Heated Rivalry episode five just tied a TV record set by Breaking Bad

A certain gay hockey romance series has been the talk of the internet as of late, and everyone's obsession with Heated Rivalry is clear to see after the most recent episode achieved one big record.

The latest episode (five) titled "I’ll Believe in Anything", which was released by Crave and HBO Max on December 18, and on December 22 it became the highest-rated television episode of the year, earning a perfect 10/10 rating on IMDb.

(At the time of writing, the episode rating now stands at 9.9./10.)

What's more, this meant that the episode of the Canadian show at the time tied Breaking Bad’s ‘Ozymandias’ (Season 5, Episode 15) as the highest-rated episode of all time.

IMDb

Impressive stuff.

The stars of Heated Rivalry have been reacting to news of this achievement on social media.

Hudson Williams plays Shane Hollander took to Instagram and simply posted, “HUHHHHHHHH?!!??” while Francois Arnaud, who plays Scott Hunter, wrote "wtf."

What is the plot of Heated Rivalry?

Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max

Heated Rivalry is adapted from Rachel Reid’s critically acclaimed Game Changers book series, and has released five of its six episodes on Crave and HBO Max.

The show follows ice hockey stars, Canadian Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams), captain of the Montreal Metros, and Russian Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), captain of the fictional Boston Raiders, as the sporting rivals engage in a secret, years-long relationship.

"What begins as a secret fling between two fresh-faced rookies evolves into a years-long journey of love, denial, and self-discovery," the synopsis reads. "Over the next eight years, the pair chase glory on the ice while struggling to navigate their feelings off it. Torn between the sport they live for and the love they can’t ignore, Shane and Ilya must decide if there is room in their fiercely competitive world for something as fragile and as powerful as real love."

What happens in episode five?

Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max

*Spoilers ahead for episode five*

In episode five, we see Shane waking up after having spent a disappointing night with his new girlfriend, Rose Landry, and the two later go out to dinner together, where she questions if Shane is into men, which the hockey star admits for the first time, and the two agree to remain friends.

It is then the All-Star Game in Florida, where Shane and Ilya are on the same team and during the trip, Shane reveals to Ilya that he and Rose have split up because they aren’t “compatible” and the two share a secret rendezvous in a hotel room over All-Star weekend and this is when Shane tells Ilya he's gay and that he has feelings for him. But Ilya says if people find out he’s bisexual and having sex with a man, it won't be safe for him to return to Russia again, and he tearfully opens up about his father's dementia.

Later, Ilya has to return to Russia following the death of his father, where he gets into a fight with his brother and cuts him off for good, and he then calls Shane, who tells him to let out his frustrations in Russian.

Speaking in his mother tongue, Ilya expresses how he feels used by his family and guilty that he was around to look after his father, despite being treated harshly by him. He goes on to say he has no one except for Svetlana and says he loves her, but then makes a big confession, "I’m so in love with you, and I don’t know what to do about it," he confesses to Shane in Russian.

Ilya is now back in the US, and his team is up against Shane's, but Shane takes a bad hit and gets knocked out and taken to the hospital. Shane is in the hospital being treated, and asks Ilya who comes to visit him at his remote cottage, where they can be together in private for two weeks during the off-season, to which Ilya hesitantly says, "Maybe."

However, Ilya soon changes his tune and informs Shane he's coming to the cottage after they see the Admirals player Scott Hunter call his boyfriend Kip (whose love story we saw in episode 3) onto the ice after his cup win, where they share a kiss on national television.

Where can I watch?

Heated Rivalry is available to watch on Crave if you live in Canada.

Meanwhile, the series is airing exclusively on HBO Max in the US and Australia, and is also available on Sky in New Zealand and Movistar Plus+ in Spain.

The first five episodes are now available to stream, with subsequent episodes dropping every Friday (six episodes in total).

For UK and Ireland viewers as Heated Rivalry will be available to watch on streaming service NOW from 10 January.

When is the finale?

The finale episode of Heated Rivalry is set to release this Friday, December 26.

Elsewhere from Indy100, Heated Rivalry - the new gay hockey romance TV adaptation the internet can't get enough of, and The White Lotus season 4: Release date, location, cast, what to know.

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