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.

NIMBY

The best part of this episode was the Frank, Kev, Liam team-up. The Milkovich family moves in next door and that is like a slaughterhouse and a nuclear waste dump opening up. Frank is beside himself and quick to say his family is way better than them (the Gallaghers are well known in the neighborhood, to say the least). He wants them out. Kev doesn’t seem too bothered at the start buy quickly changes his mind. Liam is afraid for his life. A few plans are made up and none of them work. This will be a long term problem for Frank.

Another thing with Frank, he has one moment where he loses track of what he’s saying. He repeats himself just a minute later and does his best to cover it. It looked like Kev noticed it. It’s quickly forgotten as the Milkovich issue takes over but I think Kev will see it again and start to ask questions when he realizes it’s something that is happening frequently.

Carl is out on patrol with Janes and her hard stance on “justice” is putting him into more questionable situations. Their beat is Carl’s home so he’s seeing people he knows. He knows what they do and why they do it. He knows the struggle. He wants to give people warnings for the little things when she wants zero tolerance. He now has the power to arrest people and alter their lives forever and I think that responsibility is just dawning on him. Then, Janes takes harassment way too far and his conscience gets the best of him. He goes back after he goes off-duty to help. This is some of the best stuff they’ve done for Carl on the show. It’s interesting to see him redraw his lines and assess his values. He’s done horrible stuff over the years, he’s no saint. But it’s reassuring to see that he has morals and cares about other people.

V and Deb duke it out at the beauty pageant with some much needed comedy. Mad Deb is always fun and I always like seeing V flex her smarts and get things done. She’s a great “stage mom.”

A now unemployed Ian gets stuck following Mickey around. Ian doesn’t want him to carry a gun while he does security for Kev and V (not a good idea for a felon to have a gun) so he has to help Mickey as back up. Two is a bigger show of force anyway and Ian does have military training. They stumble upon a very lucrative job offer.

Lip gets dragged to brunch with Tami to meet up with an old teacher. Turns out they were way more than teacher/student. Lip didn’t even have to ask her the guy is so overt. Lip tells her he’s gross because the guy is a predator and she denies it until they meet his fiance. She can’t deny what this guy is and it makes her think about her past. Who needs to pay a crazy amount of money to a psychologist to reach a mind altering revelation? Not Tami! Well, she probably still does. She has layers. Like an onion.

Hall of Shame

The start of this episode confused the hell out of me. Why is there no episode recap and the opening credits different? Why are there title cards? Turns out this s a ‘very special’ episode and there are more to come.

So, this was a clip episode about Ian and Mickey. The first new footage shows the newlyweds getting into a fight and from there the clips are placed to show their dysfunctional relationship through the years. One someone brings up a new point, more clips. They talk about their parents, cue clips of their terrible parents, etc. They even put some bloopers in from filming this episode.

For Ian and Mickey fans, this is a treat. It’s a 40 minute highlight real and it shows off how long 11 seasons really are. The kids on this show were literal kids when it started. There’s a massive history for fans of Shameless to revisit and I’d imagine they’ll do segments for every major character. They’d have to do Fiona so that raises my hopes they got Emmy Rossum to come back for one last episode.

The next new plot moving episode isn’t airing until January 10th, so we’ll see what characters are up for the next retrospective.

Frances Francis Franny Frank

This was a fantastic Frank episode.

The episode starts with the entire Gallagher family starting the day in the same house. It’s typical chaos as everyone has things to do and places to be. Everyone is in the kitchen for only a few minutes before heading out. Deb claims she can’t get Franny to school so she asks someone to help her out. She leaves first without getting an answer from anyone. Liam and Frank are the final two in the kitchen and Liam leaves Frank in charge after Frank absently minded volunteers to take Franny to school. Frank being Frank (and he’s stoned) he doesn’t really know where Franny’s pre-school and he takes her to the wrong school. He has a bit of sense that he can’t leave her there, so he turns it into ‘take your grandkid to work’ day. And today, Frank is on a cannabis procurement mission. Frank and Franny walk around town essentially doing drug deals.

Frank is in his element for the rest of the episode. He sees it as teaching the youngest generation of the family his wisdom and tricks (something he loves to do, which he last did with Liam) and he has a blast with Franny. Franny was raging against the machine with Deb at the start but when she’s out with Frank, she’s very agreeable. He basically uses her in price negotiations because no one wants to (or knows how to) argue with a pre-schooler.

And then something odd happens. While walking down the street, Frank forgets where they are going and where they came from. Unless he’s completely blitzed, this doesn’t normally happen. He’s more likely to pass out where ever he is and wake up and continue on. But Frank is straight by his standards so this a big red flag with Frank’s health to any long time viewer (that would be me). He’s been plugging away pretty well since his kidney transplant years ago. A bad turn, that’s honestly overdue considering how Frank has treated his body for so long, looks to be coming.

With Franny’s help to remind him of what their doing, Frank course corrects and they keep plugging away until the search party of Deb and Sandy find them. Deb is pissed, having found out that Franny never made it to school when she dropped off snacks for Franny at school. The search costs Deb her days gig and possibly her entire business as a handy-woman for hire.

Carl has a much better second day at work. As expected, he’s partnered with a much more like-minded Sergent named Lessie James. She thinks he looks like Billie Ellish, so she comes up with his nickname the minute they meet. Sergent James is a go-getter. She answers all calls, chases and throws perps around, and even lets Carl drive. He even gets his first collar, which he immediately tells his whole family about. James isn’t much for rules though. She has no problem with bending whatever is needed to get what she needs with throws Carl off. He wants to be the best cop he can be and he questions the rule-breaking as they happen (rather surprising for a Gallagher) as Carl does have some morals. It’ll be interesting to see how she influences him. The potential is there for him to lean into being a dirty cop. It’s hard to believe Carl would be squeaky clean but she could create something really bad by teaching him how to do it. They are going to be spending a lot of time together.

Tami has a family crisis. Her sister’s new baby (Brad, Lip’s boss is the father/husband) has a severe heart abnormality and it will cost a fortune in medical bills. Along with Covid-19 it’s another real world issue that millions in the country face. Lip offers any support he can in this trying time for his extended family.

Ian and Mickey’s marriage turns into a ‘who is the man’ in the relationship fight. It escalates to the point where V has to intervene and layout some life facts for them to stop acting like animals. I love it when V snaps into action and she’s hilarious and strong in this entire episode, mostly because…

Kevin is an idiot. Flush with their drug money, Kev can’t help but show it off. He turns himself into a rapper in a music video so the second you see the money he put into his truck, you know what’s going to happen. Compounded with the fact that cannabis is a federally restricted drug despite being legal in the state of Illinois, banks can’t accept cash from sales because it’s illegal drug money (another major real-world issue). So the Ball’s have cash all over the place. Which, Kevin brags about. So of course, he gets robbed. It works out for Mickey though, as he offers his service as armed security so they can launder their money at the casino safely. Combined with their cut with Frank, the Ball’s are giving up half of their income. It’s better than being completely robbed.

Once the day is over, everyone lands back at the house and Deb pops off about how everyone left Franny to Frank. Lip is quick to point out that no one agreed to take her to school because no one heard Deb ask, and she took off assuming someone would take care of her. Deb keeps the blame off herself and Lip isn’t having it, telling her to take responsibility and to realize that everyone has their own problems to handle. Flush with the frustration of his nephew being deathly ill, Lip lets a brutal line fly. “Don’t blame us for you being a bad mother.”

That stops everyone dead in their tracks and Deb ducks upstairs in silence. Lip immediately regrets saying it but it’s done damage. Before this, Frank went to the Alibi to work with Kev and V and he talks about how great Franny is. So much so, he named a mix of cannabis after her. When Kevin says he’s never done that for any of his actual kids, Frank answers well, they’re all bitter, angry, and ungrateful. Wise V quickly suggests he think about why that is. How about those kids’ parents who might have caused those attitudes with their endless awful actions. The message gets across to Frank.

At the very end, Frank gets Franny to wear a dress, one of the things that she refused to do this morning. All dressed up, she poses for pictures for the upcoming Little Miss Southside competition that’s coming up. It’s a bit of sunshine for an otherwise bad day for Deb.

There were a lot of story overlaps which is my favorite way for Shameless to do its narratives. It’s always the most interesting when more family members get involved and interact. The show feels more like a cohesive ensemble when the writers do this. Frank forgetting what he was doing threw me for a loop so amongst everything going on, that’s the biggest moment in the season for me so far.

Go Home, Gentrifier!

This was a pretty quiet and tame week as a lot of set ups were started.

First, Carl had a disappointing first day at work. Pumped to hit the mean streets of Chicago as a cop, he’s partnered with a veteran officer who doesn’t put his neck out for anyone. This is the opposite of what Carl wants to do so it’s very frustrating. He sticks by him though, giving a good line about his commitment to being the best partner he can. He manages to get his superior officer to go out to celebrate all of the new recruits and it looks like Carl is going to get a new partner. Safe to say he’ll have a very different work ethic.

Liam has found a new hustle, selling PB&J sandwiches for cheap to the kids who can’t afford a hot meal at the cafeteria. Because their parents are behind on payments, they get nasty food. Liam sees an easy opening for monetary and social profit and starts to make his mark when one of the cafeteria ladies tries to stop him.

Lip continues his household hustle and runs into some bad part of the neighborhood problems. His house keeps getting vandalized. He just wants to live and own something nice for once so it’s another layer of struggle he doesn’t need. It turns out that their neighbors are the vandals. They have the same idea as Frank, keep the place just crappy enough to keep investors away and their hometown won’t be gentrified. This is it for just about everyone in the area. If they get priced out, there’s no place for them to go. Lip and Tami take the road of understanding, by doing a little (well, big if we’re being honest) tagging on the house and everyone is happy. They’ll fix up the inside and still be comfortable.

Frank takes the lead in V and Kev’s pot business. After agreeing to a three-way split, Frank finds the product through his street contacts after every legal contact has been cleaned out. With the pandemic in full swing, cannabis use is at an all-time high. Then he teaches them how to make proper edibles, making for increased profit. They sell all of it in a day and Frank wants a bigger cut because he did most of the work (he’s right, for once). V doesn’t like that and she tries to buy the weed herself, only to get busted by Frank, who will now take even more profit for the transgression. It’s fantastic maneuvering by Frank. No one is more streetwise than him so it’s a lot of fun to see him in his element. He put in some legit work–Frank might be lazy and a hardcore addict but he loves a hustle–and got rewarded for it. His cut was $1300. He’ll clear $2k no problem next time which is a small fortune. So the question is, how long will it last and how will it blow up in their face?

Feeling the spousal pressure to get a job, Mickey goes out and his first stop is to get a job at the warehouse Ian works in. The interview doesn’t go well in the best ‘Mickey trying to be honest’ kind of way and he leaves in a huff. Something does catch his eye. They throw out a lot of food when it expires. So, Mickey steals a truck and then steals a dumpster full of packaged food. He brings it to a contact he buys it for cheap after some Mickey fast talk. Frank isn’t the only one who knows how to work the system. An annoyed Ian, after seeing his skimmed first paycheck, can’t say anything when Mickey is rolling around in his cash.

Deb throws a princess party for Franny’s fifth birthday, which she doesn’t want. After all the prep she does, the only thing that hits the mark is Uncle Mickey showing up with toy guns. Yeah, that’s all they did for Deb.

In another quick update, Kermit and Tommy are keeping their distance from each other, and everyone notices. They won’t say why. My bet is on Kermit cracking first.