Love Songs (In the Key of Gallagher)

Here we are, the end of Season 5. My general thoughts are that it was a really good season. A lot of independent stories that broke the Gallagher’s into groups, but it all kept them together in the end.

The theme was love and loss, with equal part sex and heartbreak. Some major changes in all the relationships of this season.

Lip comes to a bit of a crossroads with his Mrs. Robinson love arrangement. He’s put in a rather uncomfortable position in his adult relationship and goes along with it. This drives the final wedge between him and Amanda as she finally comes to the conclusion that they aren’t in a real relationship. Great public breakup, just enough awkwardness to make Lip feel like the tool he really is. Lip goes home.

Ian gets to know Monica a bit better on their hitchhiking trip to her boyfriends trailer. While he felt alienated and uncomfortable at home, there’s simply no place for him with his mother and meth cooking boyfriend who looks to be just a few older than himself. This run, just like the kidnapping one, comes to a halt. Ian goes home and to the shock of everyone, breaks up with Mickey. I see Ian in purgatory, stuck between hating how the medication makes him feel and how dangerous he can be without it. Without meds he’s himself, a person he feels that doesn’t need to be fixed. That feels normal to him, but how will he manage? Out of everyone, Ian is in the worst space of the Gallagher’s at the end of the season. Mickey sent out to drift is not good either.

Fiona is just terrible at relationships and it gets told right to her face. She clipped Jimmy out but is still running back and forth between Gus and Sean. Both of which are nebulous relationships. I guess Ian isn’t the only one in purgatory. She betrayed Gus so he’s really wary of her. Sean has his own intense issues and really can’t tolerate her wishy-washy personality. With things looking on the outs, she hops over to Sean right away with a smile on her face only to get shut down (at one point even getting denied being called a friend). Sean really knows who she is. Fiona just isn’t going to get what she wants out of either of them.  I think Gus will be gone next year, she might still try with Sean. All of this has kept her out of the family drama which leads to Debbie….

…who is just a ball of anger right now. She resents Fiona pretty much entirely now. She uses Fiona’s choices as bases for her own and when Fiona objects, Debbie shuts her down with her hypocrisy. It’d be a good trick if Debbie wasn’t a stupid kid making horrible decisions time and time again. Everything Debbie thinks she understands always blows up in her face because she knows nothing. I wanted to see Fiona really dig in and call her out, but she’s so out of the loop she really can’t. All it took for Debbie to believe her “kid with Derek” plan is a good idea was for him to say “I love you” back. It convinced her of this adult plan when she has no idea what she’s doing. If she is pregnant (which I think she is), it’s going to blindside Derek and she’s going to run crying back to Fiona. She’s got Derek pegged all wrong (she really needs to pay attention to all the times he shows he’s terrified of breaking his dad’s rules). This is going to be major next year.

Frank’s love story with Bianca comes to a close. A person he truly cared for and wanted to help. I’m not sure how he’s going to process this loss. He’s skipped on so many relationships before with little thought, but Bianca was a much different story to anything he’s been through. She was terminal reckless while he always skirts the edge. Her death is him being abandoned. I really liked Bianca, one of the most memorable characters and plot lines of the show. Frank returns home and he can’t talk to anyone about it. He’s really depressed and no one has any clue what he’s been doing for the past few weeks. The dichotomy of his interaction with his sons when he gets back (the screen grab at the top of this post) was really striking. He’s truly bummed out, expresses his feelings rather poetically to Ian and Lip. They laugh (and bond a bit) over Frank being frank with them, but have no context about what he was on about. To them it was just their dad reappearing after weeks of not giving a shit.

I really loved the end. More or less a reunion at the Gallagher home with a final shot of insanity. Having Sammi show up like the Terminator just as Ian and Mickey are breaking up was a stroke of genius. It was such a Shameless moment, perfect way to end it.

Everyone is looking for happiness and it looks like Kev and V’s reconciliation was the only silver lining. Fiona probably has no husband or boyfriend. Ian breaks up Mickey, Lip breaks a girls heart but has blossoming (?) cuckolding relationship to turn to. Frank has been crushed and Debbie may or man not be ruining her life (she will be ruining her relationship with Derek though). Actually, the one bright side is that Chuckie and Carl seem to be doing the most with their detention time.

With this, Shameless is completely primed for another great season. I can’t wait for next year.