'Shameless' Season 1, Episode 11 Recap

['Shameless' - 'Daddy's Girl']

Thank goodness Father's Day is still a couple of months away, because none of the dads on 'Shameless' are going to be winning any parenting awards after this week's episode.

First, we had Frank, who was attempting to bounce back from having his injury compensation terminated by finding a new job to get himself injured at as quickly as possible. This was compounded by the fact that he brought Debbie and Carl along with him to "learn the family business," which mostly consisted of finding the most hazardous working conditions available and signing up for the most dangerous job they had going.

Debbie, predictably, took to this like a fish to water, first typing up a suitably fictional resume for Frank (she's clearly following in Lip's footsteps in the brains department) and then acting as his manager to secure him a job working with formaldehyde -- role-modeling at its finest.



But while one "daddy's girl" was bonding with her papa over insurance scams, another was acting like a human wrecking ball just to get revenge. Since Eddie called Karen a whore at the purity ball (which, let's face it, was more like a group therapy session for religious zealots) she's been on a downward spiral; last week, she trashed Eddie's creepy basement full of clown collectibles, and this week she got herself a less-than-attractive ear-to-nose chain and a tattoo that said "whore." Whatever happened to a classy scarlet letter?

She also started an online video journal to name and shame her dad -- first, she stuck to cutting her hair online, but then she graduated to seducing Frank and recording it with her webcam, which, if the preview for next week's finale is any indication, won't stay private for long ... For a drunken, unwashed mess, Frank sure does get around.

Lip and Ian, meanwhile, set out on a quest to discover which of Frank's brothers is Ian's biological father, thanks to a disturbing tip from their incarcerated grandmother. I thought that the choice to use William H. Macy as Frank's identical twin Jerry was particularly inspired, even if Ian dodged a metaphorical and literal bullet there. It soon became evident that the surprisingly civilized Clayton Gallagher was the one who knocked up Monica, which didn't go down so well with his current wife, or with Ian.

We've seen Lip struggle with his identity all season, torn between his loyalty and his desire to save himself (and his siblings) from their situation, but the confrontation between Ian and Lip was probably a long time coming. Ian has never really shown any inclination towards ditching his family, and while he's still struggling with his sexuality, it's not surprising that he wants to cling on to whatever vestige of familial identity he has left, especially when Lip and Fiona have always protected him. Besides, if 'Shameless' has taught us anything, it's that no family is perfect, no matter how sane they appear on the outside -- there's no way Ian would be able to slot into the cushy life that Clayton and his family have built, especially since his wife already seemed totally neurotic.

As well as organizing Frank's career, Debbie was also exerting a little pressure on Steve this week, making him pinky swear to be honest with Fiona about his real identity. She wasn't the only one taking an interest in Steve's recent behavior -- Tony the cop finally clued in to the fact that Steve's been stealing cars, and stalked him all over town until he could catch him in the act. (And after all of that paranoia and "follow car" baloney, Steve still didn't notice Tony's car tailing him all day?!)

After his attempt to warn Fiona fell on deaf ears, Tony seemed only too happy to take matters into his own hands, and a part of me was kind of satisfied by the beating Steve took, since I've never really warmed to him. Tony told Steve to get out of dodge, but in his vendetta against Fiona's boyfriend, he accidentally turned the cops onto Lip and Ian in one of Steve's stolen cars. But will Lip take the fall rather than implicating Steve?

Fiona also made a ... weird new friend in Jasmine at the Classroom Moms meeting -- she's certainly friendly and kind of has the pill-popping, desperate housewife routine going, but is she after a buddy, or a lesbian fling?

One of the many joys of 'Shameless' is its ability to juggle multiple story arcs at once, but that skill is a double-edged sword, since it inevitably means that certain plotlines fall by the wayside because of time constraints. For instance, after Sheila's miraculous breakthrough against her agoraphobia last week, I was disappointed that she was entirely absent from this week's episode, since it would've been great to see the aftermath of the event. Is she fully functioning now, able to leave the house, or has she regressed again? Likewise, Veronica and Kev's foster storyline has taken a backseat, so I'm hoping we'll get a little more of both stories in next week's finale.

'Shameless' airs Sundays, 10PM ET on Showtime.

What was your favorite moment this week? Do you think Steve will let Ian and Lip take the fall for his stolen car ring? Will Eddie kill Frank? Share your thoughts below!

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