\n\tTierney and Peter Peter\u2019s\u00a0rich musical soundscape, which they\u00a0built\u00a0alongside music supervisor Scotty Taylor,\u00a0also\u00a0facilitated\u00a0the\u00a0series\u2019 most instantly memorable moment yet: the\u00a0deliciously anxiety-inducing,\u00a0t.A.T.u.-soundtracked extended club scene\u00a0that closes out episode four.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIlluminated by\u00a0bisexual lighting<\/a>, leads Connor Storrie\u00a0(Ilya)\u00a0and Hudson William\u00a0(Shane)\u00a0miserably go through the motions and perform infatuation with their respective partners in the club \u2014 but their unbreakable, magnetic eye contact proves they\u00a0truly just want each other, even if the physical setting\u00a0renders\u00a0that\u00a0option\u00a0impossible. As the scene transitions away from the club,\u00a0Shane\u00a0and Ilya\u00a0deliver some of the coldest, most emotionally despondent sex scenes that hinge on their\u00a0unactionable lust for one another.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tDuring this climactic conclusion to the episode,\u00a0t.A.T.u.\u2019s\u00a0original version of \u201cAll the Things She Said\u201d morphs into\u00a0a\u00a0dance cover by\u00a0London-based artist-producer\u00a0Harrison,\u00a0which resulted\u00a0in\u00a0streaming boosts<\/a>\u00a0for both tracks. Following the\u00a0Dec. 12\u00a0premiere of episode four,\u00a0t.A.T.u.\u2019s\u00a0original\u00a0earned over 1.3 million official on-demand U.S. streams\u00a0during the four-day period of\u00a0Dec. 12-15, according to Luminate, up 103% from its Dec. 5-8 streaming activity. Similarly, Harrison\u2019s cover\u00a0jumped\u00a0an\u00a0eye-opening\u00a0114,173% to over 685,000 official streams\u00a0during Dec. 12-15.\u00a0Previous\u00a0episodes\u00a0sparked streaming\u00a0increases<\/a>\u00a0for songs by Feist, Wet Leg and Wolf Parade, but this\u00a0particular needle\u00a0drop found\u00a0Heated Rivalry\u00a0and its showrunner, Jacob Tierney, intentionally wading into a key\u00a0component\u00a0of 21st-century queer pop culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI don\u2019t know that I thought we would be able to pull it all off based on experience at first,\u201d Taylor admits. \u201cI was concerned, but then we got into a vibe. When it was in our little silo, there was some weird energy that told me I needed to be a part of this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAll the Things\u00a0She Said\u201d arrived in 2002 as the lead single from Russian music duo\u00a0t.A.T.u.\u2019s\u00a0first English-language studio album,\u00a0200 km\/h in the Wrong Lane.\u00a0Thanks to a controversial,\u00a0era-defining music video that depicted a lesbian kiss between the duo\u2019s members,\u00a0\u201cAll the Things\u201d soared to No. 20 on the Hot 100, awakening and emboldening a generation of young queer listeners in the process.\u00a0As\u00a0the lyrics \u201cIf I\u2019m asking for help, it\u2019s only because\/ Being with you has opened my eyes,\u201d reverberate across the club, Shane and Ilya\u2019s mutual yearning reaches a\u00a0fever pitch. Their\u00a0longing glances must remain just that, and their inability to act on those feelings offers undeniable confirmation that\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0really, truly in love.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAlready a beloved scene from the novels, Tierney\u00a0and\u00a0Taylor ensured their television reimagining surpassed all fan expectations. And given the\u00a0seemingly<\/a>\u00a0endless<\/a>\u00a0social<\/a>\u00a0media<\/a>\u00a0chatter<\/a>\u00a0about that scene and the needle\u00a0drop,\u00a0they\u2019ve\u00a0done just that.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tTierney\u00a0first\u00a0reached out to author Rachel Reid, who wrote the\u00a0Game Changers\u00a0novel series\u00a0Heated Rivalry\u00a0is based on, in 2023 to discuss potentially\u00a0adapting\u00a0the books, and by January 2025, Crave picked up the show.\u00a0Taylor, who earned a Guild of Music Supervisors Awards nod for his work on Megan Park\u2019s\u00a0My Old Ass\u00a0this\u00a0year,\u00a0says\u00a0he\u00a0likes\u00a0to get into the production process as early as possible.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSometimes you are so restricted by limitations of\u00a0associated\u00a0budget that everything becomes a reference,\u201d he explains. \u201cThat\u2019s why I like to get the value of music understood\u00a0early.\u201d\u00a0He entered conversations about joining the\u00a0Heated Rivalry\u00a0team at the top of 2025, having already worked with Brendan Brady, one of the series\u2019 executive producers,\u00a0alongside Tierney,\u00a0under their\u00a0Accent\u00a0Aigu\u00a0Entertainment production company. Those preliminary convos evoked Taylor\u2019s favorite \u201ctable tennis\u201d vibe\u00a0\u2014\u00a0where he, Tierney,\u00a0Brady\u00a0and Peter\u00a0Peter\u00a0could bounce ideas back and forth.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThose early conversations confirmed two key things. First,\u00a0according to Taylor,\u00a0Tierney was open to having \u201csome awareness\u201d\u00a0of the show\u2019s timeline\u00a0(it\u2019s largely set between the very late \u201800s and mid-2010s),\u00a0but if\u00a0anachronistic selections like Wet Leg\u2019s \u201cMangetout\u201d (which opens episode two) \u201creally, really make sense and feel good, they could look left.\u201d Second, \u201cAll the Things She Said\u201d was absolutely going to\u00a0close\u00a0episode four\u00a0in some\u00a0fashion;\u00a0budget constraints be damned.\u00a0\u201cSometimes money makes the decision for you!\u201d Tierney quips.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIn a rough cut of that\u00a0[club]\u00a0scene,\u00a0once we had the track\u00a0[temporarily\u00a0added], we\u00a0had to figure out how to get across the tension and vibe we were chasing just based on\u00a0[how\u00a0long the song was playing],\u201d he explains.\u00a0\u201cThat tension that\u2019s created when we do that\u2026 sometimes\u00a0it\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0work.\u00a0Sometimes\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0too much of the same song. Because of the tone of this series and this feeling of anticipation, it really works.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe six-minute scene is relentlessly intense. With most of the episode\u2019s emotional threads coalescing into a climactic finale, Taylor\u00a0and Tierney\u00a0were left with the\u00a0question of how to stretch \u201cAll the Things\u201d for that entire duration.\u00a0They knew keeping the original for the entire scene might be overkill, so Tierney started toying\u00a0with different versions of the song.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI always wanted to transition there;\u00a0something had to change,\u201d explains Tierney.\u00a0\u201cI wanted a clubby song that went into a dreamier state. When\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0be looking up\u00a0t.A.T.u., I found all these covers\u00a0[of\u00a0\u2018All the Things\u2019]\u00a0and I\u00a0loved\u00a0that [the Harrison version]\u00a0was a male vocalist.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tOnce the angst and frustration of\u00a0t.A.T.u.\u2019s\u00a0original morphs into the carnal thirst of Harrison\u2019s rework,\u00a0episode four reaches a queasy emotional place everyone has previously been, but nobody enjoys. Between that energy and the shift from a feminine tone to a masculine voice, which nods to both Ilya\u2019s bisexuality and Shane\u2019s closeted-ness, Taylor and Tierney helped craft one of the strongest musical gut-punches on television this year.\u00a0Case in point: Harrison\u2019s cover soared\u00a0into the top 10 on iTunes\u00a0and the top 15 on Shazam in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI don\u2019t know\u00a0that\u00a0it was a conscious choice, but once we assembled it, it couldn\u2019t go any other way,\u201d Taylor says. \u201cInstead of\u00a0tripping out at the club,\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0lusting out;\u00a0Shane\u2019s going home with Rose,\u00a0and Ilya is overheating. We had to land on an adaptation of [\u2018All the Things\u2019] that could support the steamiest of steamy scenes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tOf course, the queer legacy of\u00a0t.A.T.u.\u2019s\u00a0original is complicated by the\u00a0homophobic remarks<\/a>\u00a0from member Julia Volkova \u2014 and the fact that neither she nor co-frontwoman\u00a0Lena Katina\u00a0is queer, making the duo an OG pop music\u00a0\u201cqueerbaiter.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0That history has inspired several viewers to send Tierney messages of disappointment, but, while the showrunner can \u201cunderstand and appreciate\u201d those sentiments, he\u2019s sticking by his creative\u00a0decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI didn\u2019t really know much about [their controversial comments]; this was the only queer Russian pop song I can think of,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m\u00a0old enough to remember when that song came out, and I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t know if those are lesbians, they look like they\u2019re being forced to do this.\u2019\u00a0Ultimately,\u00a0I\u00a0know how much that song resonates [with] queer people and how impactful it was for a certain generation. And\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0really not\u00a0easy to license Russian pop music! It was\u00a0important\u00a0to me to at least make an effort to do that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWith just two more episodes to go before its first season wraps on Dec. 26,\u00a0Heated Rivalry\u00a0fans can expect\u00a0more Easter eggs connected to the novel, a nod to another \u201cspecial\u201d Montreal band, and the return of Wolf Parade, whose \u201cI\u2019ll Believe in Anything\u201d opened episode three.\u00a0Notably, \u201cAnything\u201d is one of the songs Tierney made sure he cleared before filming started.\u00a0Last week (Dec. 12), Crave renewed\u00a0Heated Rivalry\u00a0for season two, with HBO Max continuing to license the series for U.S. streaming without producing.\u00a0With the\u00a0show\u2019s\u00a0masterminds already knee-deep in the planning stages for future episodes, fans can expect even more musical offerings connected to\u00a0the series.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe\u2019re definitely in discussions about doing something along the lines of a soundtrack,\u201d Tierney reveals. \u201cAnd putting together an official\u00a0Heated Rivalry\u00a0[compilation] so that people can listen to all the songs they like in the same place, and the score as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tEpisode\u00a0five of\u00a0Heated Rivalry\u00a0streams on Crave and HBO Max on Friday (Dec. 19).\u00a0<\/p>\n
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