'Shameless' Season 10 Episode 11: Mickey's bridezilla moments in the backdrop of Lip's dilemma strikes a chord
This article contains spoilers for season 10, episode 11: 'Location, Location, Location'.
Season 11 of 'Shameless' has followed this insane pattern of sticking really close to its episodic titles, or perhaps it's just a pattern more prominent this season. With episode 11, 'Location Location. Location', we see the Gallaghers in dilemma once again as they struggle to decide on what location works best for their situation.
For Lip and Tami, it is Lip's all-consuming doubt whether moving to Milwaukee really is the best decision for him and his family, while for Ian and Mickey it is finding the perfect location for their wedding, among other things related to the giant, elaborate affair the latter is making it out to be. For Debbie, it is switching between the two venues as she struggles to appease both her older girlfriend and said girlfriend's scheming, blackmailing teenage daughter at the same time. For Frank, it's of course, finding a new cushy abode and that leaves us with poor Liam all alone in their patent location - the Gallagher house, as older brother Carl, is busy shitting in other people's.
The episode kicks off with Mickey's dad arriving at the Gallagher house after learning of his son's engagement. Terry Milkovich is not a man who has ever taken kindly to his son's sexuality so now should be no difference but his near-violent reaction to the news and threatening Mickey was equal parts surprising and amusing. Mickey gives a tough response with his own gun in tow, but soon it becomes clear that his father's words take a toll on his mood and suddenly he wants to make this wedding an event solely to piss Terry off. So for that, he takes Ian along to flower shops and furniture stores where he loses his patience - at times for homophobic people, and at other times for people's incompetence at getting him the particulars he wants.
Speaking of particulars, Lip manages to get on Tami's nerves when he decides that getting an old, beat down house at the end of the same street would be a good investment. The house needs a lot of fixing and flipping but for Tami it is still living a 100 feet away from the Gallagher house, while for Lip, it is continuing to be around his support system - the people who helped him get over being an alcoholic which is still an ongoing process. It is triggered by the moment Lip sees a sullen Liam making breakfast all by himself and tells him how people are busy elsewhere and he just misses having them around. Lip decides that for a proper upbringing, even though it's not his job, he has to continue Fiona's legacy as the eldest sibling and be a parent to his younger ones; Liam at least, because clearly Frank is too busy breaking into his rich ladies' houses and making arrangement with their gardeners to occupy the residence and enjoy its many pleasures while the owner is away.
This episode also offers us a glimpse into Liam's bond with Frank which for a second makes it look genuine that the little boy misses having his father around. On a lot of occasions throughout the last couple of years, Frank has chosen Liam to be his no-questions-asked sidekick, partly because of his tender age and mostly because of the race card he would get to exercise with him. But for Liam, it was about bonding with his daddy which he clearly misses even more now that the hustle and bustle of the Gallagher house is dying down. It was expected that he might build a rapport with older brother Carl, but the ex-military school grad is too busy being an undercover cop and forcefully taking dumps in strangers' houses to prove his loyalty to the people he's trying to expose, and even though it sounds like something Frank would do unasked, it's just not Liam's cup of tea.
There's definitely a lot of potential for a Carl and Liam team up in the near future, but for now, 'Shameless' is focusing strongly on Debbie's romantic escapades. The girl became a mom at fifteen and ever since has been hustling to earn the best resplendence she can afford for herself and her daughter Franny, and even though she blows it all up by trying to date a rich snob and her erratic crazy teenage daughter secretly at the same time, none of that blackmailing can do Debbie Gallagher any harm. She puts on her tuxedo and tries switching time between Claudia's birthday dinner with her jealous girlfriends and Julia's school dance where she has to pretend to be irrevocably in love with her, all for it to culminate into a mommy-issue fueled blow up where Julia claims she had sex with Debbie only to piss her mother off.
Debbie leaves the two of them fighting it out to arrive at the comforts of smoking a joint on the steps of the Gallaghers' entrance with none other than Mickey's cousin Sandy. And as the two of them crib about rich people's problems and odd habits, they decide to call it a night with some much-needed sex, so all well in Debbieville. Even the Balls for that matter as Kevin finally decides his mid-life crisis' true solution is becoming a fitness trainer for the boys he used to play basketball with.
'Shameless' season 10 airs on Sundays at 9pm only on Showtime.
