On this chapter of The Queerest Things I Watched Last Week, after spending 11 seasons, 134 episodes and approximately 121 hours of my life watching, I made it to the Shameless series finale. I let you know where everyone wound up.
- Shameless – Season 11 Episode 12 “Father Frank, Full of Grace” [Live]
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Here we are, everyone, living in a post-Shameless world!
For 11 seasons my wife and I watched this show while shaking our heads. To stay on brand, they made the Gallaghers do absolutely ridiculous things that often made no sense. With so many characters, each with their own storyline, every episode was all over the place. With the exception of Liam, all of the Gallagher kids changed personalities episode to episode. I know the point of the show was to be offensive enough to make us cringe, but it was a lot.
All that being said, I stuck with it for 11 seasons for a reason. We watched many of the characters literally grow up on screen and you can’t help but get attached to them.
Season One
Season Eleven
You don’t get a lot of class diversity when it comes to queer rep, and Shameless brought that to the small screen.
Where did our favorite hot-mess queer characters wind up in the Shameless series finale?
Debbie
In the second to last episode, we’re introduced to Heidi Cronch. She had a lot of backstory for a brand new character at the very end of a series. While evading the cops, she makes Debbie hide her while holding her at gunpoint. Of course, they hit it off. It was quite the meet-cute.
The Shameless series finale starts the next day with everyone finding Frank unconscious on the couch. He tried to OD to death, but didn’t do the job. Heidi makes her entrance down the stairs as Mickey suggests they should shoot him and dump him in the lake.
They all leave him there and go on with their days which for Debbie means accompanying Heidi as she commits some crimes like stealing a car.
This all feels very sudden and out of character. Debbie had assumed the role of the responsible bill-paying Gallagher with a small business. They started a story arc of her not being able to be alone which added to her conflict with Lip trying to sell the house. Before meeting Heidi she spent the episode complaining about being alone which I guess made her ripe for falling in love with an outlaw.
Carl asks his former cop partner to look her up and the results are long and scary.
Carl doesn’t do anything with this info.
Later, Heidi tells Debbie she’s going to leave town and she’s welcome to come with her.
The show ends without us knowing what Debbie decides what to do. Does she take Frannie to Texas for a life of crime with her new outlaw girlfriend?
We may never know.
I absolutely LOVE Shakira Barrera, but I really wanted Debbie to end up with Sandy. Debbie and Sandy told each other “I love you” and then broke up the next episode. I don’t know if this is the show’s usual schizophrenic writing or something else is brewing.
Ian and Mickey
I know this is a site dedicated to queer female, transgender and non-binary characters, but Ian and Mickey are my FAVORITE mlm ship and I wanted to write about them too.
There is no other gay couple on TV like Ian and Mickey. Good and bad, these two break a lot of gay dude tropes and I love them.
At the beginning of the episode, an event that night at the Alibi is mentioned and every so often Ian mentions to Mickey it’s the 21st. I was able to connect the dots and figure out it was their wedding anniversary and Mickey had a surprise planned for Ian that night. Still, it was kind of fun to watch Mickey play dumb until the very end.
They signed a lease on an apartment on the West Side. Mickey is going to have to adapt to West Side hipster life.
I am so glad Gallavich got a happy ending. The fandom deserved it.
Frank
Frank Gallagher isn’t queer, but he’s the lead and most annoying character on the show so I figured he was worth a mention. He FINALLY died. Not of alcohol poisoning or an overdose, he died of COVID.
I’m not ashamed to say, I will not miss him.
What’s next?
There were a lot of stories left open at the end of the Shameless series finale. Lip may have another baby on the way. Carl and his police partner talked about buying the Alibi and turning it into a cop bar. Kevin and V are moving to Kentucky and who knows where Liam is going to live if Lip sells the house.
I feel like they left it open for a spinoff.
There were too many unanswered questions to just have it end like that. Or maybe that’s a Shameless way to end.
The show had its faults, but with 27 queer characters (with far more if you include cis men) and only one dead (Monica Gallagher), it had some of the most and most diverse queer representation on TV.
RIP, Shameless. I can’t say I’ll miss you, but I’ll watch a spinoff without Frank.
This week: The 9-1-1s are back tonight and the Queen Sugar season five finale airs tomorrow!
