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'Shameless' season 9: Carl and Liam emerge as the unsung heroes of the Gallagher clan

While all the other Gallagher men are busy being dysfunctional as usual, the youngest of the lost have actually showed some progress on this season of Shameless.

With Shameless slowly progressing with its ever-so-messy and dramatic timeline via season 9 now, it's not entirely wrong to expect the Gallaghers — in all their dysfunctional glory — to show certain bits of remorse or redemption. And topping all charts is our very own Carl Gallagher, with a little bit of recognition flowing baby brother Liam's way too.

The reason why Carl (Ethan Cutkosky) and Liam stand out so significantly is simply that their older brothers, Lip (Jeremy Allen White) and Ian (Cameron Monaghan), are petty much back on their bullsh*t. Lips is, as usual, trying to find a vessel to distract himself from his past alcoholism, and while he very blatantly refuses to sponsor a fellow alcoholic, what he subconsciously also does is try to take responsibility of a 12-year-old's well being. It's almost like Lip needs some sort of crux to invest his time and energy into, just so he doesn't resort to alcohol again — and for that, he can go to any extreme length.