Shameless - Season 3 Episode 8 - Recap and Review - Where There's a Will

“Where There’s a Will,” there’s a way, and hopefully you won’t have to resort to rat poison. This week's Shameless saw the Gallagher clan attempting to make nice with nasty Cousin Patrick, who as Frank (William H. Macy) put it, had “out Gallagher’ed the Gallaghers” in milking Aunt Ginger’s death to his benefit. With their home listed in his name, Fiona (Emmy Rossum) and the gang would have to put their heads together to buck the shameless monkey off of their backs.

Showtime "Shameless"

Lip: Lip’s (Jeremy Allen White) primary objective this episode was to find a legal loophole in Cousin Patrick’s will, a will that had been notarized a year prior to their phony will. Funny, Aunt Ginger had died fourteen years prior. Of course, the Gallagher’s couldn’t spill the fact that Frank had buried the mean old prostitute in the yard and covered up her death.

Lip was sidetracked by the spontaneous return of Karen (Laura Slade Wiggins), though, and his attention quickly turned from learning all there was to know about law— in between while receiving bj’s from Mandy (Emma Greenfield) — to attempting to quash his long over-baked feelings for the blond Beelzebub. True, Lip and Mandy had never discussed the terms of their relationship, but you don’t milk a girl’s trust in you for weeks solely to capitalize on free laundry services alone. I was worried about Karen’s looming return for weeks prior, but this isn’t actually going as badly as I’d anticipated. Lip did inevitably end up having sex with Karen, amidst Jaime’s baby toys, but to me, it seemed to be more of an act of self-sabotage than a resurgence of the depressing raw love he’d felt for her last season. I don’t think this is the same thing. I think his relationship with Mandy has ended up growing into something strangely healthy, and Lip’s arc has always been that he fights his own potential for a happy life. There will be a fallout over his indiscretion, if you still believed him and Mandy to be together to begin with, but I don’t think they aren’t salvageable. People have been waiting for Lip to stick it to Karen since Season 2. I think it's coming, everybody.

Sheila: Like toxic radiation, Karen spreads her cancer across the South Side. Seriously, this is a notoriously bad area of the country, and we’ve met some pretty terrible characters on this show, but are any of them worse than Karen at this point? Sheila had welcomed her daughter back with open arms, having “coincidentally” just handed Jaime over to the Wongs. We hadn’t ever been privy as to why his father had a sudden change of heart, though, and Karen’s return always reeked of some detrimental ploy.

After covertly planting the seeds in Mandy’s head to fear her unwelcomed return, Karen’s true intentions with regard to her child became clear. Karen had played dumb, seemingly saddened by the lack of her child in the house upon her return. Sheila, being the ever-shining beacon of optimism on this show, decided to take Karen to a group meeting for families living with a loved one with Down Syndrome. Leave it to Sheila to get caught up in the “take back the ‘r’ word movement”! At least she always means well. Karen, on the other hand… she’s a real bitch.  Sorry if that’s offensive to any lady-readers out there! You have my respect, Sheilas of the world! That Karen, though… To think I used to like her!

When Mrs. Wong ventured over to Sheila’s to pick up Jaime’s crib, she let it slip that Karen had tipped her off to the unsafe living conditions in their home. Karen wanted to get rid of Jaime all along, if only to take back her bedroom and pretend her entire pregnancy never existed. Compared to the storyline of Mandy rescuing her half-sister/brother from the foster system, Karen looked all the more pathetic.

Jimmy: Jimmy (Justin Chatwin) had to adjust to life as a workingman this week. Initially, Jimmy attempted to accompany Fiona on one of her sanitation jobs, cleaning out a roach infested slaughterhouse explosion. In his defense, that had to be the worst job imaginable, especially for a first legitimate employment stint. That sh*t was like Fear Factor with an hourly wage instead of a prize. Inevitably, Jimmy ended up with a job as a barista, eventually running into an old med school buddy and heading out on to a swanky dinner with some former peers. Still, what was more important was Jimmy’s paradoxical pining for a “better” life. Does he want to have Fiona, and only Fiona, all to himself? Does he want to have his cake and eat it too i.e. cheating, partying, slacking, etc.? I find myself having pangs of sympathy for Jimmy, because this is not his family, but these pangs are always trumped by the memories of slutting it up and taking advantage of Fiona’s trust.

Showtime "Shameless"

Showtime "Shameless"

Carl and Debbie: With their eviction on the horizon, the task of saving the damn house seemed to fall on the shoulders of two of the youngest Gallaghers, Carl (Ethan Cutkosky) and Debbie (Emma Kenney). Fiona had attempted to hire Mickey (Noel Fisher) as a hit man, to no avail. As it turned out, Cousin Patrick had a real raging bull of a wife waiting with a shotgun! Never underestimate the power of an angel face paired with a shameless heart, right? They’re just kids— and it’s just a T.V. show— so we couldn’t even consider getting mad at Carl for lacing Cousin Patrick’s sandwich with rat poison while he was busy renovating the house, could we? Carl is so bad, and I know it’s crazy, but I always find myself thinking that I would kind of love it if he were my future son. Is there something wrong with me? I love how Fiona has become so numb to Carl’s antics that the attempted murder of their cousin, an attempt that initially seemed to be a successful venture, was just another reaction to a typical Carl-ism. One week as guardian, and she found herself raising a future sociopath.

Tony (Tyler Jacob Moore) returned to deliver the notice of early eviction. I was wondering where Tony had disappeared to this season. Isn't he looking more and more like a suitable replacement to Steve, now that the passion between Steve and Fiona has kind of been trumped by travesty? Fiona had figured the family had a few weeks before needing to move out. She and Lip had locked down a truly disastrous prospective home; however, Carl’s failed attempt at murdering their cousin pissed him off well enough to warrant an early ousting of the Gallaghers. It was just rat poison, man. Grow up! Debbie swooped in to save the day, faking sexual abuse! Fiona and Tony played into Debbie’s scheme, and Cousin Patrick was forced to strike a deal with Fiona; cheap rent and a long-term lease, all thanks to Debbie!

Showtime "Shameless"

In the meantime: Kev (Steve Howie) and Veronica (Shanola Hampton) saw their sick sexual escapades come to a screeching halt. Veronica’s mother seemed to have developed feelings for Kev, showing up in “fancy” dresses and insisting on rocking some Bruno Mars while the two attempted to get her pregnant. V was not interested in ambience, but as it turned out, her idea of a clinical procedure was her mother's idea of whoring herself out. Fair enough, but the episode closed with Kev receiving a flirty text from V's mom! I knew this was going to backfire...

Frank, having been kicked out of Sheila's with no baby to manny, leeched onto a new face. Christopher was a faux-alcoholic, someone so socially inept that he seemed to be a serial killer. Having been attending A.A. meetings in an attempt to woo a new friend into becoming his sponsor roommate, he plucked out Frank as perfectly pathetic enough to swoon. Still, all creepiness aside, Frank is never one to turn down free food and booze, even if it means shacking up with a someone who's hobbies include taxidermy and maybe eating people.

What did you all think of Shameless, Season 3 Episode 8, "Where There's a Will"? Are you down with Frank's new roomie? Are you happy that Kev and V's twisted pregnancy storyline is wrapped up? What will come of Lip and Mandy (and Karen)? Am I crazy for wishing Fiona had worked things out with Tony, at this point?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Shameless, Season 3 Episode 8, "Where There's a Will"!