Remembering one of fashions most problematic faves, Karl Lagerfeld. Why wrap the show without answering any of those questions? April 11 2021, 6:59 PM PDT. The final episode of Shameless opens with the family finding Frank hovering near death on the couch after his attempted suicide by a heroin overdose, but aside from Liam, no one particularly seems to care if he lives or dies. Shameless season 11 saw proud South Side "barbarian" Mickey confronting the realities of married life as he and Ian move to a luxury West Side condo, start running their own legitimate security business, and even consider the possibility of children. By the end of the show, his estimation of her has changed. Vlada Gelman / Related: Shameless: How Old The Characters Are At The Beginning And End Of The Show. Warning: The following contains spoilers for Sundays Shameless. He called the circumstances "a very minor but sad result of everything that's happened in the pandemic.". Below, Wells talks with THR about Franks fate, why he loves open-ended finales, what would have happened with Fiona and, yes, the mandatory spinoff question. With such an emotional ending to Shameless season 11, it does indeed feel like the right time for the series to end, but it's also comforting to know that, at least in Wells' mind, the characters are still carrying on and their themes will still resonate. Yet, at the end of the series, Ian and Mickey seem to be closest to a secure and settled life. TVLINE | If you could picture a spinoff for one of the characters, which one would it be? Seeing Kevin and Vee in Louisville was a great window into a whole other world, too. Unlike Frank, he's been a devoted father to his son and worked hard to put food on the table and a roof over Freddie's head. Throughout the episode Frank's condition worsens, until he eventually succumbs to COVID-19 and dies. A timeline of Justin Bieber, Hailey Bieber, and Selena Gomezs love triangle. Despite surviving this overdose, Frank is shown to be clearly living on borrowed time, with his COVID-19 infection merely tipping the scales. Shameless was never intended as an instruction manual on how to escape poverty, however. You really dont get to connect. I think thats more fun, personally. She drives around with Heidi to help her find a car to steal and ends up having to make a quick getaway from a man wielding a shotgun with Franny in the car. As the COVID-19 Asymptomatic Testing Program Coordinator, I work closely with the University's Health Services department and other stakeholders to provide ongoing COVID-19 testing to nearly . Veronica struggles with the decision of whether to take the deal or hold out for a better offer that might never come. It's already been revealed by Shamelessshowrunners that someone in the Gallagher family will get COVID-19, but there's one theory about Frank's fate that's gaining traction. Less than two weeks later, Gabrin became the first ER doctor in the US known to have died as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic . And that makes me feel good as a viewer and a reader. In 2018, his dentures were destroyed after he sneezed; they fell out and were run over by a car. Its fun in American Graffiti where you tell everyone what happens. But you can fill in the blanks however you want to fill in the blanks as a viewer. Instead, his poor sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) met her demise and he escaped Miami to restart asa lumberjack in Oregon?! We caught it at the wrong moment. Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) the king? His death has been declared due to natural causes and. The finale doesnt offer any resolution about whether Lip sold the house, what happened with Debs (Emma Kenney) and Carl (Ethan Cutkosky) and Liam (Christian Isaiah) or if Kev and Vee sell the Alibi and move to Louisville. Proceed at your own risk! We never fleshed it all out. At the very least, most believed Liams reaction would have been emotional. A very minor but sad result of everything thats happened in the pandemic. As the light fades for us, I think and hope we will remember the things that bring us joy, and a lot of that would be parents remembering their children. I really enjoyed getting somebody to really say that to Lip, because its not what he thinks of himself, of who he is. Was the idea to leave the door open for a spinoff or a revival? WGA Strike Picket Line Locations List For Los Angeles & New, Rodgers Boosts New Jets Season Ticket Sales by 400%, TeamSays, 'Scream VI' Lets Streaming Take the Lead with Debuts on PVOD and, Tony Predictions: Best Actress Jessica Chastain and Jodie, Editor's Choice: I Purchased This TikTok-Viral Walking Pad and I, TVLine is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Honestly, probably not too long ago, maybe after Christmas. This was a very intentional decision on John Wells part. He was the adoptive father and uncle of Ian Gallagher. Turns out, this was another instance of John Wells and the entire team bringing real world issues to life. We tried to find some way to make it Frank-like and fun and let him hold on to who he always was in the last moments. In his final scene, Frank floats over the city in his medical gown and gives his family some parting advice (though he cant resist a few final insults first). Entertainment Television, LLC A Division of NBCUniversal. Debs (Emma Kenney) plans on moving to Texas with her daughter Franny (Paris Newton)and a new girlfriend. The U2 singer called his Zelenskyy portrait a few squiggles and I just got out of the way.. Have a good time. As for what Rossum's return would've looked like, Wells said he and the other writers "had about 20" ideas to get her back onscreen. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google 2023 TVLine Media, LLC. 2023 E! It was pretty much the same with the exception: We were trying to get Emmy and Emmy wanted to come back. His fears are understandable, given what a horribly abusive father Terry Milkovich is shown to be. Were you sad that Frank Gallagher died alone in the Shameless finale? Knowing you were always going to give Frank alcoholic dementia, but ultimately COVID-19 knocked him out, was there anything about the end of the series that had to change because of the pandemic? That's what we do, at least. We were trying to balance it all out. Wondering why Frank Gallagher died alone? Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Liam Gallagher is very jaded for his young age, which is understandable given that he hasn't really had anything resembling a parent since Fiona left the Gallagher household. Created by John Wells, the Showtime series debuted in 2011, following the Gallagher clan growing up (more or less) into responsible adults with jobs, families, and extensive criminal records of their own. Francis "Frank" Gallagher was one of the main characters of Shameless. There was a purpose behind it. (Laughing.) When Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse decided to end the mind-bending ABC mystery by getting metaphysical rather than giving some, you know, concrete answers about what had been going on for the last six seasons, not everyone was exactly thrilled. Frank is (despite appearances) Liam's biological father, and Liam defaulted to him in his search for a parent figure since Frank is technically his father even if he has no other qualifications. However, viewers are skeptical about whether he was indeed dead. We had written it actually, or most of it, when we shut down in March. Trisha Faulkner has been a freelance writer for a decade with a focus on news/reporting for the last three years. In my mind, she winds up back with Jimmy-Steve (Justin Chatwin). So we were kind of monitoring it, because we wanted to make sure we werent going to do something that, by the time it was on the air, would be anticlimactic and sort of post- [the pandemic] We were really hoping that the pandemic ended and we would then rewrite everything at the end so it wasnt all about this. I never really got that far, honestly. CAMDEN, N.J. No one thought Frank Talarico Jr. was going to live. ", "We were trying to get Emmy --and Emmy wanted to come backWe wanted her to return and had some storylines about her coming back and she wanted to do it," he said. This video is unavailable because we were unable to load a message from our sponsors. TVLINE | There was one notable absence in the episode, although we did see her in flashbacks. Track Covid-19 in the U.S. A decade of South Side chaos came to a close in the Shameless season 11 finale. By the time the iconic HBO series reached its denouement in May 2019, a lot of fans were left wondering how this could've possibly been the best ending after eight epic seasons. That's an experience many people have had with relatives who have died . Things you buy through our links may earnVox Mediaa commission. I get to decide. It started small but quickly escalated to the point where he was diagnosed with alcoholic dementia. Ive been pretty fortunate to do a number of longer-running series and, as a fan, I always appreciate things not being wrapped up. & 2023 CBS Studios Inc. and CBS Interactive Inc., Paramount companies. In her spare time, she enjoys raising awareness about autism and spending time with her two children. We planned on alcoholic dementia when we were only a few days from shooting when everything shut down in March [2020], Wells began. We were just a few days away from starting to shoot. 5-Down, Eight Letters: Show that gave us New New York. Original star Rossum departed Shameless in season nine, with barely a mention of her character since. I havent really given it any thought. The party made its way outside, the gang singing Spoons The Way We Get By as an expensive car went up in flames. The Hall of Famer died of natural causes, the medical examiner said. But no, we never worked it out. Frank began to understand what was going on with his body. It's fitting that Shameless ended on such a Frank-centric note. Many wonderful novels end and youre still thinking about the characters and what they do. PMC Entertainment. Frank Gabrin's messages to Eddy Soffer. Like Ian, Monica had bipolar depression. Frank Gallagher Dies From COVID-19 Of all the many, many ways one might expect to see the Frank Gallagher death scene, few could have predicted at the start of the series that he'd fall victim to a pandemic. Fiona and Lip raised their siblings. As the second-oldest Gallagher child, Lip is not as burdened with parenting his siblings as Fiona was, and as such, has more of a chance to pursue his own dreams. Even when he was dogging his own kids in his own suicide note, hes still making us laugh because hes still Frank. The idea that they were all going to be teary around trying to figure out what to do with Franks ashes didnt feel very Shameless-ly to me. The travel was such a mess that we never got to the point of my actually writing it. Health officials in Washington state said on Saturday a coronavirus patient has died, marking the first death in the U.S. from COVID-19, the illness associated with the virus. And he certainly had a number of preexisting conditions . In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner John Wells confirmed Frank is actually dead. Before being taken to the hospital, Frank goes to the church where he was once an altar boy and looked up at the statue of Jesus. If you watched the finale, you know that COVID-19 figured into Frank's fate, exacerbated by his already horrible health caused by years of alcohol and drug use. The reality in that family and in many families is that the older siblings end up being the ones who are the mom and the dad when the mom and the dad arent really capable of being adults. Tami might be pregnant, Carl and Arthur might turn Alibi into a cop bar, Lip might sell his house, Ian and Mickey might adopt a child together, and Debbie might move to Texas. Moreover, he just didnt want the series to go out on a very sentimental and emotional note when it came to his children. Although there's no direct explanation for his death,. Goodnight everyone, a watershed event. As he passes away, he imagines himself rising upabove the rooftops while sitting in a chair in his hospital gownas he narrates a letter, filled with words of "advice," that he left for his family. TVLINE | What would you have done if you had been able to have Fiona in the finale? They all would have! And more than a year later, many of them are still asking that very question. As it turns out, COVID-19 was. As showrunner John Wells tells The Hollywood Reporter, the plan was always to have Frank face consequences of his addictions and horrible parenting an agreement he made with his Emmy-nominated star Macy. However, at the moment, their lives won't be seen on-screen in a Shameless season 12. The message of Shameless series finale: Life goes on well, except if youre Frank. Its sad. He eventually returned positive for COVID-19 and died in the ER after the nurses and doctors discovered the DNR instruction on his chest. Theres a great deal of wish fulfillment, even if its the Gallaghers and the way they handle it and their economic difficulties. Liam also tries to make him happy by doing Frank things with him, like scamming strangers for money. Of course, this offer is somewhat complicated by the fact that Lip doesn't yet have a new place to move into by the end of the Shameless series finale and is worried that he can't afford to support another baby on his and Tami's income. It was disappointing for all of us, and especially for Emmy, but with her other obligations, she couldnt go back and quarantine for two weeks in New York after being in Los Angeles. Frank John Cullotta was born on Dec. 14, 1938, in Chicago to Josephine (Montedore) and Joseph Raymond Cullotta, who drove getaway cars for the Outfit, the Chicago-based crime syndicate. I was also interested in Arthur (guest star Josh Malina) and Carl running the Alibi, it could have been funny as a cop bar story. In a sense, falling victim to the coronavirus is appropriate for a man who considered himself as much a part of Chicago city's high fidelity as its streets and buildings. Shameless, for all of our craziness and outrageousness, was about joy and about family and about people looking out for each other. Carl is actually already a father several times over, via an artificial insemination scheme from a couple of seasons ago, so there are now quite a few illegitimate children who could potentially pop up again in his future. We all want a place to go home to where we know everybody has our back. To make you appalled and make you smile at the same time. Ariana DeBose and Rachel Brosnahan Set for Covenant House Gala, FXs Alien TV Series Taps Sydney Chandler to Star, Dodger Great Fernando Valenzuela Getting Limited Series Treatment (Exclusive), 'Shameless': How COVID Upended the Final Season of the Showtime Hit, 'Shameless' Cast to Reunite for Post-Series Finale Panel, Trevor Noah Producing U.S. I really didnt want to play the more sentimental version of them having to react to his death. They round out the celebrations by singing Spoon's "The Way We Get By," which played at the end of the pilot episode. A minor inconvenience given the major tragedy of the pandemic, but sad for all of us, nonetheless. As Frank puts it in his farewell letter: "Good luck in life. Yes, Frank Gallagher dies during the Shameless finale, season 11 episode 12, titled 'Father Frank, Full of Grace.' The finale begins with Frank's overdose, brought about during the last. And, stick with us for the latest Shamelessrelated news. And when Frank wakes up from his overdose and wanders out of the house, Liam is the only Gallagher who goes looking for him. Not applicable Download Map Data Globally, as of 12:37am CEST, 26 April 2023, there have been 763,740,140 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6,908,554 deaths, reported to WHO. She lives in New York with her husband, and we managed to time it just at the wrong time, unfortunately. It seemed appropriate for Frank. But she would have a life and be pursuing her own things. ", Wells noted that, to him, "not being able to work that out"was the "biggest disappointment" of the series finale because "we all wanted it to happen." Showtimes long-running series,Shameless, concluded with the series finale on April 11, 2021 and the death of Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy). COVID-19 has done what a failing liver, alcoholism, drug abuse, dementia, being tossed in the Chicago River in the winter, and a suicide attempt could not do: kill Frank Gallagher. And Ian (Cameron Monaghan) and Mickey (Noel Fisher) have a kid. Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron sits for a. The band have become the very thing their critics accuse them of. The series ends with a scene of everyone getting together to celebrate Ian and Mickeys wedding anniversary.