Russian Parakeet

They routinely have entire conversations where Ilya is very softly smacking Shane's foot the entire time. Shane enjoys the percussive feedback.

Ilya mispronounces the word "Application" and they just sit there mutually whispering 'Aaap-li-caaa-shun' at each other for the next thirty seconds.

Ilya comes up behind Shane while he's trying to make a smoothie and says 'HELPING HANDS' and puts his arms under Shane's armpits.

Ilya sees Shane undressing in the bathroom and yells, "Take it all off!"

Shane carries Anya into the bedroom and holds her over Ilya's chest and moves her paws and says, "Papa it is me. Papa it has been an whole hour since I ate. Papa I am so hungry and sad." then drops her on his stomach.

Shane comes into the home office and grabs a pen off the desk and puts it against Ilya's cheek and says, "Any last words?" and Ilya says, "I wish I had eaten more dumplings."

Ilya spends an entire episode of House Hunters International with his hand down Shane's pants. It's not doing anything in there either it's just keeping warm.

Sometimes they are just mutually awake at three AM for No Reason and they go stand on the porch and stare at the empty street together.

Sometimes they are laying there playing footsie on the couch while on their phones (Parallel play) and Shane says, "Does your mouth ever do that squeezing thing. You know. When you eat." And Ilya says "Explain" and they spend the next ten minutes dissecting whether this is a Human Experience or a Shane Experience.

Sometimes Ilya will put his head on Shane's stomach and say, "Show me your boooones" and wait for Shane to lift his shirt so he can burrow under it.

When Shane gets frustrated he's liable to mutter, "One of these fucking days" under his breath. Ilya's job is to respond "Straight to the moon," and mime an uppercut.

Sometimes Ilya gets very excited especially before/after very intense games and in order to release some of this energy he does this WOOP thing with the back of his throat. Shane will respond with an echoing WOOP from wherever he is, even the showers. Sometimes other people on the team will echo them and it becomes a sort of hype-up but Shane and Ilya will even do it when they're alone. If Ilya is particularly excited he will say, "Louder, baby!" and Shane will WOOP again, big grin splitting his face.

Ilya sings songs under his breath and replaces half the lyrics with Shane and Anya's names. After he hears Blinding Lights by The Weeknd for the first time he spends WEEKS just periodically muttering "I said Shaaaane...I'm blinded by the Shaaaane..."

Ilya lays down flat on Shane's back and says, "Do you like this?" and if Shane says, "Yeah," he'll bite the back of his neck and say, "How about now?" And the way Shane responds decides if Ilya puts his hand in his pants or just weighs him down and takes a nap.

Shane holds out his hand to Ilya and says, "Do the thing," and Ilya spends the next three minutes carefully cracking all of Shane's knuckles.

Their finance guy is named Hezekiah Patterson and they ONLY refer to him as Hezekiah Patterson, AAMS. Did you talk to Hezekiah Patterson, AAMS about those assets? Shane, Hezekiah Patterson, AAMS is calling us. We just got a Christmas card from Hezekiah Patterson, AAMS. That was very nice of Heze--

based on this tweet i saw

(Gif by @hollanderdiaz)

Ilya being a goofball is funny on its own, but it’s the fact that NO ONE is paying attention to him here that elevates it. The kids are already way past him, Shane is watching the kids, literally no one is looking at him. Ilya isn’t performing for anyone here. He came up with a game and is having fun playing it himself, regardless of if he has an audience.

It’s hitting me harder now why Ilya loves being around kids so much. He gets to initiate play with an excuse to use as a shield to his teammates later that it was entirely for the kids and not for him. The kids Ilya plays with have absolutely no idea that they’re seeing a more real version of him than the vast majority of the people in his life.

It’s also why it’s CRUCIAL to have this scene cut together with the All Star game and Ilya playing with Shane on the same team for the first time. It’s the perfect way to communicate to the audience that playing hockey with Shane allows Ilya to find his boyish joy again. Ilya is having the same emotional experience playing hockey with Shane as he is playing shark attack with the kids in the pool.

There’s an interview where Connor says he doesn’t think Ilya really cares about hockey, and this is a demonstration of what I think he means. Shane loves hockey specifically, Yuna loves hockey specifically, Svetlana loves hockey specifically.

Ilya likes competition and play, but he’s only playing hockey because he’s naturally very good at it. Being the best isn’t what keeps him happy—it’s playing with Shane and finding the fun he must have experienced as a child with his mother on the ice before his father turned it into a job.

Autism in the media is often portrayed stereotypically and over-dramatised. Though there are people out there with those “stereotypical” traits, in reality for many people on the spectrum, it isn't obvious at first glance - it's subtle, different for everyone, and not easy to deal with - and Hudson portrayed that perfectly.