A Yurt of Your Own Recap: Shameless

In the 9th episode of Season 6 of Shameless (3/13/2016), it’s off to the commune for Frank, Debbie, Queenie and Chuckie. Gus Pfender reappeared on the scene with an apology and a couple of requests: a divorce and his grandma’s ring. And there was another reappearance: Mandy’s back! We haven’t seen her since she took off for Indiana with Kenyatta, and now that she needed help dealing with a dead body, she called Ian.

Rolling stone Queenie was finally cleared to take grandson, Chuckie, to her beloved eco-village, Soaring Consciousness. Debbie opted to go with her. Frank was being pursued by G-Dogg’s armed posse and jumped right on a ride outta town when he saw Queenie leaving. Fiona was perturbed that Debbie was blowing off school, but there was nothing she could do to stop the soon-to-be 15 year old mom.

Debbie got set up in the maternity tent, and was apparently the only expectant mom because she had the yurt all to herself. Frank didn’t quite have it so good. He has to work (heaven forbid!) and he has to share a tent with Queenie and two old guys she is sharing her, uh, zen with. Frank tries to get Debbie to take him in, but no masculine energy is allowed in the maternity tent and Debbie isn’t about to let Frank screw up her new world. When Frank inevitably decides that getting murdered by the homeboys is a more desirable fate than working, Debbie refuses to leave with him. That’s when Queenie really enlightens Frank. She shows him the real reason the commune is knee-deep in doo doo – rows and rows of poppy plants they are cultivating to make enough money to buy land in Kauai and live in luxury. With Frank on board, we’re pretty sure that is never going to happen.

Fiona was doing everything she could think of to try to make things right with Sean but he wanted a pause because he was agitated. Aside from the issue of Carl’s gun, he brought up Liam and the cocaine. Fiona wasn’t going down like that and reminded him that he is a junkie who falls back into the soup whenever and that he is responsible for the death of another human being. Gus Pfender waltzed back in the midst of this standstill wanting a divorce and grandma’s ring that she smuggled out of Nazi Germany, yada yada yada. Fiona’s returns to the pawnshop to retrieve it but since over 3 months has passed, the ring will now cost $6K. Gus told Fiona she wasn’t going to need a lawyer, but she decided to consult one anyway. The attorney for Gus learned that someone bought the ring so now the value was going up to $15K. “There’s blood in the water,” Fiona’s lawyer told her, “and I’m a shark.” They were going for the jugular when Sean showed up with the ring. He threw it at Gus after proposing to Fiona.

Lip took Ian to a sorority bash where there were some girls who looked like men. Ian thought he saw one, but that was a real man. Lip said the girl had a mustache. While Lip was busy getting zonked, Ian got that call from Mandy and had to leave. Lip tried to cozy up to a girl named Brina who he thought was one of his partners of last week’s little orgy, but that was Trina. Brina is a more responsible type and when Lip passed out cold, she called 911. He woke up in the hospital being treated for alcohol poisoning. The nurse said his blood alcohol level was so high he was lucky to be alive. Lip was most ungrateful to Brina because he now owed the hospital $2K. Apparently, he’d rather be dead. Like father, like son.

Ian went to meet Mandy at a Chicago hotel room. Mandy is now in the escort business but her “boyfriend” dropped dead on her. While Mandy laments the blood on her dress, they try to figure out a way to dispose of the body. They can’t go out the way they went in because of the security cameras in the hall. They can’t roll the corpse out the window because, even on the second floor, the window won’t open wide enough. Ian convinces her that the best thing to do is call the police. They will decide that the guy had a stroke and that will be that. With tales of seeing “Wicked” on Broadway, Mandy tries to convince Ian she is not ashamed of her current occupation but still conveys a deep sense of fear and shame to him. He tells her he was doing a lot worse things than that not too long ago, so there’s no judgment. Just when Lip comes home from the hospital, Mandy is leaving. Ian tells Lip that she just dropped by to say hello.

Carl had two shocks in this episode. One was his paycheck for washing dishes at Patsy’s Diner. It just about covers the bus fare. The other was that Dominique is really interested in him, or at least decides that Carl is the one person in her whole school who can help her lose her virginity. Well, not to burst any bubbles, but in real life, G-Dogg’s posse would have either done Carl in by now or at least be torturing him in lieu of Frank. But maybe Dominique’s father will fill that role if he finds out.

Kevin and his big mouth put Svetlana in danger of being deported. Kev decides that the easy solution is for someone to marry Svetlana. All the takers of that offer disappear when Svetlana informs them that her husband will still have to pay for sex. Kev can’t marry her because he is still married to Cheryl. V and Svetlana decide to get married but Kev gets jealous when he finds out that Svetlana knows V doesn’t really like his nachos.

Chuckie, we hardly knew ye: Chuckie wanted to see a mountain lion at the eco-village. Queenie laughed and said they weren’t that far outside of the city and he’d be lucky to see a squirrel. But a mountain lion showed up at the end of the episode. Awwwwww. We really liked having Chuckie show up now and then. It’s true that he hasn’t had much a part, but then neither has “now-you-see-him, now-you don’t” Liam.