Episode Title: “Liver, I Hardly Know Her”
Writer: Davey Holmes
Director: Christopher Chulack
Previously on “Shameless:”
Episode 4.09 “The Legend of Bonnie and Carl”
Is Fiona (Emmy Rossum) “pulling a Frank?” After going on a bender at Robbie’s, the most accountable member of the Gallagher clan is MIA and everyone’s worried about her. Deb (Emma Kenney) and Ian (Cameron Monaghan) head up the search while Vee (Shanola Hampton) gives birth to twins, Carl (Ethan Cutkosky) and Bonnie continue their tween crime spree and Lip (Jeremy Allen White) juggles midterms and babysitting. Meanwhile, Frank (William H. Macy) loses a kidney and gains a wife.
Determined to adopt Roger Running Tree’s children, Sheila (Joan Cusack) forges ahead with her plan to marry Frank, so long as he has a pulse. Hope comes in the form a drug dealer Samantha (Emily Bergl) met in the parking lot after a Phish concert. He tells the two that in addition to Oxy, Vicodin and Morphine he can hook Frank up with a new liver for twenty-five grand.
While things are looking up, or at least sideways, for Frank, Fiona finds herself abandoned at a gas station in Sheboygan after a night of hard partying at Robbie’s place. A kindly attendant lets her use his phone and she reaches out to Lip. But instead of showing up to deliver another lecture, Lip comforts his big sis and even admits to taking her for granted and turning his back on her when she needed him. Walking in Fiona’s shoes for a while seems to have had a profound effect on Lip. And that’s good because Fiona doesn’t have any shoes, at the moment. She left them at Robbie’s.
What happens next for Fiona is the big question. She’s violated her parole and her probation officer (Regina King) isn’t thrilled to see Fiona after spending the day looking for her. She tells Lip she doesn’t want to end up like Frank or Monica but doesn’t know who she is anymore. Fiona may have screwed up big time, but she’s got a long way down before she hits the lows her parents achieved.
The shifting family dynamic at the Gallagher house has breathed new life into many of these characters, even Frank, in more ways than one. While Fiona regresses and Ian loses himself, Lip and Debbie continue to grow and evolve. Even Carl is experiencing some major milestones like his first kiss and armed robbery.
As for Frank, it turns out the taxi-driving surgeon from Bangladesh who supposed to perform the liver transplant made off with his kidney and Sheila’s money. With everyone gathered at the hospital, Sheila and Frank are married, though he’s barely conscious. The happy occasion is interrupted when the hospital staff barges in with news that Frank is getting a new liver after all. And this time, the surgery won’t be performed by a taxi driver in a warehouse basement.
It’s not all new livers, husbands and babies in this episode, however. Besides Fiona getting dumped at a gas station in Wisconsin, there are a couple of darker moments in this episode. Ian and Mickey (Noel Fisher) try to convince Mandy (Jane Levy) to leave her abusive boyfriend, Kenyatta. Ian puts a knife to Kenyatta’s throat but Mickey stops him. And Kev (Steve Howey) nearly kills his new family when he trips on a toy while walking through the house with a shotgun. Like the incident with Liam and the cocaine, these moments serve as a reminder of the real consequences these characters face when things get out of control – which is pretty much all the time.
