Shameless Recap: Icarus Fell and Rusty Ate Him

There wasn’t exactly a barrel full of laughs in Episode 6 of “Shameless,” Season 8 (12-10-17). The way Debbie handled her dilemma landed her in jail. Frank found out that there are major setbacks on the road to the middle class, even if you are Employee of the Month. A vacancy in Fiona’s building came about in a most unexpected way.

There’s something you should probably know about that dog ~ Fiona Gallagher

As Fiona unloaded her complaints about Ian and the shelter kids to Nessa, suddenly water began dripping through the ceiling right on her. It was coming from Mrs. Cardinal’s apartment and Fiona was forced to let herself in. The tub was overflowing, there were newspapers piled sky-high and surprise! Mrs. Cardinal really had a little dog. Then Fiona spotted her tenant, dead on the bedroom floor. The hungry little pooch was eating her body. The dog ran out of the apartment into Nessa’s arms and Fiona not only had to tell Nessa about Mrs. Cardinal’s demise, but about the dog she was letting lick her face. Ewww! A police woman told Fiona everything in the apartment now belonged to Mrs. Cardinal’s heirs, if she had any. While the authorities looked into that, Fiona found photos in the apartment that made Helen Cardinal a real person to her– a woman who lost her husband in the Vietnam War while she was pregnant. When a niece who never knew her aunt showed up, it turned out the daughter passed away some years ago. The niece and her husband began throwing everything in the place out the window in the dumpster, including the photos Fiona found. Animal Control came to pick up the dog who was going to be put to sleep because he had eaten human flesh. Fiona retrieved the photos from the dumpster and also rescued the dog from meeting his owner in the hereafter.

I am no longer fettered by the necessity to visit stinky malls and rub shoulders with the great unwashed ~ Frank Gallagher

Frank was voted Employee of the Month at the garden center and he got his first non-fraudulent credit card. After Liam made the observation that their lack of a car meant they were poor, Frank used the card to get a brand new automobile, no money down, 3 months before the first payment. He took Liam for a spin, stopping off at the convenience store for some Ho-Ho’s (c’mon, the ho joke was just lame). No sooner was his Employee of the Month picture up on the wall, when he was called in and given his pink slip. Frank was just incredulous, especially since he was first informed that Mr. Adeeb had been let go and assumed he was being promoted to fill his shoes. But no, Lumber, Lawn & Lighting stores was going out of business and all of its stores were being shut down. Frank took it well and declared that men like him have gumption and a can-do spirit. This would be a temporary setback at best. We see a repo man in Frank’s future.

Those hair extensions cost me $300! ~ Yoli

It was role reversal time for Lip. He went on a quest to locate drunken Brad, his missing boss and previous sponsor. Lip dragged an unwilling Professor Youens along and Brad’s wife, Cami, helped them track down his truck in which they found an unreasonable number of doughnuts, hair extensions and Michael Jordan’s arm. Yoli, the owner of the hair extensions, was still passed out in the doughnut shop. Professor Youens wanted to forget the whole thing but noble Lip was offended by Youens’ lack of faith and told him to leave. He can’t see how he is supposed to make it if Brad can’t. Later, with “Ubber” driver Carl at the wheel, Lip found Brad sleeping in the doorway of a building. Brad tried to fight him off again but this time, Lip decked him and threw him in the car. Cami would not take him back even after Lip sobered him up so we suppose he’ll be a guest of the Gallaghers for a while.

Oh, my God, I can feel your sperm attacking my egg! ~ Debbie Gallagher

Debbie woke up in Missouri in bed with Duran. A peek under the covers confirmed they had been doing a lot more than sleeping. She panicked at the thought of having another baby so soon or, worse, an abortion and went off to buy the morning after pill. They borrowed a countdown clock from Jack Bauer that immediately lost 24 hours when Duran reminded her that they slept together on Thursday, too. Since Debbie is not yet 17, she had to prevail upon a woman in the parking lot to help her out. The woman took her money but didn’t buy the pill so Debbie grabbed her by the hair and it was on. Both of them ended up in jail until Debbie’s friends bailed her out. Then they went to the pharmacy where Farhad cleared the store by shouting “Allah Akbar” while Davey bought Debbie the pill. There were 10 seconds left on the clock at that point.

I’m just a boring hetero dude. ~ Kevin Ball

Kev left behind his Kentucky roots in this episode to be “gender liquid.” Now that Svetlana is back in their lives, he is super jealous of her intimacy with V. It turned out that he isn’t gay at all but since V thinks her attraction to Svetlana really has to do with Svetlana’s bossiness, Kev asked V how he can dominate her. Sometimes, you get the feeling that Kev is on the wrong show. He’s not “Shameless.” He’s “Clueless.” Ah well… the funniest part of this dumb storyline was Kev was checking out Kermit’s butt at the Alibi. Kermit felt totally violated!

Fiona and Ian had one scene together where she tried to make nice with her brother without backing off on the sale of the church. Ian wasn’t having it though. Fiona is a sell-out in his book now and next week’s preview showed they will be picking up that storyline then
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