'Shameless' Season 10 Episode 9 Review: Marriage, theft and the Balls' activism shadows Frank's much-needed detox
This article contains spoilers for episode 9: 'O Captain, My Captain!'
One would think Ian and Mickey's ongoing relationship drama would take a toll on the Gallaghers' life for the next few weeks at least, but since when have they just stopped at one drama altogether?
In tonight's episode, we see Tami come to terms with Lip's nonchalance about petty theft while Ian tries to win Mickey back. His strongest line of defense? Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce.
And even though Debbie is "in love" with an older sugar mommy whose daughter just made out with her, it is navigating Frank's opioid crisis — or involuntary detox, if you will, that takes the front ground purely because of a sick sense of karmatic relief. That, and the Balls' activism, of course.
The episode kicks off with Tami finding out about Lip's petty thievery every now and then when their hospital bills from the delivery and aftermath comes and Lip says they can choose to not pay it.
It's a little shocking that Tami feels so out of place about this habit of her baby daddy, but Lip manages to helps her come around when he later explains the only thievery he indulged in was food and cash so Fiona didn't have to work a third job.
As he says, Gallagher normals aren't Tamieti normals and it just reminds us once again of the heart and soul of the show still so heavily invested in Fiona despite the bare minimum references made to her throughout this season. We miss her too, Lip. We miss her too.
Ian misses Mickey though and as Lip describes it, after "leaving him at the altar", it only makes sense that Mikey would give him such a hard time to win him back.
Being "in love with a twink" and moving in with him over a random hook up was fine, but when he refused to accept Ian's "promise ring" of sorts and called him beyond the regular levels of "Gallagher f**ked", that's when we knew this might be it for the two.
Granted, it's Ian and Mickey — the couple who have been on and off for the longest, but so were Fiona and Jimmy/Steve and we all remember how unceremoniously that couple was never allowed to receive closure nor a proper happy ending so this makes us really, really worried for the two.
But the person we should also worry for is Frank. Thanks to Faye's expert memory restoration techniques which used Frank's weakness for opioids and alcohol to threaten him if he didn't remember the full story of Kyle Holmes, we now know what happened.
The two went to school together, Frank was his senior and happened to be smoking crack in the car while Kyle just sat next to him when the police busted them and assumed Kyle was the obvious drug dealer just because he was black.
The 90s racist law could have been a solid defense for Frank to bank on but Faye isn't looking for explanations; she wants payback and her foolproof way is to put Frank in an opium-induced coma and leave him with bottles and bottles of drugs in a car. You know, just regular Gallagher paybacks.
In other news, Debbie gets introduced to her new older girlfriend's underaged daughter Julia — deeply passionate about saving the planet and all of its animals, to the point where she straw-shames strangers without inhibition.
She's your typical spoilt white kid with a penchant for parental rebellion and forced spin classes, but her relevance in the show's plot becomes significant when she kisses Debbie in a diner full of people and of course, Debbie kisses back.
What did we tell you about her and the ladies? Irresistible. Carl too finds his calling in toughening up trust fund pampered kids into making ideal law-abiding and enforcing citizens out of them, but after sending a couple of them to the ER, his senior feels he would be a better fit for garbage and sanitation.
And trust no one more than a Gallagher to treat trash!
The most wholesome aspect of the episode has to be the Balls' own personal brand of activism through giving out illegal abortions to out of state teens suffering under the blanket bans on getting the procedure in their state.
It starts with the two going around offering basic medication for the underprivileged and un-insured southside when a Missouri mother brings her 15-year-old daughter to plead them for an abortion.
V's doctor friend gives them the brilliant idea that she can write them a prescription for abortions pills in V's name and suddenly, there's a string of similarity crisis struck young women looking for affordable abortions.
At first, they reach out to the old ladies at the home where Kev used to model nude for sketches, and they are happy to buy abortion pills claiming they were either raped, or the baby is a life-risk in their advanced age.
As angry voices of 'Me Too!' float in from the queue of older women stepping up to save the young, the fact that Kev and V do not mind stopping at the prospects of illegal practices to save the lives of so many young, budding women, becoming a beacon of hope for them is how 'Shameless' probably addressed the recently passed anti-abortion laws and they couldn't have been more subtle, or poignant in their attempt.
'Shameless' Season 10 airs on Sundays at 9 pm only on Showtime.
