S07.E08: You Sold Me the Laundromat, Remember?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

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Fiona takes a DIY approach to renovating the laundromat. Lip agrees to go before the school board in hopes of getting reinstated. Meanwhile, Kev's trust in Svetlana wanes even further when the titty van goes missing.

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[superguard9]

I can't wait until Sharon Lawrence shows up again and finds out Fiona has been stealing from the diner. Manager ≠ owner, you can't just take what you want from one business to another.

Unfortunately, the way this show usually works she'll probably lecture Fi but there won't be any real consequences. I know the show wants us to root for her but she is no better than Frank. Ultimately nobody else matters except her

[snarts]

So why didn't Debbie call the cops? 

I like Fiona & Kevin talking again.  

Oh Lip.

[40Love]

I've only been paying half the attention... Is it true that Svetlana turned Vee against Fiona?

Lip? He's breaking my heart. 

Debbie? Really disliking her these days. But, she really should have just called the police. Social Services investigation or not... those folks kidnapped her baby. They have no legal leg to stand on... even if a paternity test had been done, which I don think happened. She could have pressed charges against them.

[dezi]

Fiona is so full of shit. She has made no effort to repair her relationship with Vee. Instead she has just written it off as Vee having turned against her. The last time they spoke Vee told her they could discuss their issues later. Fiona refused and stormed out in a huff, and has not reached out to Vee since. Unfortunately, she's right that Svetlana is not to be trusted. I wish she had the same insight into her own faults, too.

I felt for Lip, for maybe the first time ever. Then he went straight into self-destruct mode and ruined it.

[jww]

I know it is silly to expect any reality  in Shameless but it is highly likely the old floor and ceiling tiles and mastic  contained asbestos which needs to be done carefully  wearing protective clothes/respirator mask, making sure not to break the tiles which creates dust.   Also in order to lay the new tiles especially self stick tiles  they would have needed to remove not only the tiles but all the  old mastic  which is a VERY hard time consuming job they would also have had to remove all the washers which seems odd they were able to do in an afternoon.

 

Fiona also needs to be careful on how she handles Etta’s money  since when Etta goes into a nursing and gets to the point she needs Medicaid the  state is going to review her bank records  for the past three years and challenge any questionable  transfer of funds as attempts to give away  wealth to qualify for Medicaid  is not allowed.  They may even consider her selling the business for $20k  below fair market value as a gift.  Etta would be denied Medicaid,  thrown out of the nursing onto the street  and Fiona may be questioned for defrauding  a demented person.

[madhacker]

The one small scene that I will cherish from tonight's episode:  Frank being thrown out of the house by Ian. Frank knows damn well that Ian would love nothing more than to beat the hell out of him. He knew the moment Ian picked up that bat that there was no conning him (especially since Ian owes him a beat-down since season 1 when as I recall Frank hit him), so he ran away like the coward he truly is. Remembering that reminded me how much Cameron has grown since the show debuted.

[sazzat]

6 hours ago, dezi said:

Fiona is so full of shit. She has made no effort to repair her relationship with Vee. Instead she has just written it off as Vee having turned against her. The last time they spoke Vee told her they could discuss their issues later. Fiona refused and stormed out in a huff, and has not reached out to Vee since. Unfortunately, she's right that Svetlana is not to be trusted. I wish she had the same insight into her own faults, too.

I felt for Lip, for maybe the first time ever. Then he went straight into self-destruct mode and ruined it.

I agree; when she claimed that Svetlana turned Vee against her, I was like no, that's not it. Makes sense for Fiona to blame someone other than herself, but I hope that when/if she eventually has it out with Vee the show doesn't support this idea of their friendship suffering only because of Svetlana.

That said, Vee has been an uncharacteristic fool over Svetlana and I am beyond tired of this plot. Not only is Vee not that stupid, no one is that stupid, and there is no way anyone would put up with what Svetlana has done. Free babysitting and sex doesn't cut it as an explanation. I liked Svetlana, too, before she became a cartoon villain adept in whatever kind of skill or crime the writers think will create the funniest punchline for the week.

I like Lip, but even as emotionally dumb as he is, I would have liked to see a more extended realization on his part of what he'd ruined for himself than we had this season. Confining his expression of what college means for him to the hearing made his actions afterward seem more like a spoiled kid than someone who is devastated. We've only had a couple of moments with Lip since season four where he's expressed any actual feeling about school, and most of the time he's treated it like a whim (his girlfriend got him in; another one helped him keep his grades up; he didn't decide to go to the hearing until that same morning because yet another girlfriend thought it was a good idea). Even if Lip can't admit it to anyone else, can we please see him give a shit about school so that his suffering seems authentic?

[iMonrey]

I'll echo the sentiment that all Debbie has to do is call the police. Not that I'm on her side; the baby is probably better off with his grandmother. But the grandmother has no legal right to just take the baby, even if Debbie is under investigation by DFS. It's kidnapping - she could go to jail. It was also ridiculously silly that the bar flies were able to accomplish all of that in just a day - as someone above pointed out, it would have taken a lot more than that if there was mold under the tiles and in the ceiling. They would have had to have a hazmat crew come in and spray or something.

That said, there were some really good scenes in this one. I'm glad Kevin sees through Svetlana even if Veronica is on the fence. And by the way - it's highly unlikely, if not impossible, that Svetlana would have been able to buy car insurance for a vehicle that's not even in her name, and then have it stolen almost immediately and get a quick cash payout. Like that wouldn't have raised a bunch of red flags? They're all in danger of being arrested for insurance fraud now.

I think Lip knew on some level he wouldn't win this appeal and that it would send him into another alcohol fueled tailspin, which is why he resisted going in the first place. Still, his plea to the board, and Ian's story about their childhood, were really nice scenes. 

[Broderbits]

Yes Debbie should have called the police, but instead she stood there screaming threats while the aunt filmed the whole thing with her phone. All the grandmother has to do is say Debbie gave permission for her to see the baby whenever and she couldn't return Frannie to someone in that state. The aunt is probably going to call the police herself. Frannie going to live with her father's family would be the best thing for her; at least she would have a chance in the world. I have zero sympathy for Debbie.

[Gulftastic]

Yep, Debs truly is as dumb as a stump, despite apparantly being able to pass the GED test thing with flying colours on no study!

[Unapologetic]

I don't blame Debbie, tbh, not in that particular situation.  Even the thought of someone stealing my children makes me want to burn down a house.  Not literally, but the anger and fear I feel just thinking of it is almost too much.  Debbie's immediate reaction was pretty damn normal.  The worst part is Derek's family will get away with it.  

[NorthstarATL]

Debbie is not only probably an unfit mother in the eyes of the law, but she also has a history of theft that maybe she doesn't want the police to investigate. I can sort of understand her frustration, but maybe the kid would be better off with relatives than with the Government. Even evil relatives. Or maybe I'm just peeved that a Gallagher didn't see that coming a mile away.

 Besides Debbie, almost everyone faced consequences this week for poor decisions. I wasn't even happy to see everyone pitch in to help Fiona, because the laundromat story has been a mess since it started, and it's either going to magically become the most wonderful laundromat on Earth and a new gathering place for the characters, or it will break Fiona and she'll wind up with no place to work at all.

  I've said it before, but if all the Gallaghers put their talents and heads together they could actually make something of a family business.

[Tatum]

21 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I'll echo the sentiment that all Debbie has to do is call the police. Not that I'm on her side; the baby is probably better off with his grandmother. But the grandmother has no legal right to just take the baby, even if Debbie is under investigation by DFS. It's kidnapping - she could go to jail.

I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, Debbie's insufferable and her parenting of Frannie has been subpar at best. However, she's at the best place for parenting that she's been in two seasons. It appears that Neil has enough money to support her so she can stay at home with Frannie, she got her GED, and she and Neil have been completely transparent in their mutually beneficial marriage. This might be the closest a Gallagher has come to a functional relationship.

 

And really, Derek's mom is a bitch. "Trapped" Derek? OK, we know that is sort of true. His mother doesn't. For all his mother knows, Debbie was on the pill, which is not 100%. And nothing was stopping her precious baby boy from using a condom, even if Debbie did lie about being on BC.

 

And really, Tanya should take some responsibility here too. Remember which genius waxed on and on to an impressionable 14 year old girl with a shitty home life about how great it was to get pregnant as a teen? Oh yeah, it was YOU, Tanya.

21 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I think Lip knew on some level he wouldn't win this appeal and that it would send him into another alcohol fueled tailspin, which is why he resisted going in the first place. Still, his plea to the board, and Ian's story about their childhood, were really nice scenes. 

I don't like Lip much, but I did feel very sorry for him getting his hopes up like that, especially after it required him to admit he was on the same path as his father. And I don't understand the point of the hearing anyways- what could he have possibly said that would change their minds? He's got a professor vouching for him, he has sincerely apologized, he had documented proof of time at rehab, and the professor made a veiled threat of a university employee victimizing Lip.  And yet it was still a no go. I don't know what could have come about at that hearing to change their minds, so it seems the whole thing was a waste of everyone's time.

[whiporee]

11 hours ago, Tatum said:

He's got a professor vouching for him, he has sincerely apologized, he had documented proof of time at rehab, and the professor made a veiled threat of a university employee victimizing Lip.

The writers on this show hate their characters. it is the most classist thing on TV, and it's not even close. 

The above situation is the biggest Shameless fuckup so far -- the school would be bending over backwards to keep him placated. The idea of throwing him out would have never been tolerated for a second once legal got involved. Because, in the truth, the professort did take advantage of him, did use her power over him, did give him benefits because he was fucking her and did completely throw him away when she was discovered. He had his job taken away as a result of the relationship. It is nearly the definition of sexual harassment in the college setting, and it's too bad they didn't go down the road of Lip having make the choice of a) admitting he'd been a victim and getting back into school or b) hanging onto his pride and self-image and not admitting it. That would have been a real Gallagher moment that would have been fun to explore. 

Instead, more meltdowns by the poor people.

Frankie's parents would be hard pressed to make any real claim on the kid at this point, I think. They had their chance to contribute and be grandparents; instead they shipped Frankie's father off to Florida without having/allowing them to be responsible for the baby their son fathered. If Fiona's supposedly responsible for Debbie, then where in the world is their responsibility for Derek's actions? It would have been an interesting take, too -- Debbie having someone else to judge her, but also help her. 

Instead, more meltdowns by the poor people. 

They've done such a good job of creating a world on this show, about developing characters you can really care about. And then they thrown them into these bullshit and stupid situations without an ounce of reality, for no other reason than to show how badly they can react -- how brazenly the world can fuck them over, without any connection to reality at all. Take Fiona's cocaine thing. All she had to do was turn over Mike's brother, because he's the one who brought the coke and left it on the table. That's all she had to tell the cops -- bring his ass in, have him questioned, have the bag tested for prints, all that shit, and the storyline moves in a reasonable direction. Instead she's in jail. There's no lawyer in the world who would have not mandated she tell that story instead of doing time. But it made a better story for her to South-Side up against a guy who intentionally and purposefully both set her up and fucked her. You could make a case that he raped her; you could make a case that she felt pressured to acquiesce to her a member of her boss's family. 

But instead, she does what all Gallaghers do on this show. She rolls over. They all roll over all the time, and they end up like Frank with Sheila (ah, good times. I miss Sheila's collection of dildos)

But that's the point the writers are making -- the poor are weak and unwilling to fight for not only what is justifiable, but what is right. By the laws of Illinois, Fiona should be getting tons of state support for the kids. Never shown. Debbie should 've getting state support and child support. Never shown. ANY local private preschool would have scholarships available for Liam -- ESPECIALLY in a gentrifying and displacing neighborhood like this -- and would be DYING to offer them to a mixed-race kid being raised by his sister. Never shown. So while ostensibly a show about plucky Irish fighters from the wrong side of the tracks dealing with their reality the best they can, they decide to reinforce all the negative ideas about those in poverty they can. They're shiftless. They don't try. They drink too much, fuck too much and piss away any chance they get. Look how much better we are than them.

I like the show very much. But this week brought him the inherent and obvious prejudices its creators have against the people they emulate and portray, and I wish they'd do better than that. 

[Armchair Critic]

I will admit I did laugh at the end when Frank climbed up the stairs to the old lady's apartment and acted like he was her husband coming home.

[Dee]

Lip is being an ungrateful ass.

Two people in his life came through in a major way for him & he repays them how? By getting completely plastered and becoming violent, again, because he didn't get his way.

Granted, being rejected was huge shot to the ego for a cynic like Lip, but still, how many times can one person flush all the considerable goodwill they've amassed down the toilet before those around him are rightfully justified in giving up on his "potential" because he's committed to self destruction?

Edited November 23, 2016 by Dee

[dangwoodchucks]

8 hours ago, whiporee said:

The writers on this show hate their characters. it is the most classist thing on TV, and it's not even close. 

The above situation is the biggest Shameless fuckup so far -- the school would be bending over backwards to keep him placated. The idea of throwing him out would have never been tolerated for a second once legal got involved. Because, in the truth, the professort did take advantage of him, did use her power over him, did give him benefits because he was fucking her and did completely throw him away when she was discovered. He had his job taken away as a result of the relationship. It is nearly the definition of sexual harassment in the college setting, and it's too bad they didn't go down the road of Lip having make the choice of a) admitting he'd been a victim and getting back into school or b) hanging onto his pride and self-image and not admitting it. That would have been a real Gallagher moment that would have been fun to explore. 

Not only was the school's response not realistic, but Lip's wasn't either. A Gallagher would've taken full advantage of the situation instead of acting like a lovesick juvenile.

Did Fiona really expect that waitress to labor over moldy tiles for free after having worked at the diner all night?

[kathe5133]

My take is that the "lifestyle" that Shameless is trying to portray is more complex than "poor people, poor choices".......  I grew up around people like they are trying to depict in Shameless. Fiona finds a purse on the subway.  Wallet's full of money.  Fiona spends the money.  That's real.  That's what someone in Fiona's position would do.  Now, tracking down the owner, returning the purse, paying back the money?  Shit no!  There are scenarios too numerous to mention of situations where they start out depicting some scenario that someone on the Southside would face, and then the morality of writers who live in LA, and probably were never homeless or hungry, comes into play.  Debbie has grown up in that neighborhood here entire life.  She's not the first sixteen year old in that neighborhood to get pregnant.  If she truly lived in that neighborhood, in that lifestyle, she'd know that getting pregnant and having a baby at 16 is not a wise choice.  The girls who do that in real life know what they are doing.  They are trying to trap a man or get on welfare or both.  No one who grew up like Debbie would be naïve enough to believe that she could have a kid and be welcomed into an awesome family.............. Don't get me started on Carl.  A teenage thug who's been in juvie doesn't turn his life around that fast.  He was raised amongst thieves and drunks.  A couple of evenings with Officer Winslow is not going to change him so fundamentally.  It seems the premise is that even though the Gallaghers are poor, they are "good people".  But good people" don't bring cocaine into their home, or associate with those who do.  Lip, who sells pot and cigarettes out of the back of an ice cream truck, lectures Fiona on her poor choices.  First of all, he was there at the time she was making that "poor choice".  But, getting drunk and doing blow is what these folks call Saturday.  Good people don't do any of the things that the Gallaghers do.  If I wanted to watch "good people", I'd watch reruns of The Walton's!   What I liked about this show is the premise of people on the fringe, without a lot of advantages and how they get by.  We know where they came from and can see how they could get this way.  We cheer for them because the decent part that's in all of us hopes they will somehow break the cycle.  The show started out with a good premise, but don't think the writers have the life experience to believably see it through. 

[LuciaMia]

You can always celebrate the day  by watching that  Thanksgiving episode of Shameless . You know, the one where they cook a bald eagle and Monica slits her wrists. Good Times!

I actually dread the return of Monica next episode. 

[scrb]

I guess the kryptonite of the Gallagher clan is letting emotions overtake the high intelligence they're suppose to have.

 

You'd think with that high intelligence they'd have some kind of self awareness and recognition that previous rash actions never helped.  But they keep making the same types of mistakes over and over.  So the conceit that they're so intelligent but victim of circumstances which relegates them to an economically desperate life doesn't meet the smell test.

 

Debbie was at first this bright and loyal little girl -- she kept her faith in Frank long after the others wrote him off -- but now she's this rash, raging girl demanding that Fiona support her for the bad decisions that she made.

Why did they want to turn her into such a loser?  Because she hit puberty and went boy-crazy, decided she just had to get a husband at all costs before she was even 18?  Didn't she say that she wasn't going to make the same mistakes her siblings made?

Did the writers need all of them to become "shameless" like purposely getting pregnant as a teen and then stealing stuff and now marrying an incapacitated guy?  If they want outrageous behavior, why not turn Debbie into a gold digger, whoring herself to avoid having to work?  Because she's too good to be a gold digger but not a grand larsonist?

For now, they made it look like Carl saw the light and is aspiring to make something of himself.  Ian's on a good path to, at least for now, but I'm sure they will find a way to sabotage him too.  And Fiona will probably start to make money and then get prosecuted for taking money from the diner or from Etta.

if the show lasts long enough, they'll probably make the youngest one mess up too, followed by Franny also making bad choices.

Frank acts with cold reason nowadays but he's amoral and willing to cheat people.  He'd be a huge success but wants to accumulate a few thousand for the least amount of work.

[heatherchandler]

On ‎11‎/‎23‎/‎2016 at 8:37 AM, kathe5133 said:

But good people" don't bring cocaine into their home, or associate with those who do.  Lip, who sells pot and cigarettes out of the back of an ice cream truck, lectures Fiona on her poor choices.  First of all, he was there at the time she was making that "poor choice".  But, getting drunk and doing blow is what these folks call Saturday.  Good people don't do any of the things that the Gallaghers do. 

Well I will have to argue with you on that point.  I know a LOT of "good people," who are wealthy, have good jobs and kids and big houses, go to church on sunday, etc.  They party on a saturday night, they do a lot of blow.  I would say that the drug aspect goes across class lines.

I agree with your other points, though. 

[Empress1]

On 11/25/2016 at 0:17 PM, heatherchandler said:

Well I will have to argue with you on that point.  I know a LOT of "good people," who are wealthy, have good jobs and kids and big houses, go to church on sunday, etc.  They party on a saturday night, they do a lot of blow.  I would say that the drug aspect goes across class lines.

I agree with your other points, though. 

Yeah, watch a few episodes of Intervention and you'll see case after case of middle-class (or wealthier) people - "good people," with new construction homes and who used to have careers and marriages and kids - who are in the throes of addiction.

On 11/23/2016 at 9:37 AM, kathe5133 said:

Don't get me started on Carl.  A teenage thug who's been in juvie doesn't turn his life around that fast.  He was raised amongst thieves and drunks.  A couple of evenings with Officer Winslow is not going to change him so fundamentally.

I think the turning point for Carl was seeing his friend from juvie beat a kid to death over a stolen bike and get locked back up. After that it seemed to me that he realized he wasn't about that life for real but didn't know what to do next. As he said, he's not good at school or sports so he couldn't just jump into that, and no one at home was going to give him any direction. He found the direction in Dom's dad - had he been in a different place in life, less receptive to discipline and structure, he wouldn't have taken such a shine to him. I think he was more "attracted" (not in a sexual way) to Dom's dad than he was to Dom.

I can buy that Debbie wouldn't call the cops. Debbie was raised in a neighborhood where there's likely an inherent mistrust of police and a "no snitching" mentality (which I think Fiona cited when she refused to turn in her boss's brother for the coke). She's run afoul of the law herself and may not want to bring that kind of attention to herself.

[Petunia13]

Lip is book smart naturally but without doing any of the hard work or even passion for academics. It's like he just went to school since that was what he was good at and it was easy. Whenever it was a challenge or inconvenience he blew it off or fucked it up.  I get it I have a degree from 1 of the best universities in the US but work at a supermarket. I'm not saying going against the expectation is the right path. I'm saying ....rarely but sometimes geniuses become outliers just like sometimes very attractive people don't always become models or amazing singers do anything. It's like ambition issues and psychological mindset and timing. 

Lips work ethic is dreck and he's always been disrespectful in my eyes and no matter what he does or what happens that's going to hinder him. 

[whiporee]

I think last season sort of disproved that, Petunia. Or the season before. When he tried to skate by on a paper, he got a D. I think it showed that he's willing to work and put in the effort at school, and he was doing very well there until yet another Mother figure blew him off. That sent him over the edge, but until that point he was taking college pretty seriously. 

[whiporee]

double post

Edited December 2, 2016 by whiporee