Rivals Finally Went There With Declan and Cameron — And It Works

If you’ve been a Declan and Cameron shipper since Rivals Season 1, stay in line!

Not only has the series decided to go there, but they’re doing so in a completely believable, angsty, and complicated way that makes the pairing even more than just a delicious will-they-won’t-they treat.

It’s so much deeper than that, quickly catapulting it to one of Rivals’ most fascinating potential love stories.

I have a lot of feelings about Declan and Maud, which basically boil down to the fact that they are simply no longer compatible.

There’s still love and chemistry there, but there’s also a massive divide between the two of them, built up over years of disappointments and resentments that aren’t going to go away, no matter how much love they may have for one another.

Maud and Tony’s affair, which takes on a much deeper meaning in Rivals Season 2 Episode 5, started as something a little bad and forbidden, but they actually have a lot in common when you strip away everything else.

At this point in their lives, Maud and Tony make a lot of sense together. Tony gives her the validation she’s looking for, and Tony gets the kind of all-encompassing attention he lives off.

And, of course, it doesn’t hurt that he’s ruining Declan’s life in the process, even if Declan doesn’t realize it yet.

Their affair is an indictment of the hollow marriages and unchecked narcissism littered throughout Rivals, where people are more interested in just being desired than staying loyal or being honest with those they claim to love.

Declan’s trip to Ireland for filming leaves him immersed in the past, a time when he and Maud were presumably young, foolish, and completely in love.

When he’s staring out at the water, you can almost see him thinking back to those days and relishing in them. Then Cameron Cook enters the frame, an outsider to the Declan and Maud dynamic, and a temptation he never saw coming.

Declan and Cameron are a lot alike, which often leads them to butt heads at Corinium, mainly because they’re both type-A, work-obsessed individuals who struggle when things don’t go their way.

You see that the struggle still plays out in the early parts of Rivals Season 2, but what’s changed now is their ability to compromise. They can put aside their own egos to reach for something greater, and they trust one another, something built up over time and shared ventures.

They may fight, but they both immediately apologize because they care about each other and want to understand one another better. That’s such a fundamental piece of their dynamic that may be slept on at times.

The entire Ireland episode, as we’ll call it, shows how much their working relationship has blossomed and how it has allowed them to see parts of themselves that perhaps their partners aren’t always privy to.

Declan isn’t wrong when he says that working on a project that’s special can essentially lead to heightened emotions and a desire to seal things with a kiss, but what’s been bubbling between them feels a lot less like two people feeling a little nostalgic about the end of a project and more like two people on a sexual attraction collision course.

Rivals has felt like it’s running a race this season, trying to cram a lot of story into each hour, which isn’t easy with so many competing characters.

I’m sure there’ll be a subsection of people who feel like Declan and Cameron’s flirtation comes out of nowhere, but there have been subtle signs along the way. Instead of heavily teasing it, the series lets the attraction sneak up on both the audience and the characters themselves.

The little end-of-production party presents as both a turning point and a new beginning for the two.

The tension is palpable from the get-go, and you can tell that Declan’s looking at Cameron with completely fresh eyes. Not as a colleague, or Rupert’s girlfriend, or even the ‘one who got away,’ as Patrick would tell it.

He sees an intelligent, brazen, attractive, and mystifying woman to whom he’s growing closer and closer. And the party plays out beautifully, with the two dancing apart, stealing glances, until all the tension snaps and forces them into each other’s space.

Once in that space, neither runs away; instead, they lean in. And that’s such a testament to their relationship as a whole.

Several times throughout the hour, the two are angled toward each other, foreheads touching, as if there’s a physical pull between them they can’t resist.

And that’s also something that sums up so much of their dynamic: they never back down from one another.

Their conversation by the fire is beautifully shot, with the darkness enveloping the scene and the crackling fire becoming the soundtrack to a conversation neither of them expected.

Cameron’s clearly realizing that things with Rupert aren’t exactly going well, and it’s interesting to hear from her because we haven’t even seen much of them together over the last two hours.

It’s also interesting because Cameron doesn’t even seem to realize that Rupert and Taggie have an undeniable pull that will always make things between them feel incomplete.

Maybe it was Rupert not saying ‘I love you’ back, or maybe she’s just seeing that their relationship started with him ‘saving’ her, and now that she’s no longer in need of his help, there’s not a ton between them.

Either way, she’s contemplating her future, and she’s sitting with a man who’s content to categorize his marriage as the merging of two people who put up with a lot from each other simply because it’s what they’re used to.

Declan’s not a great husband, and Maud’s not exactly wife of the year, either. And that’s to say nothing of both of them being so wrapped up in their work and other things that they forgot their daughter’s birthday.

But when Declan is talking to Cameron, you can tell that he truly believes what he’s saying to her, and it made me feel bad for both him and Maud in a weird way.

Declan knows his faults and Maud’s, and he’s content to be hurt by her and to continue hurting her, for what? Because they can’t do any better? Because they have children together?

If it’s simply because they love one another, then all I can do is sigh.

That question will likely be one that the two of them must face at some point, especially once their recent extracurriculars come to light.

It was a curious move not to show whether Declan and Cameron went there after their charged conversation, but I think the acknowledgment that there’s even something there to begin with was more than enough to satisfy those who’ve seen their connection all along.

Knowing Declan has stayed true to Maud, but Cameron is the one tempting his resolve, shows just how much their time working together and learning from each other has imprinted on him and awakened a desire that completely changes the game.

Now, of course, the hour ends with Declan devoted to Maud because that’s his baseline, while also opening back up the tease of Cameron and Patrick, but with the Tony affair still lingering in the background, and the implication that she could have been the one who helped Tony get those tapes, you’re left feeling like we’re only in the beginning throes of whatever Declan and Cameron could become.

Rivals isn’t here to crown the best husband and wife, or to act like any of these people are perfect.

In fact, it thrives on making people’s imperfections both shameful and relatable, and entertaining, which turns it from just a raunchy soap opera into a raunchy soap opera with surprising emotional depth.

There are countless love affairs to latch onto, but there’s something intrinsically sexy about Declan and Cameron figuring out if theirs is just some good old-fashioned sexual tension or the beginnings of something greater.

Rivals would do well to explore that, beyond what has already been written in stone. When the connection is this intense, you owe it to the characters and the audience to see it through.

How are you guys feeling about a potential romance between Declan and Cameron?

Do you think they’re suited to one another?

Let me know in the comments so we can discuss the pairing and any other Rivals gossip!

You can watch Rivals on Hulu, and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers, and in the US and Disney+ internationally.