Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
During a hot Chicago summer, Fiona works at Patsy’s Pies and develops feelings for her boss, Sean, even as musician Gus enters her life and impulsively marries her. Jimmy, who has been absent, returns and unsettles her choices. Around the Gallaghers’ neighborhood, rising property prices threaten familiar businesses and homes. Frank, recovering from his liver transplant, builds a basement brewery and tries to turn his homemade beer into a business, while his eldest daughter Sammi and her son Chuckie remain part of the family’s crowded household.
Lip divides his time between college and home, where his relationship with Amanda frays as he becomes involved with his professor, Helene. Carl starts dealing drugs and is eventually sent to juvenile detention. Debbie becomes more focused on Derek and the idea of having a baby. Ian’s bipolar disorder worsens after he stops taking his medication; during a manic episode he takes Mickey and Svetlana’s infant, Yevgeny, and flees with the child. Sammi reports Ian to the military police after Carl uses her son Chuckie as a drug mule. Released from custody, Ian leaves with Monica.
Frank’s new doctor, Bianca, receives a terminal cancer diagnosis, and he takes her away from her controlled life for a reckless trip to Costa Rica. Fiona’s marriage and connection with Sean remain unresolved when Gus returns, and Debbie’s relationship with Derek reaches a new point when she tells Fiona she is pregnant and intends to keep the baby. Ian comes home and ends his relationship with Mickey; Frank comes back from Costa Rica after Bianca dies there. Sammi, whom Mickey drugged and believed dead, returns and shoots at him, leaving their confrontation unresolved.