Shameless – Are You There Shim? It’s Me, Ian

By: Ariba Bhuvad

Fiona (Emmy Rossum) is comfortable in her life and even has a thriving relationship with live-in boyfriend, Ford (Richard Flood). Remember, Ford? The guy who is a father to many, many children as a result of spreading his seed around to help those in need. Well, it seems like things are going surprisingly well, which is a plus in Fiona’s book of damaged and troubled relationships. However, Fiona being Fiona she can’t seem to shake the forever suspecting and jealous person inside of her and begins to question Ford’s motives due to the fact that he has two phones and someone named Patty keeps calling him.

This is a great insight and callback to the person Fiona is because no matter how much she has grown as a person and found success, she can’t ignore the person she’s always been as a result of her past relationships and complicated upbringing. She tries to hack into Ford’s phone but the darn retinal scan prevents her from doing it. However, she does go as far as prying his eyes open while he’s sleeping to get access to his phone. Of course, this wakes him up and she confesses to being curious about his two phones and the random calls he has been getting. She soon learns that the phone is for international purposes to communicate with his mom. Ford lets her keep the phone so she can see for herself, but long story short Fiona lets the whole thing go after dropping his phone in the toilet. Oh, Fiona.

Ford isn’t Fiona’s only concern as she is still trying to deal with Ian’s (Cameron Monaghan) arrest. In order to get bail money to get him out she decides to get an appraisal for the apartment building so she can get the loan money she’ll need–$50,000. While this idea seems like bad news, it’s nice to see Fiona still have that motherly instinct within her to protect her family. But Ford and the rest of her family don’t seem to share that sentiment. It seems like there is concern over whether or not Ian would show up for the trial after being bailed out. His actions don’t seem to bring any assurance given that he has devoted his time within the prison walls to bring about change. He is an advocate for promoting sexual hygiene and shutting out the sexual oppressors within the jail. Whether or not he is on his medication is yet to be seen, but we’d have to side with Ford and the rest of the family when it comes to Ian. Can he really be trusted to do what he’s supposed to?

Frank (William H. Macy) is up to his usual shenanigans of stealing and sleeping around. Last season, he became quite the hot commodity at Liam’s (Christian Isaiah) school as a sexual escape for all the horny mothers at the school. Every time a husband leaves home for work or an out of town trip, Frank gets a text to come over and do his thing. After every sexual encounter, Frank helps himself to expensive things around the house and then heads off to the next one. It’s ironic how this all catches up to him in an unexpected way when a PTA meeting is called to discuss a sexual epidemic. It appears multiple people within the PTA have STDs, but no one knows who the source is… This results in a hours-long lock-in while the parents confess they have all slept around with each other or Frank and two of the fathers confess to having an affair with one another. Without much investigating, it becomes clear that Frank is the source of the STDs, but the whole ordeal manages to fix some relationships while destroying others. Pretty standard in for a day in the life of Frank, right?

Carl (Ethan Cutkosky) is still away at cadet school, but someone else has seemed to join him as well–Cassidy (Sammi Hanratty). It appears she has spent all her time counting down the days until Carl will be out and has become quite the impediment on his path to progressing in rank. It seems like one of Carl’s cadets may have “handled” the situation because by the time the episode ends Cassidy is gone and “taken care of.” It looks like Carl’s cadet took what he meant to heart and handled his problem for him, but could it spell disaster for Carl in the coming episodes? Most definitely, yes.

Kevin (Steve Howey) and Veronica (Shanola Hampton) are in quite the predicament themselves ever since Svetlana left. The twins are loud, rambunctious and out of control. This barely gives V and Kevin any time to themselves. To tire the girls out, Kevin decides to play a game of fetch with them so they can pass out and fall asleep. It seems to work in the short-term, but they are back to their rowdy selves the next day. However, Kevin and V have an epiphany when they are at the park and see a row of well-behaved children in preschool. It just might be time to send the girls off to preschool!

Lip (Jeremy Allen White) is still taking care of Xan (Scarlet Spencer), who has made a home for herself in Carl’s old bed. The 12-step program dictates that you should take care of a plant before you get into a relationship and it seems like this is Lip’s version of doing that. He’s not sure how much longer he’ll have Xan, but he has evolved into a father like figure for her and worries about her well-being 24/7. It seems Lip is starting to get ridiculed for taking care of Xan and gets an earful from a maid-of-honor he slept with at a wedding. Will Lip continue to care for Xan despite the ridicule? Or has it actually been good for him? Time will tell.

Debbie (Emma Kenney) is on mission as well as she is advocating for rights to equal pay as a female. It seems like she gets paid $15/hr while her male counterparts get paid $18/hr as a welder. The reasoning? Because she takes too many bathroom breaks which cut into her time at work. Her solution is to strap on a diaper and eliminate going to the bathroom at all. While this sounds like an extreme solution to her problem, she comes out on top and beats sexism in the workplace on her own terms.

Seeing each character’s journey outside of Fiona’s involvement is a big indicator for her exit by the end of the season. Thanks to Fiona, each Gallagher has learned to become independent and tackle life on their own, but do they really need her anymore? It seems like Fiona is starting to realize this sentiment too, especially after figuring out how to tackle the Ian situation for which she has arranged money. Does she need to protect the family from themselves anymore or are they capable of figuring it out on their own?

Given everyone’s situations at the start of Season 9, it’s clear that they can handle their stuff without her and this may mean a new future for Fiona away from the Gallagher drama. We have no idea what this future will look like,and even though this new season has just begun, we don’t want to know what a Fiona-less “Shameless” will look like.

Overall, the Season 9 premiere had all the nuances of “Shameless” that we have come to adore and love. Each person is conflicted as ever but in a mature way, with real-life problems. It is a stark difference to when the series first began and every twist and turn was detrimental to the Gallagher family. Season 9 brings with it promise of a future, hope for what tomorrow will bring and, of course, the usual dose of insane, ridiculous drama (typically courtesy of Frank).

Be sure to check in with us all season as we recap Season 9 “Shameless” adventures of the Gallagher family!