Bonnie and Carl Recap: Shameless

Fiona’s house arrest restrictions are modified in “The Legend of Bonnie and Carl” (Episode 9 of Shameless, Season 4), while Carl commits armed robbery with a girl he met in detention named Bonnie.

The new conditions allow Fiona to be out of the house from 8 am until 6 pm and she must find a job within 30 days. She also has to attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings and provide proof of her attendance. Fiona once again comes off as a smart ass who thinks it’s all a joke with her probation officer when asked to provide a urine sample. But on her first interview for a sales position at a furniture store, she learns a hard truth. All is going well until she must admit she has been convicted of a felony, then it’s out the door. At Veronica’s suggestion, Fiona stops by Worldwide Cup to ask Connie if the reason for her firing can be changed from misconduct to downsizing so she can at least collect unemployment. It took an enormous amount of courage or stupidity, depending on your viewpoint, to even go there. The other employees stare and whisper but Connie agrees to see what she can do. It’s Mike’s sister, Jane, Connie has to ask. Jane comes out and reads Fiona the riot act, saying Fiona may think she’s a good person. but she’s not.

His Name is Yevgeny: Svetlana comes over to the Gallaghers, carrying her newborn baby. Mickey doesn’t even want to know his name. Svetlana threatens that if he doesn’t come up with $500 by the next day, she is going to tell Mickey’s father what he does with “Orange Boy” all day. Mickey goes to the Alibi to get his cut off Kev but that’s only $200. He and Ian take to robbing rich older men. He pays Svetlana who demands he come home “or else.” Mickey threatens to make Yevgeny an orphan if Svetlana doesn’t keep her mouth shut.

The Return of Sheila: Returning from the reservation, Sheila can’t get mad about her furniture being sold when she discovers that Frank is in her bedroom at death’s door. Besides, she has other things on her mind, like the need to get married immediately so she can adopt Roger Runningtree’s nieces and nephews. She and Roger broke up when she learned he had anger issues. He was also less than truthful about being a Menominee Indian. He’s mostly Mexican and on the lam from the Federal government for falsely collecting reparations. Sheila proposes marriage to a comatose Frank and proceeds to plan her wedding. Sammi thinks she’s in for it when she finds Sheila is back but is even more stunned when Sheila asks her how she looks in lilac.

Ron Doesn’t Heart Amanda: Lip tries to explain to his rooommate’s girlfriend, Amanda, that he doesn’t want another repeat  of what happened before but she takes her shirt off and just then Ron walks in. Lip follows him and tries to explain, but Ron is cool with it. Amanda, it seems, was too demanding. He’s glad to be rid of her. She proceeds to attempt to micromanage Lip’s life. She also is not watching Liam out of the goodness of her heart. The quid pro quo is that he has to pretend to be her boyfriend when her parents visit, and she wants him to act wild, like wearing his shirt with the F word written all over it. They also agree to tell her parents Liam is Lip’s son.

Debbie Stalks Seema: Sammi’s advice to Debbie to play it cool with Matt backfired. Matt took up with a girl at the pizza shop named Seema and is going bowling with her. Mandy says she feels sorry for the girl because she doesn’t know who she messed with: Debbie Gallagher. So Debbie calls Seema up on the phone at work, calls her a skank and follows her home. She steals a snake from the pet shop and plants it in the car Seema uses to deliver pizzas. But Mandy’s advice backfires, too, when Seema finds out where Debbie lives and shows up with a bat, saying Debbie doesn’t know who she messed with.

Bonnie and Carl Carl met Bonnie on his last day of detention, so he spray painted “Principal Rodriguez is Carl Gallager’s bitch” across the lockers. Principal Rodriguez gave him another two weeks and pointed out that he spelled his own last name wrong. Bonnie’s shows Carl a gun and says it’s not real but they can use it to hold up a store. The clerk is highly amused at a holdup by the “Lollipop Guild” until Bonnie shoots out his TV. He turns over the money. Bonnie tells Carl to keep it and says they can rob a bank for their next heist. Looks like Carl is going to get locked up a lot sooner than Frank predicted. For now, he’s in love.

Revenge of Kenyatta: Mandy’s boyfriend finds out she slept with Lip and confronts Mickey about Lip’s whereabouts. At the college, Kenyatta catches up to Lip who gets about a minute advance warning from Amanda. Lip hauls ass but Kenyatta finally catches up with him and starts the beatdown. The campus cops arrive to break it up. Lip says he doesn’t know Kenyatta and he tried to sell him crack. The police taser Kenyatta, who, we find out later, also beat Mandy up.

I Can’t Bring You to the Alibi but I can bring the Alibi to you. Sammi has done a lot more for Frank than he knows. Sheila and Sammi call 911 when Frank almost stops breathing and he refuses medical treatment and verbally abuses Sammi, who screams that she doesn’t want him to leave. (Neither does Sheila, at least not until she gets a marriage certificate). Sammi sets up a bar and gets Kev to come over with the Alibi regulars to make Frank feel better, where Kev serves up a non-alcoholic beer. “Add that to the list of things I thought I’d never see,” Kermit says, “Obama’s birth certificate and now Frank’s drinking O’Doul’s.”

The episode ends with Fiona paying an angry visit to Robbie where she rages that she should have turned him in. Everything was great and now everything is ruined because of him. Then she dissolves into convulsive sobs. Gawd! This is the last place she should be. We used to think Fiona was smart.