‘Heated Rivalry’: What Happens at the Cottage, According to the Book
What To Know
- Heated Rivalry Episode 4 gave a glimpse of Shane’s cottage.
- The setting is the backdrop for a major turning point in Shane and Ilya’s relationship.
- Swooon is breaking down exactly what happens at the cottage in Rachel Reid’s Heated Rivalry book.
[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Rachel Reid’s Heated Rivalry.]
Heated Rivalry, we see what you did there. It might seem like a throwaway moment when Svetlana (Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova) catches Ilya (Connor Storrie) watching a TV special about Shane (Hudson Williams) in Episode 4, but book readers know the truth. Besides proving once again that our sassy Russian king is obsessed with one Shane Hollander, the scene also offered the first tease of the cottage!
Fans of Rachel Reid’s book of the same name, which the show is based on, will likely have an idea of what’s coming. (The show has been largely book accurate, for the most part.) Episode 6 isn’t titled “The Cottage” for nothing. It provides the backdrop for a major turning point in Shane and Ilya’s relationship. In fact, Storrie told Swooon that he was excited about the cottage scenes from the very beginning.
“As the story progresses, everything that takes place in the cottage was really satisfying from an actor’s perspective,” he said. “Just because we get to a different level of their intimacy, their relationship. I think that’s the most exciting to me, and I also think some of the coolest revelations happen to the characters when they are there.”
Well, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves! So, why is the cottage so important? We’re breaking down everything you need to know, whether you haven’t read the book or are in need of a refresher.
What is the cottage in Heated Rivalry?
Swooon was watching the screen just as intently as Ilya, trying to get a glimpse of the background. In Episode 4, the documentary describes Shane’s Eastern Quebec home as something he had built on a private lake, 10 minutes away from his parent’s cottage, where he spent summers as a child. Then, we get that amazing shot of Shane doing yoga right in front of said lake. It’s a scene straight out of the book, though Svetlana doesn’t interrupt Ilya’s movie night like she does in the show.
Further, some of the Heated Rivalry crew have posted a few behind-the-scenes pictures of the location, if you want to take a closer look beyond what Episode 4 offers:
3/5 #heatedrivalry pic.twitter.com/9D6rOEtdI2
— Heated Rivalry Updates (@H_R_Updates) December 9, 2025
In a joint interview with the two stars of the show, creator Jacob Tierney told Swooon, “We finished shooting the show with Episode 6, and we finished at the cottage. There’s a kind of sentimental memory with it. We’d all gotten very close. We’d worked very hard, and to end in this wonderful, small, pared-down, intimate setting was special.”
What happens at the cottage in the Heated Rivalry book?
When Ilya leaves for his father’s funeral in Russia, Shane starts calling him, and they get closer over their conversations on the phone. At one point, Shane even invites Ilya to his cottage (which is in Ontario rather than Quebec, but we’ll let that book change slide) in the off-season. Ilya says he’ll think about it. Shane knows that once they cross that boundary, he won’t be able to pretend he doesn’t have deep feelings for Ilya.
Ilya doesn’t take him up on his offer, though Shane does ask a few more times, until he sees Scott (François Arnaud) and Kip (Robbie G.K) share a kiss on the ice, in front of the whole world. Once Scott becomes the first out pro hockey player, Ilya gets the courage to stop running away from his feelings for Shane. What comes next is exactly what you’d expect from Shane and Ilya: They have plenty of sex since they have the house all to themselves, but they also finally confess their love for each other.
They make plans to be together as secret boyfriends, intending not to tell anyone about their relationship until they’ve retired. Though, Shane’s parents find out about their romance by walking in on them kissing at the cottage. Ilya decides to leave his team in Boston for Ottawa, despite it being a significantly worse team. (The things you’ll do for love.) He’ll be closer to Shane in Ottawa, which is what matters most to him.
Ilya follows through on his promise in Heated Rivalry’s epilogue, which takes place about a year after the cottage scenes. It also has Shane and Ilya announce at a press conference that they’re starting a charity together. Their league-crafted rivalry is officially put to bed, so no one will question if they’re spending time together off the ice. That’s where we leave Shane and Ilya before Reid’s sequel, The Long Game, continues their story.
There you have it! We don’t know about you, but we can’t wait for the cottage scenes to play out on screen. Tell us which moment you’re most looking forward to from Episode 6 in the comments below!
Heated Rivalry, Season 1, New Episodes, Fridays, HBO Max
