'Shameless' season 3 premiere recap: Bad days and in trouble with the law

Yes, "Shameless" is still shameless, as the Sunday, Jan. 13 episode, the season 3 premiere, "El Gran Canon," proved. When it began, 137 days had passed since the Gallaghers last saw Frank (William H. Macy), but not much had changed for the family. They were still completely broke, still getting up to some crazy schemes (as was Frank, as he made his way home), and still, of course, completely "Shameless."

Money problems. As always, the Gallaghers were having trouble paying bills, and this time, they had gotten their final notice for their property bill. Fiona (Emma Rossum) was working an utterly disgusting job, cleaning up sewer main backups, but she lost that due to nepotism. And while they were going to just make it for the bill with her last paycheck, she instead took the money to pay the $1000 Meg wanted for her to promote her own night at the club.

An old friend from the butcher shop. While Fiona had to adjust to having Jimmy "Mr. Mom" Steve (Justin Chatwin) home all day, cooking for the kids and just hanging out with Liam, that life soon changed for him. Nando (Pepe Rapazote) came to town and dragged him off to Estefania's (Stephanie Fantauzzi), where her father killed Marco—and made Jimmy help clean it up. After that, wouldn't you burn your clothes in the backyard too? But that wasn't all Nando wanted. He made it clear to Jimmy that he wanted Estefania to have things he didn't, including an education, and that meant that she needed to be an American citizen. Jimmy had to be her husband when immigration came around.

"Why does everyone think I'm going to college?" That was the question Lip (Jeremy Allen White) posed to the guidance counselor (maybe it's because of your 4.6, Lip) when he talked to him about padding his résumé for college applications. Lip did say he was going to do some community service, but what he didn't tell the guidance counselor was that those hours came from getting caught after he and Ian (Cameron Monaghan)—with him letting Ian get away because West Point wouldn't take him with a felony conviction—stole a laser. After Mandy (Emma Greenwell) bailed him out by using her father's line of credit at the bail bondsman, we learned why they took that laser: for a robot competition, which they won.

More than one too many drinks. Frank's latest drinking binge ended with him in Mexico without a passport or any photo identification to get a temporary one—and no help from back home. After a failed attempt to sneak into the US with immigrants, Frank ended up being a drug mule and earning himself the nickname "El Gran Canon" since he was a legend for the amount he smuggled. This being Frank, he kept some drugs for himself. He did make his way back home, but only Debbie was happy to see him. Everyone else returned to their dinner.

Wrong. So wrong. There's really no other way to describe Kevin (Steve Howey) and Veronica (Shanola Hampton) in this episode as they did a couples master/slave act for online porn. In one instance, he was Thomas Jefferson and she Miss Sally. Carl (Ethan Cutkosky) being Carl of course watched it and said he was watching the History Channel.

An old guy's dream. Ian was still hooking up with Jimmy's father, Lloyd (Harry Hamlin), but he told him he "sort of" had a boyfriend, to which Lloyd replied he "sort of" had a wife (there is no "sort of" about a wife, Lloyd). When Ian said his boyfriend would be back soon, Lloyd wondered if he was up for a threesome.

Parenthood troubles. Sheila (Joan Cusack) and Jody (Zach McGowan) were taking care of Karen's baby, but they weren't getting any sleep since they couldn't stop him from crying.

"Shameless" season 3 airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on Showtime. What did you think of the premiere, "El Gran Canon"?

© Meredith Jacobs 2013

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