The Real Reason Netflix Fans Are Pausing This Holidate Scene

There are plenty of reasons to take a moment and reflect on what's happening. Sometimes it's a crucial mental health maneuver. Other times, you think you just saw Ryan Gosling. In the case of viewers watching Netflix's Holidate, maybe it's a little of both.

Holidate was released on Netflix on October 28, and has since skyrocketed to the top of the streaming service's Top Ten list of its most-viewed offerings. Helmed by Big Momma's House 2 director John Whitesell, the film stars Emma Roberts, Luke Bracey, and — if you squint your eyes at just the right moment — scientifically beautiful Canadian actor Ryan Gosling. At least, that's what some fans of the film think they got a bead on during a dramatic third act moment in the astonishingly popular romantic comedy.

It all comes during the movie's climactic confrontation between Sloane and Jackson, two impeccably symmetrical young people caught up in a relationship of convenience. In the middle of the grocery store of all places, the two have quite the tiff over Sloane's perceived lack of excitement over romantic entanglements. "I bet you money that if Ryan Gosling waltzed down this frozen food aisle and offered to take you on the ride of your life," Jackson exclaims, "you would still say no, 'cause you'd be too afraid to get on that train: the Ryan Gosling train."

As he walks away, having successfully gotten in the last word (in this case, "train"), Sloane shouts that he's wrong, completely missing what appears to be Ryan Gosling walking right behind her.

A few things to note: first of all, it's not Ryan Gosling. While the scene in question does not mark the first time that Ryan Gosling is brought up in Holidate, it also does not mark the first scene in Holidate in which he does not appear. Ryan Gosling isn't in the beginning of Holidate, the middle of Holidate, or this, the climax of Holidate. He is also notably absent from the film's denouement.

Nevertheless, the tweets poured in, hot and ready, reading "Is that @RyanGosling down the freezer aisle in #holidate" and "That is so Ryan Gosling in the frozen aisle #Holidate" and "you can't tell me that isn't Ryan Gosling in #holidate." But here we are, telling you that it isn't Ryan Gosling in #Holidate.

Or was it? While the odds seem slim and a cursory glance at the above screenshot would seem to confirm that the guy in frame was a dime store knockoff, the Hydrox to Gosling's perfectly kempt Oreo, the folks at Decider (who were also skeptical on the subject) point out that filming on Holidate took place while the actor was on an acting hiatus. Maybe the production lucked out and got ahold of the acclaimed Canadian performer on a day when he needed beer money. Expensive celebrity cameos exist. Brad Pitt showed up for six seconds in Deadpool 2. Stranger things have happened.