Be a Good Boy. Come for Grandma.

Queenie continues to be the mother bear of the house as the others flit about her. In typical Gallagher fashion, the kids all try to make a break for it at breakfast when they don’t want to deal with her nonsense. She locks them down like only a mother can, which was impressive. She’s really a ray of sunlight in that house, it seems like nothing can bring her down (we”re all waiting for the Frank bomb to go off). She’s given more (positive) support to Debbie than anyone and this week she got Lip sorted with a rather shocking method.

Speaking of Lip, this has got to be the end of Mrs. Robinson. We’re through denial, anger, pathetic bargaining, depression and with the end credits scene a rousing bit of acceptance. Mrs. Robinson has kept him away from the family and I’m ready for awesome Lip to come back.

Debbie had the freak of the week b-side story. Saw that creeper coming from a mile away. Glad she hit the ground running and we can move on to the next step (7 months pregnant!).

Ian’s still on a good path. The kid needs purpose and I’m glad he’s found it. A bump in the road exposing their skeletons in the closet, but I think it’s a great sign of maturity and respect. Don’t see that much on Shameless.

Who didn’t see Frank’s part in taking over Carl’s job in the gang? That whole segment wrote itself. There’s no way we don’t see him next week in traction. Or hiding in a dumpster. It’d be pretty lazy if they let Carl get away with bringing in Frank, but they probably will.

Sean to the rescue! Not sure how many people on Earth would stick their neck out like that to get Carl out of the business. Carl’s going to be working that diner sink for years to pay him back. Far and away the best part of this episode was the scene with Fiona and Carl in his bedroom. That was a long time coming and another highlight for Emmy Rossum’s reel. This episode probably had Ethan Cutkosky’s best work too. Carl being distraught about Nick and the world he got himself into really came through

And then the Gallagher F train comes rolling through. Will finds one of Carl’s guns and Sean (rightfully freaks out). It’s interesting to see Fiona try to “sorry” her way out of it and make an attempt to minimize what happened. Crazy stuff like that is more or less part of her life, so she’s kinda used to it. That isn’t normal and she didn’t consider what would happen if/when Sean’s ex-wife finds out. While she really could do nothing but apologize, she’s got to learn to take responsibility. She said similar stuff (I’ll just explain what happened, they’ll understand, I didn’t mean it, it was an accident) when Liam got into the drugs. Because it was an accident she felt it wasn’t her fault. That doesn’t fly when it comes to the law.

Fiona pulling out Carl’s corn rows closes another chapter for the season. With four episodes left, here’s what I’m thinking. Lip should be more prominent in the family again. Debbie’s pregnancy will most likely be the focal point, I don’t think they’ll do any more solo “adventures” with her. If Frank is actually walking around, there’s no way he can’t be hiding. I’ll be really disappointed if the writers just let him off, he screwed with people who know where he lives who don’t let that stuff fly. Sean and Carl might have gotten off OK, but Frank cost them more than money. There’s gotta be some fall out from Will finding that gun and it will most likely end his relationship with Fiona. There are no happy endings in Shameless, but I’m not too sure how hard they’re going to bring this one down. Sean would still in the show but it’s another relationship Fiona tanked.

“We’re all villains in Nassau…”

Light on action this week but there was more than enough killer dialog to make up for it. The themes of this episode: history and sympathy.

Rackham is locked up and has to wait for the world to move around him.

The Flint/Vane project goes into motion with a sneaky trip to the island. This is Madi’s first mission with a ton at stake and she succeeds but Silver had a harder time on his end. He did manage to make his point when pushed, though. Too bad Rogers managed to curb that maneuver with Max. Great scene with Flint and Rogers, I love conversations between two sides of the same coin. Another great scene is The Maroon Queen laying it down on Flint when they’re making plans to go to Nassau after Flint comes back with only Vane. She recognizes flints recklessness and slows him down.The guy needs to be put in place from time to time. It’s a good thing Vane is involved because he pretty much saved this mission by finding Anne first. Great ending setting up the all or nothing snatch and grab mission.

By far the most interesting piece of this episode is the Max, Rogers, and Eleanor triangle. Max and Eleanor have that touchy past (to put it mildly) and Rogers is like the third wheel, but he’s the one steering. Eleanor is a traitor to everyone on Nassau, having burned every single bridge. More than enough was said to make sure everyone knew it, all the way up to England hearing it. Rogers reluctantly had to take her along for the ride because she is valuable. Stabbing everyone in the back wasn’t in her character. She had to and it eats her up every day since it happened. Rogers and her fall for each other (I believe she really has) but he can’t ignore her past and tells her so. That scene is fantastically written and performed. I haven’t felt any sympathy for Eleanor in awhile and that bit hit me (brilliant idea from the writers using the grippe illness as a parallel).

Now the Eleanor and Max relationship. This whole ordeal has twisted in on Max in ways she never imagined. First it forces her to have to work with Eleanor and it ends up putting Max in a very similar position that Eleanor was in. Max now knows what Eleanor went through, the hard decisions she had to make and why she had to make them. Max again feels sympathy for a person she was sure she would hate for the rest of her life.

I like Rogers a lot, they gave him a  lot of layers and this Nassau boondoggle is digging into him more every day. He’s a good guy trying to do honest work in a pirates world. He believes in what his country wants to do, restore order and make a contributing society. He does everything he can to keep people from getting hurt, no matter what side they are on and obstacles keep getting thrown in his way. As he said to Flint, if it comes down to it, if you choose to try and steal this all away again, he will do what he has to do. No more offers or talks, it’s war. Rogers is being forced down a path he doesn’t want to take, just like Eleanor was.

Some neat stuff went down this week.

Silver is basically sidelined this week, I admire his tenacity despite it being so bullheadedly stupid. Good thing he managed to get Madi on his good side so quickly. Mr. Scott is fading fast but a smart man always passes down his wisdom. Even though Madi’s been groomed predominantly by her mother, it looks like her father is going to fill in some missing pieces she’s going to need for when she takes over.

I was right about Rackham’s idea being really stupid but I didn’t see him taking that stupidity and making a stand with it. If he’s going to get rolled over, he’s not going out without making a name for himself. He did want a clear name, after all, telling Anne that that’s about all he had and cared for. The people of Nassau will speak his name one way or another.

Vane throws Blackbeard under the boat again. A man’s home is hard to throw away I guess. Coupled with that knowledge he got on the boat last episode, I’m sure Vane feels like he’s got a workable plan he can do with Flint and I’m inclined to agree with him.

It’s fantastic to see the independent arms of the pirates come together to put the squeeze on England (without them even knowing it). They’ve been apart for so long, but Nassau brings them together. Woodes Rogers is getting squeezed from every single side, Eleanore is basically seen as floating garbage by everyone and Max is doing everything she can do to hang on (interesting seeing her share the same boat as Rackham, but being on the opposite side of it). I really like where this is going, ingenious way to take the Spanish treasure everyone has been after for so long, remix it, and turn it into another treasure hunt with huge stakes. Sucks to be Anne right now, practically all of known civilization is after her.