I Am A Storm

The hustle continues.

The neighbors strike back against Frank’s homeless shelter after an air conditioning unit is stolen from a local school (that AC unit might be in Frank’s possession right now. But you didn’t hear that from me.) A neighborhood meeting is called and despite a rousing speech by Frank, it’s voted to be shut down. Frank grabs a few kids from his shelter and sets up a last ditch effort stand in to keep it from going forward.

Not much Lip and Ian interaction this week. Ian, on the outs with Caleb, gets resituated at work and meets a new guy. This guy turns out to be trans and Ian is introduced to a whole new network of LGBTQ people he was completely ignorant of.

Lip still struggles with his unpaid internship. With Fiona tossing family duties to him, he gets mad that he has to deal with their constant problems. With the hopes of eventually making big bucks, he dismisses Fiona’s past and current efforts again. Pissed, she lets him know what an ingrate he is and charges forward in continuing to turn Pattie’s Pies around. Curious about how the company really makes its money, Lip guesses the password to the server room and finds out what they’re doing illegally. The next day management lets him know they knew he was in there and not so subtly offer to bribe him with about a dozen iPads. About to sign an NDA, the Feds come a knocking again and Lip hightails it out of there with one other intern.

Carl has an actual positive father figure with Dom’s father (much to her dismay). He tells Carl about military school and he’s seriously considering it. It would be about as major a change as he could ever do and the only real question is if he could make it through. It’s a scene of discipline and rules he’s never faced before. Other’s like him have certainly done it so it’s not that far-fetched. A future for Carl not wandering the streets may actually be starting.

Deb isn’t wandering the streets yet, but she’s close to it. Fiona has drawn the line and Deb is not happy about it. Everything Fiona warned her about having a kid is true. After striking out with some not too good advice from Svet (that could get her killed if we’re being real about it) there’s a moment where it looks like Deb would come around. “Why am I the only one you haven’t offered a job to?” “Will you show up when I tell you and listen to me? I will be your boss you know.” “NO.” Deb keeps raging against the machine and it’s getting her nowhere. She’s got more Frank in her than she knows.

Fiona is making a lot of changes at Pattie’s and it looks like it’s paying off. Even with her family strife, she’s sticking to her guns and his on her own path for the first time in her life. It’s great to see Fiona flex her muscles (also, kudos on the directing this episode Emmy!)

Kevin and V get into some drama with Svet’s dad. V doesn’t trust him at all (for good reasons) and when he disappears with the kids for most of the day, they freak out. Turns out to be a false alarm, he was out making them a thank you portrait with the kids. With the speed bump up and over with (and a side of sexy punishment from Svet) a long looming specter rears its head again. Their relationship with Fiona is deteriorating. They barely talk as their busy lives have pulled them apart. Fiona swings by for a favor that V isn’t to keen on and it starts a fight. Svet butts in, which Fiona shuts down with the quickness, and Fiona storms away. Svet blows it off saying they’ve outgrown her, but they’ve been friends for ages. It’s not that simple for them just stop talking. Through the whole series Fiona and V have confided in each other in the dark times and it would be a shame for that relationship to end. Here’s hoping they can come together and talk instead of just bouncing off each other when they cross paths for a flash.

Home Sweet Homeless Shelter

An episode of growth (depending on your perspective) for Fiona.

It’s one problem after another and Fiona gets called into them all. She’s trying to keep the diner running and it isn’t going well. She’s cutting costs to keep staff and the food quality has taken a hit. Ian has a manic episode at work and she cuts out to go help him. When she gets back, the place is falling apart with the cook having walked out. Then she gets a call about Deb. Not caught stealing strollers like I thought, but shoplifting. The amount of stuff she tried to smuggle was ridiculous, she got way too confident in her skills. Fiona gets her out of getting arrested by claiming low IQ. A close call that Deb has to take on the chin.

Looking into the woman who owns the diner, Fiona gets inspired to take total control and put herself first. In a family meeting, the kids are soon to never forget, she tells them everyone (but Liam) has monthly rent to pay for or they are on their own. If they want to stay together as a family, they are now forced to prove it. The biggest line, she no longer wants to be the emergency contact for everyone. She can’t provide for herself if she keeps getting pulled in every direction at once.

Frank has taken on a different approach with his kids. He’s gotten new ones. At the local homeless shelter. On a mission with his new found inspiration of getting a “do over”, Frank scrambles to provide for his family. When the shelter they are in gets the notice of shutting down in a week, Frank sets up Gallagher’s Home for the Homeless in an open house down the street from his original family. Frank had a busy but rather successful day of grifting.

Carl gets hit with the ax from his first real love. When Dom’s father comes barreling at him for giving her gonorrhea, Carl looks for answers. He gets tested and it comes back negative. He turns to his older brothers who have to break the harsh news to him. Carl doesn’t take the news lying down. Let’s so how quickly he bounces back.

Kevin’s new business venture pivots to a different business model that turns out to pay way better for way less work. Svet’s dad makes a surprise appearance and that throws the trio’s relationship off. I like how the show keeps their plotlines weird and quick. It’s like getting updates on your neighbors that may or may not be more dysfunctional than you.

Very little on Lip this week. His internship sucks and he has to learn to suck it up.

My favorite moments on Shameless are usually between Lip and Ian. Brothers close in age, they have always been the closest and can relate to each other the best. The helpful ear Lip offers Ian was touching and greatly needed. I hope they continue to anchor each other because they both need it.

Warning: Spoilers all over the place.

They could have named this season Flight of the Phoenix. The seasons starts with Mutiny starting to make a name for itself and not even by the end of the season, it’s all ashes.

Out of all of Joe’s failings, Ryan’s death was the worst of all of them. Ryan was young and inexperienced in just about every way. Like Cameron, brilliant, but he didn’t make it out the other end. Cameron got burned but her situation had a simpler path out of the rubble. Ryan never thought of (or knew of) how Joe makes his business moves in secret. This made him pull the trigger, for what he believed would be in helping and defending his mentor, when it actually was the worst thing he could have done. Plus, Ryan found out he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was. That’s rough for a guy who thinks he’s the smartest person in every room. He thought he could cover his tracks only to find first hand that there was tech out there that he had no idea about.

Episode 8 I’ll call The Coup. Donna and Cameron had always been a great but dysfunctional team. They made it work for awhile, but those last few times where Cam would disappear (and she always held up progress on Mutiny because she insisted on doing everything herself) pushed Donna over the edge of tolerance. In this episode, Gordon is little more than a passenger, Voting Cameron out of the company is probably the best scene in the series so far. Intense and crushingly sad. Donna had her reasons and as everyone else did back her, it wasn’t a crazy idea. Cut off like a diseased limb, Cameron goes to Japan with Tom to work in the videogame industry.

Episode 9 sent me for a loop. They jump ahead 4 years to 1990. Donna’s plan failed. Mutiny collapsed. She’s divorced from Gordon and has made partner at Diane’s VC company. Gordon has managed to make the networking plan that he and Joe were working when Ryan killed himself to its fledgling status.  Joe is all alone day trading stocks by the look of it. Cameron has been in Japan the entire time making Space Bike into a successful series with Atari. When Donna finds out Cam is going to be at Comdex, she reaches out to Joe to help get all of them together to discuss a new business venture.

It was great to see Joe and Cameron together and having fun. Their scars healed over a little too much. Seeing bullheaded Donna was quite a bit different. So the big idea is the World Wide Web. In 1990 the Internet was still tiny. A few companies had access to it, it was tiny and was more or less just for academia. These people, the visionary, the engineer, the coding savant and Donna could be the ones to build the door that gets the public online.

The contempt in the room is a hurdle, to say the least. Joe butts heads with Tom (everyone more or less does that with Tom) but the real sticking point is between Cameron and Donna. When Cam admits that she’s as much to blame for the implosion of Mutiny as Donna, is a big revelation and admission for her. Then the other revelation comes on just as strong: she can’t work with Donna again. A flip comment about ditching Joe if Cam wanted to was all it took. What they originally had, what made their work so fun and exciting, is gone. She can never trust Donna again. Given the ultimatum, Donna leaves only to book a flight to Sweden. This leaves the original trinity to work together, for now.

A lot happened this season and it was all pretty great. It’s confirmed that next season will be the last and the fallout from season 3 has me teed up and ready to go for it.

Swipe, Fuck, Leave

This was a follow-up episode. With everyone’s paths on a certain track, we rolled along them to the next station.

Frank escalates his occupation by barricading the second floor of the house for his own use after Fiona knocks a hole into the bedroom door and throws all his things out. That starts a war of escalation where the kids cut off his water, he lets a raccoon loose in the house and the kids finally bust through his cement block walls. All the while Frank lets everyone know about his disgust with them and will be disowning them all.

Debbie continues her Craigslist steal and flip until she almost kidnaps a baby. The money has been so good I’m sure this won’t deter her, she’ll just be more careful. Every time she steals I’m shocked she gets away with it. As an aside, where Deb sleeps during Frank’s occupation is never mentioned. Best I can tell she was on the kitchen floor.

Ian has boyfriend trouble where he can’t come to grips with Caleb’s assertion that he isn’t cheating when he sleeps with a woman. This sends Ian reeling and actually sleep with a random woman to see if “no one is actually 100% gay” like Caleb says. Well, Ian is 100% sure he is 100% gay. Looks like his happy and healthy relationship is coming to an end.

Lip gets an internship at some new tech company and when the feds come a knocking to confiscate some servers, he witnesses one of the head guys deleting info. This makes Lip really curious and this could turn into Lip’s leverage to turn his internship into a paying gig. Not too sure of the play just yet. Meanwhile, he’s walking that narrow line of sobriety. When popping into The Alibi for a beer, as per his set rules, Frank comes in with Liam and that exchange convinces him to skip this drink. Later, he goes out with Fiona and her new employees…

Fiona gets total control of the diner. After a rather tense situation when going to Chad’s office she’s given full reign to get the diner in shape (or it’s being shut down). With that fire underneath her, she hires some new girls and fires off who she sees as dead weight. With new outfits for her new staff (short skirts!) Fiona is pushing to get the diner into the black at warp speed. She goes out with her new hires for the first time since her disastrous wedding day, gets plastered and uses Tinder for the first time. After having a successful night, Fiona goes to V’s to share her joy at 2am and V shuts her down, telling her it’s gotta wait for daylight. Fiona’s reaction was hilarious. Now about Lip. One of the new hires has the hots for him and it’s pretty clear they are so right for each other in all the wrong ways. He’s apprehensive about drinking in such an environment, knowing it’s dangerous for him. There will be no happy ending for these two.

Carl is on the mend and has to see his doctor twice after ripping his stitches. At the very end he hits his goal of 72 hours of healing and it’s game on underneath the stairs with Dom.

The neighborly threesome hits the rough patch. Kevin is given house husband duty while Svet and V work the bar. Feeling like he’s being put well below his station and not appreciated, he’s inspired to start a new business. Nook & Fannies might work! Might.