Shameless Season 5 Episode 11 recap: “Drugs Actually”

With the conclusion of last weeks heinous revenge act Sammi pulled on Ian, this week is sure to be crazy. So hang on to your seats, this week’s Shameless Season 5 Episode 11 recap: “Drugs Actually” is a wild, anything can happen ride!

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Frank drooling over some expensive whisky

Frank and Bianca: Realizing she has a short time left on this planet, Bianca throws all inhibition out the window and allows Frank to be her earthly escort into the next life. With this being said, she decides to blow 10 grand on a bottle of whiskey hailing from the WWII era. Frank tries to talk her out of it but she says she won’t be alive to pay off her credit card so it doesn’t matter. Heading off to her place to drink their expensive hooch they find her family there wanting to do an intervention to get her to go to the hospital for treatment. Feeling she is off her rocker not wanting to get treatment and hanging out with a homeless guy, Frank again states he is not homeless, he has a home, just isn’t welcome there. Since they can’t go to her place Frank suggests the rooftop to drink. Teaching her how to properly drink whiskey — of course out of plastic cups — the two having deep discussions of how she wants to feel alive til the end and that she has always been cautious. Proclaiming she wants to live life a little more on the edge she starts doing some ballet moves on the edge of the building. Frank after loosing his footing — and his cup which contained about $600 worth of booze — freaks out and suggests they maybe go drink on the ground. Bianca says great, let’s get some crack! So wandering around looking for crack, she talks about how the worst part about crack is the addiction but since she won’t be around for that it can’t be worse then cancer drugs. Frank keeps questioning her about her survival rate if she does get treatment and she tells him about how horrible it is and that she is at peace with her decision so he again tells her he is on her side. Now crossing some train tracks and still wanting this high of living live life on the edge tells Frank she wants to have sex on the tracks. Frank a little taken back, this says great but how about somewhere else. Giving in to her request a train starts to come there way and they roll of the tracks just in time to not get smooshed. Narrowly escaping death Frank yells at her that they need to clarify something, part of feeling alive is being alive. She just figured since he was an aging alcoholic with no purpose he would be on the same page as her. Seems he finally realized that since he has a new liver and a new lease on life he wants to enjoy it. Bianca in turn profoundly apologizes to him and now that they are on the same page of he wants to live, she wants to live on the edge. While hugging it he starts crying, but not about this new understanding, the poor whiskey got shattered by the train. Now with their new found crack the arrive at Gallagher household. Frank tries to persuade her to maybe smoke reefer instead since it’s not as harsh on the immune system. Saying she has already done that she would rather do the crack. Giving in again to her request they smoke up and have a grand ole time. Waking up in the morning to her parents standing in the doorway she is wondering how they got there and her mom informs her that she texted her with the address. Bianca denies any doing of this. Given the look on Frank’s face it was him. It’s been quite evident that he cares about her and is concerned about this destructive path she is going down so he called in for backup. Apologizing to her for doing so, she sends her family downstairs to wait for her, she says goodbye to Frank and makes a break for it. Frank is not getting the hint, stops the cab and convinces her to let him come with.

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Ian getting his charges read to him

Ian: The family goes to visit him in Military Prison and they go over all the charges with them: Accused of going AWOL, theft and sabotage of government property and falsifying a federal document. After explaining the military will make a decision on if he should be court marshaled or not in the morning, the family steps in and tells them of his clinical bi-polar disease and that he has in fact been diagnosed as a doctor. Fiona and company also tells of his erratic behavior of the last year and that their mother is also bi-polar so they know what it looks like. Ian is silent through the whole course of this meeting, just kind of soaking things in about how his family really feels. Later on he gets a visitor, his mother, Monica! Happy that she came, he didn’t think she would make it when he called her. Turns out he has been in contact with her the whole time that she has been gone and he has never told anyone. The two talk about how people just don’t understand them or what they are going through. Monica speaks of how there will always be people trying to fix them and how heartbreaking it is for people to even look at them. Ian tells her about his boyfriend Mickey and Monica explains that he really needs to be with someone who will accept him for the way he is and love him for who he is. Wow, such an emotional scene! Fiona and Mickey then return the next day to see him only to find out that he has been released. Upon finding out the not so good news that he had been released to the care of Monica Gallagher, Mickey tries unsuccessfully to reach him as he is ignoring their calls. Hitchhiking their way out of town, they ride off into the sunset in the back of a truck, with a dog.

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Shawn digging some glass out of Fiona’s hand

Fiona: Freaking out about another newly incarcerated brother, has a total meltdown to Shawn about everything that happened with Sammi and Ian and how she would like to set her clothes on fire with her in them. Shawn is able to calm her down and the softy that he is offers to take her and the Gallagher brood to go see Ian. After the meeting she hears from Gus that his tour is cancelled and he is headed home and wants to work on figuring out what to do about their relationship. I have a feeling it may be to late as she is staring at Shawn the whole time she is on the phone with him. Shawn then drops them off at the house and offers to cook up Fiona and family some food at the diner, while the rest of the family decline she heads off with him but asks that they do not torture Sammi while she is gone. Now back at the diner Fiona and Shawn have a fun, flirty, deep discussion, date like dinner making night. Fiona never mentions to him that she keeps hearing from Gus, who again texted her. Saying when he is back in town he has a gig he really wants her to come to and she just ignores the message. Fiona, feeding off the misery loves company theory that her and Shawn are good for each other, Shawn mentions according to the rules of NA he should not be leaning on someone who he is deeply attracted to. Seems the feeling is mutual but what to do now since she is after all married. After spending the night in the diner she confesses to Shawn in the morning about Gus calling and how she didn’t tell him anything about Ian or any of the other stuff going on. Shawn, not wanting to dispel her and Gus’ relationship does mention that she told him everything in great detail. He keeps asking if she is tired and once she falls asleep, he heads into the back and pulls some drugs out of his pocket and stares into the mirror. Is he using again? If so is this the first time?

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LIpp getting a lift from Helene’s husband

Lipp: Still getting it on with the hottie professor Helene in his dorm room, they discusses some details of a cocktail party she has invited him. She also mentions a friend she would like him to meet. Lipp in turn says he has to run to catch the train to go see Ian. Calling her husband, Helene kindly offers up a ride to him from her husband which he accepts, she failed to tell him that her husband drives a scooter. Lipp jumping on back as he questions the scooter and they ride off to the north side. After the family meeting with Ian and hearing of the charges, Helene then picks him up from the train station and mentions that evening’s cocktail party is in his neighborhood, she also brings him cocktail attire. Wondering why she would even be going to a party in his hood she explains that it’s an up an coming area. Remember all the gentrification at the beginning of the season? Well guess that’s still going on. So upon arrival to the party Lipp has a conversation with Helene’s hubby about the nature of their relationship and if he is uncomfortable with it he can back off. The fine doctor has no problems with it, well except for maybe that Lipp is wearing his tie. Helene comes back after looking for her friend Norbert, the friend she wanted Lipp to meet, only to say he will not be coming. Then spotting the host of the evening, she takes Lipp to introduce him and he is stammering on about what a scary neighborhood it is but at least is up and coming.  Lipp now getting defensive of where he grew up, tells him that while it is getting nicer, the people he grew up with can longer afford to live there. Excusing himself out of the conversation to go have a smoke, he meets a guy who seems to be on the same page as him that it’s not their scene. While still chatting Helene comes out and it turns out to be the friend that she wanted Lipp to meet. Deciding to split, they all take off to grab dinner.

Kev and V: Now that Kev is back at home Svetlana still offers up the cook, clean and wifely duties barter for her to still stay there. Kev nicely declines the wifely duties part. V enters into the discussion and they are still fighting about if they are working on the relationship or not. They then get a call from Paco the bartender at the Alibi who says there is a broken water pipe at the bar in the main room so they head off to fix it, together, but not together together. Walking in they encounter a destructive amount of water on the floor and rather then hiring a service will do it themselves. V says she will call Svetlana to watch the kids and also comments on how having a Russian sex worker isn’t ideal for childcare. It then comes out that they have both had the wifely duties part of the barter performed on them. Kev wanting more details on the hot interaction between Svetlana and V is denied stories since they aren’t together. Tommy, one of the regulars, by chance comes strolling in and sees a struggling Kev trying to fix the pipe and offers up a sub-pump and help to fix it for free drinks for a year. After bargaining it out to top shelf for a week — even though top shelf is really just cheap booze moved up — he jumps into action to help out. Having a heart to heart V confesses to Kev about her almost date with Eddie Murphy and he confesses about his co-ed college girl action. This doesn’t sit well with her and leads to a bigger fight then the silent treatment. While finishing schlepping up the water, Kev is really trying to work things out and V is screaming at him about how he can be with other girls but not her. He confesses about how bad he wants to be with her so in the heat of the moment they have a passionate make-up scene on the pool table.

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Nothing to see here, move along

Sammi vs. The Gallagher’s and The Milkovich’s: After the stunt she pulls she finally decides it’s time to leave so get’s a moving crate to pack up her stuff and get out of town. Mickey, not so kindly, offers to help but Sammi in effort to protect herself pulls a gun on him, calls him some not so nice names and says she’s fine. She will finnish packing after she goes to visit Chuckie, who thanks to them, will be spending his 14th birthday locked up. Upon arriving at the prison to see Ian, Mickey proclaims he knows plenty of people who would not so kindly deal with Sammi for the things she has done. Debs is all over this but Fiona states as much as she would like to torture Sammi they shouldn’t. Once they arrive home, Debs and Mickey discuss ways of torturing Sammi. Fiona pleads for them not to do anything and all she gets is crickets as a response. Once inside Debs devises a plan to put roofies in her soda, tie her up, strap her to a chair and electrocute her nipples. She asks Mickey how soon he can get roofies and he tells her that he already gave her some. Going downstairs to check on Sammi, Debs laughs at how passed out she is and they decide to move her to a chair. While moving her, Debs finds it a little odd that her eyes are open and questions if that is normal. Mickey inspects her and Sammi is a little more then passed out, she is DEAD! He so casually says to Debs that she got that car battery for nothing. Debs seriously freaking out at this point screams that they should call 911. Mickey is having nothing to do with that and asks if she has a hacksaw then changes his mind since that gets to messy. Liam meanwhile is just standing there poking her so Mickey says to go put him to bed then they can deal with it later. I’m sorry, but I laughed at this whole thing, did anyone really cry or feel sorry for her? Deciding to just pack her away into her moving crate they are startled by a returning Frank who questions what’s in the crate. Saying there is nothing they luckily get him to move on. Speaking of moving, lucky for them, the crate is picked up in the morning. Bye bye Sammi?

 

Some things to ponder before the season finale next week. Was this all some sort of weird dream or did Sammi actually get the ultimate revenge played on her and die or is she really still alive? Will Ian be back from the crazy abyss that Monica took him into? Is Frank really starting to become a caring human being? Will Debs be pregnant? Is Lipp in some crazy weird love triangle/square with Helene? What will become of Carl and Chuckie in juvie? Will Shelia be back? Jimmy/Steve/Jack? My own 2 cents is I don’t think Jimmy will be. From articles I have read he pretty much was written in as a fan request so we could get some actual closure on what happened to him. As far as Shelia I have this weird suspicion she will be back and have Karen in tow. I guess we shall see next Sunday.

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New episodes of Shameless premiere Sunday nights at 9pm on Showtime. 

Images courtesy of Showtime.

1 Comment

  1. Hey, Sammi is not dead. in the closing scene (the one that happens mid-credits) the moving crate is shown being haul away and sammi is yelling for help.

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