Writer: Sheila Callaghan
Director: Mimi Leder
Previously on “Shameless:”
Episode 4.07 “The Legend of Bonnie and Carl”
On lockdown at home, Fiona (Emmy Rossum) needs a fix, be it beer, vodka or cookie dough but really it’s family that makes it all better.
Let’s be clear on who exactly qualifies as “family” to Fiona: everyone except her old dying drunkard dad, Frank (William H. Macy) and new scheming old sister, Samantha (Emily Bergl). No one wants anything to do with these two, except maybe Debbie (Emma Kenney) and Carl (Ethan Cutkosky), who refuse to take orders from Fiona since she became a felon. After Fiona destroys her “virginity countdown” art project, Deb turns to Samantha for advice how to handle her non-boyfriend, Matt and Carl has Frank go to school with him to end his suspension for bullying. The way Deb sees it, Fiona is a “total spaz” who’s afraid of ending up alone. Actually, that doesn’t sound too far off the mark.
Not being able to leave the house can make anyone a little spastic, but for someone like Fiona, whose life is a constant hustle to keep her family fed, clothed and housed, it’s absolutely maddening. Instead of getting her life back on track, Fiona downs vodka and burns dinner. To her and Vee (Shanola Hampton), it’s just another laughable Gallagher calamity, but for Lip (Jeremy Allen White) it’s the last straw. He grabs Liam and Carl and takes them to an “ABC” party at his dorm – ABC as in “anything but clothes.”
The Gallaghers are used to getting kicked when they’re down but not by each other, except maybe Frank. For Fiona, an empty house is an empty heart. She calls Lip at school and tells him she can’t take it anymore. He brings the kids home and in the process loses the best wingman he’ll ever have in little Liam.
Fiona’s dark odyssey may not be over just yet, however. Robbie (Nick Gehlfuss) drops by to check on her and find out if he should be watching his back for the cops. Fiona tells Robbie he ruined her life and slams the door in his face but that doesn’t mean she won’t sleep with him again. It would be nice to think Robbie’s surprise visit represents closure to that part of Fiona’s life, but the Gallagher heart wants what it wants and it’s almost never good.
While Fiona stares at the walls, the rest of the Gallaghers continue to grow up, without her. Ian (Cameron Monaghan) brings Mickey (Noel Fisher), who’s slowly becoming more comfortable with his sexuality, to an upper class after-hours party. But just because he can handle making out in a club doesn’t mean he’s ready for sleepovers with breakfast. He is a “pimp,” after all with a pregnant Russian prostitute wife who makes it clear to Ian she’ll “bash (his) orange head” if he comes between her and Mickey.
Ian and Fiona’s storylines provide most of the weight in this episode but Kev (Steve Howey) and Vee also deal with some heavy stuff when they realize that Carol (Vanessa Bell Calloway) wants to keep her newborn son. Vee convinces Kev that letting her mom raise the boy is the right thing to do. And with Kev looking to buy a grenade launcher from some guy operating out of a van in an alley, it’s probably for the best.
As for Deb, she gets her period and some advice from Samantha on how to run “a long con” on Matt so he’ll see her as the woman she’s now become. Deb may be a woman, but she’s also a Gallagher and they don’t have the best track record with men. Just consider who sets the example.
“Hope Springs Paternal” puts the Gallagher family back together after a long but necessary separation. Everyone’s back home with new problems, arrest records, menstrual cycles and maybe even a yet-to-be-discovered venereal disease. And Fiona wouldn’t have it any other way.
