Shameless – The Hobo Games

By: Ariba Bhuvad

Frank (William H. Macy) hasn’t given up on the Hobo Loco competition in this week’s episode of Shameless and instead is fully immersed in The Hobo Games. While he sleeps on the bed he’s created out of random objects he gets a phone call from Ingrid (Katey Sagal) who is flustered about having to hide out from her doctor and ex-husband. She’d rather he come home this instant, but Frank has some other things to take care of before that can happen. He tries to calm her down by saying that this is all for their future children and he needs to make sure he wins to be able to help them out. Mikey (Luis Guzman) takes advantage of Frank’s tussle with Ingrid to play on Frank’s confidence, but it doesn’t shake him in the least bit.

After last week’s arrest Fiona (Emmy Rossum) doesn’t seem to have learned much from the situation as she wakes up in a random hotel room hungover with strangers. While the rest of them are passed out, she comes across a bottle of prescription meds and quickly grabs them and runs out of the hotel room as the others wake up and start chasing after her. Meanwhile, back at the Gallagher house, everyone is having breakfast while Debbie (Emma Kenney) makes plans to search for a used furnace for the house. She and Carl’s (Ethan Cutkosky) girlfriend, Kelly (Jess Gabor), seem to have grown closer and plan to spend the day together much to Carl’s growing disapproval. And it seems like things may be getting weird between Lip (Jeremy Allen White) and Tami (Kate Miner) due to her rushing out of the house while promising to pick up Lip and Xan (Amirah Johnson) later that day.

Kev (Steve Howey) has a bit of a dilemma to deal with in this week as he promised V (Shanola Hampton) he was going to get a vasectomy. However, doing research on Google has him frightened and he’s having second thoughts. But V doesn’t want to hear about his excuses because he made a promise to do this and he will, even if she has to do it herself.

In another part of town Frank and Mikey prepare for the last day of the Hobo Games which will consist of three rounds. The first round will require them to raise money by begging,and whoever has the most will win the round. But, first, a shot of Hobo Loco. While waiting for Tami, Lip and Xan hang out at home while Debbie and Kelly start to figure out the furnace situation. Lip is a bit disheartened to learn that Tami isn’t going to come to pick them up and it seems like the girls think this bodes bad news for his relationship.

After arriving at the doctor Kev tries to question the procedure by wondering why V can’t take the pill rather than him getting a surgical procedure done down there. As the nurse injects him with an anesthetic, he is prepped mentally for the next couple of days in terms of his medications and pain level. Let’s just say he’s not feeling too optimistic about the whole situation. Speaking of the possibility of future children, Ingrid is starting to feel doubtful about Frank and once again tries to ask Debbie about whether or not she can trust Frank. No, no, she can’t was Debbie’s response. Kelly suggests that Ingrid test him by telling him that she has cancer to see whether or not this prompts him to want to help out.

Carl gets a promotion of sorts at work when his position changes from the sign spinner to working on the line. This means that he gets to hang out with a new crew and take blunt breaks with them whenever they do. Meanwhile, Frank and Mikey continue to work together during the Hobo Games and make up a story about being gay veterans who were kicked out of the military in order to get sympathy and hopefully some pity money along the way.

Fiona has to come up with money to give to Debbie so she sells off the pills she stole earlier and hands it over to Debbie–for the bills and part of her bail. Lip is busy trying to become a foster parent to Xan, but it doesn’t seem like this will come too easy. He’s a 20-something-year-old guy trying to adopt a young girl and the process is not designed to allow something like that too easily. However, he still intends to try but his efforts are wasted when an agent (Sharif Atkins) shows up for a random home inspection only to find a drunk Fiona answer the door. Not only does he see the house in horrible shape and three young kids alone in the crib, but Fiona answers the questions in a way that turns the agent off. Unfortunately, Lip is too late and catches a flustered agent on his way out. Lip’s anger gets the best of him as he lectures Fiona about her behavior recently and how it has really messed up things for him now, especially with Xan for whom he just ordered a bunk bed and everything.

Things between Fiona and Lip only escalate when she goes to apologize and finds his sponsee at the store. Of course, she starts drinking in front of him unaware that the guy has been sober for 100 days and he manages to slip when he sees her drinking. It sends him on a spiral because after she leaves he goes and injects himself with heroin bringing an end to his sobriety. Let’s just say that the fight between Lip and Fiona that followed was not a pleasant one and it pushed him to the limits as he now wants her to move out.

While Kevin is waiting for the doctor he freaks out when he hears a man in the next room making groaning noises. He decides to leave before the procedure and lies to V by saying he’s all done and the vasectomy has been completed. He continues the charade at home by pretending he is high on drugs so V drops the twins off with Debbie and heads to the Alibi. Kev stays at home and lives up his day off by watching porn and relaxing while V comes to learn of his lies when she gets a call from the doctor’s office asking to reschedule.

As the second part of the Hobo Games the remaining contestants have to find a way to get admitted immediately into the E.R. While some of them proceed to stab themselves Frank and Mikey pretend they are coughing up blood and get admitted for being TB suspects. But the final round is what ultimately takes away from their winning streak. The third and final round requires the contestants to jump into a moving train after taking four shots of Hobo Loco. But neither of them manage to make it happen and with it being a tie, the prize goes to the contestant with the most followers on social media–which is neither of them. So, not only does Frank lose, but he manages to lose Ingrid too after he picked the contest over her. She chooses to leave with her ex-husband and has decided to keep only two of the embryos for her own safety. In exchange for letting her go, Frank gets a check for $10,000 and ends up coming out on top of the whole situation.  

Carl continues to suspect that Debbie may be into Kelly and asks his co-workers for advice after Kelly sends a picture of her and Debbie after a hose fight. They tell him that his sister is definitely trying to get with his girlfriend and with that Carl decides to confront Debbie and tell her to back off. But it doesn’t seem like Debbie is fully convinced she wants to, especially after sitting down and watching Showgirls with her. On the other hand, Lip is still trying to deal with the Tami being weird situation but soon finds out why. She’s pregnant and doesn’t know what to do. And with the whole Xan situation, who knows what will happen.Then, there’s the whole Fiona losing control of her life situation. What will happen? Time will only tell.