Shameless - Finale Recap: I'm Alive

Episode 12 of Season 4 of Shameless, “Lazarus,” was the season finale. Just as Mickey (Noel Fisher) began to feel comfortable in his own skin, even making some sort of peace with his wife, the show finally shed some light on Ian’s (Cameron Monaghan) scary situation. Meanwhile, Debbie (Emma Kenney) and Carl (Ethan Cutkosky) continued to deal with their cases of puppy love, and Lip’s (Jeremy Allen White) adult relationship revealed a whole new kind of problem for the eldest Gallagher boy. Lastly, both Fiona (Emmy Rossum) and Frank (William H. Macy) were given final second chances, but only one of them seemed to take full advantage of their new lease on life. Here is the Recap and Review of the Season 4 Finale of Shameless, Episode 12, “Lazarus”!

To start the recap, I want to point out that the show took a risk this season in trading some of the typical light comedy we’re used to for a much darker and heavier vibe. We’re used to watching the Gallaghers and their neighbors struggle with everyday life on the South Side, but it seemed Season 4 brought on storyline after storyline that were laced with tragedy. All things considered, however, I think Shameless just clocked in another stellar, albeit different, season.

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Sammi and Sheila: Any real comedic relief for this finale came from Sammi (Emily Bergl) and Sheila (Joan Cusack) as their battle for Frank’s heart continued. Episode 12 actually opened with Frank regaining his sense of self and snapping out of his post-operative delirium, only to find himself smack in the middle of the butting of heads of Sheila and Sammi. Sammi, of course, was just recently reunited with her father, though his intentions were never truly to be an active part of his estranged daughter’s life. Meanwhile, Sammi has been incredibly patient with Sheila in her effort to begin a new life with her “husband,” Frank, whom she wed while he was unconscious. Still, there is something to be said for the fact that Frank has toyed with Sheila’s heart for selfish reasons in the past, so maybe we can cut her some slack. After all, as she pointed out, Sammi did squat in her house and sell all of her furniture with no penalty whatsoever.

In the end, though, perhaps Frank’s complete apathy towards both set up the best possible scenario for Sheila and Sammi. While Carl managed to sneak his father from his hospital bed and out into the real world, Sammi’s trailer was moved to the empty lot next to Sheila’s house. What might have been an initial effort to weasel her way back into her father’s life actually became an easy means of access to Sheila, who was happy to share her pot roast with Chucky and his mom. Sheila’s quest to begin her own Native American tribe failed, as it turned out that the children she was looking to adopt all this time had a living great grandfather, a secret they kept hidden due to his lack of wifi. Taking everything into consideration, isn’t Chucky kind of the perfect kooky child for Sheila to have around?

Lip:

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The thing about Amanda (Nichole Bloom), Lip’s current girlfriend, is that she really doesn’t deserve to be treated poorly simply because she has her act together and she has money. True, this couple kicked off in a completely untraditional way, with Amanda jumping from roomie to roomie while simultaneously fixing Lip’s life, but Lip could have simply refused her advances. Now, money is involved. Not only did Amanda help Lip to weasel $10,000 out of her father to help pay off his bills, he’s begun receiving gifts, like a Prada suit. Their chemistry is odd, but it's not nothing.

It was interesting to watch Lip attend Amanda’s sorority initiation, a pinning ceremony that actually resembled more of a bonding ritual between the two. Hmm… did Lip Gallagher accidentally just sign up for “forever” with a sorority chick? I’m sure we’re not supposed to root for this to work, especially considering the encounter Lip had with Mandy (Emma Greenwell) at the subsequent diner after-party. Imagine Mandy’s humiliation when she realized she was the waitress assigned a table full of her ex, his new rich girlfriend, and all of her sorority buddies. Mandy, devastated, refused to even acknowledge knowing Lip beyond waiting on him when he attempted to pull her aside for a quick chat. It seems Lip just got his first taste of the consequential burn of taking advantage of a lucrative situation. Still, we have to remember that the reason these two broke up was because of a two-timing situation that ended with Mandy heartlessly ruining Karen’s life by running her over with her car. Suddenly, maybe Mandy isn’t really looking like such a victim, though her small Season 4 arc of domestic violence certainly did a great job of erasing the image of Karen’s cracked skull on the pavement.

Carl and Debbie: Carl and Debbie both faced relationship woes during Episode 12. Most of the focus was off of their personal story arcs as we witnessed the conclusions of some of Season 4’s greater plots, but that’s not to say that it wasn’t heartbreaking to watch Bonnie (Morgan Lily) reject Carl’s stolen necklace, refusing to allow him to fall for her only to then have her family move their van somewhere far away. There was a moment of allusion between Carl in Lip in which Carl mentioned the fact that thirteen-year-old Bonnie isn’t into sex because of her mom’s ex and a biker gang. At first I was thinking that line was so shameless that it had to be purely a joke; however, now I’m not so sure.

Meanwhile, Debbie has taken to ordering pizzas to force Matty (James Allen McCune) into spending time with her. She still has her heart set on waiting until she’s sixteen to be with him, though I’m still completely unsure as to why Matty keeps humoring her at all. Perhaps he just feels bad, but this is not an appropriate friendship for a twenty-something man to be having with a little girl, obviously.

Mostly, Debbie and Carl had some great moments this week that came later in the episode, but more on that soon!

Ian and Mickey:

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Mickey awoke in bed next his boyfriend, and we were treated to a great first moment of relief for these two. It was totally great to watch Mickey stroke Ian’s hair as he continued to sleep, and what came next might have been even nicer. Svetlana (Isidora Goreshter) and Mickey have had a rough road, needless to say, but dying her hair red and whipping out a strap-on was certainly the end of it. It was a rejected last-ditch effort to please her husband that inevitably ended up evolving into a great moment where she reminded us all of the beauty of living in America, the land of choices. In fact, she just might be a lesbian, and she just might have a girlfriend. It’s all up to her choosing. The baby, however, did not choose them. Thus, that is the one area where they cannot compromise. Mickey has to man up, and that’s totally reasonable.

Afterwards, Mickey headed down to the Alibi, nervous to witness the aftermath of his coming out moment. Again, Shameless handled this really well. What eventually started out as a hesitant and awkward situation ended up evolving into a conversation about the boldness of celebrities coming out publicly, like college football star Michael Sam and Ellen. More importantly, the conversation kind of reflected the sense of grayness to sexuality. It’s not black and white. In the end, everyone is welcome, with their “butt buddy,” at Kev (Steve Howie) and V’s (Shanola Hampton) bar, and Mickey was treated to a beer on the house and a minimal amount of hazing from his friends. That’s what they do at the Alibi, and Mickey Milkovich would never choose special treatment. It was a great final moment for Kev as well. If you remember, Season 4 opened with Stan’s gay son gladly selling off the bar full of “homophobes” to Kev and V.

It seemed Mickey finally found his happiness. That is, until the most tragic moment of Episode 12 came to be. Ian spent the entire episode in bed, refusing to engage and eerily cut off from the world. At first, we were led to believe that he was simply high on something or hung over, kind of true to the way we’ve been watching him bounce from high to low all season; however, with a little help from Carl and Debbie, Mickey and Mandy learned the truth. They’d seen this before, and I’ll continue this in Fiona’s section below!

Fiona: Finally, a finale of redemption for Fiona Gallagher following a downright awful season of lows. Fiona was initially tempted to take a pill in prison, something a flirtatious “friend” offered her to “help her get through the day.” We watched as Fiona struggled with some tough laundry labor, only to then be pulled aside by a guard and led into a room with her probation officer, Officer Johnson (Regina King). Fiona promptly took a urine test… and passed! I was so happy to see Fiona rub it in that girl’s face afterwards. In the end, Fiona’s good behavior and an overcrowding problem got her released back to house arrest.

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Perhaps more importantly, Episode 12 set Fiona up with some good connections of support, people who understand what she’s been through and have screwed up in their own ways. Johnson, for one, knows what it’s like to come from an alcoholic father but has realized that as adults they are now responsible for their own business. That doesn’t mean we all don’t need a little help sometimes, though, like the favor she pulled for Fiona by landing her a job at her friend Charlie’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) diner. After seeing a little good in the people around her, it seemed Fiona was inspired to get her act together. From making French toast for a grateful Debbie and Carl to maturely handling her NA meeting with her new friend Charlie, Fiona took responsibility.

It was also great to watch Fiona interact with Mickey following the revelation of the fact that Ian most likely has bipolar disorder, a mental illness passed down from his mother. This is going to be a great storyline to watch unfold during Season 5, as Mickey refuses to allow Ian to receive medical treatment from a legitimate psych ward. Even though Mickey’s outburst was obviously out of ignorance, it was still a touching moment to hear him speak to the Gallaghers and Mandy like they’re all a part of one big family now. Fiona also had a final conversation with Lip where she openly accepted responsibility for all of her actions, refusing to continue to use Frank and Monica’s antics as a crutch. In addition, to Fiona, a rich girlfriend sounds like a keeper!

Frank:

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Frank managed to escape liver failure and the hospital, but that doesn’t mean that he’s also ready to clean up his act. William H. Macy had one of his finest moments ever on Shameless after Carl wheeled him out to the vast frozen landscape of Lake Michigan. We weren’t sure whether Frank was kicking his drinking habit or hitting the bottle again at first. As his doctor reminded him prior, a new liver comes with new responsibilities, and drinking is way more dangerous when your body needs a ton of medication to protect someone else’s donated organ. Still, we know Frank. Something like that wouldn’t normally stop him from drinking alcohol. Presumably shouting up to G-d, a very alive Frank victoriously claimed that he’d won. He gets to live another day. As Carl watched on, Frank began to take swigs of whiskey, savoring every drop. In the end, he passed the bottle to his son for a just little sip. Suddenly, all of those seemingly humorous scenes of Carl taking swigs of beer during Season 4 don’t seem very funny at all. The theme this season has been one of the hereditary nature or addictions and ailments, and to Carl, no one is cooler than his father.

Jimmy/ Steve: Need I say more? To close the recap and review, the Season 4 finale of Shameless ended with the return of “Jack” (Justin Chatwin) to the Chicago South Side, completely unbeknownst to the Gallagher clan.

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What did you think of Shameless, Season 4 Episode 12, “Lazarus”? Did the Season 4 finale satisfy you? Did you like this darker and heavier season of Shameless? Which character had you favorite storyline this time around? Are you tuning in to Season 5?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Shameless, Season 4 Episode 12, “Lazarus”!