Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good… Eh, Screw It 

This marks the halfway point in the season and two major events came to pass which will likely steer the end of the show.

Liam is in a personal crisis for accidentally shooting Terry Milkovich and goes around asking for advice. When he comes around to Carl, and admits to what he did, Carl doesn’t care. He says no one else will either because Terry is a POS. The police didn’t do anything to look into the “drive by” so he just needs to keep quiet and get rid of the gun (that Carl gave him). Terry isn’t in the hospital for long and is sent home in a wheel chair, unable to do anything by himself. It’s a big change for one of the biggest monsters in the neighborhood. Liam is still racked with guilt.

Deb’s story stays firmly about her relationship with Sandy. As Sandy is the only high functioning adult in the Milkovich family, she’s dealing with Terry’s situation so she doesn’t respond at all to Deb’s questions about what’s going on between them. Deb finds a new girl (maybe) but Sandy ends up talking to her at the end about when and why she got married and that seems to make some kind of progress in their relationship. With no answers from Sandy, Deb was quick to quit her, but her emotional attachment isn’t gone so she’s open to making amends.

Lip is in the financial crunch of his life. Fencing the motorcycles and the parts he stole with Brad turns out to be harder than he thought. The two decided to rob the garage at the drop of that hat so nothing was planned out now Lip is now paying for it. He has to give up a lot of profit to others to keep the theft a secret because he has no place to store the bikes. It’s not long before Tami finds out and she’s pissed. When he explains why he did it (I understand it) Tami asks what they are going to do about their future. He refuses to move into her parent’s place but their back is to the wall with very little money coming in and time is running out until they are kicked out of their home. He comes up with an idea. What if they go with the gentrification? Sell the Gallagher home, split the money with the family and they all…move on?

Carl is eager to spend his paychecks now and starts to move into the basement. While shopping, he meets a girl and they end up hooking up but it goes in a direction he didn’t want. She doesn’t want to use a condom, she rushes him into it and doesn’t move off him when he finishes. Deb says that’s rape and Carl isn’t sure. He ends up reporting it though.

Ian and Mickey work their rounds with their protection gig as Mickey works through his feelings of his dad being all but killed. They’ve warred for years (that’s putting it nicely) and Mickey has little more than spite towards Terry. Seeing him as an invalid gives him mixed feelings. He’s hated his dad for so long that the idea of pity, remorse, empathy is foreign to him. Ian feels bad for Terry right away and he tries to guide his husband through what he’s feeling as best as he can. Feelings and Mickey don’t go well together.

Kev keeps up his hustle keeping The Alibi going and V goes to school with their twins as class parent. She sits in with her kids and it’s an eye opening experience. At first there’s some sad humor (counting the amount of books in the classroom and coming up with a total of 4) and then the school shooter drill shocks V into getting something done. The principle basically dismisses her concerns so V has to work from the outside in.

And now Frank. He goes about his day first starting with watching his kids argue and enjoying it. Then he gives some Frank advice to Liam and goes to pick up some product at the laundromat. The owner says they are square, Frank didn’t put an order in, and after he questions his memory for all of 5 seconds he’s convinced she’s scamming him. He gets punched in the face and knocked out. He comes to at the hospital and the doctor who is stitching him up asks him questions. Seeing some memory lapses, she holds on to him for some more tests.

I think this is the best episode of the season so far. Everyone is involved and there is a lot of interaction with each other. For example, Deb is helping Ian and Mickey convert the ambulance they stole into an armored vehicle for the protection gig for a discount…and they have to listen to her rant about Sandy (and Mickey talking about his family is always funny). Ian and Mickey also help Lip with the merchandise he stole (for an additional cut, Mickey helped them steal it all). Kev also gets involved with hiding the merchandise (for a cut).

The environment is affecting everyone and their lives are now constantly crossing paths. Yeah, they want to help each other but that help isn’t always for free. Money is a huge issue for everyone (it always is in this community but it’s at it’s worst because of Covid) so they are all looking out for their own best interests. They are supporting each other.

Along those lines, Ian sticks close to Mickey as he navigates the new circumstance with Terry and Mickey ends up helping his father up the stairs (which Ian also helps with). Mickey’s action doesn’t happen out of the blue either, it’s a natural progression through a few conversations the two have. Mickey and Ian’s relationship has been a fan favorite since it started ages ago and seeing them go through something like this is a rewarding experience.

One of my favorite scenes is the one with Frank and Terry. Frank comes home for the day and sees Terry left on the front stoop of his house. The two go back decades, heads of the generations long Milkovich and Gallagher rivalry. Terry more or less just listens to Frank lament about their past but it’s a fantastic taste of the history of the show. It’s classic Shameless material as Terry wishes he’s dead, Frank considers helping him out and deciding that no, that’s the cowards way out. Plus, as ancient rivals, Frank doesn’t like Terry enough to “help” him end his life.

With Kev and V, we’ve been getting the business and political side of the world. With V’s canvassing work, we’ve seen how far the gentrification of the South Side has come. Kev has exploited the yuppies with his gym and that’s who they sell most of their cannabis to. Now with the school shooting drill, V is going to try and get her political contacts involved. V is doing everything she can to keep her and her people in their homes and make it safer for them as well. I like how her story arc is coming together, it wasn’t an idea to get her onto the PTA or something. This could have major consequences for South Side and the Ball’s future.

Lip bringing the idea of selling the family home to his siblings is massive. It shows how much is changing. It shows the other side of what V is doing. She’s holding on and he’s ready to let go. That conflict is now in the Gallagher home. When Lip drops the bomb on everyone, Frank is in the background and all he does is listen (much like he did when he watched his kids argue at the top of the episode). He doesn’t butt in like he usually does when something alarming happens that directly affects him. He watches to see if he needs to intervene. The room is dead quiet after Lip brings it up. It’s a pregnant pause and I held my breath through it.

Deb drops the hammer first saying it’s a crazy idea to sell the Gallagher home. Frank smiles and leaves to sit on the front stoop. As the kids argue, we find out what the hospital tests results were for Frank. When he opens the paper it isn’t clear if he’s looking at it for the first time or he forgot what it said. He freaks out when he reads that he has early stage alcoholic dementia. Bomb #2.

This puts the Gallagher’s in the Milkovich’s shoes. Minutes ago Frank felt he had outlasted Terry for the win. The patriarchs of each family are now in terrible health and will be sidelined until they die. Frank’s life time of drug abuse now has now given him something he can’t dodge. He almost died of kidney failure years ago but he Franked his way through that. He’s going to need extensive care and how will that be done?

They’ll never have the money to get outside help. Will the Gallagher family be physically broken up by selling the only home they’ve known? Would they (or some of them) stay together for Frank? Will Frank tell them to sway keeping the house and therefore someone to help him? How long will he be able to keep hiding his mental degradation? I think Kevin is the only one who has noticed anything with him so far.

When Lip told Tami of the idea of selling the family home, I saw that as a clear path to end the show. The Gallagher unit would be broken up as we the audience left them. The Gallagher siblings would be seeing each other less as their lives progressed to being more separate adults. We got to see the start of the drastic family dynamic change with Mickey and Terry. Now we’ll see how the Gallagher’s go through this with Frank. It’s complicated.

Slaughter

It’s been a few weeks but we’re back at it!

Mickey and Ian start their cannabis protection gig and since the word is already out that Kev and V are selling and transporting money (thanks Kev) it doesn’t take long for the two to get spotted and robbed. Thankfully, or not, one of the guys that robs them is Mickey’s cousin. He only takes a thousand dollars. This is a pretty funny scene with Mickey and Ian arguing about having only an airsoft gun and leads to a change in strategy: they need a different car. Ian gets the good/bad idea of stealing an ambulance and modifying it to keep them from being caught with a stolen car. It is a good incognito transport vehicle with the problem of a dead man in the back. Cue creative way to get rid of a body in Shameless fashion.

Lip and Tami have put a lot into their house. They’re renting the place from Lip’s friend (who doesn’t own the property) and when the owner finds out about all the upgrades, it’s put on the market. Lip doesn’t have a lease signed, so they are legally screwed. They explore their options and quickly find out that the gentrification of the neighborhood is moving way faster than they realized. Their house is going to sell for over $300,000. They find a murder house for cheap and decide to go for it (or be homeless). Then another shoe drops.

Shameless has always been about economic struggle and this season is highlighting it in new ways. COVID has up-ended everything and put oppressive pressure on economics where the poor are getting crushed further down while the wealthy make out fine and dandy. Where some can’t find a job because businesses are closing, others are buying out small businesses and cutting hours. This happens to Lip at the shop. He reacts violently to his arrogant new bosses and is now out of a job. Now his family is looking at a greater chance of being homeless. It’s a depressing time and that is not good for a recovering addict, it’s going to be a struggle for Lip to keep his head above water.

V goes out to canvas to get out the vote to support rent control that’s on the next ballot and she runs into the gentrification head first too. The South Side residents she’s known are all disappearing. There’s going to be no support for rent control and that’s going to accelerate people getting pushed out of their homes.

Deb tracks Sandy around town and has a lot of questions. Sandy is very secretive and when Deb realizes she doesn’t know anything about her (not even where she lives) she comes at her hard when she thinks she’s working at a gnarly strip club. Turns out Sandy is doing gig jobs (like GrubHub) to make money (a sure sign of a healthy economy!) and sleeping in her car when she’s not with Deb. Deb assumed a lot and it’s as awkward as can be. This was long overdue as Deb hasn’t been sure what kind of relationship they are in. They need to work on their communication skills.

Speaking of skills, Carl uses his again this week. Leesie leans on the locals like a freight train again, much to Carl’s dismay. The kid she “scares straight” pops up again quickly and Leesie ends up hurting herself going Rambo and Carl does some actual work. Instead of intimidating the boy, Carl talks to him like a peer. He knows the escape route the kid is taking and cuts him off. He gains the boy’s trust by showing that he’s actually just like him. He’s grown up doing the same things and knows the same people. Carl offers him other places to go (just like he did with the woman selling loosies last episode) to try and keep him useful and out of trouble. Carl is, whether he knows it or not right now, building a network of eyes and ears on the street for himself. It’s great to see and is a promising look into his future after the show is done and we are no longer following him.

The war with the Milkovich infestation is still strong with no end in sight. Kev and Frank try to reason with them but that goes exactly no where in scary ways. Liam gets scared half to death and rightfully fears for his life so Frank is convinced they have to do something drastic to force them out. His first idea is to get them out of the house so he can unplug Mrs. McCurdy’s life support. She owns the house so if she’s gone, the Milkovich’s will be tossed out. So Frank makes some flyers about an al-right rally happening nearby and that works (and Frank gets his own look at who’s working in his community). Mrs McCurdy is a tough cookie, Frank retreats to come up with something else and a whole lotta people show up at the rally Frank made up.

The final scene is high up on the wild and crazy Shameless scale that will have major consequences. Anything could happen from here. This episode is one of major shifts, the environment around everyone is changing.