“They get to be in love”: Heated Rivalry creator explains the cottage finale and what comes next

The Season 1 finale of Heated Rivalry dropped on December 26, 2025. The Episode is titled The Cottage.

Fans who have been watching since it hit Crave and HBO Max in November got exactly what they had been screaming for: these two hockey players, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, finally just laying it all out there. No more hiding, no more tiptoeing around their feelings.

After all those weeks of near-misses, secret glances, and the tension, they finally gave us something queer TV rarely does: joy. Heated Rivalry did not give us a watered-down, background-character kind, but actual, unapologetic happiness.

In a series of recent interviews, creator, writer, and director Jacob Tierney has revealed why he made the choices he did for the Heated Rivalry finale. He actually gets both the original books and what fans are desperate for. Instead of some info-dump ending or dragging us along with a cliffhanger, he lets it breathe.

We get Shane and Ilya, finally together, driving off into the sunset. That’s it. Just two guys, free to love each other, and that is the most powerful note to end on.

Jacob Tierney on Heated Rivalry cottage scene and Season 1’s emotional finale

The cottage episode in Heated Rivalry is easily the payoff fans have been waiting for since the first few minutes of the series. All that sneaking around, dodging feelings, and refusing to put a label on what they had, Shane and Ilya finally run off to Shane’s little hideaway for two weeks, where no one can bother them. And it’s like a crash course in intimacy. You have 50 minutes that somehow manage to feel both huge and laser-focused, just these two guys actually letting themselves be real, dropping the tough guy act for once.

Tierney, the showrunner, said his whole point with the finale was to let Shane and Ilya actually just be in love. No big plot twists, no drama, just simplicity for a change. It’s a total shift from Rachel Reid’s novel, where she jumps ahead to them at a press conference launching their charity. Tierney said that ending felt like too much of a telling moment for TV, not showing. Rachel Goldstein, his exec over at Crave, actually nudged him to stick with the quieter, more personal ending. The whole season built up to these two finally letting their walls down, and the episode nails that emotional landing way better than any news conference ever could.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Tierney said:

“I love this book so much, and so much of what I wanted to bring to it were the things that I remembered, the things that imprinted on me. What I remember so clearly was just this feeling of oh, they get to be in love. That’s all that I wanted, was the simplicity of that, of just letting them have a [moment]. They say it at the beginning, [but] they never get a moment. Just letting them drive together with [Ilya’s] hand on [Shane’s] neck and just being sweet. That’s enough for me.”

In the Heated Rivalry finale, a scene where Shane’s dad walks in on him and Ilya at the cottage is most notable. You can actually see the air get sucked out of the room. And then we are in the middle of a coming-out moment. Shane is sitting there, apologizing to his mom, saying he tried not to be gay, which is just heartbreaking. You can tell Tierney is pulling from some real-life reference here. That whole bit about kids trying to be perfect for their parents hits way too close to home for a lot of people. Shane’s spent his whole life trying to shield his parents from disappointment, only to find out that they actually love him no matter what.

And then, instead of giving us some huge ending, we get Shane and Ilya driving back to the cottage. Credits roll, and that’s it. There’s no last-second disaster, just hope. Tierney said he wanted to dodge that classic TV move where, the second the characters look happy, something awful happens. He wanted to leave us feeling what the book gave him: actual happiness. Two people in love getting to just be happy for once.

The ending of Heated Rivalry has a higher impact since Tierney doubted the continuation of the show. He was more than happy that the audience would feel the same as him and Ilya getting a chance to love if this was the only season. It is an act that goes for the people over the storytelling and romance over exposition.

The massive success of Heated Rivalry was phenomenal for everyone concerned. The series has so far been Crave's most popular original series and HBO Max's best acquisition, non-animated title, the second most popular since the platform's launch in 2019.

This success resulted in an announcement of Season 2 made on December 12, 2025, with HBO Max still being a major distributor.

Trending

Also Read: Heated Rivalry Episode 6 recap and ending explained: The story ends with quiet hope

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback