They say there is magic in the number 3. “Shameless” harnesses that mystical power in its third season.
A j.o.b. for reals
Fiona discovers that she has the gift for gab that translates to the business world. She begins as a temp and after a bit of a rough start proves to be a star performer. She develops an interesting relationship with her boss that seems to have the potential to be romantic on the good side and contentious on the bad side. We are not sure which direction that relationship will end when the season concludes. One of the complications for Fiona is that she is still holding on to the pieces of her relationship with Jimmy. Fiona has been working at the sales company for 2–3 months as the season concludes. She is still a temp and hoping to get a permanent position. Will she get it? [see below for season finale conclusion]
A motherf’ed baby
One of the funniest, awkward, outrageous and heart-warming story lines is the V and Kevin baby. It turns out that V is infertile and she is crushed.
Solution: Find a surrogate.
They come up with the idea of having V’s mom as the surrogate. Not having the dough to conduct a clinical insemination, they resort to more crude methods including Kevin yanking it and then inserting his sperm into V’s mom with a turkey baster. Yeah, that didn’t work.
As desperate times call for desperate measures, V suggests that Kevin should naturally impregnate her mom. After their initial shock and disgust at this indelicate idea, Kevin and V’s mom come on board to the plan.
As to be expected, problems develop. It turns out that V’s mom who has been without male companionship for a while is getting a little too much pleasure from the process.
Did Kevin’s sperm take? [see below for the season finale culmination]
A love triangle smashed
Lip has taken up with Mandy, but sadly for her, the relationship is loaded with emotional baggage. Lip is still holding a torch for Karen who has recently stormed out of Chicago after a contentious argument with her mom. Mandy sees Lip throwing away his future and takes it upon herself to force him back on track. Lip’s tortured love affair with Karen has left him unmotivated and combative to the point where the brilliant Gallagher is barely able to complete his high school credits. Only through massive pushing from his high school counselor, Fiona and Mandy does he cross the finish line.
Just as Lip is starting to forget Karen and enjoying his relationship with Mandy, Karen returns home after a 6–9 month hiatus. Lip’s future is in jeopardy with Karen’s dark influence. Mandy, fueled by jealously and concern for Lip’s future, executes a Milkovich remedy to the problem. Using Lip’s text message as a lure, she coaxes Karen out of her home and runs her over with her car. A lifeless Karen is awkwardly sprawled out on the road as Mandy speeds away.
Karen survives but is badly damaged and in a coma for 10 days. Once she wakes from her coma, it is clear that she is not right in the head. Her husband Jody drives away with the wheelchair bound Karen and Karen’s boy in route to Arizona in search of a cure for both the down-syndrome Hymie and the mentally damaged Karen.
Mandy’s Lip campaign is not over. We find that she took it upon herself to apply to elite colleges including MIT on Lip’s behalf. Her efforts are rewarded as MIT’s shows interest in the genius from the South Side. Lip is initially resistant and resentful of Mandy’s interference. He also pieces together the circumstances behind Karen’s accident and realizes that Mandy was the one who conducted the hit-and-run with malice, forethought and intent to kill.
He confronts her and they part ways. [see below for the season finale culmination]
A love finally acknowledged
Ian and Mickey have had three seasons of a torrid love affair interrupted by a couple of detentions and imprisonments for Mickey. Tough guy Mickey refuses to acknowledge the relationship as anything more than a sexual indulgence despite Ian’s openness. When Ian presses Mickey to admit his feelings, Mickey responds by brutally beating Ian and kicking out one of his teeth. Mickey ends up impregnating a Russian prostitute and in the Catholic traditional agrees to marry her. Ian is inconsolable and decides to leave town, join the army, forget Mickey, and start anew. Will he stay or go? [see below for the season finale culmination]
A love story ended
After 3 seasons of an up-and-down relationship, Fiona’s relationship with Jimmy is on life support. The pretty boy Jimmy finds himself in a jam as his legal wife Estfania’s psychotic drug-lord father keeps him on constant surveillance and one mistake away from a watery grave. His frustration with his menial housekeeping role, envy of his former med school buddies’ exciting lives, and the pressure of his dysfunctional marriage has Jimmy on the verge of breaking. In order to extricate himself from the situation, he decides to slowly walk back his relationship with Fiona. Unfortunately for Jimmy, Fiona is not so easy to leave. He intends to return to med school in Michigan but is unhappily surprised when Fiona intends to follow him and bring the Gallagher gang up north to be with Jimmy. A huge blowout argument ensues and Fiona kicks Jimmy out of the house. Directly following this breakup, Jimmy runs afoul of Esfania’s dad. It is assumed that he is now resting at the bottom of Lake Michigan with Fiona clueless of his whereabouts or how he came to his violent end. Under better circumstances, Fiona and Jimmy would have enjoyed a loving and supporting relationship but Jimmy made one too many mistakes. This being “Shameless”, happy endings are fleeting at best. Is there hope for Jimmy or their relationship? [see below for the season finale culmination]
One drink too many
Frank is up to his usual shenanigans with drinking being his fuel of choice. After knocking himself unconscious at the bar, his doctor gives him a dire warning. Quit drinking or end up dead. Frank being Frank ignores this advice and takes the newly graduated Lip on an epic binge. Will Frank pay for ignoring his doctor’s advice? [see below for the season finale culmination]
A finale to smash hope and destroy love (again)
“Shameless” S3 culminates in a masterpiece.
Exhibit A:
Why we love Frank.
Our expectations of Frank are so low that moments of caring and love are precious and moving. Frank shows two acts of fatherly devotion in season 3.
He and Carl ransack Carl’s foster parents’ house in a recreation of Frank’s childhood adventures with his dad. They get caught due to Carl’s unique security code. Rather than letting Carl take the rap for the burglary, Frank steps up and takes ownership of the felony.
Quick on the heals of his release from the burglary rap due to a technicality, Frank again shows some fatherly affection. He is proud of the first high school graduation from the Gallagher clan and takes Lip out on a bender including a dine-and-dash lobster lunch. He and Lip continuing drinking and head out to the ice skating rink. Just as the perfect Gallagher father-son day is winding down, Frank gets violently ill and throws up a massive bloody mess and passes out. He ends season 3 in the hospital with a dire diagnosis. He will be dead soon if he doesn’t quit drinking.
A concerned Carl with Frank’s recent adventures and protection fresh in his mind comes to shave Frank’s head in the hospital to ward off evil demons and cure Frank of his ills. The long locked Frank allows the shaving and cements his recent bonding experience with Carl.
Exhibit B:
Kevin’s boys can swim.
V’s mom is getting her first ultrasound with V and Kevin eagerly tagging along. The baby is doing well and it turns out it is 12 weeks old.
V is piiiissseeed. Only in the last couple of days did V’s mom admit to being pregnant. This means that Kevin and V’s mom went through two extra sessions of baby making unnecessarily. V is none too pleased with her mom’s oversight. Kevin diffuses the confrontation by pointing out the big picture that V and Kevin will soon be parents. The three are reconciled and the joy of impending parenthood supersedes their dispute.
Exhibit C:
Congrats on the new career?
In a insightful and cynical workplace commentary, Fiona indeed wins her permanent position. Be careful what you wish. In a “Horton Hears A Who” zoom out camera pan, we see a maze of workers in cubicles in a cacophony of noise reading scripts as they attempt to win customers to their disposal cup product. Soul-crushing job or financial security? Fiona is not so sure. Perhaps both.
Exhibit D:
Mickey admits to love a little too late.
Ian enlisted into the army, but can’t resist one final visit to Mickey. He comes to the Mickovich home to say goodbye. He informs Mickey that he is leaving town. Crushed by Ian’s departure, Mickey begs Ian to stay. Ian leaves as Mickey turns away with tears in his eyes. Mandy calls out Mickey for being a coward and not fighting harder to convince Ian to stay. Mickey hangs his head in sadness and regret. The moment has passed and Ian is shipping out.
Exhibit E:
Appreciation at last.
Lip retrieves the mail. A large manila envelop from MIT is in the stack. He finally dares hope that this could be a life-changing message. Could the bad-luck kid from the South Side with the dysfunctional parents win the golden ticket?
Lip heads to Mandy’s house. He informs her that he is indeed accepted to MIT with a full ride. Realizing how much she sacrificed for him, he is humbled. He pauses and thanks her. A smile crosses her face and no words need be said as Lip departs.
Exhibit F:
A voice mail to nowhere.
Fiona regretting her final argument with Jimmy, which ends up being the last words they share, desperately tries to reconcile. She has no idea where he is but only knows that her calls are going unanswered and her messages unreturned.
She receives a stack of cash from the messenger of Esfania’s dad with the message that Jimmy is leaving not to return and that he sends the message that “she is too good for him”. Accepting that she may never see or talk with Jimmy again, she leaves him one last farewell voice mail in a desperate search for closure from this distressing and unsatisfying end to their torrid 2 year affair.
Thus, ending season 3.
The slow burn fuels the fire
The 12 episodes of nearly an hour each provides plenty of room for a multitude of plot lines and humorous side stories. “Shameless” fills the season with colorful designs and patterns to delight the imagination and draw in the audience. Carl’s cancer camp scam, the kid’s Department of Protection Services run in, and Fiona’s legal guardian status are among the early season stories that resolve themselves mid-season. The producers bring the show to an epic conclusion with sound, fury, smoke, and brilliant illumination to fill the sky as shown above. On to season 4.
