Frank’s Northern Shuttle Express
Frank hits the ground (and the road) running with his new business. Smuggling illegals out of the US into Canada and then picking up pharmaceuticals for his neighbors before coming back home. It takes him a good two days to do the work but he succeeds and seems to like it. Frank’s always been a people person when he needs to be so the job fits him pretty well. And it’s illegal so that fits him too. It won’t be long until he’s caught. Nothing he likes lasts long.
Carl gets a taste of crazy from his new girlfriend when she scares off one of his NotUber customers. He’s never seen Entitled Spoiled Brat Crazy before so he has no clue how to handle her. She spins from positive to negative so fast (and to such extremes) that it’s bewildering to anyone (hence her father’s attitude when we first met him). I called her a problem from the start but I don’t think Carl is too clear on it just yet.
Deb is in a panic the whole episode about possibly being pregnant. She runs around trying to get her ducks in a row (since she’s now unemployed) and it’s a huge relief for her when she finds out she dodged a bullet. The stress she went through after the bender weekend should make her more careful. She’s one of the more responsible Gallagher’s at her age so she should learn from it.
Lip goes through his own internal reflection period as he looks for a new sponsor. Professor is going to jail for a long time and Brad is in the process of climbing out of his own hole. So the new sponsor he meets tells him things he doesn’t want to hear and bails. The next two are no help what so ever. When he goes to Planned Parenthood with Deb, he sees Sierra’s baby daddy there. He got another woman pregnant. This drives Lip up a wall but manages to not tell Sierra as Charlie swears he’s going to tell her soon. So all this is swirling around Lip’s head and comes to realize the sponsor was right. He’s co-dependant. He uses the drama of others to keep himself away from his own problems. Lip goes to see his new sponsor. Hopefully, she works as well as Brad did.
Ian turns his anger for Fiona on a much more important issue: gay conversion therapy. He and Trevor find out about a local pastor doing this “work” and go to see what this guy is doing first hand. Sitting in the back of the service, Ian starts to boil which kicks any thought about Fiona to the curb. He later confronts the pastor at another meeting and leads the parade of newly found at-risk youth out of the building where he and Trevor will help them live their lives. While the space for the new center is still being cleaned up and not ready to house anyone, it looks like Ian could become an LGBTQ activist from this. This new youth center could turn out to be something great and a new found focus for Ian.
With Ian off her back, Fiona is left to her own devices. Everyone keeps driving her crazy (Carl runs off with her car all the time, Deb hogging the bathroom, Frank running herds of people in and around the house) she bitches and moans to her two favorite tenants. Mel asks her if she’s ever lived on her own and Fiona realizes she hasn’t. It’s more complicated than that of course, being forced to raise her 5 siblings. So why not move out to the space that’s open in her own building? Fiona deflects saying she needs the money the apartment will bring in and Nessa scoffs at that idea. It puts the “I’m outta here” seed in Fiona’s head for sure. She goes on a day date with newfound hunk/carpenter, Ford. She takes his signals that he wants them to get together and he stops her advances, saying “She’s complicated.” She’s offended at the call and takes off and when she goes back home to tell her siblings what happened they basically agree with Ford. So she looks in on herself (a lot of reflection this week) and well yes, she is complicated. Her family is complicated. I think it’s safe to say that the seed of moving out is going to turn into a tree. Fiona also gets a bit of a personal boost. Ford is complicated too, he’s a surrogate father to 3, going on 5 kids. The latest being Mel and Nessa’s.
That leaves us with the thrupple. Kevin’s new found dominance in the bedroom comes out to the workplace. He puts his foot down on some os Svetlana’s decisions at the bar and that gets V all hot and bothered. While Svet mans the bar herself while Kev and V go for a quick shag in the back (that everyone can hear) it’s become obvious that Svetlana’s power is sliding away from her.