After all the emotion poured into the last two episodes, it was weird to see Shameless more or less return to where it was, before amping up to another level of plot development. We'll have to see next week if everything will be resolved (that seems like a tough order considering how much happened) in the season finale, and if that doesn't happen there'll be second season, so it's all good.
Fiona meets Jasmine (Amy), one of the moms from Debbie's class who is taking a more than natural interest in Fiona. It's not unreasonable to think that the other moms would look down on Fiona, given her family, but for Jasmine to befriend Fiona and also offer her drugs is very suspect.
I understand that Karen is upset after what her father did to her, but she went way overboard. The writers completely send her off the deep end, as she trashes her fathers room, breaks his car window, and in a creepy daddy-issue scene, has sex with a drugged up Frank in front of a camera.
The new plot for Ian is promising. Instead of the usual sexual identity stuff, he's looking at himself not in terms of sex but who he is a whole and where he comes from. Unfortunately, the Gallaghers aren't exactly conducive to this kind of inquiry and he faces many roadblocks.
Perhaps the biggest development is Tony wholeheartedly going after Steve, catching him in the middle of stealing a car. He gives an ultimatum: either Steve turns himself in or runs away without telling Fiona. However, before we learn what Steve does, he gets Lip and Ian arrested, thinking Steve with in the stolen Porsche.
Score: 8.5/10
