A Powerful Statement on Adoption and Homosexuality. Review: Shameless – “Cascading Failures”

Season 3, Episode 6

Air Date: Sunday, February 24, 2013, 10 pm ET/PT on Showtime

Rating: ★★★★★

“It’s never just one thing that causes it, it’s like a chain reaction, oh, cascading failures, that’s what this feels like.” – Fiona (Emmy Rossum) to Jimmy (Justin Chatwin)

As we saw in last week’s installment of Shameless, unbeknownst to Fiona, Frank (William H. Macy) despicably betrayed her by reporting the kids to the Department of Family Protective Services (DFS). As “Cascading Failures” opens, we watch as the caseworker, Brittany Sturgess (Keiko Ageno), takes Debbie (Emma Kenney), Lip (Jeremy Allen White), Ian (Cameron Monaghan), Carl (Ethan Cutkosky), and Liam (Brandon and Brenden Johnson) from the Gallagher family home and places them in separate foster homes. In the meantime, Vee (Shanola Hampton) and Kev (Steve Howey) continue their efforts to get preggers in a very unconventional way, while Ian is forced to watch the havoc wreaked when Mickey’s (Noel Fisher) father Terry (Dennis Cockrum) finds out Mickey is gay.

Observations:

Carl takes care of Liam at their new foster home.

Although we haven’t been privy to this, this isn’t the first time the Gallaghers have been placed in foster care. It’s sad to see how matter-of-fact the kids are about being separated, like it’s an everyday occurrence. This time, however, Debbie is being placed in a home all by herself, while Carl and Liam are sent to the home of a bi-racial couple who wants to adopt Liam (although Carl does his best to make sure that doesn’t happen), and Lip and Ian, being older, are sent to a group home for troubled boys. With the variety of homes used and what goes on in each, Shameless makes quite a statement about the country’s current state of foster care. It’s truly frightening, if you think about it.

Now that her co-workers know she’s not pulling her share of Bobby (Eric Edelstein) breaks, Fiona has lost her leverage and is forced to quit when Bobby refuses to give her time off to check on the kids. Poor Fiona. She’s always been the glue that holds her little family together and, now, feeling hopeless, she is pressed to do everything in her power to get them back.

Vee talks Carl into taking Liam, and the stolen goods, back to their foster home.

Thinking the kids could be placed together in one home, Fiona enlists Vee and Kev’s help but they’re too busy trying to conceive (more on this later); although, really, it’s because of their previous record with foster care. With Monica (Chloe Webb) nowhere to be found, Fiona is left with no alternative but to involve Frank, wondering, “Why does it always come down to Frank?” This leads to some pretty funny scenes with a blonde-wigged Sheila (Joan Cusack) impersonating Monica in a parenting class, and a now sober Frank trying to pass a drug test after filing a petition with DFS to reinstate custody. Frank has done some pretty despicable things in the past but this time, his disgusting antics actually help, although I found myself saying, “Eww!” By the way, I think Cusack looks great as a blonde!

Will Vee and Kev's relationship ever be the same now that Kev know Carole in the biblical sense?

Will Vee and Kev’s relationship ever be the same now that he knows Carole in the biblical sense?

Since the turkey baster method didn’t work last week, Vee comes up with a different way of getting her mother Carole (Vanessa Bell Calloway) pregnant with Kev’s sperm—“Kev is just going to lie down with you for procreation, not sex”—which prompts a question I was thinking and simultaneously asked by Kev and Carole: “Are you out of your fucking mind?” I’ve always thought Kev and Vee were wholesome, likeable people with a great relationship but asking your mother to have sex with your husband and then turning it into a threesome so you can have a baby is really out there. On the scale of shameless behaviors, though, this is one I can freely accept; I understand Vee’s desperation. I can’t help but wonder, though, how this is going to affect Vee in the long run. What will happen if Carole doesn’t get pregnant? This is some funny shit, for sure, and Calloway is to be commended for her portrayal of Carole. She cracks me up!

Lip and Ian listen to the rules of the house.

On the other hand, I was totally repulsed by what Terry does to both Mickey and Ian when he catches them ‘together,’ if you get my drift. Shame on him for not accepting Mickey for who and what he is but to have a prostitute “fuck the faggot out of you, kid,” at gun point no less, and to force Ian to watch, is both shocking and appalling. Whatever happened to loving your child unconditionally?

Memorable lines:

Carl to his gay foster parents: “You guys are gay? So does, like, shit ever get stuck on the tip of your dick?”

Kev: “Now, we can’t even get a foster kid? Anybody can get a foster kid.”

Vee: “I think it’s a sign.”

Kev: “Jerry Sandusky can get a foster kid!”

Kev to Vee and Carole: “This is an express bus to the Maury Povich show.”

Ian: “Was I just invited to a sleepover?”

Mickey: “Fuck you is what you were invited to.”

From the feeling of helplessness Fiona portrays and Debbie’s facial expressions when being torn apart from her family, to Vee’s heartfelt explanation of why she’s resorting to her mother and Kev having sex, and the agony evident on Ian’s face, these actors have done some of their best work, making this one of the best episodes of Shameless. “Cascading Failures” takes you on a roller coaster of emotions and makes powerful political statements about foster care and homosexuality. Now, I can’t wait to see what happens when Frank gets his own room in the Gallagher household, as Fiona has promised. It’s sure to lead to more fun and shameless experiences.

Tune in to Shameless Sundays at 10 pm ET/PT, only on Showtime.

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Linda

Love TV, movies, and books--mostly mysteries, with a good love story thrown in every now and then. I have four adopted dogs who I adore. I love trying new recipes, and enjoy eating what I make. English language perfectionist. Reading in bed, Italian food, warm weather, the beach, all types of games = favs!