I don't see any point to the Paul gag other than to underline that Rory is the worst.

I suspect that some of these plots were originally intended for a 20something Rory. It's pretty unbecoming for a 32 year old.

She wrote one article, she's not a regular freelancer.

She's been an entitled asshole for a long time. Glad the show isn't pretending otherwise.

Yes, that's one of the perks of being a child. Fiona shouldn't be threatening to put her out of house and home, that's simply bad parenting. So your stance here is that Fiona should fee free to go ahead and abandon her siblings just like her parents did to her? That is completely antithetical to who Fiona is supposed…

No, she can't. That was made very explicit by the judge who granted her guardianship. Parents don't get to just abandon their responsibilities to their kids when they're being assholes.

I think the only characters Ian sparks with are those played by actors capable of generating all the sparks for both of them. I always thought that was one of the biggest things Noel Fisher brought to the Ian/Mickey relationship.

Remember in early seasons, Vee worked for a nursing home and a medical company, had access to all kinds of meds and was the Gallaghers' go to person for medical help. But sure, she's stupid now and knows nothing about vaccines.

He was manic for part of his time at the club, but not all of it.

Ian has dated a bisexual (or pansexual, it's a little unclear) person before (Ned). And there's a difference between thinking it's insincere (understandable, given his experience with Mickey), and being confused by it or not knowing it exists at all.

I keep hoping they're going to magically revert back to the real characters. Past time to give up on that.

As the oldest child of a single parent, I disagree with your categorization of what she's doing as mere "delegation".

Yeah, and I didn't believe Ian didn't understand what bisexuality is, either.

Like someone else noted, I don't find it hard to believe that he wouldn't be fully versed in this stuff. It's the depth of ignorance that is unbelievable to me, like he's never heard of any of it at all.

This. Ian was never supposed to be stupid. The weird retconning in the last couple seasons has definitely given that impression, though.

Yeah I think that's a separate issue, in that the show went way over the top in that scene.

She had herself removed as their emergency contact and is trying to shove responsibility onto Lip. That's definitely in conflict with her status as the adult who is legally responsible for them.

Since when does Shameless bother to give any of their characters friends? He's definitely going to be a love interest.

But Ian's not supposed to be vacuous; that's not at all in line with his established characterization.

That's pretty much impossible because they change them every season depending on the needs of the plot/random whims. But Fiona is roughly mid-20s, Lip is roughly early 20s, Ian theoretically a year younger than him.