Which America?

How dumb is Debbie? This entire episode is a mudslide for her. She thinks she got away with Mikey blackmailing her. Giving the family ATM cards and giving up control of the house was never going to be enough. All of Frank’s friends are dirtbags so why she thought she could trust Mikey is her biggest mistake. By making bank accounts for everyone, it gave The Man financial access to most of the family. Frank owes the entire planet money, Lip student loans, and Carl I think owes money for boot camp. So the 100 bucks on the cards get taken immediately and the IRS is on to Lip so they garnish his paycheck by 50% as well. Mikey sees that as Debbie screwing with Frank again, so he takes Frank to her secret stash. She should have moved it to another spot in the facility just to protect herself.

Frank is impressed at her con and takes some stuff just to make up for the $100 and “interest.” Of course, they go back and take everything. They fence the stuff for pennies on the dollar and now Deb is on the hunt for Frank.

Deb also gets involved with a welders union. Once she sees all the benefits her peers in other cities get (child care!) she’s all about it. She gets her entire crew to sign up and the very next day, the union is on strike. Deb is financially screwed. This could last for months and she now has no income and her scam being robbed by Frank is going to take all of the money Fiona gave her.

For Carl, the ATM hit isn’t too bad. His hustle at the shrimp joint with Anne is starting to take off so he’s going to have cash. He’s also getting to know Anne and with his girlfriend out of town to her next stage of military service (and his disdain for that world) we’re looking at Carl getting into some relationship drama.

Speaking of relationship drama, Ian and Mickey. They’re stuck in limbo. Annoyed at being together all the time in prison gives way to uncertainty when Ian gets a notification he’s got a parole hearing soon. It’s possible that his sentence will get shut years short and Mickey’s certainly won’t. They’re a monogamous couple in jail but they’ve never talked about the future. Something all the other guys tell him they should have done a while ago. Does Mickey want Ian to wait for him to get out? Will Mickey wait? Or is the relationship over? Mickey wants Ian to stay in prison with him and Ian comes up with a plan to shank someone to spike the parole hearing. Mickey, knowing Ian has a life and opportunities on the outside, manages to stop him. Good for Mickey.

While I was hoping Liam would come up with a neat idea to talk to his black relatives down the street, he ends up just walking in. So we cut out some potential drama and comedy to get to the point. He meets MaVar, the grand-nephew of Great Aunt Addie, one of the living links to Liam’s existence. The Gallagher’s are person non grata in that house for a laundry list of shenanigans but MaVar recognizes Liam’s struggles and he becomes Liam’s mentor.

Meeting MaVar leads to bringing him around The Alibi and V goes to a baseball game with the two. Kevin feels threatened by MaVar’s physical prowess and goes on a mission to find V a new–female–friend. He ropes a few women to show up to the bar via Tinder and actually manages to find someone cool: Mimi.

That leaves us with Lip. He’s out and about by himself and with Tami on the mend, he’s able to visit her with baby Fred. Something’s wrong with Tami though. She’s still got a long way to go in the healing process but clearing a mental issue has developed. Based on how she reacts to seeing and eventually holding Fred, I think she has postpartum depression. When Tami does get out of the hospital, it’s likely that he’ll still be a single parent.