You Sold Me the Laundromat, Remember?

It’s a 50/50 split on how everyone made out this week. I’ll start with the best and we’ll dive down to the worst.

Right now, Ian is the most stable. Job is going well as is his relationship with Trevor. He helps out Lip and holds down the fort from Frank.

Frank is still riding high from getting Liam into school and figures that’s enough good will to get back in with his real family. Ian pushes him back, but Frank persists and manages to fix some things in the house. He rips off his new family one more time and gets chased down the street for it. He does show up to help Fiona too. He’s still a con man but this is the absolute best you can expect out of Frank (he’s now got his eye on Etta).

With Fiona, we enter the struggle zone. She finds more and more things to fix at the laundromat and Etta is blowing her money on toys. Fiona is tangled up in a mess. In order to curb dementia Etta’s spending spree, she takes her credit cards (not sure if she cut them up). She definitely committed fraud ordering floor and ceiling tiles, though. She might get away with that one, we’ll see how deep Frank gets in with Etta. She gets more blowback from know it all Lip about the laundromat but she gets a much needed visit from Kevin.

And here the two come together. There’s been very little talk between the two since V and Fiona have been fighting and Kevin needs advice. They talk while he helps her around the shop. He lays out how he’s feeling. Svet basically does whatever she wants. She’s secretive about everything, she lies all the time and his role in any decision is nonexistent. He feels marginalized and even a heart to heart with Svet does nothing to sway his fears. If anything, it makes them worse. He feels Svet is taking V from him (and Svet even acknowledges that her relationship with Kevin is now nothing more than lust).

So that puts Fiona in a spot of conflict of interest. She lays it out for him saying she never trusted Svet because she’s a con woman and she can’t get back in because Svet has helped push V away from her. This confirms Kevin’s feelings. After a fight with Deb, the laundromat roof caves in and Fiona cracks under the pressure, Kevin goes to the bar to rally some help. Once there he puts his foot down when Svet and V move together to bully him again. It makes a mark on V right away and is what I think the beginning of the end for Svet…or it pushes V farther to Svet and starts their separation (iirc, Kev and V aren’t legally married. V could take the kids).

Lip has been on the upswing but his Frank genes send him crashing and burning. He puts himself out there to get a pardon from the university. Ian and his old professor speak on his behalf and it seems to go well. When he’s denied, he goes on a bender. Drunk at work, he’s super surly and when Sierra’s deadbeat boyfriend comes knocking again, Lip jumps him. He’s inconsolable and even lashes out at Ian. He later goes to apologize to Sierra but again, he’s crossed a line. Lip is devastated.

The hardest story to watch this week was Deb. She didn’t see the coup coming from Didi and her mother. Deb went to Derek’s family with good intentions, to get them on her side to get Child Services off her back and they went in the complete opposite direction. Each step you could see them exchange glances and Deb didn’t really pick up on it. Concerned with Frankie’s well-being, they straight up kidnap her. Deb goes understandably nuts and Didi stands there filming her. This could go either way. The until now absentee family who had no concerns about the baby until now, could build a case. Kidnapping has got to be a big no-no at least. I see Deb getting Frankie back for now but she’s going to be a facing a long court fight. If anything, this is an event for all the Gallagher’s to rally behind one of their own.