'Shameless' Season 1, Episode 10 Recap

['Shameless' - 'Nana Gallagher Had an Affair']

Tonight's 'Shameless' was full of revelations -- and many of them were as unwanted as the reappearance of Monica was last week.

The show continues to be an excellent illustration of how family isn't forged from blood so much as circumstance, love and loyalty, since birth parents like Frank and Monica aren't seen so much relatives or figures to rely on as the millstone around the Gallagher brood's collective neck.

The limits of family are likely to be stretched to breaking point following this week's revelations, but Fiona continues to be more of a parental figure than her actual parents could ever be, and I can't help but root for her in her (seemingly aborted for now) attempt to adopt her siblings and extricate them from Frank for good.

The biggest surprise of the night came when it was revealed that Ian is not Frank's biological son -- that may explain the subconsciously antagonistic relationship they've always had, but it can't have done much for Ian's feelings of confusion and self-worth, especially since he's already struggling with being gay. I'm interested to see whether he'll take the knowledge as an excuse to act out and distance himself from his family, or as a method of proving that he's a Gallagher with or without Frank's DNA (lucky kid).



Another shocker came courtesy of Liam, who, despite appearances, is Frank's biological son -- casually explained away by the pithy title of the episode; Nana Gallagher had an affair with a saxophonist, and thus genealogy outsmarted our expectations.

It was clear from her actions this week that Fiona has no hope of escaping her family's gravitational pull, nor does she seem to have the desire to -- true, if Steve really wanted to give her a clean break, he might've considered buying a place that wasn't next door to her dysfunctional family, but perhaps he predicted that she wouldn't move in with him if she wasn't able to keep tabs on her siblings via walkie talkies and strategically open windows.

Despite his grand gesture, Steve was somewhat relegated to the background this week (which, I'll admit, is where I like him) -- I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Fiona to discover his duplicitous nature. It seems like I'm not the only one who smells a rat; Fiona's not-so-secret admirer, Tony, didn't seem too thrilled about the prospect of her moving in with Steve, even going so far as to pull him over for absolutely nothing. If he was paying more attention to his job instead of Fiona, he might've busted Steve for the stolen car operation by now.

Ian seems to have chosen Mickey over Kash in the wake of last week's shooting, and it's kind of disturbingly cute to see Ian trying to be sappy and sentimental to someone as closeted as Mickey; I don't foresee the relationship ending well, though, since there's a decidedly 'Romeo and Juliet' tinge to it all.

Lip was definitely the standout Gallagher this week -- from rebuffing his mother's attempts to make amends with a damp look of betrayal in his eyes, to orchestrating the DNA test plot to punching Frank off his barstool, Frank's firstborn son grows more compelling every week.

I was disappointed that Veronica and Kev's storyline with Ethel was pushed to the back-burner in favour of the familial drama this week, but I'm sure we'll see more of them in episode 11.

And while Karen was left disappointed by her judgmental father once again (how disturbing is his clown collection in the basement, seriously?!) Eddie's failure as a parent did spur Sheila into leaving the house for the first time in who knows how long, since she was livid enough to chase him all the way out to the car. Can she keep it up, though?

I was surprised (and relieved) to see Monica and Bob give up so "easily," after only an episode of traumatizing the kids -- we probably haven't seen the last of them, and they doubtless couldn't have been worse parents than Frank, but even though the Gallagher tribe is utterly imperfect, it's hard to imagine a more solid, loving family.

'Shameless' airs at 10PM ET on Showtime.