I’ve been a fan of Broad City from the start of the TV show and last week the series came to a close. Five seasons of Abbi and Ilana lead to a smart conclusion: growing up.

I can’t tell you how many times Broad City put me into hysterics. Saying this show is “so funny” is the fast and lazy way of summing it up but it’s true. It’s like Workaholics with brains. Abbi and Ilana are absurd, gross, real, and sincere. The most important traits best friends can have.

You can tell that Abbi and Ilana are friends in real life. They have a chemistry that can’t be faked and with how crazy they go with these characters that’s a must. They trust each other to make it all work and it usually does.

Abbi plays it straight and wary, the vessel for most of the audience. Ilana is chaos, the grab the world by the bridles and ride it until there is nothing left free spirit. Ilana has no desire to find out what being an adult is all about. Through the show, they navigate their early 20s basically joined at the hip. They balance each other out, Abbi leaning on Ilana to be her guide to getting out of her shell and Ilana relies on Abbi to keep her from going truly overboard. For a while they ride the waves that New York City sends their way and never look more than a few days into the future. Maybe as far as the next time rent is due.

Then things change. Not with themselves, at first, but those around them. Starting last season, Ilana breaks up with her long time boyfriend, Lincoln. That’s the first major wave that knocks Ilana off her surf board that I can remember. A major life disruption that she wasn’t prepared for. Then this season there was a try for reconsilition that’s quickly followed by the crushing reality that they aren’t compatible anymore. Lincoln wants to leave the city, start his own dental practice, and put down roots. He’s ready to start a family. Ilana is younger, with no desire of having kids now. They have truly grown apart and have to move on without each other, something that Ilana reluctantly accepts.

Abbi has a reality check not long after Ilana does, right when she turns 30. She gets into a relationship with a woman for the first time and she comes to realize that she’s been treading water for years. Her girlfriend is older and it becomes obvious that they live in two different worlds, maturity wise (trying to show off on social media can be dangerous and enlighting, folks). Living paycheck to paycheck doing small jobs she hates, a slew of comically bad relationships, and getting high with Ilana all the time is starting to get old. It’s only fitting that Abbi and Ilana, while high together, realize they are co-dependent.

I know this all doesn’t sound like a comedy but it’s the years-long experiences of these characters–that often end up in embarrassing situations–that is the heart of the show. Abbi and Ilana have a blast together, through the best and worst of times, and they depend on each other’s reliable behavior to keep trucking on. So when Ilana applies to school to get into psychiatry, it’s huge. It’s Ilana making moves on her own (and her finding this path by doing that “session” with Jaime in her apartment is one for the ages). She instinctively wants to stay in NYC so when Abbi applies for art school in Colorado, that’s another mountain they have to navigate together. It’s also the most important challenge of their young lives.

I love the series finale. It has all the components that make the show great and I think it’s completely satisfying. A lot of thought went into it as the last season gives every major character a send off (my favorite is what they came up with for Bevers).

I’m a big fan of stories that end not by cutting things off like a dead limb, but by showing that this world does continue. It’s just that the cameras are being shut off and we are all moving forward.

Found

The end of season nine brings us the first main cast member of the show to leave. Fiona Gallagher, one of my favorite and one of the most important characters has moved out. From the pilot episode, Emmy Rossum has brought the keystone of the Gallagher family to life and she’s going to be missed.

A lot came together on the season finale so let’s start from the top.

Deb moves front and center as the matriarch of the family. With Frank parked on the couch for the next few months recovering from the broken leg, he’s now a full-time burden. Fiona offers to kick off the solution making and Deb says she’ll handle it. A schedule is made to rotate his care and everyone helps except for Liam who is still missing in action. Good timing on him but it makes Deb go looking for him which finally reveals to the family that he’s moved out. Except, he told everyone days ago but no one was paying attention to him.

Now that Liam knows what a functioning home is like, he sees no reason to go back with Deb. He does hand her a list of demands to get him back and a bewildered Deb leaves him be for now. This is two circumstances where Deb took over for what Fiona normally does: organizing care for the family and going to get family from their life in crisis walkabouts.

Deb also bonds with Carl over Kelly the “Heart Beaker.” It’s been a while since these siblings have run together and during this close time she finds out about how bad Carl is feeling. As far as she knew, he was only upset about Kelly. In a heartbreaking scene she finds out that he was also rejected from West Point and he’s going to drop out of military school and work full time at the fast food place to begin working towards store manager. He’s given up and resigned to work long hours next to a fryer. With Liam out and Carl in pieces in front of her she realizes she’s got a lot of repairing to do, something she’s watched Fiona do her whole life.

She takes the high road when she meets Kelly again, telling Kelly that Carl has given up because he now has nothing to work for. Deb was wrong for what she did and what Deb wants isn’t what matters here, it’s her brother. Kelly and Carl had the relationship that was important. When Kelly finds out that Carl is dropping out of school, she marches to Carl at work and pulls him out by his ears. Even Carl’s boss is impressed. It’s a reunion that’s fit for Shameless.

That leaves us with Fiona. She watches Deb steer the ship with a sense of surprise and awe. The groundwork for this started around 2 years ago when Fiona went into real estate and moved out. They were all adults and had to fix their own problems and pay their own way. It was the start of Fiona looking out for herself, she was done with being The Fixer. But then Fiona crash landed back into the Gallagher homestead and she found herself back at the start.

Max wasn’t kidding though, getting her that $100,000 payout in just a few days. A way out was delivered into her hands and the growing sense that she had to take advantage of it couldn’t be ignored. Frank is back sucking the life out of everyone. Deb wants to take over Fiona’s bigger bedroom for her and Franny. Watching Deb handle Frank meant that Deb could take control of anything. Her reasons to stay kept getting smaller. Fiona even gets away with punching the neighbor with a $2,500 fine. Her lawyer tells her to drop the nonsense, grow up and move on with her life. Looking for another push, Fiona goes to visit Ian and jail and he agrees with the lawyer. Fiona is surprised by his answer and he calls it then and there: You are looking for someone to tell you “no.” To pick the easy way for you on a decision that is scary. You have no reason to stay stuck in the mud.

So Fiona does it. She’s caught by Deb packing her bags and Deb runs to get Lip who understands what she’s doing right away. He doesn’t try to change her mind and insists on having a going away party for her and everyone runs out to get everything together. With all of the reasons for her to stay put out of the house, she makes final preparations to leave. If she doesn’t go now, she doesn’t think she ever will.

And then the scene. Frank is on the couch and they have a final confrontation. While he may praise her to others about raising the family herself while he and Monica were slowly killing themselves, he can barely say it to her. With his feebled body on the couch, he doesn’t even initiate the goodbye and his response is curt and shitty.

“You did a good job. Monica wasn’t up to it, you stepped in and helped. Thanks.”

“Helped? I did it all, Frank.”

“Well, if that helps you sleep better…”

“…See ya around Frank.”

“I doubt it.”

Fiona doesn’t try to fight the ego. Why bother shouting to a brick wall? Frank is Frank and that’s always the reason why people want to get away from him. He’s obviously upset she’s leaving, one in a list of many who have done so, but he can’t outwardly admit that. Life goes on and Fiona gets on a train to parts unknown to start her own. Not without a final gift to her family: $50,000.

Emmy leaving creates a big hole in the show. She’s been the nucleus for nine years and it’s going to be weird without her. This changes the family dynamic with the most reliable sibling being taken out of the picture entirely. So what characters step up? Will Deb simply take over Fiona’s standing? Ian is coming back next season, will they add any more new main characters? Bring Kev and V more? While this is sad, at least Fiona isn’t dead. This is the chance to do more with other characters and I hope they don’t leave Fiona as an after thought as is the norm for the show. It’d be nice for her to be mentioned her here and there so we know where she is. This feels like a momentous season that had some good peaks, I hope the writers can keep the momentum going.

Lost

Liam exists! And everyone is miserable!

So it turns out the writers directly address one of my biggest WTFs about the show and that is, where is Liam? Turns out that his entire family hasn’t noticed he’s been gone for two days, Fiona looking for him one morning and asking everyone where he is. Liam’s been with his friend/bodyguard at his grandmother’s house. While everyone is slogging through the swamp Liam has been kicking back watching TV and eating awesome food. When Liam’s friend asks him why he doesn’t answer his phone, he responds, why should I? They didn’t realize I was gone for two days. Can’t say I blame him.

So back to the misery pit. The Kelly situation comes to it’s natural peak just like I thought it would. Carl is distraught over Kelly breaking up with him and Deb is smug about it. With the break up done she now thinks she has her foot in the perverbial lesbian door. While sulking at work, a guy comes in to rob the store. Thinking the gun is fake, Carl tells him to bugger off and the gun goes off, just missing him. Not a good time to mess with Carl. He jumps the counter and beats the dude with the fryer basket. While Carl fends for his life, Deb sneaks a smooch on Kelly and she does not get the response she was hoping for. Kelly heads for the door (she goes as for as to apoligizing to Deb for leading her on) as fast as she can. Kelly and Deb now know Carl was right and at the end of the episode, Carl and Deb bond over “Kelly the bitch.”

While Fiona took the “stay off the streets” route last week by going to a meeting, Frank stuck to his stride and true self and crashed in Fiona’s old apartment building again. Not a smart move as Frank wakes up to a wrecking ball coming through the wall. He barely makes it out but breaks his leg. He waves off any help and limps home, collapsing in front of the Gallagher home. The kids get him into the house and it’s revealed why he said no to the help, he had all sorts of drugs on him. He manages to finish his drug deal in time to get taken to the hospital where Fiona sticks with him as long as she can before meeting a lawyer about her assault case.

The interesting thing here is the divergent path of the two Gallaghers. Fiona is on the first step back to sobriety. She knows she can’t stay in the pit she’s been in for the last few months…she ended up right next to Frank and she knows where those choices go. She’s going to her obligations. On time with her lawyer her gives her advice that could mean she avoids jail time. She’s already going to meetings and she’s looking for a job. Through the entire episode we watch her make progress. She’s not “cured” of course, she’s still in the pits but she’s looking for the light in the darkness to find a way out. Much like Deb and Carl’s heart to heart, Fiona has one with Lip about how she feels like she can never get ahead. And at the meetings she doesn’t think she can call herself an addict, but she knows it’s in her family and she’s been dealing with her losses with alchohol. Frank is the opposite. He rides that addiction train through another gauntlet. Through the hospital system for the umpteenth time, he’s barely tolerated and he’s literally left on the street to fend for himself at the end.

Lip navigates another crisis with Lori. She’s getting a lot of pressure from her father, and he comes to visit Lip at work to talk about the baby. Lip doesn’t know what Lori is doing with the pregnancy and this makes it sound like she (or her dad) has made the decision to keep the child. As we know, Lori doesn’t take to others calling the shots, so this power play by her father may push her into a choice that spites her dad. On top of this, there’s a history of breast cancer in Lori’s family and she gets tested for a gene that greatly alters her own life expectancy when it comes to being pregnant or not. It’s possible that having a child could prevent her from getting cancer. Lori never wanted to have kids. It’s a lot to handle and they are both forced to wait for the test results.

Kev and V are back to the sweet lovin’ but Kev’s stamina has taken a hit over the sexless 2 weeks. Kev is afraid the surgery changed him and Kermit and Tommy at The Alibi are no help with the pep talks. Something does come up to distract him: their twin swap trick at the school comes to an abrupt end. It took months for the sisters to figure out the Ball’s had more than one kid which is pretty amazing. Now caught, they have two options, pay $1400 in back tuition or Kev needs to play the role of Jesus at an upcoming church event. It’s an easy choice but Kev has two shoulder a massive, heavy cross for 150 yards. No on said scamming came without punishment.

The final note for the night is Fiona’s run-in with Max, the guy she got into the deal with for the retirement home property and her apartment complex. You know, the guy who ended up with everything. At her new job working the graveyard shift at a gas station, he walks in to pay for gas and snacks. Shocked at where she landed since he’s last seen her (behind an inch of bulletproof glass in the hood), he offers Fiona a way out. While the retirement home deal is not expected to move forward for at least six more months, he offers to buy her share of the investment deal out. She’s going to get her $100k back.

A window has opened in Fiona’s pit and she can see the light that’s leading the way out. Her efforts to get back on her feet, no matter how small and insignificant they seemed to her, are paying off.

You’ll Know the Bottom When You Hit It

Don’t be mad. It’s no ones fault.

Xan

A lot of what I was hoping was going to happen, happened this week. Lots of necessary talking and confrontation goes down. Plus, the classic Shameless side talking digs come fast and furious. Surly Fiona can be really funny.

At the start of the show, Xan says the above line to Lip and once she leaves with the DCFS agent, he promptly goes to Fiona’s room to pack up all of her stuff and throw it onto the curb. In a heavy Fiona episode, anger is the focal point.

Fiona spends most of her day at The Alibi and day drinking Fiona makes a quick impression on V. When she asks for a vodka on the rocks, V accidentally makes her a vodka cranberry. Frank moseys in just after a blackout starts after setting up a supply line to sell the neighborhood the needed essentials at a significantly raised price. Since no one in the South Side prepares for anything, it’s a good time to be a hustler. Since Fiona has nothing to do and about $100 to her name, she strikes a deal to help Frank sell. Her business acumen kicks in and she gets much more ambitious than Frank. Ditching a half-assed wagon idea, she creates a stand for them to sell much more. It works.

When Fiona makes her way home in the middle of the afternoon and finds her stuff outside, Lip is there to greet her with a fight. They have it out in the kitchen and Frank breaks it up (for quite possibly the first time in his life). Lip tells her to GTFO and she tells him to GTFO of her house. Lip tells her to go to a AA meeting and Frank rolls his eyes at the judgment. When Fiona storms out, Frank leaves too but with some parting advice for Lip: You should be thanking her, raising 6 kids by yourself isn’t easy.

So Fiona and Frank go back to The Alibi. Furious Fiona asks V if she can crash at her place and Frank divies up the days take, Fiona gets aggressive and Frank now has advice for his daughter. While they continue to drink, he tells her she’s a bad drunk. That makes her laugh at loud and he lays it out to her: you’re abusing the gift of booze. She doesn’t get drunk and have fun, she gets angry and wants to fight everyone while thinking about the past. In eccense, Handle Your High or else. Normally when Frank gets on his soap box it’s the ranting of a brain pickled by substance abuse and scams, but this is downright sage like wisdom that only Frank can deliver.

As the day goes on everyone is sweating it out with no power, except for Liam because again, he doesn’t exist. Deb continues to buddy up to Kelly which drives Carl nuts and the battle comes out in front of Kelly. She’s weirded out and doesn’t understand Carl’s reaction (still naive of Deb’s true intentions) and she breaks up with Carl because he’s too clingy.

On the positive side with Lip, he talks to Tami about the pregnancy and makes some headway. His main message is that if she keeps the child, he’s on board for fatherhood. He’s not going to ditch her or the baby.

To my delight, V is brought in to engage with Fiona. Today marks the first time V has seen her in her full collapse, she now knows what’s going on in her friend’s life and can see what state she’s in. This isn’t her first rodeo of course. V has been there to catch Fiona when she’s fallen and vice versa. Since Lip wants Fiona out of the house, V goes to talk to him to try and fix things. He’s adamant about kicking Fiona out because it’s time she hits rock bottom. If he doesn’t she won’t get better and V is doing nothing more than enabling her. V objects at first but he makes a clear impression on her.

At the block South Side party Kev put together, it turns out that every town in Chicago except for the South Side has power back. Fiona, primed and ready to continue her quest to rage against the machine leads the group on a march on the north end. En route, their momentum and catchy chants stop short when the power comes back on. Everyone is happy that the power is back and are ready to go back and kick it at The Alibi. Except for Fiona. She’s incensed and tries to rally them to keep going, raise hell to make change happen. No one cares and Fiona lashes out, making V move in to carefully calm her friend and lay the news on that she isn’t welcome to crash at the Ball home anymore. Fiona puts on a stiff upper lip in a show of understanding and leaves the party.

The next morning we get to see Fiona at the bottom. Frank is passed out next to her on the floor. Apparently, they met up later that night and continued to drink. They broke into her old apartment complex which is now a full-fledged dump. She can barely move the hangover is so intense, there is no water on in the building, and she vomits in the hallway a few times. She picks up one of the business magazines she left behind. It has her name and address on it, a subscription. A woman in a power pantsuit striking an executive power pose is on the cover. This was Fiona, what she was working so hard to achieve, to move her life forward for the first time. Now she has nothing left from that time and any happiness and optimism she had have been replaced by uncontrollable anger.

The final scene warmed my heart. Lip is at a AA meeting listening to a man talk about his life’s greatest regret and Fiona walks in and takes a seat. With the poignant voice over from the man over the scene, Lip looks over and sees his sister for the first time in a while. Shameless at its best.

The Hobo Games

We’re getting close to the end of the season and thus the end of Emmy Rossum’s time on Shameless. Fiona’s exit on the show is taking shape and it’s getting weird to say the least.

Before we go full breakdown, I feel like we need to go over some annoying Shameless tropes that continue to fester. This series has never been keen on continutity. Big events tend to happen in a vaccuum where once it happens, it’s never thought of again. Characters are often written off in this way, they just take off. Minor characters are even killed off with no repercussions whatsoever. It’s like it never really happened, the community never reacts to it, characters don’t seem to be affected by it.

We are on season 9 and that’s a lot of storytelling. The character list is well into the hundreds now so that turns into a kind of tide where the writers use characters for a specific thing, abandoned them and then pull them out of the drawer when they need to try to fill a gap, make something happen. I can see the utility in that bad it’s really bad when main characters are used that way. Since the kids on the show (I’m referring to the entire main cast) have gotten older, they increasingly live separate lives. Most of the time the siblings don’t know what each other are doing. That’s 6 characters, 8 including Kev and V, 9 with Frank. That’s a ton of characters to juggle and a huge challenge to manage well. But in particular, Liam is an after thought. His character was a toddler when the show started and they relatively recently got and actor to make Liam an active character. How he literally disappears is absurd. No one talks about him and he’s not even shown in the house unless he’s part of the plot of the episode. The way he’s portrayed, he doesn’t actually exist in the family.

Kev and V are treated in much the same way, except they are always given a C plot to keep them active. This couple is supposed to be the Gallagher’s oldest friends, they live I think on the same street. You’d never know that because it seems like they live in a different city as they barely interact with the Gallaghers. It’s been like this for years, so why bother coming up with shoe string stories for them? All of this sits next to the Fiona and Lip plot that’s unfolding now.

So here we are at “The Hobo Games.” Starting at the bottom of the importance scale, we have Kev and V going through a vasectomy story.

Deb is flirting with Kelly as hard as she possibly can, enough so that Carl notices and doesn’t like it. Despite knowing that Kelly is straight, Deb has it in her head that there’s a good chance Deb can turn her. Kelly is going to need to confront this pretty soon (she’s just having a good time hanging out with Deb, they’re friends now) as I’m sure if Carl doesn’t say anything, Deb is going to cross a line and it’s going to get awkward real fast. I think in the end this is less of Deb wanting a romantic relationship and more that she needs a friend. Fiona often ignores her so she has no female to talk to (there’s an idea to get V meaningfully involved).

Liam does not exist.

Frank has made it to the final stages of The Hobo Games with Mikey. They’ve got a shaky alliance going and it stumbles into a phony gay military veterans scam to make it into the grand finals. During this whole contest, he’s been away from Ingrid while her ex-husband continues to drop by the house in an effort to get her away and back on track of a healthy life. She calls Frank who tells her he can’t come home yet because he has to finish the contest (50k is on the line) and that makes her furious which makes her question Deb who once more says that she cannot rely on Frank. So, a “test” is concocted and Ingrid tells him that her body is freaking out, something is wrong with the sextuplets. With this crisis put in front of him, Frank stays committed to you guessed it, the contest. This is the push that Ingrid needed to pull the parachute. Not only does Frank lose the contest (thanks Mikey) but he loses Ingrid as well. Frank, always the dirtbag agrees to a lump sum payoff to stay away from Ingrid, waving any parenting rights as well. Not that he has any, as the father is actually Carl. So that’s the end of Ingrid and I say that because Katie Sagal is a big name so the odds of getter her back are pretty small (and her story has nowhere to go).

Now for the main event: Fiona and Lip on a crash course that feels rushed and half baked. This episode starts a few days after the last one so a lot is skipped over. The last we saw Fiona she was in the back of a cop car and all of sudden, she’s waking up in someone’s apartment. We learn, many scenes later, that Deb paid her bail. A whole lot of aftermath was skipped over and glossed over in what I think is a detriment to the show. Fiona has embraced the drunk life and it’s not a secret. She’s been spiraling for months, her family have seen this before and don’t offer to get her help. Deb just demands money from her and then looks worried.

Lip is running around with his head on fire. Xan showing up last week put him into overdrive mode and after Tami establishes herself as a rock, she’s now sketchy. She ditches him and Xan and then won’t reply to any of his calls or texts. He handles getting custody of Xan by himself and it’s an uphill climb but he commits to it. While he’s out getting things together for Xan, DCFS shows up that day. There is no way on Earth a government agency shows hours later for an inspection like that. This whole scenario sets up Fiona’s first “failure.” She’s sleeping off the hangover when she’s woken up by this guy from child services. She has no idea what’s going on and does her best to give the guy a tour. At the same time, Deb has left a huge hole in the living room floor to install a new furnace. V also left her 4 year old twins with Deb, who stuffed them into her daughter’s pack and play and left all 3 kids in there. They are Deb’s responsibility and the house is a disaster, none of which Fiona had anything to do with. So the inspector leaves with no good notes. Lip arrives home with Xan just in time to try and salvage the end of it but can’t. So he’s mad.

Fiona’s second “failure” is meeting Jason while she’s looking for Lip to apologize to him for not doing a hail mary earlier. Who’s Jason? Good question. Lip is his AA sponsor, a character we haven’t seen or thought about in ages. Yes, along with Xan we have another pop up character to make a fight happen later with illogical circumstances. Fiona has never met Jason and doesn’t know he’s in recovery (it’s his 100th day to boot!). She sits down in the bike shop to talk to this dude and while she pours out her heart, she makes herself a drink. He’s eyeballing the bottle the whole time and asks if he can have some. She says sure, oblivious of his past. Jason doesn’t just fall off the wagon, he ends up doing heroin again, and he calls Lip in a pit of despair seconds after Tami tells Lip she’s pregnant. That’s why she’s been ignoring him, she’s been freaking out.

Lip’s entire world is burning around him. Tami bolts, their last words sounding like she’s done with him (keeping the child in any manner a question). He’s failed Xan, she’s going into the foster system. And now his “awful” sister ruined another person’s life in the same day (to his credit, Jason tells him exactly what happened, that it’s not Fiona’s fault. Lip ignores this). It’s been a dramatic 24 hours.

This brings us to the final scene at home where Lip confronts Fiona in front of Deb, Carl, and Kelly. And yes, Liam isn’t there. She rightfully defends herself, first saying “Who is Jason?” She apologizes for the pain she inadvertently caused and then he lays into her about Xan blaming her for everything and tells her she has to move out of the house.

There’s a lot going on her obviously and very little of it works well. I understand why Lip is mad and he should be. He’s deflecting everything onto Fiona who is a mess right now. She’s made mistakes for sure but none of what he’s furious about is her fault. No one in the family talks to each other so this is what happens. It’s completely unreasonable to hold Fiona responsible for any of it. No one knew what Lip was doing, he didn’t even ask anyone if it’s ok that Xan moved in (highlighted by Lip bullying Deb into sharing her room with a kid). “Old Fiona” might have been able to do a little better with the inspector but she can’t make miracles happen. Everything else was Deb’s doing and odds are that dump would fail any inspection no matter what. And Deb was right there on the couch listening to Lip lay into Fiona and she didn’t say anything to defend her sister! Plus, the only reason Fiona met Jason was because Lip wouldn’t answer her calls and she went out looking for him to apologize for something that was out of her control.

I expect Fiona to push back hard on Lip’s nonsense next week and she absolutely should. This whole set up is forced and stupid. I’ll be pissed if this ends up being the thing that makes Fiona leave. Deb better speak up or she’s awful too.

I always hate it when Lip and Fiona fight because I love them so much. They are the oldest kids, conscious of the worst Frank and Monica days and were always there for each other. They have links to each other that the other kids don’t because of their age. Over the years they’ve been through so many trying times and have come through the other side. Liam getting into Fiona’s cocaine years ago is so much bigger (and well done) that it makes this ordeal look extra stupid and unbelievable.

This is why Kev and V need to be part of the actual show. I miss this couple (real friends!) being a part of the Gallaghers lives. V and Fiona go way back. I can’t remember the last time V talked to Fiona and when they did it was probably two sentences. Sure they live separate lives but this isn’t real life, use your characters! Kev and V wouldn’t want to help Fiona.

While the Gallagher’s have never been one for interventions, leaving a person to do what they want, but the total hands-off on Fiona makes no sense. Frank is a lost cause, he’s abandoned them so many times they’ve become numb to it. But watching Fiona turn into Frank and letting it happen? That’s far from how they feel about her. Their deep love for Fiona who’s done everything for them for their entire lives. Fiona is who they are legit loyal to so this whole set up is gross.

I don’t like what’s going on and I hope what happens next doesn’t betray who these characters are. They’ve written themselves onto a cliff, they better not fall off of it.

Los Diablos!

Frank dives into becoming the Hobo Loco spokesman and quickly discovers that it’s not going to be easy as he thought. A lot more people show up to the audition and one man clearly has the same resume that he does. They compare life stories and have mutual respect for each other until the guy tries to ride Frank’s back to the finish line. With 6 possible babies on the way, Frank ain’t sharing anything and goes into full skullduggery mode to get through round 2 of a week-long elimination.

Speaking of those 6 babies, Ingrid continues to use the Gallagher home as shelter and she spends a lot of time with Deb. Deb is quick to point out that if she’s going to stay she’s got to pay her share of the bills (and she also reassures her that Frank is not going to be there for her or however many kids she has). Ingrid’s ex-husband shows up and tries to get to her to leave with him to get her back to sanity. It doesn’t go well, to the point where the fertility doctor chases Ingrid around the house. In the panic, Deb gets stuck under the house while doing some homeowner maintenance and when Kelly comes to her rescue, that newfound lesbian-curious light flicks back on. It’s gonna get weird. Kelly doesn’t notice anything (it was a subtle look from Deb) and Carl wasn’t around to see it because he was getting shaken down at his new job at the local crab shack. Carl’s also clueless about his (much older) boss’ advances on him, which were pretty hard to miss. It’s gonna get weird.

Much to my delight, Tami and Lip are getting closer. She makes the initial move to boot, which is very telling. Lip tags along to volunteer at a old folks home and when they come home after a day of bonding, Xan is waiting for Lip on the stoop. Her mother ditched her again. Lip is furious and Tami jumps in with both feet, taking the more motherly approach to the situation. It’s a tremendous show of character, something I never saw in her until now. God I hope this works between them. Lip could use some legit stability and maturation. That goes for Tami too, but we just met her so Lip has a more storied past to us.

Fiona has another rough go at work. This time she’s counting out the registers after the night shift and she leaves the money out to get another drink from the back. When she comes back, three shady guys are waiting for her and they leave when the cook comes out with a knife. Sketched out, she closes the place (the diner is 24 hours) and sleeps in one of the booths. When Eliza comes in for the morning shift, she finds everyone waiting outside and they find Fiona inside. It’s another mark on her record. It freaks Fiona out and she realizes how sloppy she’s getting. She throws out the remaining booze in the house, takes the time to get herself together and goes back to work only to get fired. Fiona’s business partner has had enough with Fiona’s behavior over the past few months and doesn’t believe Fiona’s pleas of getting her life back together. This sends Fiona back to the booze and she’s surly as ever. Deb is quick to point out that she needs to get a job.

Liam gets a job by creating his own. He and his bodyguard friend open a lemonade stand down the block in front of one of the neighborhood’s most recent residents (read: gentrification). She calls the cops on the police, they are shut down and when Fiona finds out it is time for Southside justice. She rallies the neighborhood for a block party in front of the lady’s house. Fiona, already hopped up from being fired takes it too far and pops the woman right in the face. Right when the police show up no less. She makes an effort to flee but doesn’t get to far. The last we see her is in the back of a squad car.

Finally, Kev’s dreams of a big family are briefly met. They track down Santiago’s sister who is scheduled to come stay with them. Kev is stroked and he dresses up Santiago just like him in an effort to Americanize Santiago. The twins aren’t having it, they are not a fan of this random kid showing up and stealing their spotlight. So for them, it’s great when the news breaks that Santiago’s dad was deported so he and his sister have to follow him out of the country. With this chapter closed will Kev and V just move on and try for another adoption?

BOOOOOOOOOOOONE!

Fiona continues down her rocky road. She’ still mad as hell and isn’t taking any amount of shade from anyone, lest it be real or not. She’s gone from yelling to physically attacking people so that’s a serious slide. Deb is the only one to get into her face right away, demanding the money Fiona owes for rent and utilities. Fiona throws the “I’ve kept you alive for 18 years” card and Deb isn’t having it. Deb rules the roost, forcing Fiona to shower at V’s and locks her out of the house at the end of the episode.

Lip meets Boone, Tami’s..fiance? Sort of? Boone has it in his future but Tami hasn’t committed and Lip is just finding out about this guy. Tami’s sister Corey is quick to swoop in on Lip and they do hook up, which makes Lip and Tami have the talk about where (and what) their relationship is. They’ve never committed to being monogamous but this event bothers them both, Lip especially. Tami is real aloof about it until Lip confronts her, asking why leading on Boone while he’s been away doesn’t bother her. It’s a legit question because when it comes to relationships, she seems not to care about anyone’s feelings. It’s all impulse, scorched Earth, hook ups. She’s keeping her past close to her chest and this might be the first layer we see her peel back.

Frank and Ingrid find out that all of her eggs have been successfully fertalized. All 6 of them. Their doctor tells them they can safely (and legally) keep 3 and Ingrid becomes hellbent on keeping them all, health and ethics be damned. Frank is in a pickle no matter what, 6 or 3, that’s a ton of babies on no income. He’s already failed 6 kids. When the kids find out with Ingrid right there, classic stuff. Fiona cracks up right away and they go around the room saying how borked they are. For the first time Ingrid looks worried but tosses the feeling aside. So Frank needs to figure out his next hustle pretty quick so he hits the streets. When he goes to The Alibi and finds out about the Loco Hobo Man competition, Frank may have found his designer product. The stuff is basically paint thinner but he thinks it’s great. Fifty grand to push this garbage is right down his alley. I laughed out loud at the first scene when the marketing company is making the pitch for this stuff and one of the slides is Frank climbing out of a dumpster.

With Ingrid hiding out at the Gallagher house from the doctor, she meets Carl’s girlfriend at just the right time, when she could use some motherly advice. Kelly doesn’t know what to do with her life. She’s been told what to do and when to do it by her father (who she calls The General) for her entire life. When she met Carl, her rebellion was under way but she took it to a new level with Carl. She’d spend as much time as she could with him, ditching her responsibilities, stealing stuff, whatever kind of mischief they could get up to. For the first time in a long time she was having fun. Then her dad finds out about it all puts his foot down, tries to pay off Carl to leave her, and that makes it worse. Ingrid asks Carl and Kelly to make a vision board, a graphic representation of their lives and dreams. Carl makes one quickly and Kelly is part of it. Kelly comes with basically nothing and admits that she doesn’t have a future in mind for herself. She’s aimless because she hasn’t thought for herself. 17 is very young to have a midlife crisis. Ingrid tells her it’s time she takes the power back and Kelly drags Carl along to confront her father. It goes well.

Liam shows up! When Deb hands out the monthly fee to everyone to pay up, Liam is on the list too. A 9 year old needs to come up with $70 and he doesn’t know how to. Luckily he’s pretty good at speaking Spanish and Santiago helps him out. They come up with a funny making scheme but he falls short of the full amount and Deb won’t let him back in the house. He camps out on the porch where he runs into Fiona, fresh from stumbling home after throwing Ford’s tools that she stole through the windows in his house. With another bad day in the books, she sits down next to him and asks him to never hurt women when he’s older. In a cute and touching dialog, the young Liam agrees. Deb, who doesn’t have a whole heart of ice, lets them in for the night.

The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From The Alibi

I hope Shameless never takes a break like this again, it’s annoying to get taken out of the flow of the season. We’re all back together at least so let’s get to it.

I hate seeing Fiona down in the dumps. I want to see her happy and making progress and when she spirals it’s a horror show. Finding out about Ford and his marriage put all sorts of weight on her and she’s alone again. No one deals with a breakup well but her career got turned inside out the same time. In this episode, we find out that the deal she made to save herself from her apartment building foreclosure (and the massive loans she had to finance it) was a lie (something Ford warned her about when he found out who she’d be working with). The apartment building is getting leveled and the condos going up are going to be $400k+ per unit. The guy is going to make a fortune and she’s left with nothing. And Ford was right. So she’s angry and turns to alcohol. She’s thrown off all her responsibilities and it’s up to Deb to turn water into wine to pay all the outstanding bills on the house. It’s a small fortune as she stopped paying utilities 2 months ago. Fiona is lashing out at everyone and is an absolute monster at Paty’s. Her staff notices she’s acting weird but hasn’t put everything together yet (she looks terrible so that’s hard to get around). Fiona needs this business as it’s her only income now She’s letting restocking slide and chasing customers away. While her staff is holding the fort so far, belligerent Fiona is a problem.

With Deb taking over as the matriarch (Liam is nowhere to be seen btw) both Lip and Carl in the throws of their new relationships. Carl and Kelly are running around thick as (literal) thieves goofing off, scamming people and more or less have a grand old time. When Deb calls for the troops to rally to pay the bills, Carl is quick to answer. Lip and Ingrid are in the ‘sex is great but what are we doing’ phase. She hates staying at the house and her roommates are a pain so she wants them to get their own place. That’s a big step for Lip and he doesn’t take kindly to her throwing her weight around in a relationship this is little more than friends with benefits. While she does have valid points, Gallagher’s don’t take well to others telling them how to live.

And you better believe Frank is still head over heals for Ingrid. She loves him so much that she tells him she’s always wanted a kid, when she brings him to the office where her frozen eggs are. Her husband said no to kids (for obvious mental health reasons) but Frank is more than happy to make that happen. Except he’s sterile. And the most shameless moment of the episode goes to Frank. He tricks Carl into giving him a sperm sample and those swimmers are more than healthy enough to be used in the fertalization process.

Kevin and V are close to adopting a child (a son per Kevin’s request) and they give up on getting an infant because the weight is so long. With all the paperwork and wellness checks past, they meet 12 year old Santiago and Kev is stoked. They soon find out he isn’t an orphan, he came to the US with his father and sister for asylum and were separated. He doesn’t know where they are and this throws their entire family plan off track.

Down Like The Titanic

Fiona is sitting in a ditch and it’s Deb who finds her and gives her a hand to help get her out.

It’s been a while since Fiona has been truly down and out (the drug incident with Liam being the big one a few years ago). Career and personal life both imploded at the same time so it’s not surprising we find her laying on the floor of her bedroom in a what can only be described as a hot mess. But it’s Deb who puts the effort into finding her MIA sister and immediately gets to work on putting the Gallagher keystone back together. With a rather large mound of problems to tackle, Deb figures she can help with the car first. Upon seeing the wrecked RAV4 Deb is shocked to find out what happened and hooks Fiona up with her first connect: her co-worker welder who’s got the hook up at a junkyard. Striping the car for parts will net Fiona a quick $600 in cash and pulling some insurance fraud will get Fiona clear of the lease. That still leaves her doomed on her property investment. Max, her investment partner shows up at the apartment open house looking for her $25k. Unable to lie anymore, she admits she’s broke. In a rather hair-raising discussion (I don’t really trust Max, the opportunities for Max to take advantage of her countless) they come to the verbal agreement that Max will get the apartment building for the exact amount of money she owes the bank. The upside: this means she’s going to get out from under the wreckage without being crushed to death. The downside: she’s left with nothing and still owes him the 25k (with interest) he’s going to cover for her to get out of their property deal. The other upside for Fiona is her revenge on Ford that Deb sets up for her. The solider of the season award goes to Deb.

With Ian out of the Gallagher nest, Carl is excited to get his own room, with a door that locks, for the first time in his 17 years of life. Kelly shows up with a stack of West Point admission material and forces him to put his nose to the grindstone to make sure he gets in. Now, any fan of the show can tell you that Carl and school never went together well. He bombs everything (some of the greatest Carl lines came out of this), even with Liam’s help, so Kelly pivots to plan B: use your sob story to get in. With Carl’s past, he racks up the pity points as she asks him questions. Not only was this whole section funny, but Carl also finds out he is Kelly’s boyfriend and their reactions to the public admission is adorable.

While Fiona is in the dumps, Lip has a great day! He runs into that trainwreck of a bridesmaid he hooked up with earlier this season and they hit it off! A night of vigorous nude gymnastics leaves Lip so happy he literally skips down the street.

Frank has wormed his way close to Ingrid again and he parties down with her like it’s 1999 at her place. Medical marijuana, staircase tabogganing, shaving, and more! Frank is head over heels for her and they continue their freak fest at her office. Ingrid’s ex-husband Randy warns Frank that he doesn’t know what he’s getting to and with Ingrid off her meds, it’s only a matter of hours until she completely loses it. He’s been her guardian for 19 years, picking her up and putting her back together everytime it happens. Frank, with his decades of experience in debauchery, waves the warning off. He’s confident he can handle Ingrid until the time comes where Ingrid forces Frank to eat food with broken glass in it at knifepoint. That’s a bit much for Frank and he sprints to The Alibi until things “settle down.” That settling down happens and it’s all thanks to Ingrid’s ex. True to his word, he swept in to pick up the pieces. Frank, being the selfish douche he is, sees Randy as a problem and an opportunity. He begins his manipulation to keep himself close to Ingrid.

After cleaning up all their adult toys, V comes to realize that they have a mountain of baby stuff that’s taking up room in their small home. With the twins now 4 years old, and them done having kids, she bags it all up for a friend. When Kev sees it all in the living room he gets upset on two fronts: first, you’re just getting rid of all this sentimental stuff and second: we’re done having kids? The subject has come up over the years and the discussion of having more kids was always kicked down the road by V. That, according to V was code for “We’re not having any more kids.” We rarely see Kev and V fight and this is the biggest domestic issue they’ve had in a while, Most of their problems have been from external forces but this one is deep and personal. I thought this was a great subject to bring up for the couple and Kev’s response to this coming to light was a good example of his tender heart. I’m actually disappointed that they resolved the problem so fast. There’s a lot to the issue and it felt rushed how it all shook out in two or three scenes. V doesn’t want to physically have any more kids (a great reason) and she throws out adoption to appease Kev pretty quickly. They didn’t even go into the obvious from Kev’s perspective: yes it’ll be a financial hardship but the way V first shot him down made it sound like she didn’t want to have more kids with him. It sounded like a major wrinkle in their relationship and by knocking the issue off the table so fast I feel like we missed out on something much more interesting for Kev and V, the long-running co-stars who always seem to be stuck on the fringe of every story. I love these two and would like to see them get more meaningful screen time.

What really bothers me is this episode was the mid-season finale. So what does that mean? The show is off until January 20th! Three months! Shameless has never broken up a season and I hate this whole concept. The show is on a roll and now it all comes to a screeching halt! Boo Showtime! I say boo to you!

Face It, You’re Gorgeous!

By going for the plea deal, Ian gets sentenced to 2 years in prison. It’s not long before he has to report to the prison and Ian wants to have a relaxing last day at home before he has to live most of his days watching his back. Everyone has something to do so his family is in and out as Ian kicks it around the house.

Carl spends most of the day with Ian and Kelly comes over to teach Carl some advanced self-defense moves. Watching the two throw each other around, Ian asks for some tips and Kelly happily obliges.

Frank is the first to leave the house off to meet his latest muse, Ingrid, at the psychiatric center. Her mandatory 72 hour detainment is up and Frank wants to whisk her away from there so they can start their new life together. Frank brings Liam as support and to check out his “new mom.” The whirlwind first meeting of Ingrid left an impression on Frank, he sees her as his new Monica. Frank doesn’t get what he wants as Ingrid is now no longer in a manic state and her ex-husband came to take care of her.

Lip is out for the day too, taking over babysitting duty for the actress Jen Wagner (Courtney Cox!). She’s got a presentation tomorrow for her biggest sponsorship and if she shows up drunk, she’s in trouble. Lip is really good at his job as he chases her around town and thwarts her attempts at getting a drink. They end up hanging out at the Gallagher household for Ian’s final dinner at home: White Castle. Deb has a very small role this week, more or less getting advice from Jen.

Fiona is handling business all day and right from the start it goes south and spirals out of control. She’s at the start of her investment career, meaning she has very little capital to work with. The 100k she put into the empty lot to turn into a senior living facility has hit a wall of red tape. At her first meeting with her fellow partners, she’s asked for another 25k to keep the process moving. Fiona was expecting a quick turn around on her investment and now she’s looking at years of delay and with no way to get her money. She runs around looking for more money and ends up scrounging through the safe at the restaurant. She’s overleveraged on everything and her stake in the property is at risk  Ford pushed her to get their own place together, a 3k a month rental, so her entire financial world has come to a screeching halt. When she tells Ford they need to back out of the agreement, he takes it as she doesn’t want to live with him and storms off. Later that night, she kisses a co-worker, comes home to an empty apartment and tracks Ford’s phone to find him at…his wife’s home. Cur Fiona’s mind imploding. She races away, crashing her car and stumbling off into the night.

Kev and V are confronted with a rather shocking show and tell. Sister Frances stops by to show them the dildo that Amy brought to school to share with the other kids how her parents show love. Kev and V are brought in to talk with Father D’Amico and it turns out he’s more of a freak than they are. Still, they are moved (shamed) to get rid of all their toys.

This brings us to the next morning where the family is together with Ian ready for Fiona to drive him to the prison. She’s MIA and Kev drives him instead. Once there, the only ones who came to see him off are his family who gives him a tearful goodbye. Like they say, when you go to the hospital or prison, you’ll find out who your real friends are.

This is the last we are going to be seeing Ian for a while. Locked up and fearing the worst for his well being, we’re given a final bit of fan service to see Ian off. Mickey, after snitching on a cartel in Mexico, is locked up in the same prison.

In the original UK version of Shameless, almost everytime an actor left the show, the character just disappeared with a nonsense reason at the start of the season. Cameron Monaghan is the first Gallagher to leave the show and it’s great to see that he wasn’t killed off or simply disappears. We know where he is and he’s not alone. But with reuniting Ian with Mickey, arguably Shameless fans most beloved couple, it shows everyone a plot that they’d want to follow. Knowing we aren’t going to see that is a bit of a rip-off.

So now this raises a big question, where is the show going from here? Emmy Rossum is leaving in a few episodes too and Fiona is the biggest character next to Frank. How much time is left for Shameless?

The cast is still robust enough to keep going. Ian’s plots got thinner and thinner since Mickey skipped town so him being gone isn’t the biggest loss. It’s also set up that his absence is temporary. He can come back in a few seasons with all sorts of new angles to explore after prison and it could be possible to get Mickey out at the same time. But will the show stay in production long enough for that to happen? Fiona has been the rock that the family has leaned on from the start. With the kids now all adults (almost) her role as matriarch has diminished. In the past few years, they are rarely all together and they can go a long time without seeing each other (especially Fiona as she had sworn of bailing out everyone every time they screw up some time ago). So her moving on (I’ve been thinking she’s going to find huge success in real estate and move away to a better part of town, now I’m not so sure) makes sense. She’s not as needed as she once was and with her gone could mean bigger and more important stories for the other Gallaghers. Kev and V might get more integration.

It’ll be interesting to see where this goes.

Black-Haired Ginger

So far this is the best episode of the season. A lot of plots make a turn and a few Gallaghers get into trouble. Classic Shameless dark humor that’s been missing this year makes a triumphant return.

Without Xan, Lip has started to drift. Lip isn’t good at taking care of himself, he needs to watch/take care of someone else to keep himself busy and to keep his addictions from taking over. So his life now is basically to go to work and then come home. When he gets a rare moment to be with himself, a sort of vacation really, he doesn’t take long for him to start climbing the walls. So he turns to exercise first and when he’s tempted with alcohol, he buys every brand of cigarette to give him something to do since alcohol is his poison but nicotine is more like a safer hobby to him. While looking for something to do, Lip stumbles across two new interests. First is a new business: a sober coach. A client would hire him to keep them sober because something very important is coming up (think athlete and court-ordered drug tests). This is a perfect fit for him as he already has plenty of experience with this. The second is motorcycle street racing. It’s dangerous and more importantly a ton of fun. I think we can all expect that this massive adrenaline dump will become an addiction.

Deb looks for more advice on the path to understanding who she is. The falling out with Alex has crushed her and she doesn’t know what to do. So she turns to the only lesbians she knows, the couple that live in Fiona’s apartment building. They manage to help her out, in essence giving her the basic philosophy of “you like what you like.” Hopefully, she drops every gay stereotype she picked up in order to “fit in” now. She also drops Alex once she realizes that her issue with Alex isn’t one of sexuality per say, it’s that they are a terrible couple. Deb wisely moves on, where she ends up is anyones guess but it looks like she’s on the path to finding who she is.

Carl is pushing on to get to West Point. He meets a well connected wild girl at a West Point mixer and it starts out well until it swerves into disaster. When she looks into Carl a bit more she sees that he isn’t a scumbag (I mean, he is a Gallagher so there is a lot there) and they move past their awkward first meeting.

In other wild girl news, Liam gets sucked into a crazy vortex with the school bully that forced him to get a body guard. She catches him alone in the hallway and pulls him into a closet. Something happens in there, Liam thinks they had sex, but he’s not sure (he’s like, 10 years old). So when he gets home, he tells Lip who’s shocked and then later on she shows up at the house with a ton of crap in tow. When he asks what she’s doing there she dumps even more crap on him: I’m moving in with you because you’re the father of my kid. Since Liam isn’t sure what she did to him earlier that day, he has no clue about what’s going on now. When Deb and Carl come home they pow wow with Liam about what this monsterous girl is doing there. Luckly Deb has motherhood experience and knows this is a shame (Carl thinks she’s full of it too, but confers with Deb about now being able to know you’re pregnant the day you have sex). The siblings team up to get the trouble maker out of the house. Liam is far and away my favorite character this year. The stuff the writers have been throwing at him since last season has been some of the best and Christian Isaiah is a great young actor.

It’s been a few years since Frank’s liver had enough of the abuse and packed up shop. I’ve been wondering for a while about when his health was going to take another dive and it happened this week. When you’re urine resembles maple syrup, you got a problem. So he winds up in the hospital and gets the great news that his anti-rejection meds have stopped working. After 5 years, he now needs to switch meds but the name brand stuff costs a fortune since he doesn’t have insurance. He can swing the generic but the side effects are a gauntlet of horros. In typical Frank mentality, he doesn’t think much of the potential misery (to be fair he doesn’t have a choice) but one does catch his ear: erectile dysfunction. On the way home with Kev and V, they pass by a longerie shop and he freaks out when he finds that he gets no reaction to the models in the window display. This starts his panic spiral that his life is truely over. If there is one thing Frank holds dear on this mortal coil, it’s his libido. And in typical Frank fashion, when he gets slighted in anyway he defaults his rage to The Man. The government, the healthcare industry, big pharma, it’s all rigged to screw over the comman man (and again, to be fair, he brings up some good points). Upon leaving the hospital for the second time after trying to shock his member back into working order, a sour and now cinged Frank is trolling for painkillers (one of the funniest scenes in the series happens here) when he stumbles upon a like minded damsel in distress. She steamrolls him and Frank is awakened! I hope that guest star shows up again, it would be amazing.

Ian and Fiona’s stories cross this week. Faced with a tons of jail time or less jail time with an insanity plea, Ian isn’t sure what to do. Fiona is totally sure what to do and goes with him to see his lawyer to push for the insanity plea. The woman in charge of the Gay Jesus movement insists that Ian go to trial because the movement is way too important to potentially let the whole thing get undermined by that admission that Ian is bi-polar. Fiona isn’t having any of that and when they leave, Ian tells her to take a hike and leave him alone. Fiona doesn’t know why and Ford, Lip, and Deb tell her to let him go when he disappears after getting advice from Mr. Malkovich about prison time (another One of the Greatest Shameless Scenes). She’s baffled by everyone being so calus about Ian skipping bail but they all say that he’s an adult and he’s making his own decisions. Ford is adamant that Ian isn’t her responsibility any more, her concerns should be focused on her and their relationship. While trying to track down Ian, she misses an event she and Ford have been planning for months and Ford is annoyed. The good news is that Ian comes back to face the music and goes for the plea deal. The whole ordeal turns into a positive moment with Fiona and Ford.

While everyone else is making life altering choices, Kev and V continue down the Vagina Safe initative. Their work at The Alibi has gotten them a lot of positive attention from the local activists and that brings Kev into the trenches with the women who have been deeply traumatised by sexual assault and human trafficing. His efforts with the bar pale in comparison and he wants to retreat to the sidelines so those directly affected can be the ones heard most.