'Shameless' Season 10 Episode 1: Are Mickey and Ian returning any time soon after reuniting in prison?
This article contains spoilers for Season 10 Episode 1 of 'Shameless'
It has been a while since we've last seen our favorite Gallavich couple — Ian Gallagher (Cameron Monaghan) and Mickey Milkovich (Noel Fisher).
With Monaghan then believed to be quitting the show midway in Season 9, we saw Ian and Mickey reunited in prison as Ian walked into his cell, to find out he will be sharing bunks with Mickey of all people.
The two received their happily ever after and we thought that was it — as good as things for Gallavich could be. But as filming began for Season 10, Monaghan's face became more and more common in behind the scenes teasers.
All this until the official trailer confirmed that yes, Mickey and Ian are very much back in swing this season, with their relationship braving testing waters more often than we would have expected. But somehow the Season 10 premiere managed to keep that side of the story a secret.
Our question is, why? With Fiona having already left the premises after Emmy Rossum quit the show at the end of Season 9, the Gallaghers are at their outrageous best to keep the plot gripping and intriguing in a post-Fiona era.
Debbie has stepped up to the role of the matriarch, and Lip is on fatherly duties in the wake of his girlfriend Tammy hemorrhaging right after giving birth to their babies.
Meanwhile, Liam is doing the utmost to reclaim his ethnicity, while Carl is just giving in to the whims of his girlfriend Kelly, after graduating from military school. Yet somehow, the plot that was teased the most — Ian and Mickey bickering in prison — is missing from the premiere episode.
Yes, Debbie does mention she is going to visit Ian in prison soon, but we want to know what happened to Ian and Mickey after the two broke into an intense makeout sesh behind their closed cell-door.
The reason behind the intrigue is obviously the official trailer for the show, and several short clips that were released following that, where we got a hint of what the two's life together has been behind closed bars.
In one particular promo clip, Ian can be heard saying he is fed up with Mickey, and suggesting they take a break. Of course, the two have never been able to tolerate each other for longer than a couple of weeks at a stretch so this makes sense.
But Mickey retaliates saying some derivative of how Ian can't dump him, only Mickey can dump Ian. So clearly, the dynamics haven't changed between the couple that somehow ended up being together after playing cat and mouse for quite a while.
But the premiere could have at least shown a glimpse of that if not the full argument in detail so the audience could understand just why Monaghan quipped about how Fisher is "always in his shot" in one of the cast-tell-all videos ahead of the Season 10 premiere.
We do have Debbie mentioning her visit to Ian sometime in the immediate future though, so here's hoping Ian and Mickey visit us soon in all their dysfunctional couple goals glory from prison too.
'Shameless' Season 10 airs on Sundays at 9/8c on Showtime.