What Happened To Steve On Shameless?
Showtime's "Shameless" is filled with shady characters. One of the shadiest, however, is so morally compromised he uses several different names during his 40-episode arc on the series: Steve Wilton, Jimmy Lishman, and Jack (Justin Chatwin).
Steve is introduced in the pilot episode of "Shameless," when he sees Fiona's (Emmy Rossum) purse get snatched in a crowded nightclub. He unsuccessfully pursues the thief, but his attempted heroics impress her enough that she dives into a relationship with him. Steve is a habitual liar and criminal, constantly deceiving Fiona and her family. At various points in the series, FIona's friends and family are able to convince her that Steve is lying to her and that he is a big pile of bad news, but at other times, he gains her trust. At the end of Season 3, Steve is presumably murdered, but he returns in the Season 4 finale, "Lazarus." That encounter sees Fiona cheating on her husband, Gus (Steve Kazee), with her old flame. Jimmy returns for three episodes in Season 5, but Fiona finally shuts the door on their relationship.
Chatwin told The Hollywood Reporter that he saw finality in his three-episode Season 5 arc on "Shameless" and that he felt Fiona had been through enough on her own to truly be over Steve/Jimmy. "I don't think she [was] as penetrable to his charms and manipulations as she once was," he said. "Their relationship evolved into something different than it was before."
Justin Chatwin has remained busy since his arc on Shameless ended
Once Jimmy was finally out of Fiona's life for good, Justin Chatwin immediately resumed his busy acting career. The year after his final appearance on "Shameless," Chatwin starred as Cam Hawthorne on the CBS mystery series "American Gothic," which lasted just one season due to poor viewership numbers. Also in 2016, Chatwin made a guest appearance on "Dr. Who." In 2017, he also landed a role in Dax Shepard's "CHiPs" movie.
From 2019 through 2021, Chatwin starred as Dr. Erik Wallace on the Netflix sci-fi drama, "Another Life." The fact that Netflix kept the show going for two seasons is remarkable considering critics give it a putrid 6% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Many reviewers lambasted the show's writing and Omar Madha's direction, although Chatwin and co-star Katee Sackhoff ("Battlestar Galactica") earned kudos for making the most of a batch of awful scripts.
Chatwin is also slated to appear in the upcoming biopic "Reagan" as Jack Reagan, the father of President Ronald Reagan (Dennis Quaid).