Emily Recap: Shameless

Fiona gets 90 days after breaking probation in “Emily,” the 11th episode of Season 4 of Shameless (3/30/14). On the ride to Decatur Correctional, she meets the first of many rough characters she’ll likely get to know – a woman who stabbed her boyfriend’s pregnant wife in the stomach.

Frank is still unconscious after his liver transplant while Sammi tells Chuckie (whose real name, it turns out, is Charles Nevin Slott) that they need to talk to Frank to get him to wake up. A little girl named Emily is given the bed next to Frank. She has cardiomyopathy and is waiting for a heart transplant. Her heart doesn’t pump enough blood. “Is that why you look like a vampire?” Chuckie asks. Sheila arrives with her little tribe, Roger Runningtree’s nieces and nephews. The youngest girl is calling her Mama Sheila, and suggests they do a tribal dance to wake Frank up. Emily thinks that’s a wonderful idea, but Sammi thinks Frank needs his rest. Sheila doesn’t give a rat’s butt what Sammi thinks.

While questioning Ian about his relationship with Mickey, Carl reveals he has a girlfriend. Mickey says he has to go see his son, Yevgeny, get christened. Ian gets angry that he’s not invited — he wants them to be a public couple. At his school, Lip finds Amanda looking up his grades, while Liam sleeps. He needs a B average to keep his scholarship, but Lip doesn’t want to hear about that. When Lip says he’s going to have to renege on dinner with her parents, Amanda gets pissed, says he’s not a man of his word and leaves. At her school, a junior flirts with Debbie. And here’s how it all turned out:

Debbie’s Candid Camera. In biology class, Debbie, Ellie and Holly spot a cute junior, Henry McNally. Henry only has eyes for Debbie and offers to help with today’s dissection. He gives her the heart of a frog, as Holly pouts. She’s supposed to be the center of attention and later asks Ellie what Debbie has that she doesn’t. But it’s a set up. Henry was paid $50 by his stepsister Seema to lure Debbie into a trap. Henry sketches Debbie, says he loves redheads and wants to kiss her. He wants to meet her in the stairwell of the gym basement after basketball practice. They share kisses but Debbie backs off when he begins to unbutton her blouse. He says she’s right, maybe they should wait till after the dance. While Debbie reacts to that offer, he proceeds to take her shirt off. Suddenly, a bunch of kids yell “Surprise!” and snap pictures with their cell phones. Seema laughs her head off and a humiliated Debbie throws something at Henry and runs away. When Matty finds out, he breaks up with Seema. He finds Debbie outside crying in the cold and comforts her. He says he will be proud to take her to the dance.

Mickey’s Moment of Truth: At the church, Svetlana wants to wait for Terry, just sprung from jail, but Ian shows up. Svetlana is pissed but the priest has a funeral and just has to get the ceremony over with. That’s followed up by a party at the Alibi, where Kev tries to make peace with Mickey. Svetlana wants Mickey to get rid of “Howdy Doody.” (You had to laugh at this part. Svetlana knows her American kid shows despite her hard knock life.) Ian tells Mickey if he has to leave, it’s over between them. Terry arrives and Ian watches in disgust as little Yevgeny meets his grandfather. Mickey warns Svetlana her threats are going to backfire. She’ll be used up in five years so she better back off. Ian decides to leave. He calls Mickey a coward who is afraid of Terry, Svetlana and himself. Mickey pretends he doesn’t care but then decides he does. He gets everyone’s attention and announces he is gay. Everyone goes back to whatever they were doing. Then Terry jumps up suddenly and attacks Mickey. Ian jumps in and one of Terry’s friends break a chair over his back. The orthodox priest takes a moment to call the police. Terry is taken back to the slammer for breaking probation. But Mickey is let off by a gay cop who wants to get back to his husband, Carlos.

Who Played Who: Supporting Cast of “Emily”

Dinner Chez Gallagher: Carl and Bonnie shakes down the school’s vending machine so she can feed her siblings. When she can’t go with him to visit Frank because one kid has bronchitis, Carl wants her and her siblings to live with him. She accepts. After informing Amanda that he is a man of his word and she should bring her parents to his house for dinner, Lip comes home to find a houseful of wild kids. He tells Carl to get rid of them, when there’s a knock on the door. Thinking it’s Amanda and her parents, Lip says the kids can stay till after dinner and tells them to do “whatever the bleep they want.” Beer in hand, he opens the door to Wesley Gretzsky, from DCSF, making a surprise visit to inspect the house. She checks for hazards that need to be fixed. Lip tells her Frank and Fiona are at work. Gretzsky says if he’s going to babysit that many children, he needs a daycare license. Amanda’s parents, Jason and Cheryl (“they’re white”), arrive. At dinner, they learn that Bonnie’s aunt is on death row while Fiona nearly killed Liam with cocaine and broke parole with more cocaine. Amanda’s mother doesn’t want left-over lasagna stolen from the cafeteria, so Lip offers it to Gretzsky who is completing her report in the living room. What she got out of the conversation she overheard is there are seven homeless kids Lip is trying to help. This moves her to tell him the date of her next surprise visit. Amanda tells Lip he ended up with a B average, even though he got a C in English, because of a couple of A’s. Amanda’s father offers Lip $5K to stay away from Amanda and quickly ups that to $10K. Lip accepts and tells Amanda, who leaves in a huff with her parents. Carl and Bonnie take over Fiona’s room and sends Fiona a selfie with a message to stay in jail. Later, Amanda returns and she says Lip should have held out for $15K — that’s what her father gave her BMX boyfriend in high school to get lost.

Frank Comes To: Carl arrived in the midst of the tribal dance and woke Frank up with a swift elbow jab to the nuts. Confused and disoriented, Frank calls everyone by wrong names. He thinks Sammi is Debbie and calls Sheila “Mama.” The doctor says it’s a common occurrence called post-operative delirium and he will eventually gets his wits back. That night, after visiting hours, Frank is alone with Emily. He thinks she is Fiona and tells the child he’s sorry he left her and Lip out in the cold while he and Monica scored drugs. He promises to try to be a better dad. Emily, whose father left when he found out she was sick, goes along with it. Frank says he will take her to get her ears pierced and says he’s glad she’s there. He takes her little hand and she calls him daddy. The next morning, Frank manages to get up and find his way to the cafeteria, colostomy bag in hand. A nurse sits there horrified, but the doctor at the table just slides a brownie over to Frank. Later he is put back to bed and Emily has died at 9:05 a.m.. “No… Fiona,” Frank cries as she is taken away. More horrible irony over the unfairness of life here as there was in the last episode, when Frank got his liver transplant. Frank, the guy responsible for Butterface not being able to get her heart transplant, unwittingly provides a dying child with her last bit of comfort on earth.

But I Regress: That was one hilarious moment when Frank was thinking Sheila was Peg Gallagher and Sheila kissed him on the mouth like a lover. “We’re in public,” Frank scolded, and Sheila remembered she was supposed to be “Mama.” Then Frank said “Wait till we get home.” The look on Sheila’s face!

The episode ends with a preview of Fiona handcuffed to a table at Decatur Correctional while her P.O., Officer Johnson, interrogates her about being clean. Fiona’s first instinct is still to deny that she is a drug addict, but she struggles to give the right answers this time and she does.