Shameless: Season 1, Episode 12: Re-Cap

Twelve weeks ago, I sat down to check out the premiere of a new show called Shameless. While I had never watched the British version, I was curious to see this show. At first look, Shameless seemed a little racy, a little rough, and most of all, very real. Throughout season one, Shameless has lived up to the billing. Heck, in the pilot alone how much booze, drugs, sex, and stealing did we see? Yeah, there will be people who don’t want to watch that and that’s their right, but you know what? That’s real life – all that stuff really happens, and it’s not necessarily the end of the world when it does. The Gallagher’s, just like everyone else, are trying to do enough to get by, while making sure to have some fun along the way. The Gallagher’s aren’t perfect, far from it, but who is? There wasn’t one character we met on the show this season who had anything I would describe as close to a perfect life, but they all find their own way to get by to make things work; they all find strength and as a result, some sort of happiness.  As Frank said in the open of the pilot episode, “We may not have much, but all of us to a man, knows the most important thing in this life … we know how to fuckin’ party.”

There wasn’t one weak episode all season long, the finale included. Finales can be tough to put together, because viewers want answers, but you can’t give viewers all the answers or there would be nothing to build next season off of. But the writers pulled this week’s episode off perfectly. We begin with Frank, whose conscience flashed this week when he woke up in the Jackson’s basement realizing what had happened between him and Karen the night before. It was a little creepy, I think even Frank would admit that. Not only, was she a minor, not only did she record the act, but she also has a close relationship with Frank’s eldest son, Lip.

Much of the finale revolves around the aftermath of that incident. Karen sends the video off to Eddie and everyone else with the misleading title, “Father of the Year.” Soon after, everyone on the South Side had seen the video from Eddie to his co-workers to other neighbors. In fact, Lip was one of the last to hear of it, but when he found out he was none too happy, this was of course after Karen broke things off earlier in the episode – now he knew why. To make things worse, around the same time, Lip came to the realization that he was actually falling in love with Karen – something he wasn’t sure what to make of. There was more fallout from the video as Eddie chased Frank around, before ultimately committing suicide in the season’s lowest moment. While Frank didn’t try to kill himself, Lip tried to kill him, ironically, with a car he had stolen. Lip didn’t run down Frank, instead crashing the car, but he got a few good jabs at his father before Kev stepped in to break things up.

The other major storyline revolved around Steve, Fiona, and Tony – the awkward love triangle of the season. We left off with Lip and Ian behind bars in episode 11, thanks to Tony who thought he was getting Steve five years in prison. Instead, what Tony got was a detective who wasn’t going to budge easily, ultimately Tony was forced to give up his Bears tickets (pre-season and playoffs included) to get Lip and Ian off. After the fact, Steve, not knowing Lip and Ian were out of prison already, offered Tony his newly purchased house, which he wouldn’t be needing as he planned on following Tony’s orders and taking off to Costa Rica the next day.

Steve of course, wasn’t going to flee the country without returning to the Gallagher house first and dropping off a ticket for Fiona to join him. Fiona, you can see is feeling conflicted and much like Lip’s realization, Fiona realizes that she’s falling in love also. After Steve leaves, one of the most poignant moments of the entire season takes place when Lip walks into the room in the dead of night and tells Fiona that it’s alright and that she should go off with Steve. V tells her the same thing the next day, more in typical V fashion, not quite in the same heartfelt way Lip delivered his message.

We end the episode with Fiona packing her bag, heading off to the train station, Steve waiting at the O’Hare Terminal, and finally Fiona turning around and heading back to the South Side to stay.  In the end, I feel like Fiona just couldn’t leave those kids, if she did how could she say she’s any different than Monica? She’s a hood girl who is deadly loyal to her family, and not even a guy she has fallen hard for can lure her away to the comfortable beaches of Costa Rica – that’s just not who she is. That’s not who the Gallagher’s are, they don’t need white sand beaches to have a good time and party – they have each other.

Other Observations:

• I really thought Fiona was leaving for a few minutes there…
• I’m not sure if that’s how it went down, but supposedly Fiona did follow through and leave the family on the British version of Shameless
• While I know Fiona used the excuse that she could finally make some steady money at Hal’s accounting office, that wasn’t the reason she stayed, you could see it on her face at the train station, she couldn’t leave the kids behind
• I guess this becomes the first cliffhanger of season 2, is Steve a goner? Does he return and if he does, will Fiona take him back?
• Curious to see what dynamic Tony moving in next-door will play?
• Curious if Steve’s mother ever got in touch him after Debbie returned to the Lischman household and spilled the beans
• By the way, at the end of day, I’m still Team Steve, I can’t warm to Tony
• Another major storyline this season took an interesting twist as Ian came out to Fiona, who then replied that she already knew … how?
• Sheila has made it 13 steps out of the house, can’t wait to see what kind of progress she’s made when next season begins!
• Oh Sheila, you’re really going to believe Lip kicked the shit out of Frank over $40?
• The last scene was priceless, and Frank deserved every last drop
• Ok, I think that’s it, how long until Season 2, Episode 1???