Headscratchers / Shameless (US)

• Season 1, Episode 10: Bob's scheme to take Liam away by proving Liam's true ancestry was doomed to failure, no matter the results of the DNA test. Illinois is a "presumptive paternity" state (like 47 other states), meaning if a woman has a baby while she's married, her husband is the father, regardless of whether or not he actually sired the child. While this particular law is intended to serve a different purpose (ensuring a divorced father remains obligated to care for children he'd previously accepted), it would also preserve Frank's parental rights if it had turned out Liam truly was some other dude's biological son. That's not to say a family court wouldn't have sided with Bob and Monica anyway, but the DNA test would not have empowered them to bypass the court battle the way Bob was convinced it would.
  • In the end, what really mattered more was that Frank was basically okay with selling Liam to them in exchange for the settlement. The court stuff didn't matter because it was more about convincing Monica to not try to take Liam. In court she'd probably end up getting him but it never came to that.
• So after Fiona becomes Legal Guardians of her siblings why does she think it's ok to threaten to kick them out if they don't provide "their cut" in season 7? Clearly Lip and Ian are over 18 at this point but she still has a legal responsibility to provide for the others. One which she purposely volunteered for.
  • Probably a cycle of abuse and neglect that she learned from her parents.
• How can they afford for every kid to have an iPhone? Fiona received an iPhone from Jimmy/Steve in Season 1. Lip received an iPhone from Amanda in Season 4. With Ian off on his own and supporting himself, we can probably safely assume that he bought it himself and is on an independent plan. But Debbie and Carl make no sense. An iPhone with a plan, as Debbie and Carl each seem to have, assuming they bought the cheapest ones on the market and added it onto Fiona and Lip's plan, would probably cost $200 right off the bat and an extra $40-$100 a month on the cell phone bill. Unless they text and call a lot, disposable flip phones that can be bought at convenience stores and filled with minutes and data as needed would still be economical.
  • The family would be able to live relatively comfortably for South Side if Frank didn't constantly waste the various public assistance he gets. The kids probably extracted the phones out of him as some kind of bribe for helping him out of one of his normal problems. Given how according to Lip he spends about seven hundred dollars on liquor a month, it's not out of the question they extract phone bills out of that as needed. Especially because he doesn't keep very good track of his own money. Or conceivably Jimmy/Steve got them as birthday gifts and has been paying for the plans himself, given how it's basically his belief that he can spend his way into their hearts.
  • It wouldn't be too much of a stretch for Carl and Debbie to have stolen iPhones. Either Carl stole them or they bought stolen ones at a very cheap rate. Either way it's not impossible. Besides with Ian and Lip not staying at the house any more there's bound to be some more savings. And there's always hollidays. I'm pretty sure part of the squirrel fund is supposed to be for presents and I'm also sure they wouldn't be giving each other things they don't need as presents, so it makes sense that they may have got an iPhone or some money together and got one or two.
• Was there ever an in-universe explanation as to why Kev never filed the divorce papers from his estranged wife, which were so important back in Season 3 (other than it just being a convenient way to introduce the throuple plot)? I legitimately can't remember an explanation other than an offhand "Oh, I never filed them" three seasons later. And even if it wasn't explained in-universe, why not? It might cost some money, but a long time passed between seasons 3 and 6, and Fiona herself procured a divorce attorney relatively easily.
• Why didn't Fiona claim that Robbie was a liar and say he forced himself on her? If she truly, truly wanted to be with Mike and hated Robbie as much as she said she did, why not ruin his life that way? Then she could've saved her relationship with Mike and her family. As Robbie's own family didn't seem to like him.
• Why was the best job Jimmy/Steve could get as a barista? Obviously he dropped out of medical school so he can't be a doctor, but medical school requires that someone has a Bachelor's degree before admission. He's probably got some sort of education in biology on a premed track that should qualify him for many forms of employment that require a college degree.