Shameless Fans Still Get Mad Over How Fiona Left Liam In The Dust
As the oldest sister on "Shameless," Fiona Gallagher (Emmy Rossum) was a fierce guardian of her younger siblings, doing her best to hold the family together after the disappearance of their mother, Monica (Chloe Webb), and the utter disregard from their alcoholic and neglectful father, Frank (William H. Macy). Impulsive and destructive, yet resourceful and shrewd, she did the best she could to pay the utility bills and keep everyone fed while also attempting to find love and her own way out of poverty. Given how important of a character Fiona was, fans are still mad at the way she left Liam (Christian Isaiah) without so much as a goodbye.
"Just finished S9, and I think it was out of character that Fiona didn't say goodbye to Liam when she left," posted u/phantom_avenger on a "Shameless" subreddit. "If anything, she would've asked him if he wanted to go with her!" Viewers felt cheated out of a proper ending, with u/Different_Ad_9316 writing, "To just leave behind the kids and not say goodbye just seemed so odd and out of character for her. I would have loved to see what she would have said to each and every one of them." Her rallying cry was always "Family first," which made the way she bowed out at the end of Season 9 so baffling to fans.
As Liam's guardian she should have taken him with her
When it came time for Emmy Rossum to leave "Shameless," the episode wasn't what most expected. "I had hoped that I could have a lovely, warm, conciliatory meeting goodbye with her, and I'm a complete s***hole the whole episode; horrible, worse than I've been in a long time," William H. Macy told US Weekly. But while the father-daughter goodbye maybe wasn't what Macy had hoped for, at least he got one. Not only did Fiona not say goodbye to Liam in her final episode, but the two didn't interact at all during the entire episode. Considering she was his legal guardian, as well as his older sister, fans were infuriated.
"I feel as though she felt guilty for leaving, and couldn't possibly confront Liam out of guilt," theorized Redditor u/therevolution08. "Right?!" agreed u/stadtleiche. "Why leave him behind? I know, she wanted to leave to care for herself, but why leave Liam in all this chaos and not even ask him if he wanted to go too? I know she shared guardianship with Frank. But leaving Liam behind was selfish of her."
With the pandemic being the reason Rossum wasn't able to return for the "Shameless" finale, we'll never know what ending storyline Fiona and Liam could've had.