MamaBird

When Kate was lamenting that she couldn't just do nothing while waiting for the baby, I said out loud, "Then why don't you volunteer somewhere?" If she doesn't need the money - which apparently she does not - there are plenty of opportunities for people who want to get involved in something. School will give her something to do, but as many people have already pointed out, it will require even more sitting than driving to "Adele-O-Gram" gigs, and the eight credits she's missing probably aren't community-college level. When we learned that Nicky isn't on the registry of Vietnam dead, and Jack heard the explosion - did anyone else think of Terry the Toad blowing up the outhouse in More American Graffiti? (Probably not, because I'll admit that movie was pretty much forgettable.) Terry used the confusion to disappear, and as a result, he was officially listed as Missing. Nicky isn't listed as Missing, and he's living under his own name so he's probably not AWOL now... but he could have gone AWOL at the time. As others have mentioned, he could have deserted and served time. Either way, the five or six of us who remember Terry the Toad's escape from the war would love a Charles Martin Smith cameo - in Army gear, with a "That gives me an idea" expression on his face; or in present day, as one of Nicky's neighbors.

This is a good point. I wonder if maybe he's like Don Draper - as Dr. Faye said, he "only likes the beginning of things".

I know there's no hope of it, but I wish they'd go back to the original format. No grudge matches, no returning contestants, no "screw your neighbor" bullshit - just all the contestants tattooing, a different style every week. I really enjoyed seeing them do themes like Pin-up, American Traditional, New School, Trash Polka (I'd never even heard of that one), and have to prove their abilities at all of them. Isn't that what an Ink Master should be - someone who can handle any request a customer might come in with?

That bothers me too. If both my kids, and one of my grandchildren, had been missing for 5 years and I believed I'd lost them forever, and then they returned safe and sound - well, you'd have to comb me off of them. Especially if in the intervening years I had lost my spouse! Maybe after 6 months I'd be chill enough that I'd back off to seeing them once a week, and talking or texting with them every other day or so. ;-)

So true. The heroes will be sung and sung, and every special hero will have his or her own special song. Potatoradio, your recaps are a delight to read. The last time I laughed so much at a TV episode recap was in the old TWOP days, when I read their recap of the ER "Chopper" episode at work. It's a miracle I didn't get fired.

I am basically Rebecca's age, and when I was in my late teens/early 20s, my and my friends' dating pool contained a LOT of Vietnam veterans. We did not bring up the war with them. Some guys wanted to talk about it - funny stories, like the camaraderie with others in their unit, that kind of thing. I would never have asked if it was horrible on a first date.

I don't think she could find her bottom with a search warrant. [rimshot] I keep thinking that somehow she's going to be the agent of the Codys' downfall. She knows way too much - would they really just let her walk away if she wanted to? And now that she's been left at the hospital with a gunshot wound and heroin in her system, there are going to be a lot of questions asked. How will she answer them? Will she turn on the Codys, or will she try to stonewall and end up rousing even more suspicions?

Was I the only one whose “foreknowledge” made the roof scene painful? There they were, lying on the roof looking at the stars, and all I could think about was the family climbing out that same bedroom window to escape the fire. I thought “I wonder if a memory of this night flashed through Rebecca’s mind as she and her family huddled out there.”

The cut on the head reminded me of the two Gwyneth Paltrows in Sliding Doors. In Gwyneth's case, it was just kind of a "place holder" until one of the characters cut and bleached her hair. Maybe one of the Dueling Francos will make a similar change in appearance. As mentioned above, shaving off the mustache would be a plus.

This is what I'm wondering about. It took me out of the show a little bit, because I was 19 in 1972 and I remember how easy it was to get a job back then. All the factories were hiring like crazy, and guys were graduating from high school one day and starting at Caterpillar or Pabst or Standard Brands the next. I knew several Vietnam vets, and they were all working. It was true for women as well; if you wanted a clerical job you could get one - whether an under-20 like me, or an empty-nester going to work for the first time after her children were raised. I literally did not know anyone, male or female, who was having a problem getting a job! I can understand it if Jack didn't want to be a factory worker for the rest of his life. But if he was so desperate to get out of his father's house that he'd consider committing a crime, then he could certainly do factory work for a couple of years. He could live in a cheap apartment and easily save enough money to give him a "cushion" to rely on while he looked for the kind of work he really wanted.

When we saw Willa find Ben wandering around after escaping from the bunker, he didn't seem to have any idea where to go, other than to tell Adam's family what had happened to him. That led me to assume that he was taken too young to remember his life before the abduction, or perhaps he knew he'd been abducted from another city far from where he was held. But somehow he remembers where that house is, and uses the key he'd kept all these years. Why would he go there now, every night, and yet not go there when he first escaped?

I knew from the start that the buyers would never be able to get a mortgage for the Gallagher castle, because there was no way it would pass an inspection. Of course, I also realized that Fiona would have the same problem: I've watched enough HGTV to know what a show-stopper a failed home inspection is for banks. Being able to pay cash, thanks to Carl, makes that problem go away. It creates other problems, of course, and I'm sure we'll be seeing them in the coming episodes. Gus is working my last nerve. "You want me to do you a favor, when there's nothing in it for me." Okay, granted; but it's not as though the favor would put him out in any way. Signing his name to a paper that releases him from all claims on a ramshackle house Fiona is buying for her family is not exactly giving her a kidney. The only inconvenience was his coming to the restaurant; once he was there, signing his name was the work of a moment. He refused because he wants to make her suffer, but in doing so, he's inflicting that suffering on her innocent family - one of them a small child. In this he reminds me of Sammi, calling the Army on Ian to get back at Carl for using Chuckie as a drug mule. Two such douchenozzles deserve each other; it's a shame Gus couldn't have hooked up with her instead of Fiona! Speaking of Sammi, I never liked her storyline, so I'm not thrilled to see her mother added to the mix. However, I still hold out hope for a reveal that Frank is not Sammi's father after all. Probably not the case, but I can dream.

I loved this episode! This is the "Shameless" I love best. No Helena and no dead-girlfriend-mourning were huge improvements right there, but the show had a lot more to offer. Since Fiona had said to Gus, "Can we talk after?", I wish she and Vee had waited and had that talk. "Fine, you got me. Now for the reason I came here tonight: to apologize and return your grandmother's ring. So - I'm sorry, here's the ring, and let's get divorced as soon as possible." At least that part of the story would be tied up. She still needs to return that ring, and a divorce would also be nice. All of the Gallaghers are better when they're interacting with each other, rather than off on their own storylines. Carl grew up seeing Fiona, Lip, Ian, and even Debbie with her babysitting, all contributing the fruits of their efforts to the family's benefit. Now that he's a big moneymaker, what does he do? Buy food for the family, and not on the cheap, either! I was proud of Carl for that, and Fiona should be proud, too, because she raised him. There's a lot about Carl to cause consternation and horror, but he's loyal to his family. Frank is 100% more tolerable when he's part of the family story, and his expert guidance of Debbie through the welfare system was fun to watch. Frank is actually smart, maybe as smart as Lip - as we learned in their heart-to-heart in a previous season - and the welfare lesson and his fluent Spanish with the evictees remind us of the potential he had, and what he could have been. Debbie did, indeed, show her hand in this episode. For all her brave talk about "I will take care of my baby! I don't want you [Fiona] anywhere near it!", she grew up watching Fiona raise Gallaghers, and she was taking for granted that Fiona would raise this one too. And when Debbie told her that the pregnancy was planned, that she'd lied to her boyfriend about being on the pill, shock and anger were Fiona's inevitable reaction. She'd been stuck with a family to raise, when she wasn't much older than Debbie is now, due to Frank's and Monica's irresponsibility. Debbie needed to be informed that she can't take on responsibility on others' behalf; if she takes this on it will be HER responsibility alone; and Fiona got that message across in no uncertain terms.

Are there still any backdoors left in the code? If so, perhaps the Mutiny coders can bring Westnet down by introducing that great program that Gordon wrote.

We saw the nun say to Jackie, something like "You've done so much for me, is there anything at all that I can do for you?" And Jackie then pulled the curtain around the bed. I can't remember if Zoey was in that scene (anywhere she could've overheard) or not. But she did know how much the nun liked Jackie and appreciated her caring for her. Between that, and seeing the picture she took on that license, that gave her enough to figure it out.

When I was watching Eli look at Alicia, with the wheels turning in his head, I was saying, "Don't go there, don't go there." But he went there. I can't imagine Alicia running for SA, or for any political office. Running for office these days involves having every aspect of your life, past and present, scrutinized and flung like a banner for the world to see. Alicia saw the mudslinging first hand when Peter was running for governor; she's seen how even perfectly innocent situations are made to look bad. Alicia is a very private person, reticent even with her own family. I would think that even without the Peter/jail and Will/affair baggage, she would be repulsed by the idea of her private life becoming public.

Once again WHM shows what a primo actor he is. When Frank saw that his visitor at the hospital was Carl, he hardly changed his expression at all, and yet his whole face lit up. His delight was obvious. When he was asking for his family, he didn't mean Sammi and Chuckie, and he certainly didn't mean Sheila and the roomful of NA-tive A-MER-i-can CHIL-dren. He meant his REAL family, the only ones who count for him - his children with Monica. Sammi never meant anything to him beyond what she could do for him - originally as a possible liver donor, and then as a caregiver. The sooner she realizes this about him, and clears out, the better... although she's so desperate for a father, it's possible the only thing that could make her leave is finding out he's not really her father. I had thought that might be where the story is going, given her non-matching to him as a donor, and his confusion about her mother. I even thought that the last show of this season might bring a face-to-face encounter between Sammi's mother and Frank, wherein it becomes obvious that they have never even met, let alone hooked up. We may yet get that; time will tell. Oh, Steve - I mean Jimmy - I mean Jack. At the end of last season I was really glad to see him go; he was bringing Fiona more agitation than he was worth. After the hellish time she had this season, I had begun to think it might be nice if he came back. It's worth noting that the hell she went through all began when she started dating Mike on the rebound, after Jimmy vanished from her life. Mike's brother, for all his scumminess - I couldn't help thinking that what made her susceptible to him was his similarity to Jimmy: daring, edgy, outlaw type; black sheep of a wealthy and conventional family. I wouldn't mind seeing him come back - but NOT if he's once again involved with another woman, causing complications to his relationship with Fiona. We've been there and done that, and I for one do not have any desire to see it repeated.