Weirdo Gallagher Vortex

Frank really likes being a campaign manager. The man knows how to hustle and he’s really good at it when the idea is his own inspiration and it means getting money from other people. He’s out and about town with Mo White and just the two of them are managing to get some traction with the locals. Mo is friendly enough and “South Side Pride” is an effective slogan. And then Frank finds out that Mo is wearing an ankle monitor because of a minor he had a relationship with (she was 15 when they met and she lied about her age, they were together for 5 years). He’s in the final 6 months of wearing the bracelet but this is a mountain of a problem for anyone looking for work, let alone someone trying to get into politics. Frank soldiers on but Mo lets it slip at The Alibi so now the secret isn’t so secret anymore. Campaign Manager Frank’s job just got more difficult.

Deb has reached a crossroads. Fighting against the patriarchy, she’s become friends (and partners in crime) with Alex, a gay woman who’s a welder just like Deb. They have a lot in common, have a good time and they end up making out. This throws Deb’s sexual identity into question. She’s had some experience with women in the past but this is largely new territory for her as she’s now emotionally engaged in this budding relationship. She turns to Ian for advice. He doesn’t think she’s gay, or bi-sexual and he doesn’t offer her much help. When he tells her he’s as lost in life as she is, she  responds with “at least you know you’re gay.”

Ian’s at a loss with what he’s lost. “Shim” aka God, has stopped talking to him (or has Ian stopped listening?) since he got out of jail. He has no direction in life anymore and the first one he runs into about his problem is Frank. Always the sage, Frank tells him to stick to the classics: Buddism, Jewdism, and Christianity. Ian seeks out representation for each one and doesn’t get any answers.

Carl isn’t looking for answers, he’s looking for results. He pops into The Alibi and fills V in on the community service he’s doing to try and get into West Point. The big hurdle is that their congressman’s office blew him off for a recommendation. Then V hears his name and realized that the congressman was a client of hers in her dominatrix days. Carl guilts her into helping him and she busts out the leather gear and pays a visit to her old friend’s office. Carl gets the recommendation.

Lip has another crisis with Xan. While he is her guardian, legally he has no power. Xan breaks her arm at school and that puts Lip’s relationship with her under the microscope. He does his best not to totally lie, telling the staff that he’s not her parent or legal guardian…but her brother. They can only release her to a parent or guardian and there are insurance issues that need to be addressed. Lip can’t do anything about any of this. He’s just trying to take care of Xan until her mother comes back (more like, maybe, hopefully, shows up out of nowhere). He tries to get Brad to say he’s Xan’s father and he shoots that down immediately. He has no desire to get pulled into the weirdo Gallagher vortex. This one is a powerful vortex as it has to do with a minor. Brad keeps telling Lip to back away from this whole thing. Xan isn’t his responsibility and if she needs major help, like she does now, he can’t really help her. The staff sees Brad leave in a huff and asks Lip if he was Xan’s father. He says yes and that move raises too many red flags for them. They call DCF, which Lip has been trying to avoid this whole time, so he panics. After creating a diversion, he scoops Xan up and runs out of the hospital with her. This is probably going to make Lip a wanted man. I’m not sure what the consequences of this are legally, but Lip needs none of it.

Fiona is in a good mood, having invested in an empty lot of land that is going to be developed into a senior living facility. With 100k invested in the LLC with the guy that Ford doesn’t like (she’s looking at a 30% return pretty quickly) Fiona feels like she’s got a lot to look forward to. Ford doesn’t think so. He doesn’t like that guy so much he not so subtly throws shade every time they talk about it. Ford doesn’t trust him at all and that makes Fiona feel like Ford doesn’t trust her in both a romantic and professional sense. This has brought up a lot of insecurities in Ford and Fiona doesn’t know what to make of it. Ford’s essential problem is that he’s jealous. When the conversation of what their relationship is comes around, it throws Fiona off more. She’s happy with how their seeing each other and is more occupied with the career side of her life so she doesn’t know where this is coming from. She goes to V for advice who tells her, if you leave your relationship– your intentions–with Ford up in the air, it leaves too many questions open.  That causes problems. Communicate people! It’s important for healthy relationships.

Liam is in public school for the first time and the environment is less than ideal. Low standards would probably be the best word for it. He’s far and away the most advanced student in his class and now he’s got a bully breathing down his neck. Liam is quick to adapt though. There’s a monster of a boy in his class and after letting the kid cheat off his quiz once, Liam gets the idea that he’s found his protection. Looks like it’ll work.

Finally, Kevin stumbles across an article about the worst bars in the city and The Alibi is ranked as the most “rapey.” He takes offense to this and then looks around the bar and seemingly for the first time, notices the not so subtle objectification of women motif that’s plastered on every wall. Frank isn’t the only one with a mission now as Kevin works to clean up the bar, and their patrons, image. By far the funniest aspect of this week’s episode.

Mo White!

It’s Oldest Sister and Youngest Brother Day on Shameless! Due to Frank’s sexual escapades with the PTA, the parents have turned on him. That means Liam is punished for Frank’s actions. He’s kicked out of the private school with a few weeks left of the school year and he doesn’t know what to do. Fiona has decided not to bail Ian out of jail so she has a $50k hole burning in her pocket. She wants to invest it and starts looking at commercial real estate. While she dabbled in that sector with the laundromat, she’s stepping into a much bigger pool. Ford tells her to watch out when dealing with a certain guy he’s worked with before but Fiona is all about getting her real estate hustle on. With Liam sitting around the house kicked out of school, Fiona takes him with her. Liam is a really bright kid and has picked up on a lot of rich people lingo while at school. With Liam and Fiona teaming up, they outplay the fancy real estate agent and it looks like Fiona has found herself on the first rung of a very long and lucrative ladder.

Frank, meanwhile, is on to his next hustle. He’s strapped for cash again and finds himself running around town picking up campaign signs around the neighborhood. $5 a sign from the opposition is quick and easy money. This puts Frank onto the political tracks and when he gets rebuffed for wanting to pick up more signs, he spins it into his own crusade. It looks like political representation is starting to look less like him now (diversity! ack!) and he wants to do something about it. At the Alibi, he whips the local clientele into fundraising their out of nowhere champion, Mo White. This is going to get interesting.

Debbie is also out and about beating her own political drum. With the reality of her being paid less than her co-workers simply because she’s a woman, she does more research and she’s all fired up about it.

Carl is now back home and for some no good reason, it looks like whatever happened to Kassidi is going to be ignored. Carl shows no sign that anything happened and she doesn’t appear in this episode at all (not the first time Shameless has done something and quickly don’t-think-about-it-and-move-on). Carl still has his sights on getting to West Point and needs high ranking recommendations for his application. He also needs community service to bump his character quality up. With no real job experience he gets placed with a guy who euthanizes dogs on the cheap. Wary of the whole ordeal, he goes along with it until it’s go time. One of the dogs is a service animal and Carl draws the line, he wants these old dogs to go out on their own terms, when they are ready to pass on their own.

While Lip has been watching over Xan for awhile, things have been going well. That is until this week when she’s baby sitting Kev and V’s twins. She steals a woman’s wallet at the park and ditches the twins. A real crisis, Lip has to make things right and meets a kid at AA who is not doing well. When the kid asks Lip to be his sponsor, Lip shys away from the request, which Brad thinks is dumb. With some words of encouragement from Brad, Lip becomes a sponsor.

Ian gets out of jail! Not because of Fiona, but his Gay Jesus following. They crowd funded the bail money as soon after getting out, Ian sees that his following has been active without him. Gay Jesus has grown without him and now that he’s “back” all of these events and appearances have been made for him. Ian is in not a good mental place. It’s hard to tell where he is and he certainly doesn’t know. Getting pushed back into the spotlight freaks him out and Ian runs for it. Of all the plot lines, this one is my least favorite and I have no idea where they can go with this. Is Ian going back to the street? Will the family have to rescue him again? Odds are, since he ran he won’t be found for awhile and he’ll miss all the obligations he has to do to keep himself out of jail.

Last but not least, Kev and V look for a pre-school for the girls. And gad zooks is it expensive! After being priced out of one place they find one that looks more like a dog kennel. They run out of there and find another location that’s run by nuns. It looks great, the price is right, and they go, hey, this is a Jesus Rules family! Then the bad news: there’s only one spot available. With no other choice, Kev and V begin coaching their kids how to appear as one person at school. That makes sense it it will absolutely work!

Are you there Shim? It’s Me, Ian.

The Gallaghers are back! Time to catch up with the fam.

Ian is in jail after the last stunt we watched him pull at the end of last season. He’s doing…well? He’s brought his crusade into the prison, standing up for the vulnerable against the predators. Ian has made himself the leader of those being abused and taken advantage of, causing a sex strike. Given the situation, Ian is making a positive difference and he seems to be enjoying the roll. So much so that he’s dismissive of  Fiona when she visits and tells him she’s close to getting the 50k for his bail. Ian is acting “off” leading to the obvious question of if he’s on his meds. He waves it away again and the rest of the family (and her boyfriend Ford) is wary of bailing Ian out. More than just bailing him out, they’re concern that Ian is going to flake on his obligations and leave Fiona out to dry. Fiona is pretty gung ho about it, with the mentallity that Gallaghers stick together. Ian is in trouble and he has no one else to rely on. It’s an interesting twist as the kids, who really aren’t kids anymore, aside from Liam, are throwing red flags up. They are all working for a living now and they are not behind what could very well be throwing 50k out the window on someone who currently can’t be relied upon. Fiona is in a bit of a moral quandry. Getting the hesitation from Ford  was one thing, getting it from all of her siblings makes her worry.

Frank has been busy using his manley capabilties on the female population of the PTA and his rather lengthy and unsafe sex practices come to roost in the community. Good on Frank for his ability to spin a situation in his favor. Mostly. Liam continues to buck what Frank tries to teach him and does his best to be honest.

Lip is keeping things going on his end. Still sober and with a new short hair cut, he’s watching over Xan while her mother is who knows where. Brad has put himself together and has asked Lip to be his best man at his wedding. There, Lip meets the maid of honor and it is now pretty obvious he has met his new hard to get obsession.

Deb is cracking along at work, welding everything she can get her hands on (with her new steel toe protectors firmly strapped to her boots) when she finds out that she’s getting paid $3 less than the men. Deb swings into action to make her point and lands herself equal pay.

Carl is flexing his stuff at bootcamp. He’s well into the positon of bossing his cadets around and one of them is…below par. A strike against Carl getting a major promotion. The other strike is his wife Kassidi, who has posted herself right outside the gate, professing her love for Carl to whomever walks near her. When the Disappointing Cadet hears Carl complain about Kassidi, he gets an idea. Just before the end of the episode the guy tells Carl “No one will find the body.” Cue panic.

Finally, Kev and V are on their own with Svet gone. Their twins are going buckwild and the bar is just managing to stay afloat. Struggling to wear out the kids and getting quality time for themselves it finally dawns on them: Pre-school!

It’s great to be back with the Gallaghers. Everyone is doing their own thing and the stages have been set for their own drama. Carl’s is the most serious and Lip’s is the most obvious of what will probably happen. I think the most interesting will be Fiona’s major decision about Ian as this signals a possible major change in the family ethos.