DJariya

Episode 5 of 12

Jackskeleton

Man, that was one of those everything wrong that can happen does sort of episodes.

csant

how old is Debbie IRL? cuz that was some serious cleavage... Frank is hilarious.

We knew it was only a matter of time before something bad happen to Lip.

slop101

WAY too may levels of contrivance of what happened to Lip:
- his ex just happened to come by when he was leaving
- he just happened to leave her there alone with his phone there
- his phone just happened to ding while she was there along (ignoring the fact that most people disable the sound on their phones)
- she just happened to be able to open his phone and browse his pics

It's just too much happenstance.

mrhan

Yup, after what happened in the previous ep. it doesn't make sense. It was out of character for him to trust her.

Coral

Do the writers purposely make Fiona a stupid selfish bitch, or was that accidental?

Sean's past has put him on thin ice - so he has to be very careful not to screw up when his son is staying or he'll lose the ability to see him again. Yet Fiona can't understand why Sean won't let Carl be anywhere near his son since Carl was in juvi for drug trafficking, carries a gun and is obviously involved in criminal activity with all the cash he has? Seriously?

Jadzia

And shouldn't Fiona need to be careful due to her parole?

The thing I found really hard to believe in this episode is that a family would buy a house sight unseen at an auction with plans to live there. I can understand an investor or house flipper buying it, but I can't see a family with kids showing up all excited to see their new room.

Josh-da-man

These aren't the sharpest people. Fiona, in particular, doesn't see the consequences of her actions or those close to her. She is always acting impulsively, doing shit like dating her boss after finally getting a good job (thin ice already), and then begins fucking her boss' coke-fiend brother because she has to spread her legs for the bad boy on general principle.

There is a certain amount of realism in this; poor people really do act this way. I read an article about how people living in povert are living in survival mode, living day-to-day and have difficulty comprehending the long-term consequences of their choices. It's why poor women with five kids by five different men, why a guy gets a couple thousand bucks back on his income tax and gambles it away at a casino.

Josh-da-man

I don't know how those foreclosure auctions work, but I would assume that the residents would be evicted and removed before it was auctioned off.

Geofferson

Very uncharacteristic of Lip to do what he did; that just didn't make sense. Despite that, I did like the episode. The bit with the refugees was good - loved Carl's expression at the end as he watched the kid fix his jammed gun.

windom

I'm gonna guess that Carl forms a "gang" with the refugee kids and uses them to terrorize the family that bought their house. Then they sell it to the Gallaghers cheap.

MikahC

Welcome to the show. You're obviously new to it.

I wouldn't paint with quite so wide a brush. Many poor people act that way. Many don't, though. Still, it's an article I'd have enjoyed reading.

Correct. Eviction happens before auction.

It flew by quickly and I didn't rewind, but did I see the cop who used to have a thing for Fiona says she turned him gay?

"ATM between your legs." Talk about things poor people do. I've actually heard conversations like that. Sometimes not even coming from poor people.

Josh-da-man

I grew up in the rural midwest and I've known a lot of Frank Gallaghers in my time. They were the guy across the street, a couple of my uncles, the fathers of kids I went to school with. I even have some cousins that on their way to being Franks.

Shameless really nails at lot of the stuff I saw and still see. Girls without cars or jobs getting pregnant at sixteen or seventeen. A guy gets a big workers comp settlement and pisses it away in a matter of weeks.

I don't remember the articles I read, but they were based off of the same study that these were:

http://www.citylab.com/work/2013/08/...es-brain/6716/
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...isions/281780/

Goat3001

It was very stupid. I get where she's coming from, she always wants to take care of her brother but for her to flip out on Sean like that was ridiculous and, once again, made her look bad.

The pillow fight shit at the end was awful.

Carl and Kevin are driving this season so far. I'm hoping they found something worthwhile for Ian to do. They need to figure Lip out because the whole thing with him and the teacher has become rather lame. Would have been funnier if they kept up with Helene trying to get Lip to kill the husband.

Pointyskull

My guess is that Lip will pass the photos off as 'art', earn accolades, hot teacher reinstated, much boning.

pelenor

Kevin and Viv are the only story lines worth the time to watch the show. Carl to a point also. Although I laughed with their chubby Nazi cousin coming to live with them. Even though he wasn't a big part of the show. I grew up on the southside of Chicago and can attest to many people I knew (and still know)that reminded me of the Gallaghers.

MikahC

Big thanks for looking for and sharing those. I passed them around to a few people myself for a few reasons:

1) If you're in the situation and have a better understanding of what's going on, you're better equipped to resist it.

2) If you're in a position to help people in that situation, it's better if you can understand the failings rather than get completely exasperated by them.

I've met a lot of poor people who make decent decisions (given their circumstances), so I didn't want to paint with too wide a brush, but I certainly know Gallaghers. There is room for improvement and many people from those situations do improve their lives. But there certainly can be a lot of Gallagher-type decisions along the way.