Shameless Season 8 Episode 5 Recap: 'The (Mis)education Of Liam Fergus Beirchart Gallagher'
Last night's episode of Shameless lived up to its title, as we see the Gallaghers doing what they do best: using others to get what they want. From Frank using Liam to get into the pants of the lonely moms at his school to Ian and Fiona coming to a head over an abandoned church, lets recap the best moments of the episode.
Frank's New Age
The head patriarch of the dysfunctional bunch is continuing his path to self-righteousness. Frank scored a new promotion at his job, which no one cares about, and continues to be a hands-on dad with Liam. He teaches Liam the ways of the world and how to use your background to your advantage. Frank isn't gullible, as he knows Liam's new school take advantage of his son and exploit him as the media ploy to get more students to enroll. When Liam fails his tests, Frank defends his son's poor upbringing as a scapegoat and it seems to work. Liam ends up scoring A on his next exam and Frank scores one of the moms when she visits him at his job. The woman loves rugged men; she's turned on by Frank's dirty hands and minimum wage income.
Fiona Cleans Up
The eldest Gallagher and entrepreneur in training, Fiona is still looking for new ways to increase her income and keep up the property values. Gallagher, with the help of her most loyal tenant, Nessa, notice that an old abandoned church is up for grabs. When Nessa mentions that a homeless shelter could be the newest home for the deserted building, Fiona decides to take matters into her own hands. She confronts the realtor for the church about selling it to better buyers and even sends Carl to cover the spray paint to make it look more appealing. Nessa suggests Fiona she speaks to, Mel, Nessa's girlfriend (and Fiona's enemy), as she might've known the art dealers that were interested in buying the property. After making Fiona grovel and still not helping her, Mel caves in and gives Fiona the names of the art dealers so she can convince them to reconsider. During a meeting at Patsy Pies, it's revealed to Fiona (not to us) that Ian is the one who wants to have shelter at the church for the homeless kids. The siblings battle it out over who deserves the church more, with Fiona coldly stating she's worked 'too hard' to let everything go down the toilet. So Ian backed off, for now. But it does show the impending collision that will take place between Fiona and her siblings as she starts to become one of the 'bougie', upper-class folks the Gallaghers always hated.
Lip's Crazy Road To Recovery
Lip is starting to mature in a lot of different ways. He seems to love his job and staying sober, even though he satisfies his urges by having abusive sex with his co-worker. Nonetheless, Lip is trying his best to stay away from drinking. He even starts to wonder about having a family of his own, after seeing his mentor with his new son. This comes to a head when he sees his mentor relapse, unable to deal with the stress of parenthood. Lip looks for him all night, but can't find him. Lip is still determined to help his fallen mentor no matter what.
Ian's Good Deed
Ian and Trevor get closer as the two look for a new home for the 'at risk youths' they help. They find the church and think it's a perfect location for the homeless teens and think of ways to get the money together to obtain the property. Trevor's generous benefactor gives them a loan to use a down payment, but it's not enough once the art dealers decide to reconsider their offer. Still, Trevor and Ian rekindle their romance by the river and Trevor seems to forgive Ian. Ian is determined to get the church so he goes back to the benefactor to swindle more money out of him. This backfires on Ian when the benefactor turns the tables on him and makes him sleep with both him and his wife. It's heartbreaking to watch Ian succumb to such standards to get the church and for it to be in vain. However, he has Trevor back.
Svetlana: The Saga Continues
V and Kev may have gotten their bar back, but it came with a price. Svetlana is back at the bar working with the couple and instead of honoring the three-way split that was agreed between V and Svetlana, the Russian is cheating the couple out of their individual share. Granted, Svetlana does bring in more customers and handles a lot of the financial aspects of the bar, but V still feels slighted. When V decides to confront Svetlana about her treachery, Svetlana uses the situation against her and instead persuades V to sleep with her. After learning his wife fell prey to Svetlana's advances, Kev decides to have a meeting among the three of them to agree on the three-way split. Kev demands that Svetlana hold up the end of her bargain and leaves to get some KFC. When he returns he finds that V once again succumbed to Svetlana's sexual advances and the split is 50/50. This could cause future problems for the once indestructible couple since it's apparent that V is not over Svetlana.
Other honorable mentions go to Carl, for making a junkie clean within five days. Also, Debbie, who was surprised by the return of her baby daddy and decided to take her daughter with her on a road trip but also popped a pill and was high.
Shameless airs on Sundays at 9 pm on Showtime!
