Frank Sends Carl and Chuckie to Jail: Shameless

Season 5, Episode 8 of Shameless (3/8/2015) was called “Uncle Carl” because Carl took his niece, er…. nephew, Chuckie, along on a heroin delivery and that turned out really bad thanks to Frank. It was in fact Frank’s idea in the first place in not so much revenge, but his plan to get rid of Sammi. Frank was being very sweet and cooperative with Sammi and that got him a bed in Carl and Liam’s room instead of having to sleep on the couch. Carl couldn’t understand why Frank just didn’t just use her face for target practice after she shot him. Besides his desire to stay out of jail, “it’s important to know the difference between a skank bitch and a deranged psychopath,” Frank explained. Sammi, he contended, was the latter.

Carl was “promoted” to drug runner by G-Dogg, not because of any improvement in his math or English skills, but because the guy who was supposed to do it got shot. Frank initially thought he’d go with Carl but Sammi put the kabosh on that. Frank suggested Carl use Chuckie to transport the drugs because the cops would “take one look at that mongoloid and all they want to do is look away.” After “concerned citizen” Frank alerted the cops to the deal, they showed up at the bus station with two drug sniffing dogs and Carl took off, leaving Chuckie to take the rap.

Fiona and Lip went to the psych ward to take Ian home. They didn’t want to listen to the doctor’s instructions because they know the drill, Monica, blah, blah, blah. Monica, Monica, Monica — that’s all we ever hear. (Is this Shameless or the Brady Bunch? Oh, yeah, that was Marcia). They took Ian home and Fiona informed the family that she was moving back in. Her husband Gus was going on tour with his band. That was the first Frank heard of Fiona’s change in marital status. Sammi felt a threat to her position as Gallagher house mother and told Fiona that she can’t let Gus go on tour without her.

Fiona went off to work, leaving Debbie in charge of Ian’s meds. While she was texting with her boyfriend, Derek, Ian got up and emptied out the one-week supply of antipsychotics, mood stabilizers and sedatives. Debbie was scared he had taken them all but he told her he flushed them. She grabbed Liam and went tearfully off to tell Fiona. Sean in the meantime was giving Fiona halfhearted advice on what to do about Gus. Giving him space was the wrong move unless she wanted a divorce. Fiona seemed to be trying to figure out whether Sean still was interested in her.

We couldn’t have been more wrong that Veronica would get in a knockdown drag out fight with Svetlana when she found her living at her home. But Kev had gone off to college with Lip to set up another “ice cream truck” operation without the truck so for all she knew, Svetlana was just babysitting.

V’s date with Eddie Murphy didn’t go anywhere when Eddie turned V off taking liberties men shouldn’t take on a first date. When Fiona tried to tell V to get her stuff right with Kev, V’s retort to get her own stuff straight sent Fiona running off to make things right with Gus. She ran into Davis and the other guy loading the van and knew “they knew” by the cold shoulder reception. Gus rejected her impassioned plea to join him on the road in a couple of weeks but did ask her to water his plants.

A plea to a pharmacist for refills of lithium, olanzapine and aripiprazole without a prescription failed, so Debbie barged in on a guitar-strumming Mickey to try to get some replacement meds for Ian. Mickey said he was busy and told Deb to go whine to someone who cared. Debbie’s lecture — that he wasn’t going to be able to drink Ian away — was the shove that finally sent Mickey over to be with Ian.

Supporting Cast of “Uncle Carl”

Sammi returned to Chez Gallagher knowing that Carl was behind Chuckie’s arrest, while Carl tried to pretend he had nothing to do with it. The police arrived in the midst of the fray and Carl took off only to be surrounded, cuffed and hauled off to be Chuckie’s cell neighbor. Chuckie was delighted to see him: “Hey Uncle Carl…. Will you tell me a story.”