'Shameless' Season 10 Episode 8 Review: A Gallavich proposal, borderline prostitution and Frank in trouble as usual
This article contains spoilers for Season 10 Episode 8 'Debbie Might be a Prostitute'
Gone are the days when one of Frank Gallagher's kids would get into a serious relationship they wanted to hold on to and he would go ahead and completely wreck it for them beyond repair.
These days his kids get into the messy cesspit of their relationships all by themselves and thus we come to the most Gallavich proposal of sorts, alongside a dosage of identity crisis surrounding whether you're a prostitute or not, and of course, only the most racist of aunts offering to take care of your month old baby.
Let's add to that Frank himself straight up landing another manic psychopath and voila — the concoction is complete!
On one hand, the youngest Gallagher kids are trying to expand their career options — with Liam dabbling in managing a growing basketball star and Carl honing his military skills by joining a youth program at the local station to train kids to be better citizens.
On the other hand, there's Ian and Mickey finally coming to terms with the fact that being ex-felons means running the risk of having to testify for each other so when their parole officer Paula is mysteriously thrown to her death off her window, they think getting married is the easiest way out.
Either of them thinks the other one killed Paula because well — she had it coming every bit, the way she was trying to scam money off the couple, but it is the makeshift proposal that Ian offers Mickey which becomes the highlight of the episode.
The two fid out about spousal privilege separately and decide to meet at the local diner to discuss things, when Ian puts forth the idea that they should get married.
Of course, Mickey sees through it and tells him that staying out of jail is a sh*t reason to get married, but trust Ian to counter that saying, they love each other and that's why they're getting married. It's all very sweet and as oddly romantic as anything Gallavich would be — until it's not.
When Paula's murderer gets arrested, Ian and Mickey are at the marriage registrar's office, and pretty much freak out. They both realize the only reason they were heading into this marriage was that each was scared of testifying for the other but Ian really screws up as he is the one who hesitates on signing the marriage license.
It ends with Mickey punching Ian off the stairs, and while glimpses of early Gallavich romance resonate with this scene in the most poetic manner possible, it's a little worrisome to think where that leaves their relationship after all the crisis they have waded and overcome.
That out of the way, while the episode is titled 'Debbie Might be a Prostitute', her story gets the least focus, in classic Season 10 style. Debbie goes back to the entrepreneurial hotshot Claudia to clear out the misconception that she's a sex worker and instead gets 'Pretty Woman'-ed.
In your classic Edward spoils Vivian to give her the time of her life plot, Claudia is totally embarrassed and goes out of her way to give Debbie the fairytale she has been hustling for so hard since she was 15.
Debbie has a lot of thinking to do though, but that is only a pit stop towards the end goal where Claudia wants to whisk her away for a romantic holiday and in the end, it works out just fine because you know Debbie — her charm is undeniable when it comes to the ladies.
And so is Frank somehow because rich women after rich women find their ways into his lap of comfort as he nestles in the glory of their resplendence.
The only problem with this new one — Faye, is the massive bone she has to pick with Frank, which is revealed after she uses the facade of a haunted residence to ambush Frank and handcuff him to her bed.
Turns out Frank was the reason why the then-extremely racist city of Chicago had put Faye's high school boyfriend in jail for drug possession. It must have been one of his depraved conman schemes to get out of charges all free, but it's obvious Faye is not letting him get out of this mess any time soon, or easily.
Faye's manic ways of avenging her beau are rivaled by Tami's aunt Oopi who might be the best babysitter option for the couple but is also racist to the core.
She keeps calling Liam the 'colored' boy and wants to teach both him and the six-week-old Fred about The Gettysburg Address because there's nothing as too early for infesting the nitty-grittys of the coveted American dream.
'Shameless' Season 10 airs on Sundays at 9 pm only on Showtime.