'Shameless' Recap - 'There's The Rub'

In last week’s episode, most of the Gallagher clan kept making wrong decision after wrong decision. Fiona kept sleeping with Robbie despite knowing how it would eventually screw up her comfy relationship with Mike. Debbie continues her quest for a sexual encounter; Mickey causes the Russian hookers to quit working for their mistress and Frank breaks his own leg to get money for a liver transplant that eventually falls through. In “That’s The Rub,” we see the consequence of many of the family’s bad actions over the past months come to a head. That’s the rub is exactly right, for as the individual family members might have been doing what they think is right, there is always a catch.

Let’s get to the biggest consequence first. After meeting at a sleazy motel, Fiona decides to permanently break things off with Robbie knowing full well that the security of a stable relationship and a steady paycheck is better than the exciting, if not unfulfilling, fling she had with the more adventurous Robbie. She deletes him from her phone and vows to never see him again but during a family dinner party gone wrong, Robbie tells his brother about their affair. Hurt but amazingly understanding, Mike breaks up with Fiona but allows her to stay as a Worldwide Cup employee. It seems everything worked out fine after all. But Robbie comes by Fiona’s house with a baggie of cocaine, which he leaves there once Fiona forces him out of the house with a baseball bat. During a party for Fiona’s birthday, toddler Liam gets into the coke and, by the time the rest of the party finds him, is unresponsive. At the hospital, the fate of Liam’s injuries were left unspoken but Fiona was arrested by two police officers, presumably on child endangerment and drug charges. As the episode fades, Fi is siting alone in the back of the cop car, crying and facing what could be the biggest battle of her life.

Meanwhile, Frank is encountering problems of his own. Besides the fact that he is bonding with Sammi, (a fact that both scares and hurts Carl, the last Gallagher to really stand by his father. With Sammi in the picture, Carl is finally seeing what a flaky, immoral man Frank is) Frank’s prospects are looking bleak. He’ll get a lot of money from his leg injury but the money won’t come for at least a year, which is essentially an eternity for Frank who is standing on death’s door. In a last ditch effort to regain some semblance of health, Frank decides to have a Indian sweat lodge ceremony, which ends in an unconscious Frank being removed from the teepee by the cops.

And speaking of the consequences of bad decisions, Ian’s impulsive and illegal army stint seems to have ended badly. While doing some important studying on the toilet, Lip gets questioned by two army officials who arrive to tell Lip that someone had used his name and social security number to enlist in the army and the racked up a series of serious misconducts including trying to steal a helicopter. Eventually Lip and Debbie track down Ian whose bartending at a gay bar called “The White Swallow” and looking like a cross between Adam Lambert and the Emcee in Cabaret. While they try and talk to him, it’s clear Ian is either very high or very oblivious to the trouble he’s in. Or both. Probably both.

While there were a lot of serious moments in “That’s The Rub,” a subplot involving Sheila’s new boyfriend, a stoic Native American named Running Tree, has a lot of laughs. Sheila’s upbeat insistence of having authentic Native American foods was quite a funny addition to her character, especially when she got to play off of Running Tree’s four adopted kids.

Oh and, yes, I’m writing this recap while listening to “Tribal Twilight: Recorded Songs of the Menominee Indian Tribe.” Thanks, Sheils for the suggestion. I needed some spiritual healing after this episode.

Shameless airs Sundays on Showtime
Image Courtesy of Showtime/CBS