25 Things Wrong With Lip We All Choose To Ignore

Summary

• Lip’s relationship choices and decisions consistently lead to detrimental outcomes for himself and those around him.
• Lip’s struggles with substance abuse, poor relationship decisions, and questionable moral choices highlight his flawed character.
• Lip’s inability to appreciate the support and sacrifices made by his family, especially Fiona, contribute to his downfall.

Lip Gallagher was one of the most popular characters on Shameless, but that popularity was likely because fans chose to ignore some of the troubling and unlikeable aspects of the character. Shameless introduced American audiences to the problematic Gallagher family, a clan stricken by poverty that lives together on Chicago’s South Side. Led by absentee alcoholic (and possibly sociopathic) patriarch Frank, there are six Gallagher siblings living together in one house who are primarily cared for by their eldest sister Fiona. However, when Fiona left in season 9, Lip became the central character of the Gallagher children.

Out of all the Gallagher children, Lip was the biggest conundrum. Played by The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White, Lip was constantly torn between his academic success and his tumultuous upbringing. While he excelled more than his peers and family in school, Lip doesn’t graduate college and ends up making a fair few poor relationship choices along the way. While Shameless was a show that embraced the flaws of its characters, there were aspects of Lip’s character throughout the series that make him a much harder character to like when looking back.

Lip Kicked Fiona Out Of The House

Season 9, Episode 11, “The Hobo Games”

Considering that he has a history of problematic drinking and substance abuse, and generally hasn’t always made the best decisions in life, Lip Gallagher is one of the last characters in Shameless with a moral high ground from which to judge others. This is why it was such an aggravating character moment in the season 9 episode “The Hobo Games” when Lip kicked Fiona out of the Gallagher home for drinking.

Instead of showing Fiona some compassion for her own problems with drinking and substance use, Lip gives in to his anger and forces Fiona to leave the Gallagher home.

Granted, Fiona had just unknowingly tempted Lip’s AA sponsor, Jason, into relapsing, and caused problems for Lip’s attempts to adopt Xan. However, instead of showing Fiona some compassion for her own problems with drinking and substance use, Lip gives in to his anger and forces Fiona to leave the Gallagher home. It was a moment of huge hypocrisy for Lip, and was especially frustrating since it was a missed opportunity to be a beneficial presence in Fiona’s life instead of a source of more problems.

He Knowingly Interns At An Illegal Company

Season 7, Episode 4, “I Am A Storm”

Season 7 of Shamless included a plot thread for several episodes where Lip started working at a tech company, a job that Professor Youens arranges for him. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the company is involved in several shadier dealings, and that their business model may not be entirely legal. Rather than do the responsible thing and quit, Lip decides to continue working for the company and even uses their questionable methods as inspiration to make himself some profit.

This is yet another moment of poor decision-making from Lip. Deciding to stay on at the company backfires too, as it ultimately costs him his place at college. The biggest grievance many Shameless fans have with Lip is that he squanders many opportunities, not to mention his intellectual potential, when he sees a chance to make a short-term gain — and choosing to stay at an illegal company when he has so much on the line is a prime example of this particular character flaw.

Lip Killed An Old Man

Season 9, Episode 3, “Weirdo Gallagher Vortex”

Lip has a complex relationship with parenthood and guardianship, which has led to several low-points for him throughout Shameless. However, one that doesn’t get addressed anywhere near as often as it should came in the season 9 episode “Weirdo Gallagher Vortex”. In this episode, Xan is in hospital after breaking her arm. Since he’s not her legal guardian, Lip finds he’s unable to have her released from the hospital with him. In typical Lip Gallagher fashion, he cooks up a plan to get what he wants, and amazingly, this one doesn’t seem to backfire.

Essentially, Lip creates a distraction by pulling the oxygen tank and life-support from another patient in the hospital. This causes a medical emergency that requires all the doctors and nurses on the ward, and during the chaos Lip and Xan are able to sneak out. It’s not known exactly what happened to the elderly male patient Lip chose, but there’s every chance they could have died. Even if they survived, Lip had no way of knowing they were OK, meaning, from his perspective, he was completely willing to murder a helpless patient in a hospital just to ensure Xan stayed in his care.

He Ruined His Girlfriend’s Career

Season 6, Episode 6, “NSFW”

Almost all of Lip’s romantic relationships in Shameless have been problematic, but his fling with Helene saw Lip at perhaps his most irresponsible. In fact, this single relationship contains several examples of the worst things Lip Gallagher did in the show, and not just because of the ramifications it had for his own life. It’s safe to say that Lip ruined his girlfriend Helene’s life, or at the very least her career.

During season 6, Lip’s other girlfriend, Amanda, finds out about his relationship with Helene, and in a fit of jealousy leaks naked photos of her rival in Lip’s dorm. Once these photos get out, Helene’s career is all but over. She has to attend a hearing at the university, and is only able to keep her job by agreeing to cut things off with Lip for good. However, even though she evades being fired, her professional reputation is forever in tatters. The whole situation could have been avoided had Lip never taken the photos, and, of course, not been cheating on Helene with Amanda/Amanda with Helene.

Lip Tries To Make Charlie Relapse

Season 8, Episode 2, “Where’s My Meth?”

Lip has done some unforgivable things in the pursuit of romance, but few moments were as low as in season 8 when jealousy led him to try and make Charlie relapse. In season 8 of Shameless, Lip is desperately trying to persue a relationship with Sierra, who has been growing close to Charlie. Rather than respecting Sierra’s desires and choices, Lip instead decides that he’ll make recovering addict Charlie fall off the wagon by giving him a pizza topped with Cocaine.

The moment is almost hard to watch, especially since Lip has had his own struggles with sobriety, and knows just how badly he’ll end up destroying Charlie’s life if he causes Charlie to relapse.

Thankfully, Charlie doesn’t eat the pizza and instead continues on with his journey to sobriety. It’s an incredibly spiteful moment from Lip, and is among the most inexcusable things Lip ever did on Shameless. The moment is almost hard to watch, especially since Lip has had his own struggles with sobriety, and knows just how badly he’ll end up destroying Charlie’s life if he causes Charlie to relapse.

Lip Didn’t Recognize Ian’s Sexuality

Season 1, Episode 1, “Pilot”

From the very first episode of Shameless, it was made clear to viewers that Ian and Lip were far more like best friends than brothers. Despite their extremely close relationship, however, Lip failed to realize that Ian was solely attracted to men and that he was in a secret relationship with his married convenience store boss.

It didn’t take long for Lip to accept Ian after coming out, but it’s still very surprising that Lip didn’t know or Ian didn’t feel comfortable disclosing the truth with his closest confidante. It says a lot about Lip’s views on sexuality early on in the show, and while there aren’t any moments where Lip is outright homophobic, it may well be that some of the things he said to Ian in the past made Ian fearful to disclose the truth to his older brother.

He Used Karen To “Test” His Brother

Season 1, Episode 1, “Pilot”

When Lip Gallagher found out that Ian was attracted to other men, he wasn’t initially supportive and didn’t even fully believe his brother. He punched Ian for messing around with his boss out of fear that he was being taken advantage of and brought him to Karen’s house to “test” his orientation. Lip asked Karen to perform oral sex on Ian, to see if he might just be confused and could possibly enjoy being with a woman.

This is offensive to both Karen — the girl Lip eventually fell for — and Ian, whose preference wasn’t a choice and wasn’t something he should have been forced to prove.

Lip Didn’t Want To Live Up To His Potential

Season 2, Episode 8, “Parenthood”

Most of the Gallagher children grew up thinking that they couldn’t possibly amount to anything in life. Fiona constantly struggled to balance her obligation to her family and her own personal ambition, Ian’s difficulty accepting his own bipolar disorder held him back, Carl’s fondness for his derelict father initially made him want to be just as wild as Frank, and Debbie’s only real goal was to be a teenage mother.

Lip, meanwhile, knew that he could accomplish big things, but he simply didn’t want to.

Lip was resentful of the fact that his family expected him to be their “golden goose” and make enough money to help them get by, so he didn’t try particularly hard at anything. He seems to use his street smarts far more often than he utilizes his actual intelligence. This is the primary conflict between him and Fiona in season 2, as Lip is determined to drop out of school, but Fiona won’t let him. Having his entire family relying on him is a weight that’s simply too heavy for him to bear.

He Didn’t Step Up As Liam’s Guardian Until He Had To

Season 4, Episode 6, “Iron City”

When Monica Gallagher left her husband and children and Frank started spending more time at the local bar than with his family, Fiona was forced to step up and take care of her siblings. She became their primary guardian despite also having several jobs and a variety of other things on her plate. Lip was smart enough to help ease Fiona’s workload and take on some of the responsibilities around the house, but he didn’t really seem to start doing so until his hand was forced.

After Liam overdosed as Fiona accidentally left substances lying around the house, Lip rose up to be his main caregiver. He started taking care of his baby brother and worked harder to provide for his family. That being said, it really shouldn’t have taken such a major slip-up from Fiona for him to do that and Lip had a tendency to shirk responsibility for as long as possible thanks to his growing resentment surrounding his family’s attitude about his prowess in school.

Lip Didn’t Take His Education Seriously

Season 6, Episode 12, “Familia Supra Gallegorious Omnia!”

Lip is constantly praised for his intelligence, but he may actually show the least respect for the education system out of all of the characters on Shameless. While he was in high school, Lip took money from his fellow students to take their SATs for them. A few months later, he simply dropped out of school in Shameless season 2 even though Fiona threatened to kick him out of his home if he did so.

While he did actually put in some effort in college, he quickly found himself expelled because he couldn’t control his temper and assaulted a campus guard.

While he did go on to get his GED, Lip never would have graduated if it weren’t for Fiona’s constant nagging, and he wouldn’t have attended college if Mandy didn’t apply for him. The final nail in the coffin for his educational career is when Lip didn’t graduate college in season 4. While he did actually put in some effort in college, he quickly found himself expelled because he couldn’t control his temper and assaulted a campus guard. He failed to fully realize how his actions might affect his future, leading to his disappointing ending in the Shameless series finale.

He Failed Mandy

Season 2, Episode 11 “Just Like The Pilgrims Intended”

Lip Gallagher was so focused on being with Karen Jackson in the first three seasons of Shameless that he completely neglected Mandy Milkovich and failed to realize just how good she was to and for him. His relationship with Mandy started out as merely “friends with benefits,” but the more time they spent together, the closer they became. When he was kicked out of the Gallagher home for dropping out of high school, Mandy let Lip move in with her.

She also applied to several colleges for him to try to push him to reach his potential. Karen kept holding Lip back, but Mandy always wanted what was best for him. He sadly repaid Mandy’s kindness by choosing to be with Karen behind her back. Mandy was the best match for Lip and she suffered greatly throughout her time on Shameless. Unfortunately, the toxicity between Lip and Karen eventually won out.

He Loved Getting Into Fights

Season 6, Episode 11 “Sleep No More”

All of the Gallagher siblings seem to be willing to resort to violence when challenged or forced, but none of them are as eager to fight as the Lip. He occasionally enters into staged brawls to make a little money, but he doesn’t really even care if he wins or loses because he gets some sort of adrenaline rush from the experience. Lip never backs down from anyone and is entirely unafraid to fight people, even if it’s clear he’s not a match for them.

Fighting and destroying property are his two favorite ways to vent his frustration after yet another relationship or disappointment. He even punches his best friend Ian when Ian does something he doesn’t agree with. However, his brawling ways come to a head in season 6 after he is expelled from college for smashing Professor Youens’ car with a crowbar and assaulting a security officer while in a drunken rage over losing his TA position.

He Has Clear Abandonment Issues

Season 2, Episode 12, “Fiona Interrupted”

Lip is probably one of the most self-aware Gallagher kids. Fiona, Debbie, Ian, and Carl often fail to realize when they’re doing something that is going to inevitably have a negative consequence, but Lip is smart enough to know when he’s doing something wrong. For some reason, however, he still hasn’t figured out why he has a tendency to date emotionally unavailable women or proven capable of learning from his relationship mistakes.

Lip never truly forgave his mother for leaving him and the rest of his family. His resulting abandonment issues inspired him to be with a variety of women who would leave him the way Monica did, causing him to suffer from the same pain over and over again. This is most evident in his tumultuous relationship with Karen, who ironically ends their relationship in season 2 in the same way that Monica did: by running away without ever truly saying goodbye.

He Blames Frank For Everything

Season 2, Episode 4, “A Beautiful Mess”

Frank is a horrible father and is often responsible for a significant number of the problems the Gallagher siblings encounter. He’s the reason they struggle to save up enough money to make ends meet, he failed to instill a positive moral code in his children, and he often acts more like another child than a parent. He definitely deserves a lot of blame, but Lip seems to blame Frank for some things that weren’t actually his fault.

In an attempt to upset her own father, Karen took advantage of Frank while he was too inebriated to try to stop her in the season 2 episode “A Beautiful Mess.” When Lip found out, he attacked Frank rather than consulting Karen on the nature of the situation and ultimately assumed the worst. Lip’s resentment towards his father blinded him to the truth of what his girlfriend was capable of. He’s reacted similarly toward Frank on a variety of occasions throughout Shameless.

Lip Doesn’t Care About His Relationships

Season 8, Episode 4, “F**k Paying It Forward”

Lip frequently criticizes Frank for his reliance on substances, but it’s clear that he suffers from some of his own addictions and eventually attended AA for a time. It’s perfectly normal for a teenager to want to experiment with a number of partners, but Lip has been with many women over the course of the series, and he didn’t even have feelings for the majority of them.

He entered into a purely physical relationship with Eddie in season 8, whose company he barely even enjoyed. He’s not quite the hopeless romantic he seemed to be when courting Karen, Helene, and Sierra.

When Lip tried sobering up and putting a pause on his dating life, he found himself entirely incapable of focusing on work because all he could think about was how much he craved a relationship. He entered into a purely physical relationship with Eddie in season 8, whose company he barely even enjoyed. He’s not quite the hopeless romantic he seemed to be when courting Karen, Helene, and Sierra.

He Ruined His Relationship With Amanda To Be With Helene

Season 5, Episode 12, “Love Songs (In The Key Of Gallagher)”

Lip Gallagher can’t seem to fall for the women who want to actually help him become the man he’s meant to be. He constantly chose Karen over Mandy even though Karen didn’t care about his future the way Mandy did. The same sort of thing happened when he moved away to college. He found the perfect girlfriend in Amanda, but he ditched her to be with his married professor, Helene Runyon. Amanda and Lip seemed to loathe each other at first, but, once they entered into a fairly random physical relationship, Amanda started developing real feelings for Lip.

She helped him make a lot of money, organized his schedule, and took care of Liam while Lip was in class, but Lip failed to recognize how good she was for him. He started neglecting her and solely focused on his relationship with Helene, a decision that eventually led to his downfall and one of the reasons Lip doesn’t graduate from college. Amanda eventually confronts Lip over his fling with Helene, blaming him for making her fall in love with him, and punches him in the library during the season 5 finale.

His Relationship With A Married Woman Helped Destroy His Future

Season 6, Episode 5, “Refugees”

While Lip was with Amanda, it seemed like his life was finally on track; he was doing a great job being Liam’s primary guardian, he earned a resident adviser position that granted him a private room on his college’s campus, and he was doing well in his classes thanks to Amanda’s willingness to help outline his schedule and ensure he focused on his studies. Then, he started dating the married Professor Helene Runyon, and his life plummeted into chaos.

When Amanda exposed Lip and Helene’s relationship to the school in the season 5 installment “Refugees” by sharing a naked photo of Helene in Lip’s dorm, Lip suddenly found himself single and heartbroken. Unfortunately, Lip began drinking heavily which eventually resulted in him destroying a professor’s car, and assaulting a security guard, causing him to get expelled and being one of the many factors behind why Lip didn’t graduate college.

He Shares His Father’s Struggles

Season 6, Episode 12, “Familia Supra Gallegorious Omnia!”

The Lip Shameless character spent most of his life hoping to be nothing like his father. In fact, he once took a DNA test in the hopes of finding out that Frank wasn’t his biological dad, but given a lot of his destructive behavior, it became very clear that he was Frank’s son. In his depressive episodes, Lip resembled Frank pretty closely, and unfortunately, his struggles with substance abuse played a major role in his expulsion from college.

After the horrible events that led to Lip’s arrest and expulsion in the Shameless season 6 finale, he was forced to enter into rehab, so he’d find some relief from his substance abuse struggles and get out of his mounting legal troubles. Considering his upbringing, it’s surprising that Lip wasn’t more careful when it came to things like drugs and alcohol as he witnessed Frank’s downward spiral from birth. However, Lip demonstrated an inability to learn from mistakes despite his incredible intelligence.

Lip Made Sierra’s Life Even More Complicated

Season 8, Episode 12, “Sleepwalking”

Lip gravitated toward women whom he felt compelled to fix throughout the first six seasons of Shameless, but, in season 7, he finally found someone mature and stable. Sierra and Lip had great chemistry, and it seemed like they could be really happy with each other. Unfortunately, their relationship began during the worst time in Lip’s life.

When Lip started seeing Sierra, he was still struggling with his problems and his emotions about being expelled from college. She was hoping to find someone who could act as a father to her son, but Lip wasn’t ready for that level of responsibility. In the devastating Shameless season 8 finale, he couldn’t decide whether he should fight for Sierra or let her go, and, when it seemed like they were finally ready to be with each other, Lip broke her heart and left her to try to find himself.

Lip Tried To Sabotage Charlie To Win Over Sierra

Season 8, Episode 2, “Where’s My Meth?”

Lip really started to resemble Frank when he began struggling with substance abuse, and this became even clearer in the season 8 installment “Where’s My Meth?”. At this point, he had already been dumped by Helene, expelled from college, and temporarily lost his relationship with Sierra, but he showed a truly ugly side when he tried sabotaging Sierra’s boyfriend Charlie, who also had substance abuse struggles.

Something that twisted shouldn’t be so easily forgiven by audiences.

Lip doesn’t typically attempt the sort of heartless and emotionally manipulative schemes that his father loves to perform, but, when Charlie tried getting back with Sierra, he resorted to some truly cruel tactics. He tried forcing his competition for Sierra’s heart off the bandwagon by tricking him into doing meth, tempting him with a pizza topped with it. Something that twisted shouldn’t be so easily forgiven by audiences.

Lip Was Jealous of Professor Youens’ Relationships

Season 8, Episode 10, “Church Of Gay Jesus”

Lip Gallagher and Professor Youens had a truly amazing relationship. Youens always did everything in his power to help keep Lip on the right path, and, even after Lip got expelled for destroying his car, Youens forgave Lip and secured him a tech start-up internship because he believed in his intelligence and potential. Youens suffered from his own problems, so he wanted to keep Lip from making the same mistakes he’d made in life. He helped Lip get into rehab, and he remained his mentor long after he stopped being his professor.

Unfortunately, when Youens died in the season 8 episode “Church of Gay Jesus,” Lip discovered that their relationship wasn’t quite as special as he’d thought. Several students spoke at Clyde’s funeral and talked about their similarly close bond with him. Lip found himself extremely jealous and upset by this, and he refused to read a heartfelt recommendation letter Youens had written for him before his passing.

Lip Resents His Own Intelligence

Season 2, Episode 8, “Parenthood”

Lip resented his own intelligence, as he felt burdened to get his family out of their predicament. This fact was made clear early on in Shameless when he gets into a fight with Fiona about being the family’s “golden goose” in season 2’s “Parenthood” and drops out of high school, ignoring Fiona’s threats. Most of the characters on Shameless would do anything to be as intelligent as Lip. For example, Fiona has frequently found herself incapable of mentally handling some of the careers she wanted to pursue.

In addition, if Frank was as book smart as Lip, he probably could have done anything he wanted in life thanks to his cunning. However, even though he loves his family, Lip hates the idea of them becoming reliant on him and dislikes having that expectation on his shoulders merely because of his brain. Unlike Fiona, who has a lot of personal ambition, Lip doesn’t try to make any plans for his future.

He Isn’t Always Appreciative of Fiona

Season 4, Episode 6, “Iron City”

While there are many unpopular opinions about Fiona, there is no question that she was the glue that held the Gallagher family together. However, when Fiona started ruining her stable relationships and ended up with men who were clearly manipulative and awful to her, it was difficult for audiences to truly like her as a character. Despite her flaws, she did do a solid job raising her siblings, and she should be appreciated for that.

Fiona put her family’s happiness before her own on several occasions at the start of the series, but her siblings never really expressed any sort of gratitude for that. Lip was always especially critical of Fiona’s parenting skills, and, when she made a mistake that sent Liam to the emergency room in season 4’s “Iron City,” Lip lost all faith in her ability to watch over his siblings and never truly forgave her. Their relationship was never quite the same after.

Lip’s Money-Making Schemes Are Just As Bad As Frank’s

Season 5, Episode 4, “A Night to Remem… Wait, What?”

As much as Lip washed he could deny it, there are even more ways that he is like his father. It initially seemed like Carl would grow up to be the second coming of Frank, but only Lip shares both his father’s struggles with substance abuse and his ability to make money through questionable yet surprisingly clever tactics. This is especially clear in a season 5 scheme that saw him exploiting his girlfriend’s parents for cash.

Lip comes off as noble, but his schemes and ideas aren’t too different from Frank’s.

Lip made $10,000 by convincing Amanda’s parents that they were in a serious relationship and that he would need to be paid to break up with her. Before that, he and Kevin actually sold illegal substances out of an ice cream truck which they’d actually park in public parks filled with children. Lip comes off as noble, but his schemes and ideas aren’t too different from Frank’s.

Lip Has No One To Blame But Himself

Season 11, Episode 12, “Father Frank, Full Of Grace”

Most Shameless viewers see Lip Gallagher as some sort of tragic hero, but the sad truth about the variety of difficulties he’s experienced over the past 11 seasons is that his fate is the product of his own misguided choices. The sum of Lip’s decisions is revealed in the Shameless series finale. Frank Gallagher has some surprisingly poignant words in his farewell speech, as he says “Lip, you’re smart as a whip. You just can’t seem to get out of your own way“.

In the end, Lip is forced to sell the Gallagher house for $75,000 when he could’ve sold it for $250k had he not pushed the developer too hard and lost the deal.

Even though Lip grew up in a poor family without any real parental guidance, he was given the opportunity to go to college and truly make something of himself. Frank served as the perfect warning of what not to do to succeed in life, but, as time went on, he became more and more like his father. He purposely failed to live up to his potential, and his very poor taste in girlfriends only made his life even more difficult. While Lip arguably isn’t a bad person, the weight of his choices negatively affected his outcome, and he had one of the most disappointing character arcs on Shameless.