Occupy Fiona
Ian takes his anger to a new level against Fiona. Incensed in her blocking the homeless youth shelter from renting the abandoned church, he takes a revenge plan to the streets. He rallies a bunch of the homeless kids to occupy the open space directly next to her apartment building. She’s refurbished the empty apartment and is ready to show it but a mass of screaming teens in a tent city makes $1100 rent a tough sell. Ian even goes as far as to call a fire marshall for code violations which puts her out a few hundred dollars. So, she fights back. She bribes all the kids to take off and hires some guys to clean up the lot. Ian insurgency is cut off at the knees and it makes him madder. Trever is basically over losing the church space so it’s Ian all on his own. His reaction is so volatile they wonder if he’s been taking his meds. He says he is and begrudges the insinuation that if he’s ever mad, it’s because he’s manic. To Fiona’s credit, she makes multiple efforts to bury the hatchet like adults and move on. Ian’s behavior freaks out Trevor and he ends up going with Fiona to check out another place the shelter could be set up (Fiona did all the initial legwork to find the place). Trevor is optimistic about Fiona’s efforts…Ian not so much. During their last talk, he says some disturbing things. I (and Fiona) didn’t like what he implied and he’s more or less just bottling up his anger again.
Frank gets a dose of reality when he meets the other corporate downsized men in the employment line. He’s shocked out how many there are and how hard it is to get a job (granted he’s had about a month of employment success so his resume is…light. Dejected, Frank heads to his usual place of grousing about life: The Alibi. There he meets a guy who’s being deported by the new administration in a month. He’s been tried to dodge it by getting into Canada but failed. And just like Carl, he’s stumbled into a new business. Frank the northern coyote.
Speaking of Carl, his basement detox program is coming up short. He needs a few thousand more for tuition when one of his clients, Kassidi, pitches him an idea. Make a ransom video of me and my dad will pay it. Right out of the gate, anyone with two functioning eyes and ears can tell that this girl is a problem. Carl goes along with it though and the plan works despite the father catching Carl with the ransom money. This isn’t the first time this has happened, Kassidi’s been fighting “the man” for years and her father has no idea what to do with her. He warns Carl: she’s a venus fly trap, don’t let her get in your head and ruin you. Also, tell Kassidi her mother expects to see her at a family gathering in a few days and to wear the blue dress. Carl returns home and tells her that the plan worked and she can go. Kassidi freaks out saying she can never go back to that oppressive world of the wealthy and easily convinces Carl to let her stay. He’s in trouble.
Kevin is back to sexual square one with V. V and Svetlana are popping off together like there is no tomorrow and he needs a new angle to spark his love life with V. Since his own gay affair idea didn’t work, the insight that Fiona gave V, she likes to be dominated, is his new plan of attack. He has no idea how to do it with great Shameless results. He does have a breakthrough at the end though.
Deb butts heads with a Porsche driving jerk at work. He’s about as rude and condescending as you can get and while she does her best to toe the line to keep her job at the parking garage, she ends up digging in for revenge. She welds his sports car to a dumpster. Deb is now out of a job, but she can keep her head held high.
Lip does everything he can to wrangle Brad and Professor Youens to get to court. Youens has to show up and plead his case or he’s going to jail for a long time for his fifth DUI where he drove through someone’s house. Brad is going to be a character witness. Lip goes to pick up Brad first and he’s in a pit of depression. He manages to get him dress and out the door only to find Professor blacked out on the floor in his own vomit. Lip summons an extraordinary amount of effort and composure to help the man who helped him so much and it doesn’t end well. Youens has given up and Lip learns the hard lesson that you can’t help someone who doesn’t want help. It’s one of the most heartbreaking scenes of the show with Youen’s in handcuffs on one side of the visitor’s table and Lip on the other. I hope Lip can move on from this. Brad is still in murky water but at least Lip got him pointed in the right direction. Ian is basically bobbing around in another leaking boat in Depression Bay next to Lip. Come to think of it, the Gallagher men are not doing well. The remaining episodes of the season could be really rough.