Shameless 4×05 Review: There’s The Rub

I really hated being right.  That calm before the storm that I talked about last week?  I knew it was coming, but I didn’t think it would happen as fast or as hard as it did.  I got sucked into homework and missed the episode, but when I heard what happened…I actually dreaded watching it.  This is the lowest the Gallaghers have ever been, and I don’t know how they can come back from this.  So let’s rip this band aid off and check out the damage.

Getting the minor storylines out of the way, the beginning of the episode found Kevin’s struggles at the Alibi Room piling up as the city blocked off the entrance to the bar with scaffolding and ripped up the sidewalk for “sewage repair”.  And as if that weren’t enough, Stan’s son showed up demanding the money Kev owed him, as per their arrangement.  This storyline was a point of levity in an otherwise bleak episode.  I liked the new found partnership between Kev and Mickey, even though they stiffed the girls, money-wise, like I hoped they wouldn’t.  I’m interested to see how this will play out, if this enterprise will be the thing that saves or sinks the bar.  If this rub-and-tug ploy turns into something profitable, it would be awesome if Mickey’s wife formed something like a union to demand better wages and treatment for her and the girls.  And let’s face it: on a show like this, wilder things have happened, and God knows we need a little laughter.

Shelia reappeared in this episode, having gotten in touch with her inner Native American, thanks to her new boyfriend Roger Running Tree.  Their storyline merged with Frank and Sammie’s, the father/daughter duo having just received a mix of good and bad news regarding Frank’s insurance claim.  The good news is that break was a blue ribbon baby and just the thing to get him the $100,000 he needs.  The bad?  The insurance payout will take up to a year to receive.  Here the storylines merge when Frank comes to the house and interrupts Sheila and Roger’s dinner date.  The two men talk, and Roger mentions using sweat lodges to help with whatever ails him, prompting Frank to say, “Screw modern medicine, let’s give this a shot!”  Frank enlisted Carl to help build the lodge and inadvertently hurt his son’s feelings when he said that he has a chance with Sammi to do things right and be a “good” father to her.  This was beyond thoughtless, and I felt so bad for Carl, as he has bent over backwards to take care of Frank since the season began.  And what thanks does he get?  To be pushed aside for the new daughter with whom Frank doesn’t have a history.  But due to Frank’s rapidly deteriorating condition, the sweat lodge was a bust, and the cops found him unconscious when they came to inform him of Liam’s condition.  With the way that Frank keeps worsening with each episode, I wonder if they will actually kill him off.  Frank has been something like the main antagonist of the show.  If they do kill him off, who will replace him?  Furthermore, what will happen to the kids?  With Fiona seemingly down for the count the kids could be put back into foster care.  But the season is still young and I think we’ve learned by now to never count Frank Gallagher out.

This was an episode where I was disappointed in many Gallaghers, as Ian finally made his reappearance and I could barely register my shock with how far he had fallen.  He was barely recognizable, which might explain why the Private Gallagher posts on the Shameless Tumblr seemed so wildly out of character.  If this is all over Mickey freakin’ Milkovich, all I have to say is, “Oh honey, no!”  No offense to the all the Gallavich shippers out there, but he is not someone Ian should screw his entire life up for.  It’s ironic that in my episode three review, I fretted that Mickey might go to a dark place and that perhaps Ian’s return would be the thing that saved him.  Now it seems to be the other way around because I think Mickey will be the only one that can reach Ian.  If he saw Ian, his reaction would probably be, “Jesus Christ, Gallagher, what the hell’s the matter with you?”  I know that’s what I was thinking.  Lip and Debbie bonding during their search for Ian was really sweet, Debbie appreciating him not treating her like a child.  And I understand where Debbie is coming from, but I also know the flip side to that coin.  Due to a less than ideal childhood, I was forced to grow up really fast and dealt with things that most kids my age didn’t have a clue about.  And it wasn’t all that fun.   So I can’t help but want to caution Debbie and tell her to be careful of what you wish for because you just might get it.

And finally the most explosive part of the episode… Fiona.  How things turned out in the sloppy triangle between Fiona, Mike, and Robbie didn’t surprise me much.  I had a feeling that Mike would take the high road and not fire Fiona, despite what she did to him.  Robbie showing up with the cocaine wasn’t that shocking either, and I cheered when Fiona chased him out of the house with a baseball bat.  But that excitement and pride quickly faded when she didn’t immediately flush that garbage down the toilet.  From that point on you knew something bad was going to happen.  I could not contain my disgust, rage, and disappointment with her at the end of the episode.  Using the coke was bad enough, but just leaving it out in the open like that?  By the time she was being loaded into the cop car I was crying, but they were angry tears.  You might know what I’m talking about; when you reach the point of rage that you get upset about the fact that you’re angry and you just start crying.  I could not believe that she could blow it so hard, and at the expense of Liam’s life.  He could have died!  I think the character that most mirrored how I felt was Lip, which worries me.  The look on his face was one I never thought I’d see him direct at Fiona.  They’ve butted heads before in the past, but they’ve always come back to each other in the end because they’re family and they love each other.  But this event will create a rift between them that I fear won’t be easily mended.  I said in an earlier review that the one thing that would make Lip quit college was his family… and I was right.  He won’t go back and leave his family in shambles like this.  And even after this situation is fixed (God willing and the creek don’t rise), I don’t think Lip will trust Fiona enough to leave again, which will only deepen his resentment.  These are dark times for the Gallaghers, and this is only the beginning.

It goes without saying that Emmy Rossum did a phenomenal job in last night’s episode, and if next week’s promo is anything to go by, she’s pulling out all the stops.  I don’t know if Fiona will avoid jail time and what will happen to her job and the kids, due to her being in lock-up and Frank in the hospital.  I’m assuming this is her first offense, but given that drugs were involved which resulted in the hospitalization of her brother, she’s facing either jail time or probation and possibly losing the kids for a while.  So what are your thoughts on “There’s the Rub”?  Comment below and thank you for reading!

Author: Sarah Sue

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