A Little Gallagher Goes A Long Way

Wow, did Liam take a turn.

In typical Shameless get in and bail out writing fashion, Liam’s plotline has come to a screeching halt. He suddenly comes to think that MaVar is lame and weird. His mentor is now a loser in his eyes so he doesn’t believe what he says and rejects him. He pulls a money scam at Great Auntie’s wake and when MaVar confronts him, Liam lets him know his world views. “They need the money they gave you.” “So do I.” When MaVar says stealing is wrong, Liam doesn’t care. In the time since they gave the Liam character a speaking part, we saw Liam with Frank a lot and everything Frank told him took root. He’s become a grifter, the worst part of the Gallagher name. MaVar recognizes the evil and gets mad, yelling that the Gallagher’s are awful and can’t be trusted. In a very telling line, Liam says, “There it is. You are from South Side.” MaVar is the nicest person from South Side Liam has ever met, he goes out of his way to help people. That’s foreign to Liam, he doesn’t know why you wouldn’t take advantage of someone given the opportunity. He equates his home with being a shady person. Unfortunately, we’re left with Liam saying he now knows “who I am.”

With Frank’s spawn mucking things up, Frank spends his time with Mikey. Last week I mentioned that you can’t trust any of Frank’s friends and I realize this week that Mikey might be the only friend Frank has ever had. Sure he’s scammed with other people, but no one trusts him and spends any more time with him than they have to. Mikey has really been there for him and Frank has grown to like Mikey a lot. With Mikey sick, Frank wants to cheer his friend up so they go on a scamming adventure, one that starts with them getting a free meal and ends with fun day picking up free swag at a marketing expo. By the end of the day, Mikey realizes he physically can’t keep this up anymore. His kidneys are failing, the port infected; he needs professional (re: human) medical attention. So Mikey tells Frank he’s getting off the ride. He’ll get arrested and go to prison so he can get medical care. “The best healthcare the country provides for us poor people.” Frank is heartbroken as he watches his only friend punch a cop.

Deb needs money so she hits the pavement for a new job while the welder’s union is on strike. She runs into a high school friend (I guess) who has four kids and tells Deb the only way to go is to get child support. Deb tells her she told Derek to take a hike because he wanted partial custody for child support (Deb has pride) and this girl is dumbfounded at the idea and tells her to basically go get paid, stupid. This brings Deb to Derek’s house where his wife answers the door and we find out that Derek is dead, he was killed serving overseas in the military. Deb is shocked and finds out from Carl that widow’s get a life insurance payout in such cases, so that means Deb is looking at a potential fat check in her (really, Frannie’s) name. She makes b-line to the local Army office and gets a series of shocks. First, Derek basically killed himself in a tank. Derek was never written as a smart character but they wrote him off as a blithering idiot (which Deb didn’t seem too surprised at). The worst part for her is that Frannie is not a beneficiary of the life insurance, only Derek’s current wife. Now Debbie has a clear mission: lawyer up and get paid.

Carl is doing pretty well. He spends more time with Anne and is at her house to witness a visit from ICE which he isn’ too keen on. With the heat on her house, he offers for them to crash at his house and the whole freaking family rolls up. The good news is that they clean up the house from the disaster Frank left behind with his house party. While having an impromptu party, Tami and Kelly stop by. It gets super weird for Carl as Kelly walks in as he’s dancing with Anne.

Carl is going to single parent AA meetings and he’s surrounded by more than a few interesting women. He’s the only man in the group and the level of thirst surrounding him is nearly overwhelming. He hits it off with the leader of the group and she’s a really smart woman. She’s got her stuff together and Tami getting out of the hospital will now dictate where that relationship goes. Tami seems very tired and wary but she holds Fred fine…after not recognizing him at first. This is going to be interesting.

V and Mimi are getting along swimmingly and V manages to give her meaningful work advice. Mimi is a pharmaceutical rep and she’s having a hard time making any headway with her black doctors. She’s Asian and cites racial bias as the problem. With V’s advice working so well and with her nursing background, Mimi wants her to take over her African American clients so she can cater to her Asian clients. It’s basically an above the board business deal that Anne, Carl, and Liam are doing. V has the potential to bring in some serious money. What are the odds that V flourishes and Kev becomes jealous of not being the main breadwinner?