Father Frank, Full of Grace

Spoilers ahead

I’ve had my ideas for how Shameless could end for a number of years now. I like getting closure, it feels good. That’s hard to do and with a cast as big as this one, not terribly reasonable. Plus, getting definitive answers doesn’t mean you’re going to like them. Shameless could go on for many more years since most of the cast are young adults. Their stories could be continued to be told for years to come until actors want to leave or some dramatic story element takes them off. The latter part has happened a lot in this series.

Shameless, while dramatized and exaggerated at every opportunity, stuck to the basic premise that life is never perfect and requires a lot of struggle and work to get where you are going. No one really knows where they’re going, but there is constant movement. There is no such thing as an easy out on this show and there are consequences to actions. The writers kept to that ethos to the final frame. The decision to end the show was made some time ago, but the Gallagher’s aren’t over. We’re given a look at what could be next for everyone.

Frank is found comatose on the couch with the needle still in his arm. He’s still breathing with a weak pulse but since he’s in such bad health and he clearly made the decision to OD, they decide to wait and see what his body does. This isn’t the first time he’s done this and he comes back every time. This is his MO. While Frank is knocked out, Frannie uses the note he left the family to color on. In a few hours, he wakes up alone and leaves the house. Liam, as usual, is the only one who looks for him.

Kev and V’s commercial real estate agent comes to The Alibi and Kev is still anxious about selling the bar. When a prospective buyer comes around, he has no intention of keeping the space as a bar. Most likely some kind of tanning salon/health store combo. This is the worst news possible for Kermit and Tommy, and Kev gets more apprehensive. V feels the pressure as well, essentially being part of erasing part of South Side’s history and culture. They get an offer lower than they want, estimating that they’d clear about 30 grand.

Deb spends some quality time with Heidi. The normal stuff for new couples, like sex and stealing a car. It’s the kind of life mix Deb is used to and is looking for; an exciting person that will be by her side no matter what. Deb is terrified of being alone and she thinks that Heidi will be committed to her. Doing shady stuff is in her DNA so stealing stuff doesn’t scare her off. But, she doesn’t really know Heidi.

Carl settles into his current law enforcement pocket by issuing tickets to people taking handicapped parking spaces illegally. He’s sticking it to the wealthy and making the city a small fortune, so he’s doing well. Tipping swings by for a visit and Carl, having met Heidi that morning, has Tipping look her up to see if she has a record. It looks like she’s been arrested for almost everything possible. He’s not surprised Deb has found another wildcard, but this one is way beyond the others.

Lip picks up a food delivery job to help make ends meet. He rides around town and sees how others are doing (one looks like a tech incubator). On one delivery he gets a horrible tip after seriously helping out a day trader. This doesn’t help his psyche and he runs into an old friend who is looking to buy the empty lot next to the Gallagher lot. He can only offer $75k, a far cry from the $200k Lip missed out on, but it’s something. Tami comes by and they talk, before she leaves she reaffirms her commitment to their relationship…and gives the knowledge that she might be pregnant again. Two kids with no money will be an even greater strain.

Ian and Mickey work towards moving out of the Gallagher house. Since it’s obvious they now need to get furniture, that’s their first priority. They take the mattress and dresser from their room, swing by a furniture store where Ian gets into a funny fight with a woman wearing a Stop the Steal t-shirt, and stop by Kev and V’s to get first dibs on what they are selling in their yard sale. Ian wants to take the old crib and that throws Mickey for a loop. They never talked about having kids. Mickey rattles off some logistical issues but it comes down to his fear of being a terrible father. He only has Terry to go off of and he was a living nightmare so it’s an understandable fear. Ian believes in Mickey though, he knows that Mickey would steer away from being his father.

This all leads to the final, pivotal scene at The Alibi where Mickey has arranged a surprise wedding anniversary party. Ian had no idea, thinking Mickey forgot.

A lot of celebrations have gone down at The Alibi. It’s been the public hub for the series from the start and with Kev and V leaving, it looks to be likely the last one. Certainly the last for all of these people to be together in one place.

Frank has been out walking around alone for the entire day. At first, I thought it was aimless wandering but he goes to Patsy’s Pies, the diner where Fiona first worked and then managed. It’s been shut down and boarded up and upon recognizing it, he looks shocked that it’s no longer open. He looks inside and we get a final glimpse of another major location of the series. It’s in terrible condition. I think Frank went there looking for Fiona, not remembering she moved away.

He then walks into a church, confused about where–and when–he is. He runs into the back thinking he’s back in his altar boy days and he gets dressed and looks for matches to light the candles before mass. The father in charge is kind to Frank, goes along with what Frank wants, and calls for an ambulance instead of the police. On the way to the hospital, the creeping suspicion that Frank, like Patsy’s Pies, is beyond repair cannot be ignored.

Since Frank’s liver transplant in season 4, I’ve thought that the series would end with Frank’s death. He is the nuclear reactor that everyone navigates around. I also thought he’d die away from any family members. With how he’s lived his entire life, it’s hard to predict anything else.

My biggest hope for this season was for Emmy Rossum to come back. Fiona was my favorite character and her appearing in at least one episode felt necessary to bookend the finale of the Gallagher story. She was the parent to her 5 siblings for most of their life and part of almost every major plotline. Due to covid protocols for traveling and the many disruptions to the final season’s shooting schedule., it became impossible for Emmy to come back. While I didn’t get my wish and that’s disappointing, she was shown in a meaningful and beautiful way.

In the ER, he’s getting a bunch of tests done to figure out what’s wrong with him. He doesn’t have an ID so no one knows who he is until one of the doctors recognizes him as their most frequent patient. Frank is in haze from his dementia and what turns out to be covid, taking him in and out of consciousness. When he wakes up, he thinks the nurse attending to him is Fiona. He compliments her, happy to have found his eldest. He blanks out again and sees Fiona at her best from his memories, happy and healthy. If I don’t get to see Fiona come back, seeing how much she meant to Frank is a gift I will gladly take and remember forever.

As he slips in and of consciousness, he thinks about all of his kids. What we’re shown is the kids in the early seasons of the show, what I perceive as Frank going back to when he was happiest. Monica was still alive, his kids much less opinionated; aka less of a pain in the ass and easier for him to get his way.

The Do Not Resuscitate tattoo does what Frank wants, no extra measures are taken to save his life. Frank dies without any family near him, the nurse whom he thinks is Fiona holding his hand as he passes. She turns off the monitors, lays his bed down flat and the hustle and bustle of a hospital ER with everyone covered in PPE continues without pause.

Frank ODed with no one home and left the house without seeing anyone. In a touching narrative, as Frank’s body gives out, his spirit goes to The Alibi where he sits on his stool at the bar and watches everyone he cares about celebrating Ian and Mickey’s anniversary. He’s in his element: drinks, a party, celebration. He even enjoys a drink…something he’s wanted since the last one he tried made him vomit. When he puts the glass down, it refills on its own and he smiles. The show ends as it started, with Frank’s narration giving a lecture on life while everyone has a good time around a burning car. No one may have read his farewell message but the audience is given that closure as Frank’s last words to us is what he wrote to his family. He gives his honest opinion of everyone, in the most Frank way possible.

In The Alibi we get to see everyone together for the last time and the possibilities of what could come are left on the table. With Kev and V’s uncertainty on selling the bar, Carl and Tipping come up with the idea of pooling their money to buy it. They’ll keep it as is, make it a cop bar to get more regulars. Kev and V may have struggled to always make a profit but this could work. I can’t see Carl ever leaving South Side so I think this is a perfect fit. I like where we got to see Carl go. He was a juvenile delinquent and he still has a lot of issues. But the writers didn’t take him down the obvious path of a criminal for life. He’s done time, he’s done a lot of shady stuff, and he’s clearly not the smartest one in the family. He makes mistakes all the time. But he does have a positive moral compass. He’s loyal to his family and he wants to make the world better. There’s hope and promise in his future.

While Carl knows how off the wall Heidi is, he doesn’t tell Deb. He thinks it’s best to let it play out and he’s probably right. Telling her to ditch Heidi may push her further into her. Deb is the biggest wildcard of the family. She, as Frank says, is most like her mother. She’s just as crazy as Carl but she goes through life with more of a romantic view of the world. Heidi invites her to run off out of state. Take Frannie along, you can find some work repairing stuff while I do some business with my friend. It’s a terrible idea because Deb doesn’t know the extent of how nuts Heidi is so the idea of being with her new girlfriend, being asked to go, kid and all, is something new to her. Heidi is legit into Deb so that’s really enticing. I can’t see her going as she’s so phobic to change, but if she does go I think she’d end up coming back pretty soon after Frannie’s life is put in danger. There is no way that wouldn’t happen. I can see Deb going from one dysfunctional relationship to the next for the rest of her life.

This was a reassuring episode for Tami. She commits to Lip whole heartily. He’s been in a bad place for a long time and she supports him through everything. She likes that he’s picked up a job hates to make ends meet because it means he’s trying. She knows it’s temporary and he’ll be able to move back into the career that makes him happy in time. They’ll make decisions together for their family. And if she is pregnant, they’ll make it work. Lip has grown up a lot too. The younger Lip would have done something really terrible to the day trader. The most likely immediate future for Lip is starting his own motorcycle shop.

Lip tells Ian about the potential sale of the house–for way less money. Ian puts his confidence in Lip making the right decision for them and Lip wonders why. “You’ve basically been our father,” Ian answers. That nearly killed me. It was so honest (and true) and it embarrassed Lip a little. Lip is the smartest one in the family, he’s the betting favorite for being the most successful of all of them. The tight bond between Lip and Ian goes all the way back to the start, when they were smoking cigarettes in the busted car in the backyard and Lip was the first person Ian told he’s gay. They’ll be close no matter what happens in the future.

Ian and Mickey share something special. It’s amazing that not only did Mickey remember their anniversary but he organized a surprise party for it. That’s probably the biggest change of a character in the entire series. It’s safe to say Ian will continue to shave off Mickey’s rough edges. The biggest being getting Mickey to be less aggro about everything. It’s hard to imagine them apart, lord knows Mickey would never be happy with anyone else. Still, the possibility of going back to prison, Mickey at least, is pretty high. With Lip’s hesitancy of having another kid, it’s not out of the realm for these two to take on a large role in a future Gallagher’s life.

Liam proves to be Frank’s final friend. He’s the only one worried about Frank when he goes missing. It isn’t because everyone else doesn’t care or love Frank, it’s that they are numbed by years of this cycle. He’s the youngest of the original 6 and has the fewest memories of all the times Frank has gone on a bender. He has no memory of Monica, he didn’t experience what she put them through. At the start of the show, it was Deb who would fret over Frank the most, her older siblings have become numb to it. It didn’t take much longer for her to join their frustration of helping someone who doesn’t want help. Lip talks to Liam about this and tells him they just have to wait for him to show up again. He always does. When Liam gets to the bar for the party, he’s disappointed that Frank’s not sitting on his favorite bar stool.

As Frank passes, Liam senses that Frank has done so. A calmness comes over him as he looks at the empty barstool and then looks up before joining everyone outside to enjoy the Tesla that’s caught fire. A wealthy schmuck watching his money go up in flames, it’s something Frank would have loved.

I can see Liam going far. I think if he lives with Tami in Lip that’ll give him the best environment to do well in school. As a young Black male, he knows he faces a different world than his family. While they have all struggled he’s going to have to push even harder to get equal footing. He wants to achieve more than he’s seen them do and I think he’ll be able to do it. I can see him being an entrepreneur right out of college.

So the show ends with possibilities, not closure. Three days after the finale has aired, I feel like that’s the best way to end the series. The Gallagher kids are moving on, just more independently from each other than they have before. More kids will be born (I can see Lip and Tami having 6!) and all of their lives will be wild and memorable. There are a lot of questions we can ask. How will they react to Frank’s death? Will Lip sell the house? Where will Deb go? Fiona hasn’t been mentioned since the start of season 10 so how she is doing and what she’s doing is completely up in the air. Fiona’s void in this ending is my biggest disappointment. If that’s the biggest one for 11 seasons and one due to a bat shit crazy pandemic, it’s not so bad. But, that’s life. There are no easy answers and nothing has a black or white solution. It’s up to you to fill in the blanks. You can pull a lot from what was and wasn’t said in the finale (like Frank leaving Fiona out of the note contrasted with how he remembers her). I am happy that they managed to give Frank one final funny gag fitting for his legacy.

I’m going to miss checking in on the Gallaghers 12 times every year. A void has been created. We watched half of the cast literally grow up. I’m attached to everyone, even Frank, a degenerate who caused more pain to those around him than anything else. I can’t even count how many people left South Side to get away from him. Still, I was wrecked by his death.

It’s the power of storytelling and the people creative and brave enough to make it.