With the holidays over and Showtime giving us a week off to really sit in and think about how the first half of this season of Shameless, it’s pretty easy to get lost in what we still want to see from a series that has been on the air for nearly a decade. While I’ve expressed my doubts about what this season could accomplish, and where it may be lead astray, especially considering the lack of unity in the central characters of the show, I’ve also begun to wonder if the magic of the Gallaghers is gone. Like I’ve said oh so many times over, I want the whole family or not at all.
With the week-long break, I really thought about that statement and came to the conclusion that in a way I am entitled to my opinion, but at the same time the very same entitlement may make me look like a spoiled fan. Even so, while I can live with the eventuality of a grown family branching out on their collective own, I believe I’m still right in the fact that the purpose of the story, the series itself, is that it is actually themed around the family. What they do on their own is entertaining enough but again lacks any real consequences to a singular plot as a whole.
While some episodes in this season were still enjoyable without that sense of singularity I find myself on the ropes in the opinion of whether it is time for the series to end or not. While I am enjoying this season for what it is I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels it is lacking that traditional Shameless charm that has carried it so far. With that said I leave it up to the remainder of the series to sway me in one direction or the other, whatever the outcome may be.
Recap
The episode opens to quite the loud Gallagher household with incessant doorbell ringing, a baby Franny who will not stop crying and a whole group trying to use the bathroom which Debbie refuses to vacate due to constant use of pregnancy tests. All showing negative of course, did I mention that Fiona’s new pup is adorable? Lip decides to ease Debbie’s tension by offering to take her to Planned Parenthood to get a real test and Brad gets a morning surprise of naked Fiona as he’s sleeping in the tub. Fiona decides to just go to Nessa’s apartment to shower. We get to see more of Kassadi who is now Carl’s girlfriend a little too close to him for comfort, especially as she sits on the head of the toilet watching him pee…and underwear that says “all Carl’s”.
Frank begins his refugee relocation to Canada scheme in the hopes of helping those victimized by Trump’s America xenophobia while of course making a quick buck from them and smuggling cheaper drugs (mostly the medicinal kind) back to the US. At least he’s doing some sort of good even if it is tainted by classic Frank mentality. Watching him try to teach his new clients the Canadian anthem is especially giggle worthy.
Ian, Trevor, and at-risk kids begin to clean up the building they leased from Margot and soon discover that some of their queer kids have gone back home because their parents have forced them to a church where a priest will help them “pray the gay away”. Offensive, but sadly an all too real situation that unfortunately exists in the world. It mostly went unnoticed until one of theirs tried to kill themselves. Kev and V provide some filler from their last scenes as Kev continues to act in his dominant streak. When Lip and Debbs arrive at Planned Parenthood he notices that Sierra’s boyfriend is there with another woman who is pretty much almost in labor. The two exchange looks in uncomfortable silence. Fiona gets Nessa’s apartment all to herself.
Frank begins his journey to the great white north as he tries to make the best out of a long trip by playing confusing word games with his clients…and a goat. I may have also made a weird noise of excitement when I realized Sameer was played by the same actor as Salim from American Gods…but I digress. Lip has a quick word with Charlie about his pregnant companion and Lip gives him ultimatum to tell Sierra or he will himself. Ian and Trevor visit their friend who is bed ridden and find out more about this priest and his church. Fiona enjoys the freedom of living alone for a few hours only to be caught in mid naked dance by Ford in hilarious embarrassment. The two sort of flirt as he invites her to look at some famous architecture of south-side Chicago. He’s really into it and Fiona just kind of goes along with it. Carl and Kassadi’s sort of relationship moves to the uncomfortable and depraved as she begins to give him hand jobs in the middle of driving for Uber.
Lip finally starts to meet with sponsors only to realize that Brad was actually pretty tame compared to the ones that are out there. The best being his first who is basically taking no shit about him being too involved in others lives, while the others end up being way too old or way too weird. Frank takes his refugees into the wild to cross the border while telling hilarious stories about Canada playing on their light-hearted stereotypes. Kev finally starts to employ his newly found dominant mentality on Svetlana while at work and it helps to remove V’s sexual attraction to her and way more towards him. Fiona and Ford share a sweet moment as Ford tells her the beauty of certain buildings she only knows for what ghetto events happened there. It’s sweet to see Fiona have an exchange with a man who isn’t romantically interested in her, which is really cemented when she makes the first move and he tells her he’s not interested. Though not because she’s not good looking but rather because he thinks she’s too complicated. We can’t really tell if she took it as an insult or not at this point.
Ian and Trevor finally attend a meeting for the conversion church and it is very sickening to say the least. At this point they’re just gathering some intel for an eventual strike back until Ian can’t stomach the hatred anymore. One of Frank’s followers faints and he cuts open her Burka and carries her on his back for the remainder of the journey. Debbie has Liam take some sultry photos of her to put on craigslist for employment, “sexy welder girl looking for work”. Lip almost spills the beans about Charlies other woman to Sierra because of her obvious distress, but is quickly saved by Sierra correcting him and telling him her father had murdered her mother years ago and his parole is coming up in a few days. Lip reminds Charlie of his ultimatum especially with the long drive they’re going to take.
Debbs decides to get her weekly groceries from emergency food banks and acts slightly entitled for an unemployed mother seeking out assistance. The dinner she prepares for the family is pretty unappetizing though. Frank finally gets his flock to Canada and the goodbye is bittersweet for Frank has actually done a good thing for some very good people. Kassadi’s crazy begins to come out more and more as the episode goes on and Ian prepares a bible study of his own. Also the whole family bashes Fiona on why she is complicated. Again can’t tell if the intent was malicious or not, seems like no though.
Ian finally goes back to the church and has a bible quoting contest with the priest, a back and forth of sections in the bible that either condemn gay love or Ian’s pro love quotes focusing on loving your fellow human no matter what. The scene is absolutely fearless and astounding that not only does it resonate on the viewers of the show but even in show as it’s hits thousands of views on YouTube. Carl and Kassidi finally reach a weird impasse as he finally gets mad at her and she pulls out the extra crazy acting both completely dependent on him and just overwhelm him with really weird emotions. Yeah, I don’t like her. Kev’s dominance continues to reign as he pushes Svetlana farther and farther away from almost total control of The Alibi and it double serves him with V’s new found love for his new machoness.
The episode concludes with Fiona attending a party with Nessa and her wife to find that they are both pregnant. Funny enough Nessa’s wife is pregnant through artificial insemination thanks to Fords sperm…and Nessa is pregnant also thanks to Ford but she actually decided to have sex with him, being drunk and laughing the whole about it anyway. Fiona approaches Ford about it but not really seriously and as more of a “oh I’m the complicated one?” type of way. He’s also got a total of five kids already. Lip decides to see the first sponsor as she’s pretty much the most normal, if not a little unflinchingly honest. Debbs also finally gets her period assuring that she is not pregnant and Frank prepares for another refugee relocation job.
Review
Like the previous episode this one was probably one of the best this season. Even though we’re still dealing with mostly smaller stories, the ones that stuck with us really did for good reason. The most talked about of course being the whole conversion church situation with Ian and Trevor. As I mentioned in the recap it is a really sad reality that these types of places exist and even worse is that they use not only fear mongering in the form of eternal damnation but also treat queerness as an affliction or disorder. Beyond this incredibly ignorant mentality it was great to see Ian not only confront and conquer but to also do so using the same exact texts these intolerant zealots do. It’s a wonderful thing to see fear and hate brought down by love and respect.
In the most nuanced plot line of the episode, Frank’s journey to Canada with middle eastern refugees is an especially delightful segment to watch. Not only is the scene a critique on the xenophobia plaguing our country ever but also a general lack of humanity on some of our peers parts. What I loved most about this segment was that it had literally nothing to do with their religion or country of origin. Other than the fact that we know why they’re going to cross the border illegally Frank nor the writers put in anything associating them with a religion or country and choose to let us see just our fellow Man and Woman. Even for Frank this something completely different but carries a message we should all accept by now. Granted he does throw in a little quip here and there like calling them his “little brown bunnies” it’s hardly something to take as condescending or insulting and is mostly just Frank being Frank.
On of the weaker moments of the episode was Carl’s current involvement with Kassadi. I mean I liked his story earlier on in the series in trying to find a way to afford to get back into military school. Then suddenly she appeared and made things super weird for everyone and his return to the academy completely went out the window. I mean, I’m sure he is going to go back, he already has the money for the next semester but where will that leave her. At this point she is already very manipulative and uses negative emotion to get what she wants from him. I have a feeling this will lead to conflict when he decides it is time to go back to school and whether she’ll let him or not. Time will tell.
On a final note, this episode did seem to ignore the last few minutes of the previous episode where Ian seemed to be under some heavy emotional distress. He talked about something that may need to be done but was pretty vague about it and didn’t respond to Fiona when asked him what it meant. While his mind was no doubt preoccupied with what was going on this episode I would really hope they follow up on this as it could lead to an increasingly emotional and authentic experience in story telling.
