People misunderstanding that the tuna melt scene was not Ilya asking Shane to be boyfriends but instead an attempt at surface level emotional intimacy with plausible deniability, so they could keep "doing what they're doing" while also staying the night and having meals, without admitting to the desire for emotional connection.
Ilya wants Shane to stay. He wants to eat meals with him and cuddle on the couch and watch hockey and listen to Shane's quips about other teams performances. But he does not want to be vulnerable. He avoids being vulnerable to the point of overcompensation. (What is "I like you...just your mouth" if not overcorrection?)
Shane has been trying to get the barest amount of personal info from Ilya from the beginning. He has gotten shut down multiple times. Ilya refuses to open up to him until Tampa, so he isn't doing that in the tuna melt scene. He is layering his probes into trying to see if Shane wants something closer by asking Shane if he likes women and talking about Svetlana. He's trying to protect himself, yes, but also muddying the water so much that his intentions are only clear to us, the viewers, because we have been shown Ilya yearning for Shane.
Shane who famously struggles to read between lines especially in terms of romantic feelings is not going to interpret Ilya talking about Svetlana and telling him he only likes his mouth as anything but bragging and another attempt at distancing them away from the emotional side of things, which goes counter to the way Ilya has acted for the entirety of the visit and asking him to stay. But Ilya has been hot and cold with him before. Ilya literally ghosted him and told him they weren't anything after their first (in show) time with penetrative sex that he was VERY soft and caring during! What reason has he given Shane to think he isn't going to turn around and kick him out? Tell him all this cuddling and food and softness didn't mean anything and he does it with anybody who comes around?
Saying each other's first names is the trigger for Shane leaving, for realising it's getting too real, but that stay would not have ended with Ilya asking Shane to be exclusive. Ilya would not, especially at that point, be able to vocalise or even admit to wanting that. Most of the emotional steps forward they have is because of Shane putting the offer out there. Sure Ilya initiated their first hookup, but Shane has been reaching out for an emotional bond since the Olympics. Shane is the one to tell Ilya he wants more in Tampa (where Ilya still tries to say they cannot be anything more than sex to each other), Shane is the one to tell Ilya to tell him everything on his mind even if he doesn't understand the language, Shane is the one to invite Ilya to the cottage, to ask that they're both honest there, to come up with a ten year plan to be together and come out.
I just. How does any of that indicate Shane isn't emotionally aware? There's denial in him, but that's because he knows what he wants. And he thinks there's no way he can have it and still be a hockey player and also thinks there's no way Ilya wants him back. He wants Ilya, and he knows literally everyone, including Ilya himself, would tell him he can't have him in all the ways he wants, so he attempts to push that down and away. Once rose helps him, and he's out as gay to himself, he knows what he wants and he goes in a mission to get his man! He basically goes okay it's crazy and maybe stupid but I want Ilya so I'm going to try to pry his true feelings out of him because maybe we CAN be together. Maybe we'll have to hide but hiding together is better than hiding apart and missing each other. And he's RIGHT!!!!
I looooooove when I'm watching a little mystery show and I guess what the clues are leading to and I feel so clever and I'm going to be RIGHT. I WILL BE!!!
Jackie Pike started the pike-hollander mpreg inside joke one day after Shane babysat the twins. They were crying and pouting because they didn't want uncle Shane to leave and Jackie said "sometimes it's like they think you birthed them" and Shane goes "I could've but it would've interrupted the hockey season :/ " and then Hayden pats his shoulder and goes "we'll get the timing right next time buddy" Shane shakes his head "not until I retire, we've been over this" Jackie sighs, "and until then you still get favourite parent privileges with the ones I had to carry" "we appreciate your sacrifice"
This also low-key started the polycule joke/rumours but at the centre it is mpreg Shane 🙂↕️
Dead wife montage of Grace for Stratt but it's just him in comfy sweaters standing a step behind and to the right of her as she chews someone out, in a sealed environmental suit behind thick glass doing an expiriment, getting into petty incomprehensible scientific arguments with another scientist, handing her paperwork, sleepily passing her a mug of coffee whilst also looking for his glasses, and of course asking her annoying questions.