for Shane, he’s just been so exhausted of playing this other person-
Tanya: Mm
Manisha: that he’s finally with Rose. He’s finally able to rest a little bit- Openly … and kind of, uh, he’s kind of given up in a way, that he doesn’t have it in him anymore to, uh- kind of keep that appearance up. But then that interaction at the bar or at the club, all of a sudden they’re sh- surprised and shocked and realizing, you know, “I do wanna be with this person.”
Mm-hmm. So I wonder if he’s thinking that with Rose, as much as he enjoys it- Mm-hmm … he is kind of settling-
Tanya: Mm …
Manisha: at the same time.
Tanya: Yeah, yeah. And, and maybe that’s why he doesn’t react when [01:31:00] Miles starts dancing with him and Rose, is that he feels, you know, that this is a relationship that he can feel and, and let down some of that guard that he has.
Um, and, and that, you know, it- their paparazzi is all over them, right? He has, has, uh, photos, and he can feel- … um, um, you know- Himself, yeah … secure in the fact that i- his secret is going to stay se- secret. Um, but yeah, I, I think when that slowdown happened and they’re looking at each other when the, the music is going, whether the, the rest of the world has kind of faded behind them, or whether that just stood still for them, um, I, I think it was such a powerful scene.
Allan: Victor?
Victor: So let’s see, uh, maybe I’ll talk about the scene first. So, um I kind of, uh, I think I agree with, like, [01:32:00] 99% of what Matt said, uh, about, about the show and the scene. Um, I, uh, I think I, um, I agree that maybe the f- maybe I’m gonna go the other way. I’ll talk about the episode. So the first half this episode was, I agree, was basically a throwaway.
And, and like I said, Shane and I both kinda stepped out. We said, “That’s it. We’re not having it anymore.” Uh, and, and then, and then the, the, the more interesting part of this episode began after that, though I don’t think it was perfect from beginning to end because of that final scene in that nightclub. So again, this is not a gay bar, right?
This is a, a regular nightclub with, um, what seem to be very high-profile celebrities, right? Um, uh, where, where he and the, where, where, um, you know, everyone’s there, right? Um, and then, uh, weird things started happening. Hmm. So first Miles does, starts doing that sandwich, uh- Yeah … thing. And, and Shane [01:33:00] doesn’t react to it, and again, doesn’t make sense because Shane is so sensitive- Yeah
to being outed. Um, and that would be a no-go. Mm-hmm. Like, th- that he would, he, you’d think that he have an in- an, an instinctual almost reaction to something like that because he’s had to feel, he’s had to deal with that his whole life of being, kind of living in a closet. So that was strange, but not really that big of a deal.
Not, not to, let’s not split hairs over that. What was the bigger deal is when Ilya, uh, realized that, and this is where I think w- w- what the instigation for what Ilya started doing, which was completely inappropriate, but is when Miles looked at him and then was trying to kind of hook up with him with his eyes, Ilya right away said, “Wait, I’m gonna show this guy that I’m not gay, I’m straight, or whatever, and I’m gonna pick the first strange girl that’s next
Allan: to me.”
No. Okay, you missed it again, Victor. He didn’t pick- No? … the girl for, to make Miles jealous. He picked a girl [01:34:00] because he saw Shane. That’s,
Victor: no, no, I’m- Yes, he did … I said, no, no, you’re, you’re not listening to what I’m saying. He didn’t pick the girl to make Miles jealous. Okay. Miles had nothing to do with it.
All right. It was an inst- it was an instigation to just get up right away and show that he’s with a girl, and at the same time- Oh … he was kinda killing two birds with one stone. He was kind of turning down Miles as a, uh, you know, as kind of the, as, as, as, as a possible gay, uh, um, version of himself, and said, “No, I’m gonna pick this girl and I’m gonna make Shane jealous with her” by basically sexually assaulting her.
And it’s, I found that whole scene very strange given kind of everything that’s happened with the Canadian hockey players who met that girl in a club and coerced her to go back to the, to the room and do all that stuff where she, it was supposedly conce- consensual, but the whole point is they were s- they were athletes, they were stars.
Basic- Basically, they’re, they’re making Ilya to be like the [01:35:00] Alex Ovechkin. If Alex Ovechkin went up to a random girl in a nightclub and started groping her and sexually assaulting her, she may let him do it just because it’s Alex Ovechkin. And here’s the same situation where she, she’s a nobody, she’s a stranger.
He grabs her and immediately starts sexually assaulting her, and she’s letting him do it. But is she letting him do it because she wants to, or is it because it’s Alex O- O- Ovechkin doing it? Right? So, so it’s- Mm … the whole thing was very, very strange. Completely inappropriate. Very, very inappropriate. And I’m not being a prude here.
Like, i- i- it’s, it’s, it was comp- I j- I was just surprised that they let that happen. It didn’t make any sense at, at all. And I found that, uh, club scene just to be completely gross, and it didn’t make any sense to me at all.
Allan: I, I hate to tell you, Victor, but that’s what clubs are like. I mean-
Victor: Oh, oh, I’m sorry, Mr.
E- uh Mr. Experience. That’s complete bullshit and complete nonsense. No, it isn’t. If a hockey player [01:36:00] went to a club and took a strange girl and started molesting her in front of everybody, basically- Okay, that, that part- …
Allan: with a spotlight on her,
Victor: that would be completely, that’s completely- I, no- … nonsense …
Allan: okay, I don’t-
Victor: You’re confusing that with a, with a strip club I, I don’t, no- This is, wasn’t
Allan: a strip club
I don’t disagree with you on that, that it, it’s a bad look. But trust me, in clubs when people get dancing and they’re drunk and stuff, there’s a whole lot of groping going on on that dance floor. And-
Victor: Okay. Okay, fine. You’re, you’re, you, you’ll allow it. That’s, that’s-
Allan: I’m not- Go for
Victor: it.
Allan: Okay, Victor, come on.
Tanya: Yeah, no, but-
Allan: Really?
Tanya: At the same time, Victor does have a point. Like, I have had guys put their hands on me- Oh … told them no-
Allan: I don’t disagree with his-
Tanya: Just because I’m there
Allan: and I’m dancing … w- with the power imbalance and all that stuff. Yeah. Yes, that’s a bad look.
Tanya: Just ’cause I’m there and I’m dancing. But in this scene it kinda looked like the girl was wanting-
Allan: He wasn’t even, like, uh, at some point he was groping her.
But at some point he’s just standing there and she’s just grinding up against him. He’s not- No, the whole
Victor: time he’s [01:37:00] got his hand on her breast the whole time. Okay.
Allan: All right.
Victor: Nonstop.
Allan: Okay. Mm. That’s fine. Again, I don’t disagree that it’s a bad look considering what’s gone, what’s gone on lately, but I also…
It’s not something that doesn’t happen in every fucking club. That’s all.
Victor: Okay.
Allan: That’s all I’m saying.
Victor: Okay. By, by the world’s best hockey p- uh, best, uh, well, most well-known hockey player? Come on. Come
Allan: on. I’ve never been to clubs w- with where, where they hang out, so I don’t know about that. Manisha?
Manisha: Interesting points. Um, uh, sorry, what, what did you want me to answer?
Allan: Oh, you know what? We’ve, we’ve gone around. Yeah, we- So now we’re, we’re back to ratings …
Manisha: yes, I already answered my part.
Allan: We’re back to ratings, sorry. Okay, so now we’re at ratings. Um, I’ll, we’ll start at the top because, uh, I’m at the top of the lineup here.
Uh, this episode, uh, like I said before, um, less substance than other episodes. I enjoyed the montages, lots of storytelling, but, uh, you know, compared to episode three, n- [01:38:00] no, nowhere near as good. But I, you know, I don’t think it’s a, it’s a crappy episode either, so I’m gonna give this a clearance right down the middle.
This episode for me is a clearance. Matt?
Matt: Yeah, I’d say, um, if it wasn’t for those last 15 minutes where I felt it really took a turn, it might have fallen into the compost for me- Oh, dang … to be honest. Um, but I, I do really appreciate that it finally gave me something to bite onto that I’m now excited to see where it goes.
Um, so it’s a clearance. Um, I think there’s a lot more coming- Mm … and I’m excited to see it still, so that’s a good thing. Um, but no, this is not, to me, one of the stronger episodes by far.
Allan: No. All right. Uh, Tanya?
Tanya: I, I, I liked the episode. I, I feel like I got a lot of information from it. I, I… There was a lot of character, um, infor- uh, a lot of information a- about the characters that I think we need to, needed to learn.
It might not have jumped [01:39:00] us, uh, a lot forward, but I think the introduction of Rose and, um, and that storyline and seeing Shane with his parents, we got to understand them a little bit more, we got to understand Ilya a little bit more with his parents and the, that the relationship had, um, um, you know, grown at, at, at whatever level it is that you wanna say that it grew.
Um, the fact that they were looking forward to, to seeing each other. I think, I think it, it was a substantial episode to, to build characters mo- I mean, get us more involved in what’s happening with them. Um, I give it a fresh. Ooh. Like, I, I, I, I think it has enough there.
Allan: Okay. Fresh from Tanya. All right, Victor.
What, what do you give this episode?
Victor: So, uh, I’ll let you know, Tanya, uh, Linda actually agrees with you. She enjoyed this episode. Mm-hmm. Um, and she had a kind of very similar feelings to you about it. Um, I came in kind of teetering [01:40:00] between compost and clearance. I wasn’t really sure which way I was gonna go, but, uh, I, I just feel like the episode is definitely, uh, a very low clearance or a high compost, so, um- Give me one
I’m gonna give it a, I’m gonna give it a compost because- Jesus Christ … because it’s, it was, it’s just such a step down from the previous episode. Mm-hmm. Like, I feel like when they did such a great job, and what an interesting story- Mm … and we got zero. Mm. We got nothing. It’s almost as if that never happened.
It didn’t exist. It was just like a f- like a- uh, a fever dream. Like, I, it just, it’s, it’s, it’s a little bit disappointing that the first 30 minutes of this episode, uh, it just, it took us back. It took us back and, and then, uh, I felt like the, the Rose part of the story, 100% fresh. Like, I feel like if this, if this episode was just about, “Okay, you know what?
We, yeah, we know that, you know, in a fairy tale it would’ve been nice for Ilya and Shane to end up together, da, da, da. But you know [01:41:00] what? By the way, um, Shane met this, uh, other person instead.” And it doesn’t matter that it’s a girl or a guy, right? At the end of the day, it’s just a love story, right? And, and so the fact that it wasn’t pushed, it was a completely organic meetup, and he’s, he’s happy.
Like, that’s all we want for people, is for them to be happy. He’s… I don’t know that he’s… I th- I think the way they’ve presented it to us so far, Manisha, and, and you might have a really, uh, a spot on take on it depending on what happens in the next two episodes. But so far, the way they presented to us, until the very kind of the night- the very confusing nightclubs, uh, editing, um, he seems to be happy.
He seems to be genuinely happy with her. And it’s like, why, why can’t he be happy for a little while? Let him be happy.
Tanya: I think
Victor: he’s just relieved. Um, if, if, if it ends out, ends up that he is settling, so be it. But so far it’s, I think it’s not, it’s not going that way. And, um, you know, uh, I’m hoping for that relationship to kind of [01:42:00] flourish and develop and, uh, you know, maybe Ilya just moves back to Russia and takes, looks after his dad and, you know, and that’s-
that’s, that’s whatever, right? Oh, we didn’t even- Anyway, so- … talk about the Russian … a con
Tanya: pros for me. We didn’t even talk about the Russian. How was it in this episode?
Victor: It was really good. Yeah? Like, it was very well, very well done. Like I s- like Ilya does a great job, especially, like, when he doesn’t have a lot to say, and I felt like this was one of the best sequences- Oh, was it?
of him, uh, speaking Russian with, uh, S- Svetlana speaks brilliantly, like, uh, it’s, it’s perfect. Um, but- Well, ‘
Allan: cause she is Russian. But yeah, he’s, he’s a, he’s a guy from Dallas, so –
Victor: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I just don’t know if she’s, like, a naturally speaking Russian or she-
Allan: I, I believe she is, yeah …
Victor: sh- he’s had to develop it.
Yeah. So, but, um, yeah, no, it was really well done again.
Allan: All right. And Manisha, we’re all over the board here, so you don’t have to- Mm … feel pressured any w- any w- direction. What do you give this one?
Manisha: So I agree with Victor that three was just such a high, uh, [01:43:00] caliber episode. This one- But it, it wasn’t at that as high, but what it did add was the tension that every story needs.
Mm-hmm. So there was a lot of tension. You’ve got, you know, at one point, Ilya stubbing his toe because he’s so distracted. That was a
fun-
Manisha: And- That was funny. Yeah, and then you’ve got- He was so frustrated … you know. Yeah . He’s so distracted- Yeah, yeah … and he’s just so out of sorts- Mm-hmm … which is something you don’t see with him.
Yeah. There is a lot of character building. One of the things that I thought of was in Schitt’s Creek, one of the things that Dan Levy did not want that story to be was, “Look at what we had to do to be together.” Mm-hmm. So he wrote the b- that wrote that whole story very naturally.
Mm-hmm.
Manisha: What I’m finding with this episode is, “Look at all the strife that we have to deal with.”
Mm-hmm. So coming from comparing, say, the Schitt’s Creek to this, [01:44:00] um, that’s a little bit disappointing for me.
Tanya: Mm-hmm.
Manisha: But I would give this a clearance and a half. Can I do that? Sure. Like, I wouldn’t call it fresh fresh. Mm. Oh. I did like it because it served a purpose-
Sure …
Manisha: for storytelling purposes, and I, you know, I was able to see a bunch of other techniques that they use- Mm-hmm
cinematography-wise.
Yeah.
Manisha: Yeah. But yeah, I just wanted a little bit more. And yes, the whole thing with Rose, I love it, but I think that he’s comfortable because- He can let his guard down, but I think she’s also just a girl.
Allan: Yeah. You know? Yeah. I think he’s relieved- Standing in front
Manisha: of a boy …
Allan: I think he’s just relieved that he can have a relationship that’s, uh, uh- I knew Tanya
Manisha: would get that
Tanya: one.
I did, I did. I loved it. I
Allan: loved it. Sorry, I stamp- I trampled all over your, uh, your- I loved it … rom-com there. Is that a No
Tanya: Doubt
Allan: reference? No. No. Just a Girl.[01:45:00]
Standing in front of a boy. Well, the part, first part of that is. Anyway- I’m standing here with a boy … all right, let’s move on to MVPs. Uh, my f- I’m first again at the top of the lineup. Um- I, I’m sorry, I gotta give it to Ilya again. I think he, uh, plays the, the biggest emotional range in this episode, from, from the, the intensity of his phone call t- back to Russia with his father and his brother, to his pleading of Shane not to leave, to the funny bits where he stubs his toe and his frustration and, and, and his disbelief when he sees the, the posts of, of Shane and, and Rose’s relationship and, relationship and stuff.
I think he’s got the most range th- throughout this entire series. Uh, but specifically in this, in this episode, again, he shows the most range acting-wise in carrying the story. You may not like him, but that’s by design. Uh, I really enjoy, uh, Connor’s story in this one, so I’m giving my MVP to Ilya. Matt?
Matt: Um, I’m gonna give mine to Rose.
Allan: Mm-hmm.
Matt: Um, I enjoy that introduction. I think she’s a very genuine character. Uh, my [01:46:00] fear, of course, and I, and I, I’m probably not far off, but hey, maybe I am, is that she’s gonna be a short-lived character. Um, but who knows, right? Mm-hmm. This, I know nothing about the future of the story. Um, but I, I enjoyed her enough in this, and I’d like to see her around in some capacity, um, whatever that means.
Um, but no, it’s, it’s Rose.
Allan: Tam?
Tanya: Um, mine is Shane. He, I, I think that, uh, the character, uh, all the struggle that he goes through, all of the emotions, that panic attack. Again, the breathing that he did- Mm-hmm … um, I think he- The face
Allan: acting during The
Tanya: face acting. Um, um, I, I, yeah, I, I, I loved, I loved hi- him in this episode.
Allan: Victor, and it can’t be the baby or the jellyfish from the aquarium scene. Go. It’s gonna be the
Matt: tuna melt, isn’t it? The tuna
Allan: melt . Not the tuna melt. The tuna melt. That’s
Victor: ridiculous.
Allan: Or Reese.
Victor: Come on, don’t be ridiculous. No, no. The clear winner- Mm … of this episode- No … are the chef’s french fries. Fuck. And [01:47:00] I, I will tell you why.
Matt: Damn it, we didn’t hit that one.
Victor: Oh. I will tell you why. Uh, the french fries is what brought the two of them together. That, that was, like, a perfect opener for them. I remember at Wild Water Kingdom when I used to go there-
Tanya: Wild Water Kingdom. Um- That is
Victor: a- When I, when I, when
Tanya: I- … absolute flash. Goddamn,
Victor: yeah.
Woo. Yeah. When I would see a nice girl that I would wanna strike up a conversation with, I would say, “Would you like to get some fries or something?” Mm-hmm. And so I connected with the fries. I, I really appreciate the fries, and- Were
Matt: you this charming back then, Victor?
Victor: Um, y- yes, and I had very long hair as well.
Allan: Yes. Um- I can attest to that. I’ve seen pictures.
Victor: Um, yeah, so I, I really think, you know, uh, that was the, the- That was the, uh, MacGuffin. Is that what they call them? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That was what we needed, and, and, and I feel like that was the, uh, the c- catalyst for this whole episode.
Allan: All right. Manisha-
Tanya: Allan had me at pizza.
Allan: She, she’s not wrong. [01:48:00]
Tanya: She’s- I’ll make you a personalized sized pizza. I was like, “I’m in.”
Allan: I was a pizza boy. All right. Manisha, who’s your MVP?
Manisha: I am all for- Excuse me … Rose’s character, but I love Svetlana. Mm. I love the way that she is just unwaveringly lovely and so supportive, like Elena for Kip. I love how these women have- Mm
are these pillars of strength that these men can look to and be just themselves with. So Svetlana and Rose.
Allan: Oh, and Rose. All right. Yeah. Cool. Yep. All right. Thank you so much. Let’s, uh, r- move on quickly. I have a few listener comments that I wanna get to, and then some news before we wrap this up. First one here is from Sean on Spotify.
He says, “If Victor thinks that the first sex scene was meaninglessly long, I suggest he go back and listen to the lyrics during that sequence. It’s not just pointless titillation, but character growth, and the lyrics give you a [01:49:00] clue of how the guys feel even though they could never express that to each other at this stage of their journey.
Also, at the sh- at the end, Shane isn’t upset they didn’t kiss. He’s upset he didn’t… to realize that he’s disappointed they didn’t kiss.” So that’s Sean from d-, uh, Spotify talking about our-
Tanya: Hey, say that again. Also, what?
Allan: Uh-
Tanya: Shane isn’t upset that they didn’t kiss, but he’s
Allan: upset- He’s upset to realize he’s disappointed that they didn’t kiss.
That’s…
Victor: Okay. It’s the same. It’s a kind of a same-
Tanya: All right … but-
Allan: No, I think he,
Tanya: he’s- No, I see. I see what you’re saying. All
Allan: right … yeah, he’s trying to say that he’s starting to feel feelings there, and he’s- Yeah. Yeah … and, and he’s realizing that. He, that’s why he’s disappointed they didn’t kiss. Interesting.
Yeah. Okay. Uh, next one here is from, uh, Leon Ed 13 on, on, uh, YouTube. “I figure Victor would appreciate episode three as it’s more standard rom-com fare, and is easier for him to comprehend. Although he is fully within his rights to have his opinions of episodes one and two, I find it sad that he cannot be open enough to experience the deep nuances and subtle exchanges because of his [01:50:00] reliance on boilerplate story- storytelling.”
Uh, while- Kind
Victor: of an ignorant comment
Allan: but sure … while Victor may have redeemed himself here- … I do wonder how he will react to episodes four, five, and six when basic, common, and boring storyboards are absent. I have enjoyed your comment, commentary and thoughts, and I never thought Victor was a homophobe.”
Thank you Leon, Leon, Leon Ed 13 for your… There’s so many, many more. You’d have to just go to our YouTube channel to, to watch. But anyway, uh, but thank you for listening and commenting. Um- Before I go, this is something we, I wanted to do yesterday, uh, before our, our interview with, uh, that was supposed to happen, but never did happen.
Unfortunately, Matt, uh, was stuck with a sick kid. So Manisha, just bear with us here. I wanted to do a quick reaction because, uh, George St. Pierre posted some bloopers from I Kill the Bear, and we’ve seen zero about this show. No, no trailers, no scenes, no anything. So this is the first kind of piece of anything we’ve seen about this show, and I wanted [01:51:00] us to watch it and, and react to it.
So bear with me here. I’m gonna- Ah, bear with you. Yeah. See what- I see what you did there … see what I did there? Yeah. I’m gonna share a sc- so this is a scene you’ll see with George St. Pierre, uh, um, Jared Keeso, and Jonathan Torrens, and it’s just a blooper reel of a, of a scene. Here we go Oh, why do I have sound?
Come on. Figure it out. Here we go again. Mark. Mark. Mark.
But his assistant was crazy
Victor: Crazy, man
He tried to feed the bear honey He tried to feed a bear honey like he, uh, when he need to poo He’s not wanting to poo, man
Victor: He a bear, man
We found this out because the bear got honey on his hand, and, uh, put his hand to his eyes
Victor: And then his eye-
Oh my God.
Victor: All right, we better start that again
Sorry, go again
We found this out because the bear got honey on his hand, and, uh, put his hand on his eyes
Clip: [01:52:00] Was this it?
I’ll get it. I’ll get it. Okay
We found this out because the bear got honey on his hand and then put his hand on his eyes, comme ça
All right, let’s go again. It gets funnier every time.
All
right.
Matt: Oh, you guys take your own time whenever you’re
set up. Yeah. We found this out because the bear got honey on his hand- Honey … and he put his hand on his eyes, comme ça, he-
He
Matt: changed the, the tone. I think yeah, it’s really funny. I bet… Jared, I bet we could pick it up so we have two sides.
Yes, 100% we can. I bet we could
do like this.
Yeah, give her again. Give, give me the whole line.
Matt: Okay. I can do it. I
Clip: can do it.
Ready?
Mm. Ho, ah. Yes.
We found this out because the bear got honey on his hand and then put his hand on his eyes, comme ça, he-
I’ll pick it up. You ready?
Yeah. [01:53:00] All right. And then the bear’s eyes starts to close. Sorry. Okay. This is as
Allan: unhinged as I think it’s gonna be. Like, this, this looks like it’s gonna be a fucking… I don’t know. I, I, I still don’t understand what we’re, we’re watching here, but this looks like it’s gonna be a lot of fun. Um, I mean, that’s all I have to say about it. Matt, what, what, what did you think of that?
Matt: I have no words.
I saw, I saw this too. I’m like- Uh-huh … hence it was funny that it came from St. Pierre-
Allan: Yeah …
Matt: of all, of all the cast to just drop this out of nowhere.
Allan: Mm.
Matt: Uh, I’m so glad he’s in it. Yeah. And, um, uh… But yeah, this, this is not what I was expecting, not that I even knew what to begin to expect. No. Um, it’s gonna be…
It’s gonna be unhinged. And, uh-
Allan: Jared Keeso in overalls and a raccoon hat, I mean, like-
Matt: Holy fuck … it’s
Allan: just
Matt: weird. I don’t know. It’s… Uh, this is something beyond my wildest dreams on this one- … and I’m just… I, I, I just hope it [01:54:00] plays out as well as I hope it might.
Allan: And everyone we’ve asked about this show, they just shake their head and go, “I can’t explain it.
You’re just gonna have to see.” Yeah. “You’re just gonna have to see.” Like, even they… They can’t describe it at all. Tanya, what did you think of that?
Tanya: Uh, well, I d-
Allan: Right?
Tanya: There is a- Honey on his hands and- A, a… What? Um, I was getting some, uh, Teletubby vibes there- … with the, with the-
Allan: Somebody, uh… Somebody said they look like minions maybe.
Like…
Tanya: Minions. Yeah. I was getting a Teletubby thing. And, um, I… It was so funny to see Keeso breaking- Yeah … ’cause, um, he comes across like he’s pretty, um, you know- Deadpan. Yeah … serious and, and, you know, let’s, let’s, let’s get this done. Yeah. ‘Cause we know him to have- Mm … a really regimented schedule- Mm-hmm … and the, the shoot- Yeah.
And there
Allan: he is fucking up his own takes. Yeah, that’s-
Tanya: And he’s fucking up his own takes- Yeah … and, and could not… They say that once you- break, it’s hard to get it back. Oh, yeah. Like, it, you, it’s, it’s like… [01:55:00] And yeah, it, it’s interesting the process- Mm-hmm … and trying to, and, and even though he’s, like, really wanting to, he’s like, “Oh, it’s okay.
I’m gonna do it this time,” and then he can’t. He still can’t do it. Yeah. Um, and, uh, and how that works out. We’re
Allan: gonna have to watch this with subtitles anyway.
Tanya: But, oh, I was just gonna say the same thing. Like, how the hell are we supposed to understand what it is that’s being said? Yeah. ‘Cause that is, uh, that’s pretty strong, um, accents.
Allan: Victor, what’s your impression there?
Victor: Uh, yeah, I wasn’t really sure what the hell was going on. But, uh, except that they were teaching a class? Um- I don’t, yeah, I don’t know what
Allan: they’re
Victor: doing there. Yeah … that’s what it- Yeah … it seemed like they were teaching a class. Mm-hmm. Uh, but, um, yeah, I, I mean, I just got really strong Letterkenny vibes.
Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. Um, so the, that’s, it felt more like sk- uh, we’re gonna get, get kind of more sketch comedy. Mm-hmm. Um, and, uh, you know, um, I hope for the best- … but, uh, we’ll see.
Allan: Oh, Victor. Uh, uh, Manisha, do you know anything about this show [01:56:00] that, that, uh, we’re talking about?
Manisha: I don’t. No. But it, it, mm, it’s interesting- Yeah
hearing what that little bit is. So-
Allan: Yeah … so you know who Jared Keeso is, right? He, he, he’s the, the star of Letterkenny and Shoresy. Yes, yes, yes. He’s also the creator. Uh, and, you know, him and Jacob Tierney, uh, basically ran those two shows, uh, be- before Jacob left to do, he did Rivalry. Um, and he’s, so he’s the one in…
Uh, he wrote all the, all the scripts, and he’s r- he’s written this new show called I Kill the Bear, and all we know about it is that it’s, like, a, about a bear wrangler who works for, like, the movie industry or whatever, wrangles bears for movies or whatever. So that’s, that’s what we’re seeing there. I don’t know.
That’s
Matt: all. That’s it. That’s all
Allan: we know.
Matt: This is the very first sampling- Yeah … that we’ve gotten of this show.
Allan: So we’re, we’re all very curiously- Oh … awaiting for when this drops so we can see what all the craziness is. And everyone we talk to from, from the cast, they, they, they can’t explain it, and, and I can see why, ’cause it’s unexplainable.
That is. It is. Anyway, uh, all [01:57:00] right. So I guess we just move on to final comments, and I get to start. Uh, Misha, thank you so much for joining us tonight. I didn’t realize until halfway through that not only are you on as a fir- first timer, but I also put you after Victor in the lineup. I’m so sorry I did that.
I mean …
Manisha: It’s okay. I can hold my own.
Allan: I know. You did a great job. I can figure it out. Thank you so much, and thank you for joining us, and, and I hope you had a good time. Uh, yeah, it was, it was great to have you on. And, uh, yeah, Matt?
Matt: Yeah, I echo that. Uh, this is… Y- you were a breath of fresh air. Um- … thank you for coming on and bringing some perspective and dealing with Victor’s shit.
And, uh, you know, now I’m excited to get into archery again and figure out what that’s all about. Um- Yeah, message me … now that I know that you’ve got this whole, uh, kingdom of archery parents that you’re taking care of. So, um, it, it sounds exciting. But, um, congrats on your… It sounds like you… It was it last year or whenever you got the award for, um, best podcast or something that.
Um, it’s amazing, though. It’s, it’s, it’s a hard, [01:58:00] it’s a hard world. Like, we, we’ve been doing this for six years now. Uh, we have a blast doing it, and this is why we, we come out every week. Um, but that little recognition from time to time, uh, I’m sure it was very meaningful to you. And, uh, th- that, that’s just speaks wonders to, to what you’ve done in that niche community, as, as Al called it.
Yes. Um, but no, it w- it was absolute pleasure hanging out with you. Um, and I hope to see you back sometime.
Allan: Yeah Thank you
Manisha: so much …
Allan: we’ve been nominated a few times, but you’ve actually won a, a Canadian Podcast Award, so, uh, we’re, we’re jealous Congratulations … we’re jealous. That’s
Tanya: amazing.
Manisha: Yeah, that was 2025.
Yeah. And that was my first full year of podcasting. So actually, in a few weeks it will be the close of my second year.
Allan: Right. Oh, wow. And you’re headed to Calgary ’cause you’re doing, you’re doing a pitch.
Manisha: Yes. So PodSummit is going on, uh, October 17- 16th and 17th, and I am a finalist in the Pod the North Pitch Contest, which the prize is currently sitting at just over [01:59:00] $7,500- That’s amazing
which- Nice Yeah … is funding for a podcast to be used however they need to for their podcast. So I am one of five finalists. That’s
Allan: amazing. Yeah. And I know Katie Lohr from, uh, Pod the North really well. She’s the one who’s, uh, running that, uh, contest. Unfortunately, I have no say, sway in, in her decision, but, uh, I wish you luck and, and I’m a little jealous that you’re going to that ’cause I’ve, I’ve always wanted to go.
Uh, and not this year anyway. Uh, Tanya, final comments?
Tanya: Manisha, that is amazing, and congratulations on that, uh, award for sure. Um, love it. And thank you for bringing all that you brought t- tonight. Um, I love that you, you… I felt like you were talking to me at times there. Like, I, I was getting, like- It was. I was getting all of it.
I was getting all of it, and I loved it. Um, this was a lot of fun tonight. Um, I was super tired and falling asleep before, and it was just like you guys just brought life, uh, right back to me again. So, um, it was a lot of fun. Looking forward to, um… So do we have [02:00:00] two episodes left of this season, or what’s-
Allan: Two left, and then, uh, we’ll do a recap and, and a, and, um, an AGHaL.
So we, we’ve got some, some-
Tanya: All right.
Allan: All right … some talking to do
Tanya: still. Looking forward to it.
Allan: But yeah. Uh, Victor?
Victor: Maneesha, you were so, uh, fantastic. Um, you know, a, a great perspective, lots of, uh, great commentary, and, um, I, I… We were, again, we were able to agree on a lot of things. We were able to disagree on a lot of things, but at the end of the day, um, y- you were just a fantastic human being, and, uh, I, I, you know, like Matt said, hope, hope we’ll see you again, uh, in the future.
Um, uh, and it doesn’t matter what the topic is, just come on. Mm-hmm. Uh, come on and, uh, and talk about it because you were genuine, but you’re also very professional. It’s clear that, you know, you, you do podcasts, and you do them super well, and you probably… And, and, y- uh, um, y- probably a strong contestant or contender [02:01:00] for winning this award, and I wish you all the best, and congrats on everything you’ve already accomplished.
So, um, yeah, really great having you on, and, uh, you- you’re welcome back anytime.
Manisha: I’m gonna hang out with you more often just for the compliments. Oh my gosh. I’m grateful. Thank you so much, Al, for offering and inviting me on. And yeah, this was really fun.
Allan: I’m grateful. And why don’t you remind everyone, uh, your, your podcast and where maybe they can listen since last time, I think you were cutting in and out.
Now, now we’ve got a good connection.
Manisha: Thank you. So it’s the Archery Parent Podcast. Although the original target was for archery parents, lots of archers, lots of coaches do listen to us, and actually, it does talk to a lot of sport parenting as well. But you can find it at archeryparentpodcast.ca or on your favorite podcast player.
I think we’re on, or the collective we, uh, over 250 podcast apps, so- Amazing … you can find us even on the obscure [02:02:00] ones. Yeah.
Allan: All right. So I mean, I think it’s time to head over to the after-party and get a little inebriated. Let’s do that.
And that’s all we have for this episode. Next week we recap and review episode five of Heated Rivalry with our buddy Gord. Uh, until then, actually not next week ’cause we’re taking the week off. Victor’s going to Vegas, so it’s actually the following week, uh, we’re, we’re doing that. Until then, if you’d like to support the podcast, become a patron.
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Our intro and outro themes are by Poise for the Worm. You can find their [02:03:00] music on all streaming platforms. Thanks for joining us. Now we’re going to head to the after party. On behalf of Manisha, Tanya, Victor, Matt, and myself, thank you for listening. Have a great week.

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