With Fiona’s ultimatum, everyone’s stepping up their game and making new decisions in ‘I Am A Storm’. Some better than others.

Spoilers!

“I’m not doing this to you, I’m doing it for me“. Fiona is determined this time: this is not just a phase, it’s time for her to actually take care of herself and do her own thing. She’s 100% dedicated to managing the diner, and she actually goes out of her way to try new things like the alcohol-in-mugs diner party. In fact, the party was one of the best parts of the episode as it gathered everyone under one roof to celebrate that things are finally looking up, so it’s a shame that the scene didn’t last longer. (Also, did you know that this episode was directed by Emmy Rossum?)

So what’s changing this time? For starters Lip’s internship time in the start-up is over as he sneaks into the servers rooms at night and discovers that they were using proxy servers to reroute IP addresses for illegal purposes. His teacher/mentor figure from Season 6 makes a comeback to make him reflect on how the professional world works and give him some more wisdom: “Be the guy who has nothing to run from”. On the other hand, Ian is also moving on… kinda. He has has forgotten about Caleb quite quickly, but at least his ignorance towards bisexuality is still relevant. This week, Ian meets Trevor (Elliot Fletcher), a transexual boy. Once again, Ian proves that he’s not very well educated in LGBT matters. However, contrary to what happened with Caleb, this time he apologizes and makes an effort to understand when Trevor introduces him to his LGBT friends. The truth is, even if Ian is LGBT, this feels like a complete new world to him. This also happens in real life: there’s a lot of miscommunication and judgment within the community as well. We already saw an example of this in ‘Swipe, Fuck, Leave’, when Ian, a gay man, didn’t approve of men being bisexual. This time, he asks questions and is willing to learn more about other sexualities and genders. Elliot is cute, and Ian dating someone who can teach him about this stuff is great. It’s just a shame that Ian is starting to act more like Fiona, with his constantly jumping from one relationship to another.



The only one who’s struggling and not enjoying the whole celebration is Debbie. Her situation as a teen mom is already difficult enough as it is, so Fiona demanding her to bring that extra money in order to keep living in the house is pretty harsh, as V observes. However, it is true that Fiona did try countless times to convince Debbie to get an abortion, and she did not only refuse her help, but she was also very rude to her. Debbie deserves this situation, but it’s still very hard to watch. Carl‘s situation is the complete opposite. His progress from last season has been nothing but remarkable, especially considering he’s doing everything himself. Apparently, he IS going to develop a good relationship with Dominique’s father. Carl now wants to join the SWAT team and, in order to do so, he needs money to attend military school first. The disparity between these two siblings kind of makes me wish that they would interact more, like Lip and Ian often do. Some heart-to-heart talk between them would be amazing to watch, and Carl giving advice to Debbie would also be pretty surreal.

Fiona’s new independence (or rather the way she goes about it) doesn’t sit well with V either. They’re both so busy with their lives they hardly ever talk anymore. Frank has always gone his own way, as his relationship with Frank can hardly be called a “friendship”. However, V and Fiona’s friendship has always been a cornerstone of the series, and the absence is starting to show.



Meanwhile, the neighbours have started complaining about Frank’s improvised shelter. As usual, Frank manages to somehow deliver harsh truths and make some valid points during the neighbourhood meeting: they all act like they’re good-hearted people, but they care more about the image and reputation than about actually helping anyone. Still, his tactic doesn’t work, so Frank’s next step is (of course) to talk to the media. Frank’s storyline is a confusing one this season – it makes sense, and it’s not boring as many other he’s gotten, but it somehow gets eclipsed by all the other interesting stuff that’s going on this season. After all, it’s much more fun and rewarding to see characters like Fiona, Lip or Carl finally getting their sh*t together, and Frank, V and Svetlana’s relationship is the gift that keeps on giving.