Shameless – Found

By starrymag | March 17, 2019

By: Ariba Bhuvad

 

The Shameless Season 9 finale brought forth Emmy Rossum’s final episode. It also brought back a familiar face to help bid her farewell. After her serendipitous encounter with Max (Neal Bledsoe) and learning that she will soon have $100,000 to her name, Fiona can’t help but cry when she’s finally holding the cashier’s check in her hands. As she tucks the check away for another day she finds Debbie (Emma Kenney) and Carl (Ethan Cutkosky) sneaking out of the house to vandalize Kelly’s (Jess Gabor) car. Both of their hearts are broken and there is nothing worse than scorned lovers as Kelly would soon learn.

 

After his femur surgery Frank (William H. Macy) is on bed rest for the next six months so the Gallagher children have to come together to take care of him. Debbie designs a schedule allotting time for everyone to take shifts to take care of Frank, which no one wants to do because he constantly asks for pain meds. Not to mention Debbie hides his medications so he doesn’t take more than he’s supposed to which doesn’t make him very happy.

 

Debbie and Carl arrive at Kelly’s house and strategically avoid getting caught by sneaking around the motion detector lights. Unfortunately, Carl manages to set the car alarm off and Kelly sees the two of them running off in the distance. Meanwhile, Liam (Christian Isaiah) is still missing from the Gallagher house and taking refuge at his friend Todd’s (Ozie Nzeribe) place where he is accepted for his skin color, heritage and history.

 

As Lip (Jeremy Allen White) comes out of the shower he runs into Fiona as she heads out for hearing. He’s not very pleased to learn that Frank will be the way he is for the next six months as Fiona alerts him to the full bedpan that is right next to Frank’s sleeping place on the couch. Carl and Debbie come home to the horrid smell emanating from Frank’s bedpan which Carl has the distinct honor of cleaning as it his shift. Debbie finally gives him one pill of Oxycontin as he starts to complain and ask for more. If they could the kids would leave him by a bridge, but they decide it’s not worth the elder abuse charges they would get. Considering it’s going to be a lot of work to take care of Frank, Fiona suggests that they get a homecare worker to look after Frank instead. Afterall, it’s free.

 

As the family preps for their day ahead  Fiona finds herself trying to help everyone but them no longer needing her for anything, be it breakfast or simple errands. Things get a bit more awkward when Debbie asks her what she’s planning on doing in the future and is looking to switch rooms with Fiona so she and Franny can have more space. Over in the world of Kevin (Steve Howey) and Veronica (Shanola Hampton) they finally manage to have sex for longer than a few seconds. In fact, they make it to about forty-seven minutes before Veronica urges Kevin to finish up.

 

Carl is struggling with his West Point rejection and it turns out that he feels worthless because of who he is and where he comes from. He no longer believes he has the ability to do anything but what the South Side has to offer him. As he heads off to work, Debbie cleans up Frank’s bandages and wounds and informs him that she’s been calling around for workers. According to him, he just needs alcohol, pills and some television which will suffice for his recovery. Frank continues to drive Debbie crazy as he brings up Kelly and how Debbie failed to woo her, something he believes Fiona would have done easily with her good looks.

 

Although Carl didn’t make it into West Point, the owner (Shawshawnee Hall) of Captain’s Bob has taken notice to him since the robbery and now wants to promote him to assistant manager of another store. He’s impressed with Carl’s work ethic and thinks that he will be useful at another store location, which has now been robbed a total of six times.

 

Lip and Tami (Kate Miner) are at each other’s throats during the episode as the decision to keep the baby depends on the BRCA gene test results. Tami shows up at Lip’s workplace hoping he’ll be with her when she calls the office to find out the results. She finds out she has a level one diagnosis and if she breast feeds it could help keep her from having a double mastectomy if she breast feeds. Tami freaks out and bails. Lip ends up leaving work despite promising Brad (Scott Michael Campbell) that he would train one more person to make up for the employee he lost.

 

Fiona heads to the Alibi to have a chat with Veronica and tells her all about the check and being uncertain about where to go from here. And while Fiona ponders over her next step, Debbie finally finds Liam and asks him to come home. However, he is happy where he is and shows her that he is closer to his culture and heritage than he has ever been. They never gave him that experience and now he’s finally getting it. Not to mention, earlier in the day, Liam had asked the family if he could move out and they were all too busy to respond until Debbie says yes out of frustration. Later on, when Debbie goes back again to tell him to come home, Liam hands her a list of demands that the family must meet before he thinks about returning home. Upon returning home, Debbie starts to work on the list and brings home a man named Seamus (Dean Sharpe) to help take care of Frank free of charge, and give him the sponge bath he so desperately needs.

 

Tami finally makes the call and learns that she is positive for the BRCA gene, but it’s the version of the gene that is “baby good”, meaning pregnancy will help her chances. Out of annoyance, Tami says she wants an abortion but Lip believes if it will help reduce the chances of cancer then she should have the baby. However, Tami doesn’t want to have the baby only to die later on because of cancer, but Lip reminds her that the baby wouldn’t be an orphan in either case because he would still be around.

 

Fiona’s hearing works out in her favor as she is only slapped with a fine that she can pay with no issues, but her attorney asks her to stay on the straight and narrow and think about being an adult. Back at home Carl has made the decision to take the Captain Bob promotion and drop out of school because he doesn’t deserve to be there anyway. Debbie is heartbroken to see her brother give up in this manner and confronts Kelly later to tell her how she ruined not only her life but Carl’s because he’s throwing his life away. Kelly drives to Captain Bob’s to confront Carl and harass him into going back to school because he belongs there. Not only does he decide to go back, but the two of them get back together.

 

After a quickie Tami and Lip get into another argument as Tami reveals what it was like to witness her mom going through cancer and dying. She decides that she’ll have the baby, but she won’t keep it and instead give it up for adoption. Lip isn’t on board with the idea, but Tami thinks he will be a bad father and storms off once again.

As Fiona grapples with what to do next, she decides to pay Ian (Cameron Monaghan) a visit in prison. He supports the idea of Fiona leaving everything behind and getting a fresh start. When she goes back home she begins packing, which catches Debbie off guard when she realizes what is going on. At that moment Lip comes back home with Tami as Debbie rushes down the stairs to tell him Fiona is leaving. When he goes upstairs to talk to her he realizes what is going on and is just as content with her decision as Ian was. But before she can leave, he wants to throw a going away party for her and starts delegating tasks to everyone while she continues to pack.

 

However, Fiona doesn’t intend on staying back for the party because she’s afraid that if she doesn’t go now she never will. She awkwardly says goodbye to Frank who thanks her for helping out and says she did good, but she reminds him that she didn’t just help as she actually did everything. As Fiona walks out into the street, she takes in the sight of her house and the neighborhood one final time as she heads to the train station. When the rest of the Gallagher crew returns home they realize Fiona is already gone and proceed with the celebrations in her honor. Debbie finds an envelope that Fiona left behind for her and discovers there is a check for $50,000 inside of it with a note that says “Love you.” And as Debbie looks at her crazy family goofing around, Fiona boards a plane for the first time in her life to an unknown destination.