Episode Title: ‘Fiona Interrupted’
Writer: John Wells
Director: John Wells
Previously on “Shameless”:
Episode 2.11: “Just Like The Pilgrims Intended”
Story:
Frank (William H. Macy) calls out to Monica outside the hospital, promising to never leave her while over at Sheila’s, she and Jody discuss what to do with Karen’s baby. Meanwhile, Lip (Jeremy Allen White) watches over a sleeping Karen (Laura Slade Wiggins) in the hospital. Fiona (Emmy Rossum) and Jimmy (Justin Chatwin) begin to have sex when Debbie (Emma Kenney) and Carl (Ethan Cutkosky) come in the room, looking for comfort after Monica’s suicide attempt.
The next day, Karen tells Lip she wants the baby nowhere near her while Fiona asks to meet Jimmy’s family. Monica (Chloe Webb) tells Frank she signed herself in for sixty days as he tries to convince her to come home. Karen returns with Lip and demands Sheila (Joan Cusack) get rid of the baby or she’ll call the police.
Fiona learns that she passed the GED and stops by Mandy’s to get Lip to hold up his end of the bargain and go back to school but he refuses.
Frank gets a bar patron’s janitor son to sneak him and Debbie into the hospital in an effort to break Monica out. However, once inside, he finds Monica in bed with another woman. At Sheila’s, Tony (Tyler Jacob Moore) comes by with another officer after Karen calls the police. However, after witnessing Karen’s flagrant disregard for her own child, the officers leave without arresting Sheila or taking the baby.
While out to dinner with Jimmy’s wealthy family, Ian (Cameron Monaghan) realizes the older man he had a one-night stand with is Jimmy’s father, Lloyd (Harry Hamlin). In the bathroom, Lloyd suggests to Ian that he’s not gay, just open to sleeping with men.
Frank and Debbie help Monica and her lesbian lover, Jill (Jenna Elfman) escape from the hospital. Once outside, Monica tells Debbie she’s better off without her and drives off with Jill.
Back at the Gallagher’s, Jimmy tells Fiona he loves her just as Estefania (Stephanie Fantauzzi) shows up, looking for help after Marco beat her. After Mandy tells Lip he should go home, he goes to school and takes the AP Physics test. Sheila tells Karen she’s choosing the baby over her after her daughter gave her an ultimatum. Ian tries to tell Fiona about Lloyd but gets interrupted when Frank bursts and tries to steal Ian’s beer. The two get into a fight and Estefania knocks Frank out with a frying pan. They then dump him in the yard.
Steve and Fiona have sex while Estefania invites Lip to sleep on the couch with her. Frank wakes up, covered in snow and walks off.
Breakdown:
There’s nothing “normal” about the Gallaghers or their group of friends. Which is why last week’s celebration of a holiday most normal families happily recognize each year ended with Monica’s bloody suicide attempt.
The real Gallagher family Thanksgiving came at the end of this second season finale, with Lip back home and in school, Fiona getting her GED and Frank passed out in the backyard with Monica once again in the wind with a new lady love. Finally, something for this family to be thankful for.
Another reason to give thanks? Sheila and Jody finally stood up to the increasingly unbearable Karen. As perhaps the most f***ed up for her traumas, among “Shameless'” lot of emotionally damaged adolescents, Karen, like Lip, was in need of some tough love. Who would have thought Sheila and Jody would be the ones to dish it out?
On that note, how ridiculously perfect is the neighborhood’s newest family consisting of agoraphobic Sheila, dimwitted softie, Jody and their developmentally challenged Asian baby? Now Liam won’t be the only kid on the block who doesn’t look like his deadbeat parents.
As the season came to a close, most things went back to “normal.” Again, I use quotes because nothing is normal about “Shameless.” Lip is back home, Fiona and Jimmy rekindled their romance, Monica’s gone and Frank’s passed out on the lawn.
Of course, this wouldn’t be a proper season finale without a few loose ends. Karen is striking out on her own and Estefania’s back in the picture, though she doesn’t seem to mind Fiona and Jimmy’s relationship. And Ian is getting booty call texts from Jimmy’s father, Lloyd (played nicely by Harry Hamlin, who still knows how to woo the boys, thirty years after he starred in “Making Love”). And on that note, hey it’s Jenna Elfman as Monica’s criminally insane lesbian lover, Jill!
And then there’s the character growth by which we might measure the season as a whole. While on the surface, things may appear to be status quo, this second “Shameless” outing saw plenty of growing pains for the show’s major players. Lip has finally come back down to Earth not only about his family, but his schooling and Karen. Ian’s learning not to be a plaything for the boys (and men) he sleeps with, Sheila and Jody got fed up with Karen’s tantrums and Fiona opened herself up again to the con artist formerly known as Steve.
As for Frank, aside from some moments of emotional vulnerability with Monica, he’s still the same self-centered drunken lout around which this show centers. Indeed, he is the Gallagher family’s rock; heavy, useless and taking up space. That’s one thing that will probably never change.
