![]() ![]() ![]() There is no onscreen goodbye, nor a gag at Youens’ expense as he collapsed from a seizure on a dirty, cold, concrete floor. In an unconventional but devastatingly effective move, Lip comes to visit Youens in prison, only to discover that the prof is dead. Yet it already felt like we had said farewell to Youens in his final scene with Lip where he told the lad “if you don’t like what you see, look away.” There couldn’t have been anything more stark to suggest about his journey.Īnd there wasn’t. As soon as the writers headed in that direction with Youens, it was inevitably the end of the road for the well-meaning drunk. The show might be Shameless, but it’s not delusional. Even if the series flirted with the idea that Lip could convince a judge to show clemency for a man with nearly a half-dozen DUIs-and most recently resulting in careening his car into someone’s home-such a fantasy was impossible. Youens’ life has been on a downward trajectory so severe that there was obviously no hope of salvation. The most effective finality of the night came when Lip Gallagher was at last forced to say his final goodbye to Professor Youens. We are nearing the end of season 8 and with it, the show’s narrative threads are getting smaller while brutal endings are revealed. The Gallagher kids only fleetingly intersected in one another’s storylines-which is hopefully a hint of things to come, as the very best Shameless episodes occur when the clan has their backs up against a collective wall and see differences converge into a singular narrative-but the echoes and parallels strongly complemented each other. Indeed, Carl tying a knot that is guaranteed to make him one day soon wish he’d stick his own head into a noose was just one development in an hour packed to the brim with gonzo glory. And nearly a decade on, that union remains a potent one, which is all but assured to last longer than that of Carl and Kassidi. While this season certainly is more unwieldy than Shameless in its unapologetically humble (and demented) beginnings, episodes like “Church of Gay Jesus” can distill the series into its best essence as an unlikely marriage between dark humor and poignant sentimentality. The name of tonight’s episode is “Church of Gay Jesus,” which is fitting because it is something of a miracle for a show in its eighth season to feel as fresh and bemusing as Shameless has during its better moments this year. ![]()
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