Shameless (US): Father Frank, Full of Grace Rewatch
January 12, 2015 2:31 PM - Season 1, Episode 12 - Subscribe
In the Season 1 finale, Eddie and Lip separately hunt down Frank …
… having seen the video, mass-emailed by Karen, of her having sex with Frank. Lip beats Frank, who later goes to the backyard outside Lip’s bedroom, plaintively begging for forgiveness while Lip watches him through his closed window. Lip finally opens his window to urinate onto Frank, who instinctively backs away but then walks back toward Lip to accept it.
Frank walks in on Karen in the bathroom and tells them they need to stop their inappropriate behavior (while she’s using the toilet). Frank gives Karen some cash and some wishful thinking: “A man has to have the courage to fight the things in his nature … his passions, his needs and desires.”
The arc that began when Eddie accidentally knocked that apple onto the floor (in the pilot) reaches its end when Eddie, who has just seen his coworkers watching the video of his daughter and his wife’s boyfriend having sex, intentionally plunges into the water while holding a concrete block. The chilling soundtrack to his suicide: “Long Time” by Cake.
Steve goes to Tony and offers him the house Steve and Fiona have been living in, if Tony will release Lip and Ian from police custody. Tony accepts the bribe, without letting Steve know that Lip and Ian have already been released (after Tony bribed another officer to drop the case). Tony again orders Steve to leave without Fiona. Steve only partly complies: he buys two one-way plane tickets from Chicago to Costa Rica, and begs Fiona to go with him. The season ends with a wordless scene in which Jasmine introduces Fiona to her new job … in Chicago.
… having seen the video, mass-emailed by Karen, of her having sex with Frank. Lip beats Frank, who later goes to the backyard outside Lip’s bedroom, plaintively begging for forgiveness while Lip watches him through his closed window. Lip finally opens his window to urinate onto Frank, who instinctively backs away but then walks back toward Lip to accept it.
Frank walks in on Karen in the bathroom and tells them they need to stop their inappropriate behavior (while she’s using the toilet). Frank gives Karen some cash and some wishful thinking: “A man has to have the courage to fight the things in his nature … his passions, his needs and desires.”
The arc that began when Eddie accidentally knocked that apple onto the floor (in the pilot) reaches its end when Eddie, who has just seen his coworkers watching the video of his daughter and his wife’s boyfriend having sex, intentionally plunges into the water while holding a concrete block. The chilling soundtrack to his suicide: “Long Time” by Cake.
Steve goes to Tony and offers him the house Steve and Fiona have been living in, if Tony will release Lip and Ian from police custody. Tony accepts the bribe, without letting Steve know that Lip and Ian have already been released (after Tony bribed another officer to drop the case). Tony again orders Steve to leave without Fiona. Steve only partly complies: he buys two one-way plane tickets from Chicago to Costa Rica, and begs Fiona to go with him. The season ends with a wordless scene in which Jasmine introduces Fiona to her new job … in Chicago.
his talk with Karen, he defends himself by the 'difficulty' of managing his lust towards her, doesn't apologize (IIRC) for his actions
I didn't see it like that — I thought he's basically saying the right things in his speech. He comes off as a lot more principled in that scene than usual (aside from the bribe). Karen has more to apologize for to Frank than vice versa, but she doesn't say a word to him.
posted by John Cohen at 4:42 PM on January 14, 2015
I didn't see it like that — I thought he's basically saying the right things in his speech. He comes off as a lot more principled in that scene than usual (aside from the bribe). Karen has more to apologize for to Frank than vice versa, but she doesn't say a word to him.
posted by John Cohen at 4:42 PM on January 14, 2015
Karen raped Frank, and the evidence that she did is right there in the video that she sent out to so many people. Will that ever get talked about on the show?
Frank's pathetic plea to Karen (in the bathroom) showed him giving her an out. We'll just keep this secret. He's so deeply immersed in his own idea of himself as the conniver that he's doing what we say rape victims should not to: regard themselves as "asking for it." He was yelling "no," he was incapacitated by drugs, and Karen was physically pinning him down.
And, of course, Sheila has raped Frank even more viciously, using handcuffs and a form of sex that isn't his preference when he does consent to sex (which I don't think we've ever seen on the show) and which left him with a painful injury and later expressions of fear that he cannot handle it without being drunk.
Are we supposed to think this is all very funny because the victim is a man or is the show challenging us to notice? I notice!
My use of the term "deeply immersed" above is intended to resonate with what we know about the previous man of the Sheila-and-Karen household. Will we ever learn the story of his ruination? Whether we ever see any flashbacks, we can infer that he was sexually abused by Sheila and severely traumatized. He sought refuge in the basement with his clowns — clown dolls and paintings. He knew he was a clown. And then even his clowns were destroyed, and he had to go down even farther than the basement, down into the hole in the ice and to the bottom of Lake Michigan.
posted by Alizaria at 5:51 AM on February 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Frank's pathetic plea to Karen (in the bathroom) showed him giving her an out. We'll just keep this secret. He's so deeply immersed in his own idea of himself as the conniver that he's doing what we say rape victims should not to: regard themselves as "asking for it." He was yelling "no," he was incapacitated by drugs, and Karen was physically pinning him down.
And, of course, Sheila has raped Frank even more viciously, using handcuffs and a form of sex that isn't his preference when he does consent to sex (which I don't think we've ever seen on the show) and which left him with a painful injury and later expressions of fear that he cannot handle it without being drunk.
Are we supposed to think this is all very funny because the victim is a man or is the show challenging us to notice? I notice!
My use of the term "deeply immersed" above is intended to resonate with what we know about the previous man of the Sheila-and-Karen household. Will we ever learn the story of his ruination? Whether we ever see any flashbacks, we can infer that he was sexually abused by Sheila and severely traumatized. He sought refuge in the basement with his clowns — clown dolls and paintings. He knew he was a clown. And then even his clowns were destroyed, and he had to go down even farther than the basement, down into the hole in the ice and to the bottom of Lake Michigan.
posted by Alizaria at 5:51 AM on February 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also, I note the visual resonance between Sheila's emergence from the house with a tied-together umbilical cord of sheets in an earlier episode and Eddie's tying himself with rope to that cinder block. Sheila's emergence was birth (symbolically), and Eddie's submergence was death (literally).
And, as I've noticed in earlier comments, there's a water theme on the show. Eddie kills himself in water, and Frank accepts the water of life that is Lip's rain of urine. The water below and the water above. The water from above, urine, was like holy water or baptismal water, and the religious interpretation is something the writers want us to have, we can infer from the episode title "Father Frank, Full of Grace." There's an implied alternate title: "Father Eddie, Fallen from Grace." Frank looks up, Eddie looks down.
posted by Alizaria at 6:17 AM on February 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
And, as I've noticed in earlier comments, there's a water theme on the show. Eddie kills himself in water, and Frank accepts the water of life that is Lip's rain of urine. The water below and the water above. The water from above, urine, was like holy water or baptismal water, and the religious interpretation is something the writers want us to have, we can infer from the episode title "Father Frank, Full of Grace." There's an implied alternate title: "Father Eddie, Fallen from Grace." Frank looks up, Eddie looks down.
posted by Alizaria at 6:17 AM on February 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
"He comes off as a lot more principled in that scene than usual (aside from the bribe)."
Father Frank, full of grace, is giving her absolution, because to give her money is to cancel out the truth, which is that she sinned, in raping him. It's after-the-fact consent, which is not legally sufficient, but it's religiously meaningful.
Of course, from Karen's perspective, it's confirmation of what Eddie and Lip have already told her, she's a whore. But she's not a whore, she's a sexual predator. It would be more virtuous to be a whore. She did do one thing that, broadly speaking, is whoring. She posed as a purity-seeker to get the car that Eddie offered her to make her do something she didn't otherwise want to do.
I assume the writers want us to hate Eddie and care about Karen, but Karen's psychological abuse of her mentally disordered father is despicable, and she took pleasure in deploying it. We're supposed to feel for her as she becomes enraged and destructive, but what she is mad about is not getting the car.
posted by Alizaria at 6:26 AM on February 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Father Frank, full of grace, is giving her absolution, because to give her money is to cancel out the truth, which is that she sinned, in raping him. It's after-the-fact consent, which is not legally sufficient, but it's religiously meaningful.
Of course, from Karen's perspective, it's confirmation of what Eddie and Lip have already told her, she's a whore. But she's not a whore, she's a sexual predator. It would be more virtuous to be a whore. She did do one thing that, broadly speaking, is whoring. She posed as a purity-seeker to get the car that Eddie offered her to make her do something she didn't otherwise want to do.
I assume the writers want us to hate Eddie and care about Karen, but Karen's psychological abuse of her mentally disordered father is despicable, and she took pleasure in deploying it. We're supposed to feel for her as she becomes enraged and destructive, but what she is mad about is not getting the car.
posted by Alizaria at 6:26 AM on February 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Karen raped Frank, and the evidence that she did is right there in the video that she sent out to so many people. Will that ever get talked about on the show?
Yes, in episode 5 of the next season.
posted by John Cohen at 7:52 AM on February 7, 2015
Yes, in episode 5 of the next season.
posted by John Cohen at 7:52 AM on February 7, 2015
He's so deeply immersed in his own idea of himself as the conniver that he's doing what we say rape victims should not to: regard themselves as "asking for it." He was yelling "no," he was incapacitated by drugs, and Karen was physically pinning him down.
Yes, but later we see him saying to Karen: "It was amazing! The world spinned on its axis!" That suggests that the show only showed us the part at first, when he initially resisted, but that he later started to enjoy it. And the network just wouldn't allow us to see a middle-aged man having "normal" sex with an underage girl. So if you could see the complete act, you'd see that they both raped each other.
posted by John Cohen at 8:02 AM on February 7, 2015
Yes, but later we see him saying to Karen: "It was amazing! The world spinned on its axis!" That suggests that the show only showed us the part at first, when he initially resisted, but that he later started to enjoy it. And the network just wouldn't allow us to see a middle-aged man having "normal" sex with an underage girl. So if you could see the complete act, you'd see that they both raped each other.
posted by John Cohen at 8:02 AM on February 7, 2015
We're supposed to feel for her as she becomes enraged and destructive, but what she is mad about is not getting the car.
There's a lot more she's mad about, other than being bereft of a car. Eddie made a promise conditioned on Karen doing something humiliating: telling her entire sexual history to a big, judgmental group of people. Then when she fulfilled the condition, he publicly became furious at her, broke his promise, repeatedly called her a whore, and essentially said she's unworthy of getting a car.
posted by John Cohen at 8:06 AM on February 7, 2015
There's a lot more she's mad about, other than being bereft of a car. Eddie made a promise conditioned on Karen doing something humiliating: telling her entire sexual history to a big, judgmental group of people. Then when she fulfilled the condition, he publicly became furious at her, broke his promise, repeatedly called her a whore, and essentially said she's unworthy of getting a car.
posted by John Cohen at 8:06 AM on February 7, 2015
"And the network just wouldn't allow us to see a middle-aged man having "normal" sex with an underage girl."
Didn't that make us watch underage porn?! Why is that on TV at all? I'm sure the actress is of age, but it is making us watch the simulation of the kind of porn that's illegal.
The fact that Frank, at some point, after fighting, proceeded to enjoy the sex is a standard way the rape of females is depicted in old-fashioned movies (notably "Gone With the Wind"). I would not portray that as not rape. I think there's an immense amount of sympathy for females who resist sex and then, when they find that impossible, switch to attempting to experience it as consensual sex.
When Frank is talking to Karen later, how do we know whether he's describing how he actually felt or if he's trying to be nice to her and help her get back to a more suitable way to live (or just to not be motivated to get him in trouble)? (Artistically, this ambiguity is good.)
As for reneging on the promise to give the car: 1. Did she really fulfill her side of the bargain? (Eddie thought not, but probably he only misunderstood how costly his side of the bargain really was)(this "legal" ambiguity is interesting). 2. This still seems to be Karen's anger about not getting the car (because she was pleased with her sexual acting out and fully intending to continue it), 3. I admit she was also mad at the public humiliation of her father calling her a whore in public (but I don't see any evidence that she was ashamed of her past sexual behavior or interested in what her father thought about it).
One idea for a narrow perspective on how to watch the show is to continually ask yourself: Why were we supposed to hate Eddie?
posted by Alizaria at 8:44 AM on February 7, 2015
Didn't that make us watch underage porn?! Why is that on TV at all? I'm sure the actress is of age, but it is making us watch the simulation of the kind of porn that's illegal.
The fact that Frank, at some point, after fighting, proceeded to enjoy the sex is a standard way the rape of females is depicted in old-fashioned movies (notably "Gone With the Wind"). I would not portray that as not rape. I think there's an immense amount of sympathy for females who resist sex and then, when they find that impossible, switch to attempting to experience it as consensual sex.
When Frank is talking to Karen later, how do we know whether he's describing how he actually felt or if he's trying to be nice to her and help her get back to a more suitable way to live (or just to not be motivated to get him in trouble)? (Artistically, this ambiguity is good.)
As for reneging on the promise to give the car: 1. Did she really fulfill her side of the bargain? (Eddie thought not, but probably he only misunderstood how costly his side of the bargain really was)(this "legal" ambiguity is interesting). 2. This still seems to be Karen's anger about not getting the car (because she was pleased with her sexual acting out and fully intending to continue it), 3. I admit she was also mad at the public humiliation of her father calling her a whore in public (but I don't see any evidence that she was ashamed of her past sexual behavior or interested in what her father thought about it).
One idea for a narrow perspective on how to watch the show is to continually ask yourself: Why were we supposed to hate Eddie?
posted by Alizaria at 8:44 AM on February 7, 2015
I'm sure the actress is of age
Karen is played by Laura Slade Wiggins, who was born on August 8, 1988. She was 22 years old during season 1.
posted by John Cohen at 11:56 AM on February 7, 2015
Karen is played by Laura Slade Wiggins, who was born on August 8, 1988. She was 22 years old during season 1.
posted by John Cohen at 11:56 AM on February 7, 2015
One idea for a narrow perspective on how to watch the show is to continually ask yourself: Why were we supposed to hate Eddie?
They set us up to loathe him from the beginning: the first time we saw him, he was cold and dismissive to his wife when she was being generous and romantic. As I said about the pilot:
posted by John Cohen at 12:02 PM on February 7, 2015
They set us up to loathe him from the beginning: the first time we saw him, he was cold and dismissive to his wife when she was being generous and romantic. As I said about the pilot:
A great moment that went over my head on first view: Sheila (in the kitchen) asks Eddie to guess what she made him for lunch; he gives a couple wrong guesses; she seductively says, "Kiss and I'll tell"; Eddie coldly says, "I'll find out when I open the damn box"; he knocks the "damn box" into a bowl of apples; one apple (a symbolic fruit) falls to the floor in slow motion; and Eddie sees what Karen is doing under the table when he starts picking up the apple. So, it was that moment when affection and enjoyment were lacking in two parallel plotlines — Eddie rejected his wife's come-on (knocking over the apple in the process), while Ian was failing to enjoy the heterosexual oral sex — which set up Eddie's downfall.Though Eddie's an ugly character, I find the plot arc beautiful in its symmetry: the first thing we saw of him was being cold and letting an apple fall to the ground, and the last thing we saw of him was dropping himself into the cold water below ground.
posted by John Cohen at 12:02 PM on February 7, 2015
The fact that Frank, at some point, after fighting, proceeded to enjoy the sex is a standard way the rape of females is depicted in old-fashioned movies (notably "Gone With the Wind"). I would not portray that as not rape.
Yeah, that's why I said they both raped each other. She raped him by having sex with him against his will, and then he raped her by intentionally continuing the sex with an underage person. (Of course, there's no defense to statutory rape based on the victim's mental state or prior conduct.)
posted by John Cohen at 12:06 PM on February 7, 2015
Yeah, that's why I said they both raped each other. She raped him by having sex with him against his will, and then he raped her by intentionally continuing the sex with an underage person. (Of course, there's no defense to statutory rape based on the victim's mental state or prior conduct.)
posted by John Cohen at 12:06 PM on February 7, 2015
As for reneging on the promise to give the car: 1. Did she really fulfill her side of the bargain? (Eddie thought not, but probably he only misunderstood how costly his side of the bargain really was)(this "legal" ambiguity is interesting). 2. This still seems to be Karen's anger about not getting the car (because she was pleased with her sexual acting out and fully intending to continue it), 3. I admit she was also mad at the public humiliation of her father calling her a whore in public (but I don't see any evidence that she was ashamed of her past sexual behavior or interested in what her father thought about it).
Well, I've watched more of the series than you have, so I'll just say: Karen is definitely not supposed to be the most rational or sympathetic character!
posted by John Cohen at 12:09 PM on February 7, 2015
Well, I've watched more of the series than you have, so I'll just say: Karen is definitely not supposed to be the most rational or sympathetic character!
posted by John Cohen at 12:09 PM on February 7, 2015
"Though Eddie's an ugly character, I find the plot arc beautiful in its symmetry: the first thing we saw of him was being cold and letting an apple fall to the ground, and the last thing we saw of him was dropping himself into the cold water below ground."
On the religious theme: An apple that falls evokes the apple in the Garden of Eden and The Fall.
The hole in the ice is evocative of the 9th Circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno: "The last Ninth Circle of Hell is divided into 4 Rounds according to the seriousness of the sin though all residents are frozen in an icy lake. Those who committed more severe sin are deeper within the ice. Each of the 4 Rounds is named after an individual who personifies the sin. Thus Round 1 is named Caina after Cain who killed his brother Abel, Round 2 is named Antenora after Anthenor of Troy who was Priam’s counselor during the Trojan War, Round 3 is named Ptolomaea after Ptolemy (son of Abubus), while Round 4 is named Judecca after Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus with a kiss."
The icy lake is Lake Michigan.
posted by Alizaria at 12:17 PM on February 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
On the religious theme: An apple that falls evokes the apple in the Garden of Eden and The Fall.
The hole in the ice is evocative of the 9th Circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno: "The last Ninth Circle of Hell is divided into 4 Rounds according to the seriousness of the sin though all residents are frozen in an icy lake. Those who committed more severe sin are deeper within the ice. Each of the 4 Rounds is named after an individual who personifies the sin. Thus Round 1 is named Caina after Cain who killed his brother Abel, Round 2 is named Antenora after Anthenor of Troy who was Priam’s counselor during the Trojan War, Round 3 is named Ptolomaea after Ptolemy (son of Abubus), while Round 4 is named Judecca after Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus with a kiss."
The icy lake is Lake Michigan.
posted by Alizaria at 12:17 PM on February 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
"Yeah, that's why I said they both raped each other. She raped him by having sex with him against his will, and then he raped her by intentionally continuing the sex with an underage person. (Of course, there's no defense to statutory rape based on the victim's mental state or prior conduct.)"
Good issue spotting. But what if he never switched to intentionally continuing and he were unwilling throughout: are the elements of statutory rape still there?
posted by Alizaria at 12:21 PM on February 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Good issue spotting. But what if he never switched to intentionally continuing and he were unwilling throughout: are the elements of statutory rape still there?
posted by Alizaria at 12:21 PM on February 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'll leave any further legal analysis up to Illinois attorneys, which I'm not.
posted by John Cohen at 12:51 PM on February 7, 2015
posted by John Cohen at 12:51 PM on February 7, 2015
You got me to binge-watch the rest of Season 1. I'm surprised that Fiona still was interested in Jimmy after he gave her brothers a stolen car and they got arrested. One of these days, I'll buy S2 and begin watching.
posted by SillyShepherd at 7:39 PM on January 13, 2016
posted by SillyShepherd at 7:39 PM on January 13, 2016
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For a first time watcher,
I'm intrigued what season 2 has in store, given the rapid development and resolutions to plotlines: Will Steve come back? What will happen with Kash and Ian?
My hunch is that we'll see a lot more Jasmine and Kev and V's Foster Child (Ethel?) in the storylines.
Another great example of Frank's selfishness: his talk with Karen, he defends himself by the 'difficulty' of managing his lust towards her, doesn't apologize (IIRC) for his actions, and
posted by fizzix at 1:51 PM on January 14, 2015