Halfway through Shameless’ third season, the show continues to ask hard questions that willingly lack easy answers. Frank—as much the fool as he is the Gallagher family’s mad King Lear—is probably the source of most of them. This season, more than ever before, John Wells and his team have asked, “What can Frank do to his children is too despicable for them to forgive him?” Weeks ago, we saw Debbie of all people snap, attacking Frank after he broke a school project he’d failed to help her with. Last year, Lip and Frank were at war all season. Frank’s children’s loyalty has shown its cracks here and there, but I was left wondering what a final straw—if one was even possible—would have looked like. After last week’s episode, it felt like we may have finally gotten an answer.
After learning that Frank was responsible for child protective services coming in the first place, Fiona is on the warpath. In her most businesslike attire, she visits a lawyer seeking custody of her siblings. To do that, she needs to get Frank and Monica to terminate their rights, prove she can provide a stable environment, and show evidence of a steady job. In the process, she plans on cutting off Frank’s access to the home (with new locks) and source of income (with a substitute corpse for Aunt Ginger, ending his Social Security cash flow).
If Fiona’s taken one thing from her father, it’s her willingness to lie and cheat the system when she feels justified in doing so. She fakes a tax return to make it seem like she has enough money to support the children and falsifies a will for Aunt Ginger that should guarantee her ownership of the home. After a woman dies at the nursing home where Veronica works, Fiona and the others pass it off as Ginger by cutting off one of its toes. For once, I found myself really questioning Fiona here—the lengths she’s going are pretty extreme to be able to adopt her siblings. Obviously, what we’ve seen from the city’s foster system suggests that she is the most willing guardian, but is she definitively the best one?
Last week, it seemed as if the return of the children to normalcy was a foregone conclusion, but there is still the matter of a custody hearing. In the meantime, the younger Gallaghers have settled into their new roles—Carl has to deal with parental control settings on the television, a math tutor and two parents all too eager to keep tabs on him. (“They’re always around seeing if I’m OK,” he complains.) and Debbie is working in Mama Kamala’s basement swEtsy shop and getting paid in White Castle chicken rings. Before long, her emergent mean streak continues as she drugs Kamala and superglues her eyes shut before sneaking out in search of food.
At the Jacksons’, Jody is continuing in his quest for sexual stimulation, inviting a group of men over for an orgy Sheila has no plans to participate in. After an intervention, Jody hands Frank his now-useless sobriety chips, giving Frank ammunition for the pending hearing. I’ll give the show some credit for trying to connect these plotlines, but Jody’s antics have been pretty tired this season otherwise. The other side of Hymie’s family—his petulant grandmother and shamed father—come demanding Sheila share the baby and a bedraggled Karen returns, finally ready to accept the existence of her child. She seems small, beaten up by the world and seeking her mother’s arms…and eggs Benedict.