rivers_bend

I've been watching a lot of reactions to Heated Rivalry lately (between rewatching the episodes themselves), and there's one scene in episode 6 that has some people losing their minds in stress and dismay and other people completely taking it in stride, and I've been fixating on why I fall into the latter group, so decided I should write about it. I'm not interested in writing fic about it, so thought I'd dust off my essay writing skills (such as they are).

The scene I've seen the most distress and screaming about is where Shane's dad, David, leaves the cottage and drives away without saying a word. I've seen so many people saying that no parent who loved their kid would do this, that it shows he's mad and rejecting Shane, that it's out of character, etc. etc. I did not see it that way at all. It seemed a) like a perfectly reasonable thing to do, b) not alarming to Shane, c) and very in character for the David we've seen up to this point.

It's been acknowledged by Rachel Reid, Jacob Tierney, and Hudson Williams that Shane is autistic, or on the spectrum. It's almost certainly undiagnosed in-universe, but, as David points out when Yuna says they suspected Shane was gay, they know their kid pretty well. One of Shane's attributes I recognize very well (I was twice Shane's age when I was diagnosed as AuDHD) is that it takes extra time to process things. Especially big emotions or disruptions to the flow you've been going with. I think David knows his kid needs some processing time before he'll be able to talk about this without completely freaking out.

I also think David knows he can't be the one to deal with Shane's freakout.

He's pretty awkward himself. I've seen speculation that Yuna is where Shane gets the 'tism, because she's so hyperfixated on hockey. But the parent who is socially awkward, who doesn't circulate at big events, who says slightly weird things like are you watching videos about fancy watches when his wife is trying to get Shane excited about a Rolex contract and Shane just wants to talk about unlikely animal friendships, that parent is David. I think David would rather crumble into dust than talk to Shane about the fact he's making out with Ilya Rozanov in that moment. He also needs time to process. He also needs his person. His person is Yuna.

I didn't see his driving away as abandoning Shane, and I didn't see Shane taking it that way either. Yes, he started actively freaking out, what if he doesn't want to talk to me, what if they hate me, oh fuck, my MOM, what's she gonna say... you know. You watched it. but he was already having that freakout the second he saw his dad standing in the kitchen. It was just taking time to build to where he could articulate it.

There was never any time where it looked as though Shane thought that might be the last time he saw his father. He knew where his dad was going. He was ten minutes away, in a house Shane grew up in. A house filled with pictures of him on every wall. A house that is still Shane's home. Shane's freakout was all about the conversation with his parents he knew was inevitable. Never how will I find them, all what will I say. He didn't feel abandoned by his dad. He was probably glad (later. idt he was feeling anything but terrified in that moment) that he had a minute to bang his head on the wall and hug Ilya and rant and rave and also put some fucking clothes on before he had to have the talk.

David wasn't just going back to his wife for the big talk. He was also going back to Shane's manager. To Shane's hockey mom. David loves and supports his hockey kid, but there is no question at all that Yuna is in charge of all things hockey in that house. This is not just about having a gay son. This is about his career, and Shane and David both need Yuna for this. Yuna would have absolutely lost her shit if David had addressed this without her. David didn't want that for her any more than he wanted to deal with it on his own. Going back to their place and waiting for Shane to come to them probably felt like the only thing to do.

I'm not sure how much of my total chill with David leaving had to do with how I'd read the book by the time I got to watching episode 6, how much had to do with my own neurospicy brain, how much with being Shane's parents' age, not Shane's age, and now much to do with the above, but it really has been fascinating watching the different reactions to this scene. Yet another gift this show has given.