'Shameless' Season 10 Episode 5 review: Ian's quiet return while the Gallaghers cope with their babies turns out to be entertaining
This article contains spoilers for Season 10 Episode 5 'Sparky'
It is the big episode. It is also the time for all the big comebacks and the aftermath of a couple more that we saw last week. But in all of the people finding their way back home fiasco, somehow the most important return of all — Ian's, is left a bit unceremonious.
Ian drifted into the Gallagher household pretty much as Fiona slipped out of it at the end of the previous season. People go about their busy day and only Lip somehow seems to have the time for his sibling.
However, this lack of pomp and show is also fitting as it balances out the absolute loons that parents turn to in this episode, and we're talking Debbie, Tammi, and even Frank!
When Ian comes out of prison, Lip is there to pick him up. Quite literally, the two brothers' reunion is cut out for the books.
From Lip's witty question asking Ian if prison turned him gay the first thing upon seeing him, to Ian teasing Lip about his lady car and usage of words like cute — a lot has changed in the two brothers' lives but the dynamics remain the same between the two.
And Ian is all here for it — ready to embrace freedom once again, with fleeting thoughts about Mickey still haunting him. Even if the thoughts are too fresh and float in, frequently, Ian doesn't let them bother him.
He dives headfirst into meeting his family, who are too busy to be at home waiting for him as they have baby-dramas to deal with. When Ian reached the Gallagher household, he is welcomed to the sound of Mexican music and the smell of soulful Mexican food.
He enters the house to a group of people he has never met before, but Lip has given him a heads up on it: Carl is trying to bone some girl, and Ian gets the hint.
He looks around the bedrooms and the kitchen slash dining area, calling out for his siblings without any luck whatsoever. The tiniest bumping into Tammi is what puts things in perspective for him, and also for us because what could be more important than your sibling coming out of jail, right? Well. Children, that's what.
While Ian has adult problems to take care of now that he's rejoining society, such as getting a job and meeting his parole officer, the people he was looking forward to meeting, have other adult responsibilities like keeping their babies alive — by hook or by crook.
Being left with a baby for the first time ever, Tammi is having a hard time coping. Her baby won't latch nor suckle, and Lip is constantly worried that she might hurt the baby.
Things get worse when he asks his new friend from the mom group to help Tammi out because you just don't do that to a new mom, but she comes around. The baby is eating and still alive!
However, that is not enough for Debbie as a mom because she is fighting for that extra child support like her life depends on it.
From hiding the legal serving within layers of cake to getting pepper-sprayed, and going on a full hunt and chase after Peppa — who is sitting on Debbie's child's father's military money — Debbie is relentless and kind of the supermom that makes you want to root for her in her hustle.
This is unlike her father, Frank, who makes us wonder once again how Fiona survived for the first nine years of her life at all!
When we meet Frank this episode, he is busy conning Tamales off Car's new fling — Anne's family. But the conman turns into a whole other level of degenerate when his ex-flame Ingrid's husband shows up with her twins and asks Frank to take care of them.
Within seconds Frank is trying to scheme his way into taking in only one of the twins (the better one, of course, as he makes Carl test the two) only after his mind was changed by the prospect of money.
It's like Debbie says in this episode: "When it comes to money, a Gallagher's got all the time in the world." Her tenacity and her dad's evil genius — both, don't disappoint.
In all of this commotion and hustle for money. Ian's welcome somehow goes unnoticed by the Gallaghers. The poor guy tries getting a job with the paramedics too, and lands amidst corrupt parole officers who are into insurance fraud.
His only respite is Liam going all out for gathering party decor and food from athletic-management vultures who will do anything to sign on new black kids into promising college programs at such a young age.
Considering there's not a whole lot of moments testifying Ian and Liam's bond on the show, this comes are a treat indeed! 'Shameless' Season 10 airs on Sundays at 9 pm only on Showtime.
