After being disowned by his family for being gay Alexei is trying to work out what it means to live without his family and how to reconcile his personal faith with a church that no longer welcomes him.
Ben is on the trail trying to get his life together. He’s been falling for all the wrong guys and struggling to decide what he wants out of life other than trying to help other people keep it together. He’s determined to swear off guys and learn more about himself first. Easier said than done when he meets Alexei and the attraction is immediate.
They strike up a deal to hike part of the trail together and we get to watch as they begin to bring out the best in each other and find out how they fit together and how they don’t. I really appreciated Ben’s patience with Alexei’s quiet moments as he processed the situations. I’ve never been a church person, but it was so good to see Alexei reflecting over his faith and making choices that respected himself as he processed his trauma and decided that the god he knew was not what he’d always been taught.
I do wish we’d gotten to see Ben’s internal world a little bit more too, I think there could have been some good growth I wanted to see more of.
Loved the ending with the scene on the bridge :) Made me really happy.