Sleep No More Recap: Shameless

“Sleep No More” opened up with a frustrated Fiona unable to sleep because Debbie’s little bundle of joy wouldn’t stop howling. There was a scare with the baby that we could have done without. Frank’s made plans to pay for Fiona’s wedding; Lip went ballistic on his professor and Ian learned that lying does not always work out.

A white rose for my boutonnierre ~ Frank Gallagher

Sean and Fiona continued to make wedding plans when Frank informed them that, as family patriarch, he was walking Fiona down the aisle. Fiona reminded him that the tab for the wedding usually goes along with that honor and Frank accepted the challenge. Instead of taking Liam to Headstart, he sat out on the street with him and made money begging, using some gypsy tricks to make the little boy look sick, with a sign claiming Liam was an orphan with AIDS. Fiona thought Frank’s sudden interest was a big hoot but it was lost on Sean who continued to have friction with Frank and the lack of boundaries in the Gallagher household in general. Frank also paid Franny’s other grandfather a visit and extorted some money from the Delgado patriarch.

You can’t bring a crying baby to class ~ Mrs. Holmes

Debbie took little Franny to school but her teacher refused to let her in class with a crying baby. She had to go to the guidance counselor and get started on an alternative home schooling program. She went to the Alibi where Lip convinced her to let the family help and he got to hold the baby.

“I was your ticket out of the gutter, pal, and you just blew it” ~ Prof. Youens

Lip wanted to get back in Professor Youens’ good graces and did a lot of work to keep his TA job. He brought it to Youens’ office where the professor was passed out on the couch. Lip apologized for the terrible things he said about Youens’ kid not wanting to have anything to do with him. Youens just gave him some more papers to grade. On their next encounter, Lip was still expecting things to go back to the way they were but Youens said it was time the boundaries were made clear. To his credit, he took responsibility for their former drinking buddy relationshp, but now says “I’m your employer, not your daddy.” Lip needs to keep his personal life to himself and not put Youens in the awkward position of terminating his scholarship. After this, Fiona called Lip with tales of Frank’s current shenanigans. Lip got very angry about “old, narcissistic alcoholics” who don’t stick by their kids when the chips are down, and he starting drinking.

Later he strolled in to Youens’ class and attacked the professor in front of a roomful of students on his outdated teaching methods and his “pickled” brain. Youens took him out in the hall and tried to send him home but Lip was just warming up. He went on a rant of all the things he did to cover for Youens when he was drunk and physically shoved the old guy. Youens fired him. Lip left, found Youens’ car and broke all the windows before he was taken down by campus security.

We don’t allow people with a documented history of mental illness to work her for a reason. ~ Rita Smith

Ian began work as an EMT trainee EMT. He got his uniform, his own locker, a Superman lunchbox from Caleb and everything was going swell until his supervisor gets the results of his background check back. She can’t have untrustworthy people on the team. Ian pleads with her to no avail.

Now about that horrible scene with the baby. Debbie fell asleep in her chair while breastfeeding Franny and studying at the same time. The baby slid to the floor and they switched to several other scenes leaving that in limbo. When they finally got back to it, Fiona and Sean came in to find the baby crying on the couch. Debbie was lying in the crawlspace under the floor and told her what happened and cried that she is a horrible mother. Fiona reassured her that the baby was fine and Debbie will be fine, too, if she will accept some help.

Frank returned home after that and freely confessed that he got the money to put down on Fiona’s reception from Mr. Delgado, after threatening to charge Derek with statutory rape. Debbie is horrified that he has ruined any chance she may have had to get back with Derek. Sean angrily confronts Frank, telling him he’s not paying for the wedding with his crooked money, or ruining Debbie’s relationship with her new family and he’s not gonna eat Sean’s pork chop. Frank headbutted Sean after he said that Frank doesn’t deserve to walk Fiona down the aisle and it’s on. Their brawl ended up in the yard when Carl showed up and put Frank in a chokehold that he somehow learned from Dominique’s Dad. At first, Frank did not appear to be breathing anymore but when he came to, he was unceremoniously kicked to the curb by one and all.

Fiona angrily asked Sean if he wanted to go to jail for fighting with “that f**cking a$shole.” To his “I was standing up for you,” reply, she informed him that she can stand up for herself and it was really about Sean’s ego. Her heart isn’t in any danger of being shattered by anything Frank does because she doesn’t have a heart when it comes to Frank. More calmly, she said: “C’mon, let’s get you cleaned up.”

On the L train, a bruised and battered Frank met Bruno who just lost his job. Frank vents his anger about Sean, accompanied by some scenarios: What I wouldn’t give to see him bounce off the bumper of a rig doing 80, then get pierced by the wing of a low-flying plane, and then butt f**cked by a flock of Candian geese (that even made him laugh in his sorry condition). Bruno took him up on the idea and Frank put half down on an arrangement where Bruno will take out the arrogant dirtbag that laid Frank low for $2,000.

Lester Hibbert, the immigration officer, was still investigating Svetlana’s case, showing up early in the morning to look for signs that the Svetlana-Veronica civil union is just a ruse. He wasn’t buying their story of how they suddenly fell in love in spite of V’s lengthy relationship with Kev, but since he couldn’t find any proof that it was false, he put Svetlana on the path to a green card. He was still going to come by unannounced now and then because he couldn’t wait to see how far the ladies would take it. V convinced Kev to let Svetlana sleep with her while he moved to the couch. Svetlana and V fell into a real relationship that they both decided Kev should be a part of. Is that going to screw up Svetlana’s status?