Liam tells Lip that he's "sort of gone," with Lip believing Frank has died. All Rights Reserved. Frank Gallagher(William H. Macy) is diagnosed with the coronavirus in a hospital and soon dies while on a ventilatora most harrowing cautionary scene amid the current pandemic. Not much left to say really. The last episode ofShamelessSeason 11 aired on April 11, 2021, and wrapped the seriess end. Despite what would usually be a turning point for most people, Frank returns to his old ways very soon. The 43-year-old actress will take on the role of June George, the . We put it up on the writers room board and then took it down a few times. Print People with COVID-19 have had a wide range of symptoms reported - ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness. In theShamelessseries finale, he woke up and wandered around southside Chicago. Thats how people move on with their lives. Check out the hottest fashion, photos, movies and TV shows! In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner John Wells confirmed Frank is actually dead. Frank has so many possible comorbidities Covid is just the thing that finally pushed him over the edge. Kevin (Steve Howey) and Veronica (Shanola Hampton). You rewrote the entire season after the shutdown. I want to see the Alibi cop-bar story, and what happens with Carl and Arthur (Joshua Malina) as police officers. So sorry for your loss. David Chase's game-changing HBO mob drama ushered in modern day's golden age of television. Shameless follows the long-running show about a large family of Gallaghers and their turbulent relationship with life, other people, and their father, Frank. Fans Can Visit the 'Shameless' House in Chicago But, the Gallagher Family Won't be There! All rights reserved. Not that theres ever a good transition after that, but focusing on the episode Frank rises above the South Side on his bar stool, beer in hand, looking back on his life. We were also trying to address things about lack of housing. Why wrap the show without answering any of those questions? In the sixth episode of this season, Frank is diagnosed with early stages of Alcoholic Dementia. You never know. Theres certainly some schadenfreude in this, Frank always thinking he can skate by everything and coming to a moment he couldnt skate by. To have Frank die of something else in the midst of this pandemic, it would be a little too easy. According to the official synopsis, "Ian and Mickey shop for furniture. Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter. No, Fiona does not appear in the final season of Shameless. If you hated the way Lena Dunham's HBO comedy ended, with a half-hour that focused merely on Hannah Horvath with a bit of Allison Williams' Marnie thrown in, helping to raise Hannah's baby, may we suggest you think of it as merely an ill-advised epilogue and allow the penultimate episodewhich saw Hannah saying goodbye to all of the titular girls in a truly emotionally effective half-hourto act as the show's true finale. Forever in search of normalcy, Ian was all for the idea, while Mickey seemed gutted by the notion of being a crappy father. In Season 11 of Shameless, a new disease has taken hold of Frank. 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. In the post-credits, his body, saturated with ingested alcohol, is cremated, with explosive results. Thats an experience many people have had with relatives who have died of COVID. Kev and V seek buyers for the Alibi. Thank you for 11 incredible seasons. However, Wells had revealed that the Gallagher family will stand by each other no matter what. Frank Gallagher has lived through more than 10 seasons of Shameless as a drug-addicted miscreant who had no desire to ever turn his life around. Having all these stories out there reminds people that the things that they might be ashamed of and feel need to be hidden, nah weve got to talk about it. But she had some health concerns about returning, quarantining and trying to be safe. The Iron Throne melted down?! Showrunner, John Wells, previously announced that they would have loved to welcome Fiona, and her actor Emmy Rossum, back into the narrative for the finale season if the pandemic didnt rear its ugly head. On the finale, the Gallagher family patriarch ( William H. Macy) died of COVID-19. Kids would come to our Chicago set, and tell us about how they were thrown out of their homes for being gay, lesbian or trans. Thats what I felt. So when Heidi suggested blowing Chicago and hitting the open road, Debbie seemed amenable to the idea, despite previously warring with Lip (Jeremy Allen White) over his attempts to sell their family home. You and many other people! DuringShamelessSeason 11, viewers watched as Frank Gallagher began forgetting things. William H. Macy, who plays Frank, is credited for every episode of Season 11, including the finale. WARNING: Spoilers for the Shameless series finale are ahead! 2023 Vox Media, LLC. Frank faces his mortality.". Copyright 2023 Distractify. Shamelessis over but available for streaming on Showtime if you want to see for yourself how Frank dies. What went into the decision to kill off Frank with COVID after he was diagnosed with alcoholic dementia? We wanted her to return and had some storylines about her coming back and she wanted to do it. He had that great ability. With Season 11 as the final season overall, does Frank still make it out alive? It can reach past our reluctance of being preached to., Shameless, he added, is a show about a family trying to survive and laughing their way through it.. Not only does Frank die, but he does so alone and the series ends without his family knowing about it. We had about 20 of them! Bill [Macy] and I had always made deal that there would have to be consequences for all of Franks abuse to his body, between the drugs and alcohol. On the finale,the Gallagher family patriarch (William H. Macy) died of COVID-19. But is he? Did he meet his maker while feasting on a bowl of onion rings with his family? He eventually stumbled into a church and insisted on lighting the candles like an altar boy. This is all most people will experience. Do You Need to Watch The Book of Boba Fett Before The Mandalorian Season 3? The Gallaghers bid farewell after 11 seasons with the Shameless series finale on April 11. We never fleshed it all out. On the finale,the Gallagher family patriarch (William H. Macy) died of COVID-19. The idea was that every kid should be able to go to camp. However, he kept forgetting that he had dementia. We arrived at alcoholic dementia and had written more than half the season when we shut down., Showrunner John Wells spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the ways the pandemic changed the series finale and how travel challenges prevented one long-awaited reunion from happening https://t.co/SFV6EpPZoC. Im sure Emmy would have come back and done it, and it would have been nice to see her again. And fans were PISSED. 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. (Laughing.) Fans were stunned when ABC's groundbreaking sitcom signed off after nine seasons with the titular heroine (played by Roseanne Barr) revealing that the entire final season had been a figment of her imagination, with her beloved husband Dan (John Goodman) having not actually survived his heart attack in the season prior. But as he comes to terms with his alcoholic dementia diagnosis, the second to last episode shows Frank with drugs and what appears to be a note to his family. The final episode of the series featured all that hard living catching up with Frank for the last time.. All rights reserved. Emmy Rossum) through flashbacks from the shows earliest episodes. Anyone can read what you share. I will miss you this Sunday! "People say you can't drink your troubles away," Frank muses as he floats off into the unknown. David Chase's game-changing HBO mob drama ushered in modern day's golden age of television. They called Kevin over to talk pricing but that negotiation will remain privy to only those involved, as nothing concrete came of it by the time the end credits rolled. Speaking of The Alibi, the bar took up a surprising amount of finale time with its own storyline in Sundays episode, as Veronica (Shanola Hampton) and Kevin (Steve Howey) fielded an offer to sell and the locals wondered if it would be the last great establishment to fall victim to the gentrification going on around them. After nine seasons of listening to Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) deliver one of the most long-winded stories in the world on the CBS sitcom, detailing how he met the mother of his children, fans were understandably horrified by the tossed-off way it was revealed that she'd been dead all along and Ted was, in fact, seeking his kid's permission to pursue their aunt Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders). Frank can still make you smile even as hes dying. The penultimate episode gave us some pretty strong clues as to how the Showtime series would wrap up, but one major cliffhanger had us wondering: does Frank die? Gallagher's experts are here to support you in the development and implementation of risk management policies and procedures during a pandemic. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the showrunner decided to change the story a little bit. After waking from his overdose, the Gallagher patriarch eventually ended up in the hospital, where he died of COVID. The travel was such a mess that we never got to the point of my actually writing it. Not only does Frank die, but he does so alone and the series ends without his family knowing about it. And dont think we forgot about Frank! The cast of the Mean Girls musical movie keeps getting bigger, with Busy Philipps signing on for the Paramount Plus project. Wed find the humor in these stories but these are life-and-death issues for families who live on the margin. When the iconic NBC comedy signed off in 1998 after nine seasons, original co-creator Larry David returned to really drive home how little the show's core four characters had learnedand how kinda awful they'd been all along. People have been seriously harmed and even died after taking products not approved for use to treat or prevent COVID-19, even products approved or prescribed for other uses. Be a little more understanding with the person who delivers your package. So, the island was purgatory, right? Bleak. As of February 8, 2023, a total of 1,110,364 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the United States. Id love to be talking about pandemic checks, and what a huge difference affordable day care would make to Debbie and Tami (Kate Miner). 423 followers . And then went out with a bang. And did Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) ever finish parallel parking? Why do you think Shameless wasnt part of a larger cultural conversation, particularly during awards seasons? Eventually, in his dream (or maybe as a spirit), he floated up on his barstool above his family. While some feel that the patriarchs demise will bring the show full circle and give his kids the opportunity to move on in life, there is no doubt that it will be a sad moment for the Gallaghers. They all would have! Watching Showtime's serial killer thriller, one got the impression that the titular murderer (played by Michael C. Hall) might eventually have to, you know, pay for his many, many sins by the time all was said and done. Take general public health precautions to prevent spreading an illness to others. We would have loved to continue making the show because I love making the show and youve heard me say that a bunch of times. Connect today SHARE Many businesses continue to adapt their operations and workforce to COVID-19, whether bringing their employees into the workplace safely or evolving work-from-home or hybrid work strategies. The Flash Recap With Spoilers: "The Mask of the Red Death Part 1", Jon Favreau Reveals How Book of Boba Fett Set Mandalorian Season 3 Free, Kansas City Chiefs' Travis Kelce Becomes Indiana Jones in New SNL Promo, Jay Leno Jokes About His "Brand New Face" After Garage Fire, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, Quantumania Exclusive Interview | Phase Zero ft. Jeff Loveness. In the following episode, we're left to discover that he was indeed making a decision. His eyes drift closed after writing a letter to the Gallagher family. But it could be that it's just his body in a coffin that we will be seeing, or we might be treated to some flashbacks in the final episode. It also delivered one of the most controversial finales ever with a simple smash cut to black just as somethingmaybe nefarious, maybe notwas about to happen to the show's iconic antihero, Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini). Franks last genuine smile was him reading the letter he wrote to his family #Shameless pic.twitter.com/RkrlvEju6F. Lip settles for a new job. Bill [Macy] and I had always made a deal that there would have to be consequences for all of Franks abuse to his body, between the drugs and alcohol. 2023 E! Yeah. Instead, Fiona appears during the finale in a series of flashbacks as Frank is dying. Since the initial diagnosis, his health has only declined. The idea was with Franks dementia being discovered, theres a call and she comes back to help everyone figure it out and that she would come back and be involved at the end with what to do with the house and all that. No one was alerted to his status, just as no one found the note hed left before shooting up in the penultimate episode. Liam also tries to make him happy by doing Frank things with him, like scamming strangers for money. Frank has lived through severe health crises and even survived medical interventions gone wrong. Possible symptoms include: Fever or chills Cough Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing Fatigue Muscle or body aches Headache People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. That is a huge portion of our society that we dont tell nearly enough stories about.. During the unexpected time off, Wells rethought the season and decided to incorporate the pandemic, using Frank, who was long past his sell-by date for various medical reasons, as the poster boy for anti-maskers. I dont have any explanation for why The Wire was never the most decorated show in television history. But right now, with the end in sight, his future could go either way. However, after Carl (Ethan Cutkosky) spent the episode doling out parking tickets to rich folks who were abusing disabled persons parking spots, he and his new police bud Arthur (Joshua Malina) mused about what a great cop bar the place could be. It could have been one of many things; it was the last thing that pushed him over the cliff, but he was barely hanging on. Kev (Steve Howey) and V (Shanola Hampton) plan a move to Kentucky. Instead, his poor sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) met her demise and he escaped Miami to restart asa lumberjack in Oregon?! We had some humorous versions of it, where they all got sick of Frank, put him in a box and sent him down to Florida. What's Coming to Disney Plus in April 2021, Everything Coming to Netflix in April 2021. It challenges our sense of who we are. The character, who rarely wore a mask, was initially hospitalizedafter displaying more severe symptoms of his alcohol-related dementia and after suffering a suspected suicide attempt by overdose. How did you decide he would get Covid? It was a callback to the character's desire in the early seasons to become a writer by having Roseanne sitting at a typewriter, writing a different ending to her story, but it left viewers feeling like their time had been wasted in the worst way. Leave some extra money for the maid when you stay at a hotel or motel. 2023 E! We didnt try and solve anything. It was pretty much the same with the exception: We were trying to get Emmy and Emmy wanted to come back. Daenerys (Emilia Clark) suddenly a fascist villain? Unfortunately, with COVID protocols in place, there just wasn't a good way to make it work. There's certainly some schadenfreude in this, Frank always thinking he can skate by. "She lives in New York, and you know, we were trying to make it work, but there were quarantine setups that were in there if she came out to LA. However, the penultimate episode of season 11 has caught the fans off-guard as it implies the patriarchs death. What do you hope viewers take away from those scenes? Then there was the Lip of it all. Tip your waiter a little bit more. Showrunner, John Wells, confirmed that this was indeed the end of the series we know, but not necessarily goodbye to the characters. True to the series and its dark humor, a midcredits scene sees the crematorium oven exploding due to Frank's alcohol-ridden body. While suffering from Covid symptoms, Franks starts to hallucinate and believes that his nurse is Fiona Franks eldest daughter who left in season 9. It's unclear as to whether he dies from his alcoholic dementia, from COVID-19 complications, or as a result of his recent overdose. [Laughs.] It hasn't been confirmed just yet, but if Frank dies, Fiona could make her return to the show at his funeral, bringing all of the Gallaghers together one final time. While Wells had to rewrite the entire first half of the final season after production was stalled because of the pandemic, the prolific writer-producer (ER, The West Wing) added in Franks COVID-19 demise in a bid to accurately reflect the struggles of an economically challenged community like the South Side of Chicago. In the final moments of the episode, we see Frank at the Alibi and hear what he wrote in a note to. In a phone interview from Victoria, British Columbia, where hes working on a new series for Netflix, Wells discussed the inspiration for Franks death, Fionas near-return and the legacy of Shameless. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. I havent really given it any thought.. Frank is losing control of his bodily functions and can no longer drink alcohol. No, Shameless season 11 was considered the final season of the American show. To make you appalled and make you smile at the same time. So I thought, We should make a comment on that. We tried to make a comment all season on the particular difficulties that the pandemic has presented in low-income communities, and still make it kind of funny. Dips and spikes could be due . Despite much hope among fans, Emmy Rossum, who left the show in. You rewrote the first half of the season after COVID hit. What the hell why not go out in a blaze of glory? In the final moments of the episode, fans see Frank shoot up multiple times. Mild disease. 453. In the early ideas of the story, that was a perfect way to have Fiona return. After nine seasons of listening to Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) deliver one of the most long-winded stories in the world on the CBS sitcom, detailing how he met the mother of his children, fans were understandably horrified by the tossed-off way it was revealed that she'd been dead all along and Ted was, in fact, seeking his kid's permission to pursue their aunt Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders). Thought.. 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