Rite of Passage

Starting with my main complaint from last week, Sammi and Chuckie appear to show they are alive and well. The explosion at Sheila’s was way smaller than it looked like when it happened. The only visible damage shown is scorch marks on Sammi’s trailer, the house actually looks fine. No word on the dead man or Sheila.

Sammi’s problem now is that the person who owns the lot she’s got her trailer on is selling, so she’s getting kicked out. Frank promised her a new trailer with the insurance money, but it’s gone and Sammi still isn’t wise to how much her father actually lies. She does at the end though.

With Sheila gone and no money, Frank has no place to stay. He hatches an idea to use Wade’s weakness about his son’s death (Frank has his liver) to crash at his place. It almost works until Wade’s wife veto’s the growing insanity…until she pulls out her own crazy card.

Fiona and Gus make plans to tell Fiona’s family about their marriage, but when Jackie OD’s, that puts the plans on the back burner. Despite being surrounded by drugs her entire life (and the worst they have to offer) it makes Fiona fear for her future.

A big part of Shameless is how no one talks to each other. They keep things to themselves until it’s often too late. Everyone is off doing their own things and getting in trouble. It isn’t until the law catches wind when it blows back on everyone and it can’t be ignored. Fiona  and Lip finally find themselves time to actually talk, where Lip says he going back to school early. Working a horrible construction job and realizing that his hometown life is one of a circle of misery he realizes his only way to take really take care of himself and his family is to get out. It started right when he got home talking to his old friends and solidified with the stunt with Mickey (hope that AK doesn’t get dusted for prints, you shmuck). If anyone has a chance to get out, it’s Lip. Here’s hoping.

Carl is awful at math so he’s still awful at selling drugs. Debbie is going all out to be a prize fighter to impress her crush. Brother and sister to join forces to make money filming cat fights. This is not going to go well, Debbie is going to meet the wrong girl and get dropped.

Kevin and V’s side story continues to push them apart. Everything V says and does is stupid and giving the go ahead for Kevin to take off. Her last line to Kevin was pretty shocking (despite being a small part of the show, both actors do great work with what they are given).

Mickey and Ian are straight up broken now. Ian’s mind pushes him into unsafe decisions that freak out Mickey so bad he tells Ian he has to see a doctor. It’s been building every single episode and the ultimatum finally came. Ian bolts with Mickey’s son and now there is no telling what’s going to happen. Who can Mickey turn to? No way he’s going to call the cops. He didn’t know how to handle Ian before now, kidnapping is a whole new level. Ian is now a danger to others.

Let’s see, what else? Oh, Jimmy is back! Enjoy handling that monkey wrench Fiona!

The walkers return from their mid-season hiatus in spectacular form. One of the most cinematic episodes of the series and a shocking final episode for a great character. Beth’s death in episode 8 was a brutal hit to the group and I didn’t think we’d see another one being taken so quickly.

The show is never up-beat per se, but things are looking crazy bleak right now. It’s been a long time since anything positive has happened and it now feels like death is closer to them all now. They’ve been on the road for a long time now and it’s grinding them into the dirt like chalk underneath a boot.

There was a lot of nice foreshadowing this episode, director and all around special FX wizard Greg Nicotero really cranked up the visual story telling. Red hearings for the funeral, bits in the beginning come back to make sense and the overall spiritual and reflective tone worked well despite all the surrounding carnage. There was a lot of shady things about what happened to that neighborhood (the wall being knocked down from the outside, the oddly mutilated walkers all over the place) which means some real psychopaths are close by. Really great touches to raise the anxiety level.

Great return for the show, it’s keeping up the run of this overall great season. Really looking forward to what’s coming next.

Noblesse Oblige

This week we find Raylan sniffing around leads to prove that Boyd is responsible for the bank heist. Explosives were used and Raylan has an old friend that may be able to point him in the right direction.

While Raylan is in full detective mode, Boyd and Ava are given the spotlight for this episode. I absolutely love when these two are given screen time together by themselves. In the past they were Bonnie and Clyde, but their relationship now is (to put it mildly) on the rocks. It’s upsetting to see these two not on the same side. They are both pretending to each other and it’s really sad. The scene where they are drinking all night at the bar is one of my favorites, seeing them genuinely enjoy each others company.

Ava gets squeezed by the marshals near the beginning and she’s honestly giving it her all to get some info out of Boyd for them. They say she’s too slow but give her some space! Boyd can smell rats from a mile away (and he’s suspicious). I was happy to see Raylan speak up for her, it’s reassuring to know that even when he’s still connecting dots, he’s not stupid about pushing things that shouldn’t be.

Things got really ugly for Boyd and Ava near the end and for some reason it made me think Boyd was going to pack up and take off. I guess it’s a testament to how fantastic of an actor Walton Goggins is as seeing him being kidnapped and threatened, really put on his ass, freaked him out. Plus, he finds out he was being used by Hale and Duffy (more Hale maybe?) when the offered the heist to him. Avery isn’t the kind of guy you want someone to shove you in front of. Boyd didn’t have all the info to properly prepare. That really makes him mad which brings out old Boyd in full force (Duffy telling his muscle to make sure he takes Boyd’s cigarettes when he shows up was perfect). Walton brings out the fire in Boyd in that last scene, telling Hale and Duffy that he’s going to go for Avery full tilt. Great ending to another quality episode.

A Night to Remem– Wait, What?

I have my first problem of the season with this episode. Last week, Frank blew up Sheila’s house with a man inside and Chuckie was presumably in the trailer right next to it. This week, that entire thing was completely ignored. A guy died in a destroyed house and Sheila pulled a grand theft RV and there is not a word about it. Sammi and Chuckie don’t appear and Sheila is presumably on the run, but never mentioned. Sheilas’s house is in that neighborhood, how does no one even mention it?

So instead of continuing a major plot point, A Night to Remem…opens with Frank waking up next to a park fountain covered in pigeon droppings. He’s really excited to go pick up his insurance settlement from breaking his leg last year. When he goes to collect, Lou tells him he already came by yesterday and had his money wired into a bank account set up for him. Frank can’t avoid being Frank when he comes into money. He went crazy that night when he got his hands on the $121,000 and spends the day retracing his footsteps to find out what he did (spoiler: a lot of really bad decisions).

Fiona and Gus are in loooooooooooooove! Their bliss turns into a shotgun wedding which seems like a poor idea. No one really knows yet, so we gotta see how things shake out when they do. Since getting married in less than a day was so easy hopefully a divorce will be as simple to do.

V and Kevin also got a bit of time, with V kinda, sorta cheating on Kevin. V is ruining their relationship with her nonsense, she could be doing irreparable damage now (and I don’t think anyone will side with her).

Carl spends some good time with Frank after dipping his toe into dealing drugs. Unfortunately, he’s an idiot and manages to screw it up on his first go. Turns out Frank is great with fractions, but it remains to be seen if Carl can get himself out of trouble…he should be able find a scam to cover the $100.

I was hoping for more out of Debbie’s sex scandal, but it makes sense when I think about it. Matty isn’t going to say anything to anyone. A man getting date raped is almost never reported so I don’t think anything is official is going to happen over it. But word did get out about from the kids at the party and when Debbie gets called out by her ex-friend, Debbie goes on the offensive and starts swinging in true Gallagher fashion. This leads her to her next crush, which leads to her picking up boxing. Not sure what’s going to happen to her, but this could lead to better choices. Come to think of it, Fiona is lucky Deb’s party didn’t get her sent back to jail for breaking parole.

Lip took off for Miami to visit his girlfriend (?) Amanda where their true wealth is shown off. A ridiculous house with a nanny for each of Amanda’s younger sisters. Considering her dad paid him $10k to take a hike, you’d think he’d be more angry with him there. In a surprising revelation, Amanda’s dad is an engineer and smokes pot, something Lip both admires. They hit it off, Lip genuinely excited to talk to a successful adult he can relate and look up to now. Amanda even seemed pretty stoked about it (for now anyway).

Finally, Ian has another manic mood swing. After a piece of lost luggage get’s delivered to Mickey’s, Ian gets the great idea to go back to the airport and claim more luggage. By night time, he’s taken and organized the contents of dozens of suit cases. The stuff is spilling out of the house. Mickey is genuinely shocked and without his sister for support, is starting to realize that Ian is really sick and that it’s beyond anything he can really help with.

Cash Game

The plot thickens!

Boyd doesn’t get what he was looking for from the bank heist (a boat load of cash) and goes to his partners to shake their trees. He wanted this to be quick and easy so he could take off with Ava. Along with this, we find out that the guy looking to buy up all the property, Ty, is part of a para-military group. This guy is a problem. His not so subtle threat to the older couple would put anyone on edge. The three guys (so far) served together and are working with someone to fund them. This, of course, has the guy Boyd’s partners wanted to rip off (Calhoun) right in the middle.  Calhoun realizes that his life is more important than money a little too late…maybe Raylan can help him.

So this revelation brings Raylan into close proximity to Boyd. Nipping at his heels really. Any scene with these two automatically means great things.

1) The talk Boyd and Raylan have outside the office was just delicious. Amazing writing and acting. It’s the stuff that this season will be remembered for.

2) Ava and Boyd confrontation. Holy animal, when Ava comes back home with the paper work Boyd hid in the shed! Raylan freaked her out when he implies Boyd wanted her to find that stuff (he didn’t). She decides to go on the offensive and it works. So intense, so good. When he leaves she practically passes out when she gets back into the house.

3)Choo-choo! Oh my god this new character is the best! I love him! Awesome introduction, he should just get better and better. He looks to be the muscle of the Ty group, but man is he funny. I’ve never seen Duke Davis Roberts before, he’s a hell of an actor. Perfect fit for the show.

The Two Lisas

This week’s title refers to the lesbian couple that are trying to buy up all the property in the neighborhood. The gentrification duo who are Frank’s nemesis…but not enough of of threat for Frank to deal with directly because he’s too busy with his basement brewery. He enlists Carl to come up with some scare tactics to get the Lisas out of the neighborhood, but it doesn’t work.

This was a major relationship episode, everyone is getting twisted up:

Sheila wants out and she wants it now. with or without Frank. She goes as far as getting a down payment from blonde Lisa. She starts to look into getting a swank RV to live in and Frank manages to talk her down until his brewery plan blows up in his face. Plus he basically pimps out Sammi, who rightfully flips out on him. One of the best Shameless arguments in the street from this.

Kevin and V are still at odds over their kids. The rub and tug over the bar gets shut down by the cops so V takes matters into her own hands to get a new lucritive buisness up there which takes up all her time (which Kev is not too happy about).

Moving on from any potential relationship with her boss, Fiona agrees to a date with the singer of a band that keeps hitting on her. He turns out to be a quality liar, but hey, she finds out right away and can spare herself the drama. She strikes it up with the bass player (who is an amazing singer) so maybe they can be happy together (probably not).

Mandy’s crap boyfriend gets a job out of state and tells her she’s coming with him. Mickey and Ian object and Ian turns to Lip for help to convince her to stay. Lip’s non-ability to commitment and fear of feelings push her away. The scene where they are together for the last time (?) was heartbreaking.

The Carl and Debbie raging teenage hormone battle reaches new heights. Carl has developed a skill that gets the girls to give him a hilarious nickname. Debbie’s idea to throw a party pushes her into a crazy realm of adulthood that she had no clue about. Her age and rush to grow up has made her life worse, not better. She has no idea which way is up now. Pretty ingenious idea from the writers, this is the most intense thing happening aside from Frank’s catastrophe.

Great episode, some really crazy stuff happened. Next week should see a lot of fallout.

Final season premiere: Fate’s Right Hand

Justified has never let me down  and it looks like the show is going into the end with both guns blazing. The best parts of the show, Raylan and Boyd (and Ava too) are on a collision course that should solidify Justified as one of the best TV shows ever made.

Raylan’s last gig is to get Boyd. A lot of bodies (and relationships) piled up last year and Raylan is certain he can get Boyd. He goes after Dewey Crowe right when he gets out of jail to help him take down Boyd, but Dewey isn’t having any of it. If there is one guy Dewey doesn’t trust it’s Raylan (Dewey is probably my favorite character on the show) since he’s put him through the ringer so many times.

But Ava! Raylan has Ava which is some intense stuff. Side note: Joelle Carter is so good as Ava, she’s just brilliant. So Raylan has a reluctant mole next to Boyd. Ever the criminal, Boyd sees things crumbling around him and can’t think of a reason to stick around. He sets up a bank job to get some money to escape this Kentucky hole in the ground home town for good. Raylan knows he’s up to no good and Boyd knows he’s gotta play the best game of his life.

The final scene shocked me speechless. Boyd is determined and so is Raylan…this is going to be amazing to see play out.

I’m the Liver

With episode 2, we spread our legs a bit. Fiona is now off of house arrest but is still on parole, so she’s gotta be careful. Frank and Sheila get invited to the parents of the kid that Frank got his liver from. Sammy buts in making things a mess which drives Sheila even farther to the deep end. There are developers looking to buy the neighborhood and Sheila is hot to dump the house she loves just to get away from Sammy. But Frank says no, claiming the fight against gentrification is way more important than Sheila’s selfish reasons.

Veronica and Kevin marriage becomes even more strained because of the helping hand Svetlana gives Kevin and Debbie. This has the side effect of Fiona pulling her head out of the clouds for the first time in months and pays her sister some much needed attention. Debbie is really a boat without a rudder and really needs some guidance. This was my favorite plot line as at the end, Fiona realizes that Debbie is on the cusp of making adult decisions that will shape her for the rest of her life. She’s not a child any more.

For the Gallagher boys, Lip gets a construction job that basically lays him out at the end of the day. Ian gets into a situation that sends him spiraling into bi-polar episode that could have destroyed him. Mickey and his sister Mandy figure out a Shameless plan to keep him safe.

A nice episode of growth, there’s a lot of great stuff going on for everyone.