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(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.

Mijoo got hurt. So what? Did she die?  Mom!  Why should you ruin your life because of her? Why? My life? Do I have a life?

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We say it's meant to be to someone whom we meet for the first time. But fate is what we say to someone who stays with us until the end.

Mijoo, you should be grateful to someone who makes you want to live not someone who saved you. I want to live with you for a very long time.

Episode 1/ Episode 4