S09.E11 The Hobo Games

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

The finals of the Hobo Games have arrived, and Frank faces off against his friend and greatest opponent. Lip prepares to officially adopt Xan, but his plans collide with Fiona's partying. Debbie develops feelings for someone surprising.

Promo:

Clip:

Original air date: 2/17/19

[preeya]

This is really getting ugly.

Fiona has now morphed into a combination of Frank/Monica.

Can't wait for her exit.

[Dee]

This show is complete trash.

Fiona is a mess but Lip has NO right to be SO self righteous.

Kev & Vee deserve better. As does Carl.

Love Katey Sagal but glad Ingrid is gone

Useless Kelly gets TONS of screentime while Liam gets nothing. Classy.

[preeya]

2 hours ago, Dee said:

Fiona is a mess but Lip has NO right to be SO self-righteous.

 

They've both gone in opposite directions. However, I'm not looking forward to Lip entertaining fatherhood.

Frank with $5k or was it $10K?  What could possibly go wrong?

Edited February 18, 2019 by preeya

[WhosThatGirl]

I mean if the goal is to make viewers dislike Fiona..mission accomplish

And look I agree that it’s not Fiona’s fault Jason relapsed, she doesn’t know him or his deal. So that’s not completely on her. But also.. this is the second show in a week I watched where someone relapsed and it’s super depressing. Also yes.. it is also not completely her fault about Zan and child protective services either but again she should have act together.

Again though.. I guess were supposed to forget about season 4 completely. The way Lip screamed at her made me think he forgets she went kind of crazy once before and Fiona apparently forgot as well. So did all the other characters. And this would be fine if the network didn’t reair every season before the new ones.  Maybe the show should tell the network not to do this, they want us to forget that we’ve been in this story.. twice over.

Also I called Lips sort of girlfriend being pregnant. Of course she was going to be. My guess is she’s going to have the baby. 

I have to be honest, I’m not really in this show. I’ve been checked out for a few seasons now and I missed like two seasons with the exceptions of catching one or two episodes. And this season.. the stories, especially Fiona’s. .. They are terrible. The reasons we are getting for her current breakdown are ridiculous with how they don’t make sense. Over losing a building and a “career” that we barley saw? Over a guy who again that we barley saw build up a relationship with but it was so deep we didn’t really see any of it? Nope. Sorry. That is one of a few reasons why I cannot connect or feel for her during her breakdown.

Edited February 18, 2019 by WhosThatGirl

[cmpbl]

I know Fiona is a mess but Lip crossed the line. He did not even tell the others he was trying to get Zan and why did he not get mad at Debbie she was as much to blame. It wasn't that long ago he was as bad or worse than Fiona. Why hasn't he tried helping her?

[scrb]

I guess they’re going to write her off the show this way.

Fiona never gave up on him when he hit rock bottom.

And the other siblings are going along with it?

[WhosThatGirl]

15 minutes ago, scrb said:

I guess they’re going to write her off the show this way.

Fiona never gave up on him when he hit rock bottom.

And the other siblings are going along with it?

I’m wondering how ER feels about this being her characters swan song episodes. I mean I agree lip is being a jerk but watching Fiona turn into a second act of both her terrible parents is so dumb and stupid. Especially when as I said in my first posts, neither of the situations that brought her to it make sense. It’s hard to understand when it feels like it came out of nowhere, some boyfriend that we barley even got to know and her big career change that made no sense..

Again as much as I know ER doesn’t have a say in what the story is or where it goes I can’t really think she wants Fiona’s story to end like this. 

[SadieT]

I'm annoyed they're wasting Fiona's last episodes with this dumb repetitive downward spiral storyline. Also if you're going to do a retread of a previous storyline at least acknowledge the past and play it off as part of a pattern for the character. Instead of Debbie bitching about the money Fiona owes and Lip screaming at her for shit that's not actually her fault, how about someone reminds her that last time she went down this road she almost killed her baby brother.  Do they think we forgot Fiona's last downward spiral? At least the first time I actually had sympathy for her, now I just don't care. 

[WhosThatGirl]

1 hour ago, SadieT said:

I'm annoyed they're wasting Fiona's last episodes with this dumb repetitive downward spiral storyline. Also if you're going to do a retread of a previous storyline at least acknowledge the past and play it off as part of a pattern for the character. Instead of Debbie bitching about the money Fiona owes and Lip screaming at her for shit that's not actually her fault, how about someone reminds her that last time she went down this road she almost killed her baby brother.  Do they think we forgot Fiona's last downward spiral? At least the first time I actually had sympathy for her, now I just don't care. 

I feel you on this. You should read my first post as I said exactly this. The show seems to think us viewers don’t remember. When she was all to Lip “maybe I’m tired of holding it together..” as if if this is the first time she’s gone off the rails, I wish Lip would have said something like “yeah well remember last time..” 

The only difference with this is that yeah her actions causing bad problems aren’t her fault right now but it is funny that a lot of some of her speech in her tonight’s episode reminded me instantly of her speeches in season four when Liam got into the coke. Almost verbatim actually and the same can be said for Lips speeches too. Almost exactly the same. But we aren’t supposed to remember this. 

Again I really wonder how’s ER feels about this. It really is almost like the writers didn’t even write anything new for these episodes and just went back into their season four episode documents for Fiona and Lip scenes. 

Edited February 18, 2019 by WhosThatGirl

[snarts]

Lip forgets that he's also an alcoholic who made some mistakes before he found rock bottom.  Who was there to help him through those mistakes,? Fiona.

This story line sucks ass.

Is Debbie no longer working as a welder? 

[DrSpaceman]

As screwed up as Fiona is, neither of these was really her fault, with the situation with his sponsee or with Zan.  Lip can forgive his sponsee but not his sister? Especially after all the shit he has done?  No mention of getting her into treatment, going with him to AA?  Just leave the house?   

I hope this is not how things end with her. 

Yeah and where was Liam this week? 

[scrb]

9 hours ago, WhosThatGirl said:

I’m wondering how ER feels about this being her characters swan song episodes. I mean I agree lip is being a jerk but watching Fiona turn into a second act of both her terrible parents is so dumb and stupid. Especially when as I said in my first posts, neither of the situations that brought her to it make sense. It’s hard to understand when it feels like it came out of nowhere, some boyfriend that we barley even got to know and her big career change that made no sense..

Again as much as I know ER doesn’t have a say in what the story is or where it goes I can’t really think she wants Fiona’s story to end like this. 

Maybe that’s why ER announced early on as this season started to air that it was going to be her last, because of the way she was being written off.

Producers and Showtime probably weren’t too happy with her announcement.

Yeah if you think about it, look at all the shitty things Frank has done.  The kids tried to kick him out of the house but they gave up.  So Lip won’t live with Fiona but will continue to live with Frank?

Give me a break.

The fundamental problem is that this show has been on the air too long.  They’ll come up with more outrageous antics but the stories of these characters are pretty much played out.

Liam hasn’t done shady things yet.  He’s promising, good at school and stuff.  But just as they didn’t let Lip finish college and become successful, they would probably have him become another self-sabotaging Gallagher like the rest.

[sunshine23]

Frank - continues to skeeve me out. The Hobo Loco man competition was ridiculous, and the ending even more so. I am glad Ingrid is gone, but just know she will return at some point to learn Carl is really her babies daddy.

Fiona - utterly depressing. I almost wish they had her be resiliaent then get killed off or something. It'd be sad, but this is just dragging on, and on, and on. Fiona was the linchpin of the family and it would make more sense for the writers to want the viewers to miss her rather than say "Good riddance.".

Lip - I commend his wanting to be there for Xan but he's not even there for his own family (ie. Fiona) when she has always been there for him. Hypocrite, thy name is Lip. I'm thinking the potential new baby and Xan situation is leading to a relapse. Then he'll really be a hypodrite.

Debbie - I really coudn't care less, and find it irritating that she is the "new Fiona". She doesn't work based on how much time she has to work on the house.

Kelly & Carl - Nope. No interest whatsoever.

Kev & Viv - They always make me laugh and I love when they're on the screen. I'd rather see more of them and none of Carl/Kelly/Debbie. 

As another poster said, I'm generally losing interest in this show. Its definitely jumped the shark.

[arachne]

I'm glad the Hobo Loco story is finished; it was lame and useless. However, the ending did remind me of an old Monty Python sketch: Nobody won the Summarize Proust Competition, so the prize went to "the girl with the biggest tits." 

And there's still three more shows to go? Gaah! 

[WhosThatGirl]

1 hour ago, scrb said:

Maybe that’s why ER announced early on as this season started to air that it was going to be her last, because of the way she was being written off.

Producers and Showtime probably weren’t too happy with her announcement.

Yeah if you think about it, look at all the shitty things Frank has done.  The kids tried to kick him out of the house but they gave up.  So Lip won’t live with Fiona but will continue to live with Frank?

Give me a break.

The fundamental problem is that this show has been on the air too long.  They’ll come up with more outrageous antics but the stories of these characters are pretty much played out.

Liam hasn’t done shady things yet.  He’s promising, good at school and stuff.  But just as they didn’t let Lip finish college and become successful, they would probably have him become another self-sabotaging Gallagher like the rest.

Yeah, I’ve been wondering if the show and the network weren’t happy about ER leaving.  She announced it really early, like a week before this season even started airing- I’ve been wondering if the show and network were upset about that and this is how they’ve responded. When CM announced he was done, he announced it the week before his final episode so I  feel like that’s different(but also is a moot point now since he announced he would be returning in some capacity).

I mean as I said I know ER doesn’t have a stake in where the shows stories go but seriously.. this is how her character is ending up and I really can’t imagine she’s happy about this being the end. I mean maybe she’s going to have a big turn around before she’s done but all the same.. this arc is so bad to end on.

Especially because as I keep saying it’s hard to relate or feel compression for Fiona when she’s having a breakdown because of things we didn’t really see on screen enough to be invested in. I didn’t see her relationship with Ford long enough to care and I feel like like many others, her big career was super boring to me. I didn’t care when she was buying buildings and doing whatever with them. 

But yeah.. I still go back to wondering if ER is happy with this arc. 

[scrb]

Either Emmy knew how Fiona would be written off the show when she made that announcement or the producers/Showtime wrote the way she leaves the show in retaliation for her announcement.

Either way, the story line is dumb.

[WhosThatGirl]

5 minutes ago, scrb said:

Either Emmy knew how Fiona would be written off the show when she made that announcement or the producers/Showtime wrote the way she leaves the show in retaliation for her announcement.

Either way, the story line is dumb.

I really think it may be the second one, only because when she made her announcement, they weren’t even writing her final batch of episodes yet. I think they may be a little mad she made her announcement as early as she did- before the season even started and still having episodes to write. Maybe I’m wrong but it seems a little much for what they are doing to Fiona right now.  

[preeya]

4 hours ago, scrb said:

Either Emmy knew how Fiona would be written off the show when she made that announcement or the producers/Showtime wrote the way she leaves the show in retaliation for her announcement.

Either way, the story line is dumb.

4 hours ago, WhosThatGirl said:

I really think it may be the second one, only because when she made her announcement, they weren’t even writing her final batch of episodes yet. I think they may be a little mad she made her announcement as early as she did- before the season even started and still having episodes to write. Maybe I’m wrong but it seems a little much for what they are doing to Fiona right now.  

MHO is that her leaving the show has something to do with her recent marriage. I may be wrong, but I believe she or her husband decided it was time to put Shameless in the rearview and move on.

[scrb]

24 minutes ago, preeya said:

MHO is that her leaving the show has something to do with her recent marriage. I may be wrong, but I believe she or her husband decided it was time to put Shameless in the rearview and move on.

I believe she had a dispute with Showtime/CBS about her pay.

I think Macy was getting way more money than she was.

[ch1]

Whatever her reason this show is beyond its sell by date so she has the right idea to get out of dodge.   I think it’s nuts that they are going to do more seasons.  

[preeya]

1 hour ago, scrb said:

I believe she had a dispute with Showtime/CBS about her pay.

I think Macy was getting way more money than she was.

Here's Macy talking about Fiona's (Emmy Rossum) departure.

[Dee]

Lip not saying a word to Debbie about the surprise check was ridiculous.

[WhosThatGirl]

I mean I hope it’s as good as Whm is saying but he’s calling the last couple of episodes great and this was the fourth one for Fiona’s last. We only have three. This isn’t great. It’s a retread like I and others in the forum have said about her season four storyline. Only this time it makes no sense for her to downward spiral. 

[SadieT]

13 minutes ago, Dee said:

Lip not saying a word to Debbie about the surprise check was ridiculous.

Especially since the unattended kids in the playpen and the hole in the floor were actually Debbie’s doing, and yet Lip made it all about Fiona not scheming to keep the caseworker out of the house. 

[Chaos Theory]

I had to think about this one a lot.   I was a Fiona hold out but I do think this episode went a long long way to show how far down she has fallen.  Lip was essentially right about Xan.  The old Fiona would have pulled things together enough even with no notice to put together a good impression.   She has done it before with DCFS.  The other thing....I am not sure how much is on her. The guy is an alcoholic and an addict and Fiona didn’t know.  And even if she did how much of his addiction is on her?  So him falling off the wagon isn’t really on Fiona.  Fiona not keeping it together and messing up the house and being a mess with the  kids in the house kinda is.

In other news.....bye Katey Sagal.  It was fun knowing you but yeah Frank was not gonna be there for any of your babies so better to bail now before you got in too deep.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Chaos Theory

[DrSpaceman]

I also wonder how Frank got out of the hospital after being seen.  The way he present, he would have been quarantined for possible infection and there is no way they would have just let him leave, even if he tried.  Would be a public health risk.  Those two never would have got out of that hospital after making it in

[LibertarianSlut]

Other than stealing that woman's Oxy, I don't think Fiona did anything wrong this episode.  She did not seem drunk to me when she let the DCFS worker into the house, and, for all she knows, Lip could lose Xan if Fiona were to turn away the social worker for an unannounced visit. Gallaghers never seem to know what to do with a social worker.  It's a huge intrusion that they're not used to. The big problem that I saw was with the home--the gaping hole in the floor that a child or an adult could fall through--but that is failure to communicate between Lip and Deb, not Fiona.

And Fiona's other sin?  Drinking with a guy?  Lip, please.  I thought Fiona knew he was sober, and I still didn't really fault her for giving him some booze, as it is his choice, but for Lip to demand that Fiona--the owner--leave the house, because she gave a tiny bit of booze (there couldn't have been more than three ounces in that bottle), to Lip's sponsee, which led him to make a telephone call to get heroin?!?  Lip, you can miss me with that shit, and while we're on the topic, why don't you move your happy ass out?  You're contributing; Fiona's contributing.  Her name's on the deed, though, so pack your shit and inform the bunk bed deliverers to make their dropoff elsewhere.  Every single time I am ready to let Lip back in and say he's not so bad, he does something so wildly dumb (and, dare I say, entitled) that I write him off.  

I do think the actor that plays Lip is immensely talented, second possibly only to Frank, so I really appreciated the emotion he was able to show while simultaneously "keeping it together."  This is the second best acting I've seen from Lip.  The best was when he was at the hearing to get readmitted to college.  Much more advanced than Fiona and her fake cry cum wild grin, never accompanied by tears.  

I thought the Hobo Loco story ended in a pretty funny way, but I feel bad about Ingrid and her reduction and Randy having to raise two children into his 70s.  I'm not really sure what the point of them was if they are just going to drive off into the sunset.

I was so glad Carl got to work the line, and apparently made some buddies in the process.  He's gonna need them when the inevitable break-up with Kelly occurs.  

Three more episodes left.  I feel like I'm running a marathon.  Sunday's epi felt like a penultimate to me, being better than usual and sewing up some of the storylines, so I was looking forward to a finale next week, but such is life I guess...

[WhosThatGirl]

I mean.. yeah Lip has no right to really yell at fiona logically but I don’t feel bad for her at all. I don’t know why, I just know I don’t and almost all her actions are just annoying to me. Maybe it’s because I like many others have pointed out many times in these forums, she’s done this before and the show is acting like this is the first time she’s spiraled our.. when it is not. But no one on the show remembers it.

Maybe it’s also because it doesn’t make sense. As I’ve said a lot too. The two reasons are her big career which didn’t make sense and was super boring to watch on tv and some guy who she apparently was in deep love with. Which.. really? That guy? I have to keep saying it because it’s dumb and makes no sense.

Also I normally like ER but these episodes I just find her.. not really into it. She seems kind of over it as well. 

May only guess is that she’s going to do a 180 in the 2nd to last episode and decide to go to rehab or something because WHM said the last moments with everyone and her are really great or something.. That could mean anything I guess because he’s saying these last batch of episodes are great and considering there’s only three left, I’m including this one and I didn’t find it that great.

Again these are Fiona’s last ones and they’re really not doing a great thing for her character and the other stories are just in stagnation. Like Lips going to be a dad? Okay. What was the point of the hobo contest if frank wasn’t going to win.. and what was the point of KS character? 

[iMonrey]

Quote

Yeah, I’ve been wondering if the show and the network weren’t happy about ER leaving.  She announced it really early, like a week before this season even started airing- I’ve been wondering if the show and network were upset about that and this is how they’ve responded.

I seriously doubt the writers are trying to punish the actress for leaving the show by destroying her characters Why would she care if she's leaving the show, and what good does it do the show she's leaving behind?

That said, if the writers were caught off guard and hadn't planned to write the character off the show it could have derailed whatever they originally had planned for the season. That might explain the unoriginal rehash of her previous downward spiral.

[WhosThatGirl]

28 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I seriously doubt the writers are trying to punish the actress for leaving the show by destroying her characters Why would she care if she's leaving the show, and what good does it do the show she's leaving behind?

That said, if the writers were caught off guard and hadn't planned to write the character off the show it could have derailed whatever they originally had planned for the season. That might explain the unoriginal rehash of her previous downward spiral.

That’s what I mean though. It’s not that she’s having a downward spiral, it’s also the fact that the show is completely ignoring this has happened before. When Lip was yelling about how old fiona would have covered better for the cps guy like she did in the past and she’s never been this out of it before I was thinking “are they really not even Acknowledging season four?” That’s a big reason why they are losing me with this and why there’s a disconnect for me with this story. 

[LibertarianSlut]

I'm just whistling in the dark here, but I think a fundamental difference between the Fiona/Liam incident and now, from Lip's perspective, if that it took Fiona to be totally broken before Lip could forgive her.  It only occurred to Lip to forgive Fiona when he had to go pick her up in Sheboygan.  

Now I think some of Lip's acute frustration is that he is waiting for Fiona to break, to give in, so that he can forgive her, so that he can take care of her the way that he took care of,or wanted to take care of Xan, Yuens, Brad, the sponsee, Siera's kid, Hymie, etc.  

I think that if Fiona were to break down now, though, she might have a full breakdown, like voluntary psychiatric 72 hour hold, Ian-style breakdown.  Probably because no one needs her anymore.  None of the kids need her, Patsy's doesn't need her, hell, the old woman at the Laundromat doesn't need her, and she has been carrying the burden for so long and she had to put her feelings on ice for so long that if she thaws them now, who knows what will happen?  it's kind of like when you get through finals and suddenly your whole body falls apart.  Fiona doesn't know what to do with herself anymore.

I also think there is a fundamental difference between Fiona and Lip, in that Lip is totally sensitive to other people's needs, while Fiona is more of the old school, grin and bear it type.  They complemented each other much better before when they needed each other.

I just realized that I hope Fiona's ending is to go to Costa Rica with Jimmy/Steve/Jack and they ride off into the sunset.  The end.

[WhosThatGirl]

I mean maybe you’re right @LibertarianSlut but honestly I just think the writers aren’t trying to remember the situation with Liam and Fiona in season four. I just don’t think they care enough to even mention it. Because not one damn character has mentioned it once in this whole arc of this season. I think it’s just that simple.

I want to think you are right because that means there was thought out into it but I don’t think there was. I think they are just trying to write dramatic crazy things and throwing it into episodes. I’m saying your theory is way more thoughtful and precise then what I think the show is trying to do. At least for now. Maybe I’ll be wrong in Fiona’s last episode and there’s some callback to it but the only thing I can think of is she’s going to have a 180 turn around in her final two episodes and then leave for something else. I agree with you, I hope it’s jimmy steve. But who knows.

Edited February 20, 2019 by WhosThatGirl

[Dee]

I hate how the show has rewritten Fiona & Lip's relationship as if Ian never existed.

Fiona & Lip have always had a rocky relationship, given their divergent personalities & respective places within the family, but they were never a dysfunctional duo.

They were a highly functional trio, at least until Ian hopped a bus & abandoned the family wholesale. An act which has never been properly addressed.

[Lemons]

On 2/18/2019 at 9:00 PM, Dee said:

Lip not saying a word to Debbie about the surprise check was ridiculous.

I think he thought it was going to be scheduled, that's why he was out buying stuff.  The guy had to tell him it was a surprise check.

Why hasn't Lip moved out on his own?  

I hate Frank's stupid story lines about his gross ass attracting beautiful wealthy women.  Stupid.  He can go.  

[Dee]

57 minutes ago, Lemons said:

I think he thought it was going to be scheduled, that's why he was out buying stuff.  The guy had to tell him it was a surprise check.

But how is the state of the house, Fiona's fault? Sure, she let the guy in and didn't know anything going on; but that's hardly a new trait in the Gallagher home, sober or un-sober.

[Chaos Theory]

19 hours ago, Dee said:

But how is the state of the house, Fiona's fault? Sure, she let the guy in and didn't know anything going on; but that's hardly a new trait in the Gallagher home, sober or un-sober.

I am not saying it’s her fault I am just saying there is a huge difference between how Fiona would have reacted in the past and how she is reacting now.  In the past she would have at least attempted to explain the hole in the floor and the two girls giggling in the back and maybe even asked for an extension because it was such a surprise.  

20 hours ago, Lemons said:

Why hasn't Lip moved out on his own?  

Didn’t he and the new girl look at a few places?  I think Lip is comfortable in the house and moving out scares him.   He would rather live in the basement then get a place of his own

Edited February 21, 2019 by Chaos Theory

[Lemons]

20 hours ago, Dee said:

But how is the state of the house, Fiona's fault? Sure, she let the guy in and didn't know anything going on; but that's hardly a new trait in the Gallagher home, sober or un-sober.

People in general are not always logical. He just took it out on Fiona. 

[Dee]

He was treating Fiona as if she purposefully sought to ruin everything despite the fact that he never consulted any of his extended family about his plans for Xan (or that he'd already spent ten grand on her & her addict mom) nor did he acknowledge that a few weeks ago he was roughly in Fiona's current position, except sober.

Lip had no idea about anything Fiona was going through (re: Ford & her apartment building) because he was busy chasing  drunk movie stars & humping Tammy.

And that's far from the first time that Lip's been so self involved that he's pretty much missed the boat on entire chunks of his siblings lives.

[WhosThatGirl]

Lip knows about the apartment and ford situation, there was a scene in the mid season finale when Lip stopped by the diner because Debbie told him about ford and then Fiona explained about what happened with the apartment building because he was worried about her, she missed out on saying goodbye to Ian. I mean I don’t think he’s right in blaming Fiona for what happened this episode but he did seem to care when t first happened.

The problem is the timeline is odd. I’m not sure how long it has been and how long this has all been going on, when Fiona got fired from the diner  did she say “I’ve had a rough couple months..?” So have these episodes been months now? If so it explains why the siblings may be over it now. 

Either way this storyline is stupid and redundant of season four and it doesn’t make sense to be redoing it again.. especially as I have to keep saying over these things. Ford.. again I have to be like really? And her big career? Which was super boring to watch. I honestly think the writers just wanted to end that because they realized it wasn’t interesting to watch, I don’t know why they had to drag Fiona into a downward spiral to do it but I understand that I think even they were over writing about it too.

Edited February 21, 2019 by WhosThatGirl

[Dee]

3 hours ago, WhosThatGirl said:

Lip knows about the apartment and ford situation, there was a scene in the mid season finale when Lip stopped by the diner because Debbie told him about ford

Lip only knew because Debbie told him, and she only told him, because he happened to be at the house when Debbie arrived.  He wasn't anymore up to date about Fiona's life than Fiona was when the DCFS inspector arrived.

Lip's holding Fiona to a double standard. He & Debbie skate while Fiona gets raked over the coals for stuff outside of her control.

If Lip had held onto the ten grand he foolishly wasted on Xan's mom, he would've had plenty enough cash to move into his own place and avoided the usual Gallagher dysfunction. Instead it's easier for him to scream at his addict sister in the midst of a serious relapse than it is to hold his sponsee (who is fully aware of the consequences) responsible accountable for his own relapse.

Edited February 22, 2019 by Dee

[WhosThatGirl]

Well to be fair if I’m being honest, none of the siblings really care much about each other anymore. They hardly interact. Carl and Debbie interact the most with each other right now and it’s mostly because of some story of Debbie possibly turning his girlfriend gay. And seriously Liam was off.. somewhere this episode. Was he even in the episode? Was it a blink and miss it moment?  Did anyone even mention him? Seriously. It’s not just Lip being absent, they all kind of are. None of them care about each other.

Which is kind of a shame. I get that they are all adults now but honestly none of them have anything to do with each other. And they haven’t for a while. The first half of this season fiona was off living in the apartment, she wasn’t ever interacting with any of her siblings at that point. Aside from a few scenes with Ian, she had more scenes with frank and that was only because she would stop by the Alibi to see Veronica or Kevin and frank would be there. Now she’s back in the house and she gets a scene or two with her siblings but more often than not she’s just running around and being drunk or whatever with randoms. The best part of this show back in the day was the family interaction, at least for me. Not with Frank, I still don’t get how they even ackowldge him after he called cps on them in season 3 but this show has decided sometimes it wants you forget storylines have happened. Case in point no one has mentioned Fiona went nuts once before. That didn’t happen. 

The worst part is is that the end of this season will have a fiona doing a 180 and everyone getting a nice sweet moment with her, because it’s the end for her. For now anyway. It won’t make sense based on what’s been going on but I totally predict this is what’s going to happen.

Edited February 21, 2019 by WhosThatGirl

[Dee]

You're conflating two different things. You're not totally wrong about the communication breakdown between the Gallagher siblings but that's been an ongoing issue since Season 4 (arguably as early as mid-Season 3). The first half of Season 9 Fiona interacted with the family fairly often.

She was living in her apartment, essentially with Ford, but it was implied she was visiting Chez Gallagher for occasional meals, regularly taking Liam to school and hassling the rest of their sibs about their various issues.

In fact she spends the entire season premiere debating with Ford whether or not to pay Ian's bail. As she gets further enmeshed in her housing deal, she's still able to spare enough time to obsess about Ian's pending charges & getting Liam (apparently with Lip's assistance) enrolled into public school. Her lack of communication with the rest of her sibs is lightly mocked, but not treated as abnormal.

The problem with Lip, Xan & Jason is that Shameless has never considered Xan & Jason actual characters. They're tools for Lip's arc which is why (like pretty much every other recurring character since Season 3) they disappear when it's inconvenient to the larger plot.

It makes no sense for Lip to yell at Fiona about Xan, however the show wanted the emotional scene despite being too lazy to do the legwork to get there. So it ignored the elephant in the room (Debbie) to make it happen. The writers did the exact same thing with Fiona & Ian's awful 'feud' last year, where Ian bullied Fiona for entire episodes for having the nerve to succeed.

Edited February 22, 2019 by Dee

[WhosThatGirl]

Eh, from my viewing point I never saw fiona act much with the other siblings but we can view things differently.

Also when Fiona leaves, my guess is it’s going to get worse as far as the Gallagher’s. The only thing linking them will more than likely be Frank and that’s.. not interesting. All of his arcs are the same old, same old. The fact that we spent a whole season where he had a relationship with a woman who he impregnated with Carl leads to.. nothing? That’s supposed to be funny? Or interesting? 

So for me Lip yelling at fiona while dumb and stupid and not right doesn’t matter anyway when I sit and really think about it. Chances are he’s going to forgive her by the end of the season.. because of course he will and no one will mention it again.

[Dee]

12 minutes ago, WhosThatGirl said:

Eh, from my viewing point I never saw fiona act much with the other siblings but we can view things differently.

Except these were actual scenes that happened in actual episodes.

That's not a 'difference of opinion.' That's you denying factual events.

[WhosThatGirl]

Yes there were scenes where she had dinner a few times and her talking about Ian’s bail and taking Liam to school but she was barley involved in the other siblings lives much is what I’m saying. You said it was all one lip who wasn’t interested in fiona but Fiona was barley interested in him and his stories too. Not to mention she wasn’t really interested in Debbie or Carl that much. She was focused on Ian(in fact he was the only sibling that all the Gallagher kids were focused on quite a lot in the first half of this season, maybe because CM wasn’t going. To be in this second half or what but all the siblings really seemed focused on him). What I’m saying is is not just slip (and I’m not even a Lip fan at all) it’s Debbie and Carl also who are disconnected from fiona  right now.

Debbie only seems to talk to her about what the house needs or when she needs money. And Carl and she just pass each other by it seems like. She truly only interacts the most with Liam and he’s the only one who even seems to be nice to her right now.

And yeah I do agree Lip shouldn’t have yelled at fiona but like someone else said when people are hurt they don’t think logically. Sorry, people aren’t perfect. And yeah I also agree he should have screamed at Debbie too. But again logic isn’t people’s strong suit when they are angry.

And again I wish the show would remember past seasons, I would have loved if Lip has said he is becoming angry because Fiona is repeating past behavior and that ended so well last time but the show is making quite a conscious choice to not mention this storyline at all. And that’s actual bad writing so for me I’m kind of more angry about this.  

[PsychoDrone]

Lip SCREWED up the thing with DCFS.  From his many experiences of dealing with them growing up, he knows how they work.  He knew they did unannounced visits.  HE should have prepared things before he even took Xan to DCFS.  He shouldn't have went there with Xan at all.  What's to stop the workers there from taking Xan from him, right then?  Rage at Fiona all he wants.  It's all on him.  And, it is ridiculous that he didn't scream at Debbie since the hole in the floor and unsupervised toddlers was on Debbie, not Fiona.

Jason's slip up is on him.  How many other instances has Jason seen alcohol, or any mind-altering items, and chose not to partake?  Lip dumps on Fiona because of his sponsee's actions?  Get real.  Why didn't Jason call Lip or try to seek out a meeting?  Contrived plot line to have another reason, although dumb and not deserved, for Lip to come down on Fiona.  Fiona is flaming out.  At this point, nothing she's done has come close to Liam taking drugs from earlier season.

The Hobo Loco storyline is beyond stupid.  How much liability would they incur from these contests?  Earlier episode had the paramedics wheeling someone out for alcohol poisoning.  And, the last competition is to have drunk people attempt to jump on a moving train.  Seriously?!?!  And, finally to give the prize to a nameless extra that really didn't come across as a hobo.  Of all the contestants, the sorority girl was the least hobo-esque.  Better to have Frank lose out to his partner.

[WhosThatGirl]

The problem is this Fiona flame out storyline is super boring and terribly written and maybe it’s not as bad as what happened with Liam but again why is no one even bringing that up at all? All the siblings are acting like fiona has never acted out ever before(when she has) and Lip has that line about how pat fiona would know how to handle a cps situation. Not once did he bring up her terrivle awful behavior from a few years ago and to me.. that’s why I’m dissatisfied with this being how fiona ends her time on this show.

And that’s why I know her ending is going to be terrible. I know they more than likely are ending her story with a way to open the door back up should ER want to make a special guest appearance or when the series ends and she make a appearance in that so I don’t think they’re going to kill her off. Maybe I’m wrong but from what I hear it’s not a final ending so I firmly believe it’ll be an odd 180 moment and she’ll be fine by her final episode. And that’s dumb. At least to me.

And I’m sorry maybe I’m alone but I think her behavior is ridiculous because I don’t quite get what’s making her act like this way. I know some people have tried to explain that her big career is the reason because it was her finally making moves and getting out but it’s hard for me to buy that being the big reason when the show keeps somehow bringing it back to stupid Ford being the biggest reason. They to me keep harping on that and I’m sorry but I never got that relationship. They didn’t seem to like each other that much, as someone else pointed out, he seemed to merely be tolerating her at times and fiona seemed oddly okay with that which if I’m being honest didn’t seem like her at all. 

[Dee]

Knowing these writers, they'll have Fiona agree to attend rehab after visiting Ian in prison.

JimmyJackSteve will magically appear & volunteer to take her there, however, on the way to rehab, she & JimmyJackSteve will decide to ditch those plans & run off to Brazil together.

Their final scene (until Fiona inevitably returns for the finale) will be of them driving off down the highway into the horizon.

[scrb]

Previews made it look like Lip just decides on his own that Fiona has to leave.

That would be a bunch of BS.  It's one thing if all the other Gallaghers more or less agree she should leave but if he pulls that on his own ...