EPISODE 5: I’LL BELIEVE IN ANYTHING
SYNOPSIS: Rose knows that something is up with her new boyfriend, leading to Shane’s first real coming-out. This leads to a big shift in Shane. When he shows up for the All-Star Game in Tampa Bay — when he’ll be playing on a line with Ilya for the first time — he is made over and ready to come get what’s his. Great hockey playing and heavy conversations ensue. Ilya has to go home for his father’s funeral. Shane gets knocked out during a game. Scott and Kip kiss on national television.
Dude, this fuckin’ episode.
AALIYAH/ SOLUTIONS TO MY GLOOM/ PRENDRE SOIN DU BEAU
This song series, when Rose and Shane are alone in the restaurant, is one of my favorites. The Malko track starts us off, and blends seamlessly into the Unessential Oils one — they are similar grooves, so the passage of time on this date is gently, subtly tracked. And then, Rose says the words that change everything: “I have a feeling you’d rather be kissing…Miles?” The music drops out for just a beat. And then the delicate chime-and-strum of Jessica Charlie’s 2021 track “Prendre Soin Du Beau” climbs the conversation’s spine, light and gliding upwards with only the slightest, polite hesitation. Rose asks the right questions. Shane answers honestly. He even makes a joke. The song — whose title roughly translates to “taking care of what is beautiful” — wraps around this new intimacy so that the two of them can walk out the door of the restaurant and into their real-life friendship.
BOYS WILL BE GIRLS
Keir’s “”Boys Will Be Girls” — also from 2021 — lowers the heat of Peter Peter’s soundtrack in the hotel bar in Tampa just as surely as Carter Vaughn’s chirpy “CATS AND DOGS!” does, wrapping his arms around our boys and bringing us all back to, well, the rivalry for a moment. To quote Threads user sweet.rosy, “‘Boys will be Girls’ is such a great song and the lyrics hitting when they do are just perfect, especially: ‘I met a boy who didn’t know he was so beautiful. He doesn’t know it yet but one day he can have it all’ which … always felt to me like Ilya’s thoughts towards Shane.”
OH MY BRIDE
God, I love this song. It is such a fucking locker room rocker. I mean, I also love Exile on Main Street and Let It Bleed so of course I do. I heard a snatch of it, too, in an episode of Letterkenny, so I know this is a Jacob Tierney jam. The Deadly Snakes released it in 2003 and it’s aggressive, it’s sports, it’s fun, it’s sexy.
ZHURAVLI/? ????????
Because Russia!!
BEETHOVEN’S PIANO SONATA NO. 14, “MOONLIGHT SONATA”
Ilya is speaking his truth in a tunnel in Moscow. Classical music fits here — think of classical Russian literature, Russian ballet and overall this heavy, firm vibe we get from “Moonlight Sonata.” Russians love Beethoven, I hear, but I am only a quarter Russian (possibly half, depending on borders). And despite the fact that Shazam and Apple Music and all the big services mislabel it as Piano Sonata No. 21 in C Minor, Op. 53, “Waldstein,” everyone from Jacob Tierney to my classically trained pal Beth says it’s the first movement of Piano Sonata 14, better known as “Moonlight Sonata.” The piano quietly begins when Ilya begins to unburden himself to Shane, and builds and swells until Ilya breaks, letting out his light one soft, poetic slice at a time. Because the moon, my man! The moon!
BACH’S PRELUDE AND FUGUE NO. 1
This is the piece we hear while Shane is texting Ilya as he recovers from his injuries at his parents’ house. It is from The Well-Tempered Clavier, another from the greatest-hits-of-classical book, but one that was originally developed as an educational piece. “The Well-Tempered Clavier as a whole is legendary for being instructional but also good repertoire for advanced students,” says my pal Beth. “It’s like doing all your technical practice, but make it pretty.” Shane is on the couch, in a comfortable place, texting Ilya in the dark. His mother flushes the toilet, says goodnight, and tells him to stop staring at his phone. “I’m a fully grown adult,” he reminds her. Shane, like most people, reverts to some version of childlike behavior when in his parents’ home. Yuna is infantilizing him. Shane is being a brat in response. He has landed in a technically useful place. But now he knows there’s something else, a dazzling, more mature kind of love to be had — feelings he will show to his lover soon.
I’LL BELIEVE IN ANYTHING
This song is a climax of the episode, and for good reason. If you have read this far and have not watched the series, I’m not gonna try to explain to you why this song gets a reprise, but suffice it to say that it wraps up one story while kicking another one into a crucial higher gear. The album version is raucous and celebratory, but here’s a solo piano version because you deserve it.
