Shameless Review: Down Like the Titanic (Season 9 Episode 7)
It’s not entirely uncommon for a show to produce such a stellar penultimate episode that the season’s finale falls flat, and that is exactly what happens with Shameless Season 9 Episode 7, “Down Like the Titanic.”
Unlike the previous eight seasons, this year, Shameless is not being aired as 12 straight episodes. Instead, the season has been divided up into two parts, each with seven episodes, making Season 9 the first season of Shameless to boast fourteen episodes.
It also means it’s the first time they’ve had to deliver two premieres and two finales.
Unfortunately, this episode lacks a lot of the staples we’ve come to expect from a finale. Namely, nothing that happened in this finale leaves anything to be excited about in the back half of the season.
After working so hard to learn the ins and outs of the real estate game, Fiona lost everything she had anyway.
Her relationship with Ford is over and I guess we’re supposed to feel good about the revenge Debbie exacts, but it’s too much and makes it hard to rally around the Gallaghers, even if the guy was a grade A douchebag.
So do we care what happens to Fiona next? Would it matter if we get to see her rise from the ashes? Why should it, we’ve been told time and time again that we wind up in the gutter no matter how well things seem to be going.
Lip is doing so well with his sobriety so now he’s going to start dating this girl who clearly has a drinking problem? He finds her grotesqueness endearing? Why?
There’s nothing that’s happening with Liam, Carl, or Debbie that can be considered even a minor cliffhanger.
Ian is gone and we know Cameron Monaghan isn’t going to return so there’s nothing to anticipate on that front, either.
Kev and V are planning to adopt and, though it was beautifully satisfying to see them reconcile and find a way to compromise that worked for both of them, watching them in the throes of parenting a newborn again hardly leaves us chomping at the bit for more.
That leaves Frank as the only character whose arc seems to be just beginning. He somehow convinces Ingrid’s ex-husband/caregiver to hop on a plane and disappear.
That leaves us with a whole lot of Frank and Ingrid antics on the horizon. This storyline is problematic at best, and downright offensive at worst, so the prospect of a lot more of it is far from enticing.
On the other hand, the episode did leave us feeling good about one thing: the state of the Gallagher siblings’ relationships. We’ve seen these six siblings go through some rough times and it’s nice to know that even if things are shitty for Fiona right now, they’re all back to having each other’s backs.
Here’s hoping for something to get excited about when Shameless returns to Showtime in January.
What did you think of this episode of Shameless? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Shameless airs Sunday at 9/8c and will return to Showtime on January 20, 2019.
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Tamar Barbash
Tamar Barbash is a TV-loving mother of three. She hosts the Shipping Room podcast where she has the opportunity to take advantage of her social work degree and dive deep into relationships portrayed on television. Tamar loves nothing more than to overanalyze the lives and experiences of fictional characters and she's so excited to be able to do that as part of the Tell-Tale TV community.