I was left mildly alarmed and even a bit speechless at various moments of tonight’s episode, so I’m breaking it down a little differently tonight.
The Ridiculous:
Okay. I can’t stand Sammi. Emily Bergl does a fine job, but her character is all-around insufferable and I’ve been waiting for her to be written off of the show since the second she was introduced. But even I let out a sign of relief in the closing moments where we heard her hollering for help from the moving truck.
I was not equipped to handle the notion that Debbie was a murderer by proxy.
I did enjoy the bits of Debbie and Mickey we got this week considering how oddly suited of a team they are, even when their dream sequence torture session with Sammi verged on the campy side. It is also worth noting that Mickey’s reaction to Sammi’s “death” was hilarious. Noel Fisher’s voiced dripped with exasperation at the idea that she would die on him. He’s matter of fact and deadpan with Debbie’s cries of wanting to call an ambulance. Fisher is fantastic and masters the comic and dramatic side of things that the show so often wishes Frank to handle.
The Finally Moment:
I don’t know about you but there wasn’t much more of the Veronica/Kev fighting that I could have handled. They’ve been the rock of the show for so long, stationary, in love, and equipped problem solvers as we see demonstrated tonight. As characters they simply don’t work as well apart and the actors have such a wonderful and lived in chemistry that seeing them finally addresses their issues, Veronica’s loneliness and Kev’s confusion head on. Also, their story ending with the two of them having sex on top of the pool table at the Alibi while the broken water line above them continues to leak was a fantastic way to wrap things up.
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The Troubling:
EVERYTHING regarding Ian’s storyline tonight had me on high-alert. From the moment that Lip, Debbie, and Fiona begin rattling off ways that he’s like Monica to the prosecutor, their blunt statements about his recent behavior to try and save Ian was sending up the warning flags. Well-intended or not, it was going to do nothing to help Ian in his current state of mind where his worst fears have been realized. So, he reaches out to the one person who will relate to him, for better, for mostly worse, and that’s Monica.
Hurricane fucking Monica.
Monica is against taking medication and in a beautifully done scene by Cameron Monaghan, tells him that she accepts him for who he is. Obviously Ian is a sick kid and he needs help, but he’s also scared and angry and Monica is offering him the out–the escapism that he craves where his family at home is forcing him into realizations he isn’t ready to face. Ian is so young and his face when he gets his Mom’s approval is such a hard hitting realization of that fact.
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When the family drives up to see him at the army base only to learn that he’s now in Monica’s care, is a sobering moment where all involved realize what has happened and how it has come to be. They let it be so that Monica could slither back into his life and in her own way manipulate his thought process.
It’s scary and it’s a storyline that’s left me on edge for so much of the season and it’s the one that seems to be building towards some sort of climatic moment. Ian, Frank and Sean are holding smoking barrels by the episodes end and it’s a Russian roulette situation to see who’s going to shoot themselves first.
The Good:
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Lip’s dalliance with his professor is still a little odd to me although I did see the humor in him having to ride the scooter with her husband; it was a nice little visual gag. What I did like, without question, was the return of the discord between where he is now, in his fancy suit, on the arm of a professor in one of the refurbished houses in his neighborhood mixed with the young man he identifies as. The scene where he and his companions run into a rundown looking Veronica and Kev is a highlight of the episode. There’s a bit of longing in Lip to head home with them despite his pride of the company he’s keeping. This is what makes Lip interesting, not how many women he can sleep with in in any given season. It also brings back the idea of gentrification that was so deeply prevalent in the season’s opening episodes.
I like the Frank stuff also as well still if only because it’s finally allowing us a different perspective of the character who had gotten so redundant.
The Great:
The first bit of greatness to touch this episode was something remarkably simple but seeing the Gallagher’s, Mickey, and Sean squished in his Cadillac was an episode highlight to me. The cast has always had fabulous chemistry and it’s demonstrated in scenes like this when they’re allowed to act off of one another.
But, the really, truly great storyline was Sean and Fiona who’s ending moments wrapped up the theme of season five in a way I didn’t realized needed it until I saw it. This season, despite its highs (and there have been plenty) has felt largely aimless. What’s the point of the storylines? Where are our characters headed? Sean ultimately tells Fiona that people like them are always trying to convince others that they lead normal lives. Fiona, with Gus and with getting her life back on track, Ian, with refusing his meds and ignoring his problems, Lip, with abrasiveness and his need to be control of situations… These Gallaher characters are so rich and so tangible and so deeply broken that it’s unsettlingly human sometimes. Sean and Fiona spent the night focusing on one another to ignore their worries with Sean pulling drugs out his pocket at the end of the episode, his next move ambiguous to the viewer. He’s put on the act for Fiona and he’s playing the part that she needs just like Mickey tried with Ian, what Debbie’s attempting with her teenage romance and what Lip is doing with his professor and his loyalty to his home. They’re all keeping up some sort of appearance and it’s never as apparent then when Sean and Fiona hang out for the night, neither admitting their bone weary exhaustion if only to get a few more moments where it’s just them and the diner and anything else outside of the doors don’t exist.
There’s one episode left of season five and things aren’t getting the quick resolution we may have hoped so, what could possibly happen next?
8/10
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