This story nearly goes somewhere interesting when it flirts with the idea of Frank actually developing an attachment to this baby and wanting to keep him, but it never fully commits. It’s also compelling to see Liam snap at Frank here and embody more of the “Gallagher spirit” than his own father. At the same time, Frank keeping that baby is surely the worst avenue possible for it. He’d be treated as more comedic fodder and the centerpiece to grifting opportunities. This baby has a better life now that he’s away from Frank.

Meanwhile, in other adventures in child abuse: The latest development in Debbie’s complicated scheme to cheat herself into some money that she doesn’t deserve involves her teaching her daughter to be as wicked as possible so Pepa won’t want to take her in as her own. When this doesn’t pan out, she contemplates temporarily kidnapping some random child that could pass off as Franny, which is an even worse plan.

This seems like a passing joke at first, but it’s the strategy that Debbie goes with, which is kind of insane. She winds up negotiating and bargaining with children as this all becomes more obtuse. It’d honestly be less work if Debbie just really looked for another job. It’d be pretty hilarious if after all of this child swapping nonsense she had a voicemail full of messages telling her that the welding strike has been over for days now.

Ian’s not particularly interested in money, but his crooked parole officer’s greed continues to rope him deeper into her scam. Shameless at least has the guts to call out how ridiculous all of this is and the unusual journey that Ian’s been on through this show (“Gay Jesus,” was somehow a simpler time than this). It’s still unclear where this is all going, but it hardly seems fair that Ian should have to fear rabid dog attacks just because he saves a life and tries to actually do his job.