- - Inside 'The Cottage' on “Heated Rivalry”: Stars and creator break down book changes, that ending, and toe touches

Nick RomanoDecember 26, 2025 at 6:00 AM

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Sabrina Lantos

Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams), Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) on 'Heated Rivalry'Key Points -

From book-to-screen changes to that ending, the stars and creator of Heated Rivalry break down the season finale.

Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams share the story behind the sure-to-be viral toe-touching moment on the couch.

Showrunner Jacob Tierney explains why he chose to end the season on that particular note and not explore the book's epilogue.

This article contains spoilers from Heated Rivalry episode 6, "The Cottage."

In an early December interview with Entertainment Weekly, just after Heated Rivalry exploded onto HBO Max as a global ratings phenom, series creator Jacob Tierney shared his prediction for all of us frothing over the carnal sex scenes between stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. "I think, hopefully, the more interesting conversations about the show will happen once it's all aired and you can see what it was doing from the beginning," he said.

That time has now come. Season 1 finale "The Cottage" arrived like a thoughtful gift on Christmas night to adapt the climactic event from author Rachel Reid's fast-selling romance novel. As the title suggests, it's the moment when Ilya Rozanov (Storrie), the Russian super-stud of ice hockey, accompanies Canadian heartthrob Shane Hollander (Williams) to his very private home in the middle of the woods.

Miles away from public pressure, they can finally let their guards down and "play house," if you will, but also enjoy the kind of safe environment that allows them to finally profess their love for each other. Though, it also coincides with their coming out to Shane's parents after his dad (Dylan Walsh) walks in on them kissing.

"This was what I was always building to," Tierney tells EW weeks after that initial interview. "The thing that I became aware of at a certain point was that the contrast between how huge episode 5 feels and is, and how small and intimate episode 6 is, was a pretty big swing — but the swing that had to be taken. That's the way that this story ends, or certainly the way that I wanted to end it."

Sabrina Lantos

Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov and Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander in 'Heated Rivalry' episode 6

Anyone who read Reid's Heated Rivalry book knows how Shane responded initially to Ilya's joke about a threesome. But the stars themselves have made a rare exception. In a three-on-one interview with Tierney and EW, the trio unpacks some of the finest moments of the finale hour.

Unlike the opening episodes, which prominently featured explicit sex to complement the spark of the couple's hot-and-heavy affair, the season slowly shifted away to focus more and more on the softer, romantic character-driven moments. That "pace change," as Storrie refers to it, intrigued him the most.

"All the episodes prior, you could shove coal up Shane's ass and you'd get a diamond. He's just so coiled and tight."

Hudson Williams on Shane Hollander

"It's so cool to crescendo into something that's really different from that," he says, referring to the sex. "Something I think a lot of people don't realize is just how much of the story takes place with them apart. That puts this interesting pressure when they are together in the first five episodes, and that creates this lack of catharsis, this lack of true expression of what's going on inside sometimes. That was difficult, to constantly live in that. So I was really excited going into 6 to have that catharsis, these very direct confessions of love that aren't hidden by a language barrier or being on the other side of the world."

Williams calls "The Cottage" episode "a joy on the horizon," noting how it coincided with the end of filming the entire season. "We got to go to Muskoka; it's a 3-hour thing," he says. "It did feel like the end of a journey, which was really nice. But all the episodes prior, you could shove coal up Shane's ass, and you'd get a diamond. He's just so coiled and tight."

It's hard to tell sometimes who has the filthier sense of humor: Ilya or Williams himself.

Book-to-screen changes

Sabrina Lantos

Christina Chang as Yuna Hollander and Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander on 'Heated Rivalry' episode 6

For the most part, the Heated Rivalry finale authentically adapts the main beats of this portion of Reid's story, though there are key variations, such as a private mother-son moment between Williams and Christina Chang (Yuna Hollander). The biggest deviation, however, is where Tierney decides to end the episode.

The book shows the romantic aftermath of Shane's coming out to his parents, then segues into an epilogue set months later at a press conference announcing the Irina Foundation charity. The season finale, instead, ends with Shane and Ilya's car ride back to their private cottage, which plays out as the end credits roll.

Tierney chose that conclusion for a few reasons. "One," he says, "to end with the press conference, to end with essentially what amounts to exposition, did not interest me. I think that's a very literary way to [end it], epilogue-y kind of energy that I don't think we needed for this."

He decided to include the moments that stuck with him most fro the book, noting how his reading experience was always quite visual. "What I remember so clearly feeling at the end of this book was, 'I'm so happy they get to be happy,' that I just wanted to sit with them and let them be happy," he continues. "That's then part of the structure of giving 5 that big rom-com movie star ending to Scott [François Arnaud], so that I can have a quiet ending with Shane and Ilya."

Sabrina Lantos

Shane and Ilya come out to the Hollanders on 'Heated Rivalry' episode 6

Storrie remembers filming this car ride twice. "We listened to the entire song in real time as it plays in the credits, which I became obsessed with directly after," he says of Cailin Russo's "Bad Things."

Tierney chimes in quickly as an aside: "Also really important to me to have a horny song end the show."

"But heart-horny," Storrie responds.

"Yeah, sweet-horny. But also she says 'panty drop,'" Tierney points out.

"Okay, let's do one where you guys don't look like you wanna kill yourselves."

Connor Storrie on Tierney's note for the ending

The first time the actors shot it, they sat in silence and cried at certain moments. They both thought they nailed it. "[Tierney] lets the entire song play, comes up and he goes, 'Okay, let's do one where you guys don't look like you wanna kill yourselves,'" Storrie recalls. "And then [we] start from the top and he's like, 'You know, this is a happy ending, like boyfriend stuff: talking, maybe a touch.'"

Williams remembers of this day on set, "Jacob came over and looked at us and goes, 'It's happy. Are you guys crying?!'"

In the final moment, Williams turns to Storrie and does a version of Ilya's "attack-y" face, as Tierney describes it. He left that sweet exchange in to show how Shane is capable of breaking his guarded facade. "I think Shane does have a playful side that is stifled...Under every scene in season 1, there's not much room for super goofy play," Williams says. "There's a tentative nature to episode 6. Although it's calm, it's still like, 'Can this work, when we're left alone to our own devices?'"

"It does feel like a puppy learning to play," Tierney adds.

Touching toes

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Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams on 'Heated Rivalry' episode 4

One thing the stars of Heated Rivalry know well is how even the most seemingly fleeting moments on the show can become the next fixation for the fan base. (E.g., "Oh...genetic," the Las Vegas chair scene, chewing on drawstrings, etc.) If we had to put money on it, Shane and Ilya's toe-touching while on the couch will be one of those bits.

Williams and Storrie film a scene in which they sit at opposite ends of the couch, legs stretched towards each other. While scrolling on their phones, Ilya suggests that he marry Svetlana (Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova) as his pseudo-beard so he can become a Canadian citizen. During this conversation, the actors' toes and sometimes the entire soles of their feet touch, depending on how positive the discussion goes.

"I know when I'm angry, the last thing I wanna touch is a toe, a hand. So I remember being very dialed in."

Hudson Williams on the toe-touching scene

"First of all, I don't remember the toe thing. So seeing that, I even got a moment of, 'Whoa! What?'" Storrie comments. "Second of all, Hudson's insane in that scene. He made Jacob cry in that scene like twice."

Looking back on it, Tierney says, "It was the end of the shoot. Both of these actors were wearing these characters like skin, and it was a beautiful thing to watch. [It was] Hudson's ability to surprise me with his vulnerability because Shane is a tricky character. We said this a lot: He's very internal. This thing that he could do, which is be incredibly revealing emotionally, while still playing someone who I don't think thinks they're being revealing emotionally. He's holding his cards close to his chest, and ultimately his big wet eyes and his incredibly sad face are telling you a very different story."

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Shane (Hudson Williams) and Ilya (Connor Storrie) on 'Heated Rivalry' episode 4

He commends Storrie's performance, too, for Ilya's "unresponsiveness" to Shane's comments. "The moments that mean the most to me in that episode involve relationships genuinely evolving, genuinely taking a turn," the showrunner notes.

This scene on the couch was another they shot twice, only this time because, as Storrie says, an "insane rainstorm" broke out during production. "We had to pause because that whole house was glass. So when it's raining, it just sounds like a tin can," Tierney explains. "It's actually really nice when you're living in it, but not when you're trying to record sounds."

Williams, meanwhile, does remember the toe bits. "I know when I'm angry, the last thing I wanna touch is a toe, a hand. So I remember being very dialed in," he says. "I didn't even know if things would play out in the wide. So I was very cognizant of, 'Angry, toes apart.' It wasn't as deliberate as that, but I was very mindful."

New shades of Shane and Ilya

Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max

Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie on 'Heated Rivalry'

Ending the season with less of a bang (though perhaps more of an emotional one) brings out different sides to these characters. (We even get a tear or two from Ilya.) It's still sexy, but it's a different kind of intimacy. When they've spent their entire public lives choosing which sides of themselves to present in any given social situation, who are they really when in the safety of solitude?

It's not code-switching, Tierney explains when asked about it. "I don't think either of these characters are doing a lot of code switching, if I'm being honest. Ilya doesn't switch for anybody, like he gives a f---. And I think that Shane's journey is in finding out what his code is. I don't think he even knows."

Storrie recognizes the dynamic shift between Shane and Ilya on the ice, with their friends, and now in the cottage together. "There is a different cadence of speech," he says. "There is a different energy that they just show up in, but I think that's really just Hudson and I being locked into the way that Jacob wrote this and then also him giving us a platform to discover what that looks like."

"It takes a boyfriend to give you a bl--job you don't want when you're on the phone with your best friend."

Jacob Tierney on the 'Heated Rivalry' finale's sex scenes

Williams points out that Reid explores this topic further in future Game Changer books, but in the here and now, the actor references Shane's hospital scene in episode 5, where he's doped up on pain meds.

"It's more comical, but there's the point where he goes [in a lower voice], 'See you next season.' Like, 'I'm very masculine. This is what I do.' ... I feel like Shane is exploring whether he's always conscious of it or not of, What is masculine?" Williams elaborates. "How does that appear? How can I be effeminate? How can I be soft? And then in the cottage, we see him play for the first time."

(As an aside, Williams has seen those online comments theorizing that he's playing himself in that doped-up hospital bed scene, which he disagrees with. "If you get me on drugs," he says, "You're gonna see a different thing than whatever was in that hotel room.")

This shift impacts even the sex. To Tierney, those scenes become more tender and playful as a result. "It's way closer to boyfriend sex, you know?" he comments. "It takes a boyfriend to give you a bl--job you don't want when you're on the phone with your best friend. That's not something a casual relationship does for you. That's a relationship."

All episodes of Heated Rivalry season 1 are now available to stream in the U.S. on HBO Max.

on Entertainment Weekly

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