Is Heated Rivalry Episode 2 only in the Russian language? Here’s what we know

For a good chunk of Heated Rivalry Episode 2, many of us wondered if we were having tech issues or had been dropped into a cultural immersion class! The now-infamous eight-minute Russian sequence (featuring Ilya and his father) blindsided fans because HBO Max’s subtitles simply didn’t appear for many. People started frantically restarting the app. But we've figured it out.

On the subreddit r/heatedrivalry, viewers talked to each other and realized they weren’t “missing something.” The dialogue is supposed to be translated, but that won't happen if closed captions are turned on. It’s a glitch, for sure.

But now that fans can see the subtitles, the Russian scene serves as an explanation for who Ilya is and why he breaks the way he does.

Why is there so much Russian in Heated Rivalry Episode 2? And how to get English subtitles?

You weren’t wrong to assume that subtitles should appear in a language that you understand, which, for most, is English. But if you were watching Heated Rivalry Episode 2 with closed captions (CC) on, they didn't. Looks like HBO Max bugged out instead of layering the Russian subtitles over English captions.

So there were no translations at all, but here's a hack:

Turn OFF closed captions
Keep the audio in English
Restart if necessary, and then subtitles will appear for the Russian dialogue

Some even toggled to Audio Description (English) to get the spoken translation, but the easiest way out seems to be to turn CC off. Many even restarted their HBO Max app once or twice before the Heated Rivalry subtitles kicked in.

Users on Reddit admitted to being so confused at first that they watched several minutes, believing the show was intentionally withholding translation. Some thought an “English recap” was coming later. At the same time, others restarted the episode multiple times and questioned their sanity!

Once subtitles kicked in, it all made sense, especially for those who had already read the book by Rachel Reid. Russian speakers even spotted the subtle differences in tone when Ilya’s father referred to his mother in the present tense. The scene is almost word-for-word from the 2019 book.

Heated Rivalry Episode 2 hits different once you get what the Russian conversation means

Understanding the Russian dialogue reframes the entire episode.

That 7-minute 39-second scene is why the Vegas ending feels jagged and why Ilya spirals into “must convert feelings into sex” mode. The scene exposes how conditional Ilya’s home life is and that he has expectations he can never meet. He feels he has to hide his softness and cling to control to stay safe.

So when Ilya later pushes Shane away while clinging to him physically, the viewers understand that he is just being defensive. Russia reminds him that vulnerability can be dangerous and that love can only be private or not at all.

Meanwhile, the empathetic Shane is slowly seeing that their connection is bigger than sex, and that scares Ilya more than anything. The conversation, as we proved, explains Ilya himself. The show is now a love story, trying very hard not to call itself a love story. Don't you agree, Heated Rivalry fans?

Heated Rivalry is streaming on HBO Max.

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Edited by Sohini Sengupta