Shameless: Order Room Service Recap

In “Order Room Service,” relationship dynamics weren’t working out too well for just about anyone. The only ones who might possibly have good memories out of this one are Debbie (an awesome potato sack race) and Carl (his first heist with his pop). And maybe Frank, for his “selfless” sacrifice in helping Carl get that memory.

Fiona has come around to thinking she can make the Michigan thing work with Jimmy, but she just doesn’t know what kind of deep trouble Jimmy is really in or that he has already put down a deposit on a studio apartment. Fiona has done her research and feels confident enough to ask supervisor Mike Pratt about her transfer chances and to suggest to her siblings that they might be going to another school for a year.

Mandy and Ian are both preoccupied with their obsessions. Lip is ignoring Mandy to the extent that he can and Ian has been drowning his sorrows over Mickey’s impending marriage to Svetlana. While Mike Pratt invited the whole Gallagher clan and Jimmy up to his family’s camping weekend, Lip and Ian can’t go because of the wedding. Lip also tells Mandy that he is going to help with Karen’s homecoming and makes a loaded statement about how the “dude” who hit Karen probably doesn’t have a scratch on “him.” Mandy drops her laundry on the spot revealing her totally scratchless glory. Lip was either mesmerized or horrified, we couldn’t tell. Mandy will have her way with him despite Kev’s warnings, before Lip gets up the nerve to tell her he knows she was the one who ran Karen over.

Frank has been kicked to the curb by both the gay rights and the reprogrammers. He’s on a train encroaching on another homeless bum’s turf when he learns that there is such a thing as bodily fluid rights. Frank locates Carl with bitter complaints about the family abandoning him in the “dead of autumn.” Little Carl offers to sneak him in the van and Carl poignantly says “I’m your family” to his twisted father, who is reminiscing about his first heist with his own twisted pappy. Carl recalls the security code his gay foster parents, Cassius and Lanier, gave him and tells Frank all about their work habits and possessions.

Estefania calls Jimmy to complain about broken shoes and not so well endowed lovers. He reminds her that the phone is only for emergencies. Beto pulls up with Jimmy’s mail. He’s wise to the University of Michigan and asks Jimmy if he’s managed to convince “her” to go to Michigan. Jimmy thinks he means Fiona, but he means Este. Beto warns Jimmy not to be careless.

Lip tells Kev that Mandy is responsible for Karen’s injuries and asks for advice since he was married to a crazy person. Kev warns him to distance himself from Mandy slowly and stay out of her bed. Fiona finds out about that studio because Jimmy left his cell phone at home. She confronts him angrily at the coffee shop about making the decision to go to Michigan alone with consulting her. Jimmy points out that she never consulted him when she decided to become the guardian of her siblings, committing herself to raising a 4-year old. The argument escalates and Jimmy brings class differences into it. He’s been living in a slum. It’s more than Fiona can take and she tells him to find another place to look like a baby rabbit.

Jody brings Karen home. Sheila fusses over her as Lip gazes on in horror at Karen’s vacuous and child-like responses. Jody says the doctors don’t know how long she will be like that. It could even be permanent, but he may take her to Sedona for therapy. The next day, Jody goes to the Wongs to bring Hymie back. Karen remembers him and wants to see him. She is very dependent upon and happiest when she is with Jody. Lip comes over and tries to jog her memories of their times together. Karen says she remembers but can’t feel anything inside.

Fiona wakes up alone. Jimmy never came home and didn’t call. She rounds up her camping crew, but that only consists of Debbie and Liam. As Debbie searches for the flashlight Carl has obviously commandeered for the father/son heist, he feigns illness. Ian is still drunk from the night before. Jimmy has spent the night at Andy’s, his med school buddy, passing out after unloading his relationship woes for 2 hours.

At the campsite, Debbie dives right into the festivities, having the time of her life in a potato sack race. Mike finds Fiona and also finds out that Jimmy didn’t come along. They get drunk, their mutual attraction blossoms, and they end up in the tent. Mike assures Fiona she is not the only one with relationship issues and shows her his Eve tattoo, his ex-wife’s name, at the top of his thigh.

While Mickey’s wedding gets underway, Carl and Frank are robbing Cassius and Lanier. Ian confronts Mickey at the wedding but is not as successful in making Mickey understand the gravity of taking wedding vows. Mickey tells Ian to grow up. Lip crashes the party and confronts Mandy with her crime. He tells her that they are done but she angrily retaliates claiming to have already replaced him with a very surprised random guy standing behind her. Ian follow that up with a wild tirade about Mickey marrying a communist.

When Beto picks Jimmy up and Estefania’s father, Nando, is in the back seat, things take a very serious turn for Jimmy. Nando takes him to a fancy restaurant where he can’t even eat gourmet offerings because he knows his goose is cooked. Estefania is in INS holding, on the verge of deportation because Jimmy failed to answer her call. Nando says he will handle the matter while Jimmy tries desperately to escape the blame.

Back at the van, Frank estimates their haul at around 3 grand. Lip arrives home with an emotionally devastated Ian to find Carl being manhandled by the police. Cassius and Lanier gave Carl a unique security code — his name — and no one else knew it. While Lip protests police brutality on a child, Frank suddenly appears and tells the officers that he forced Carl to give him the code. As the police cuff Frank, he fondly smiles at Carl and says: “order room service.” Carl will know what Frank meant but Lip can’t believe what he just saw.

After dinner, Jimmy looks for a way out, but Beto tells him to be a man for once. There is no way out. Jimmy has to get on Nando’s boat and he is taken away to meet whatever fate Nando has in store. Still at the campsite, Fiona tries to call Jimmy to make up with him, but has to leave a voicemail he will never hear. Beto threw his cell phone in the lake.