Warning: The following contains spoilers for Sunday’s Shameless finale.
Shameless said goodbye to its leading lady Emmy Rossum on Sunday night with a finale that saw matriarch Fiona Gallagher leave Chicago behind.
After visiting Ian in prison and getting a pep talk from her brother, a scared Fi decided to take her newfound wealth (thanks, Max!) and start fresh somewhere else. While Lip, Debbie and the rest of her siblings readied to throw her a farewell bash, Fiona took her one suitcase and quietly slipped out of the house — but not before, once again, not getting her due from Frank.
As the hour drew to a close, Fiona boarded a plane for the first time, embarking to an unknown location. (Possibly somewhere closer to the equator, she told Ian.)
Below, executive producer John Wells, who wrote and directed the episode, talks about Fiona’s happy ending and her unintentionally mysterious destination. The EP also addresses Ian’s return to the series and what it means for his relationship with Mickey.
TVLINE | There’s a number of ways Fiona could have left the series. What was your approach to her exit? What kind of an ending did you want to give her?
I wanted it to feel very true to who Fiona is and how important she’s been to the family. We didn’t want to do “Fiona dies” or anything, because we’re very hopeful that over however much longer we do the series that we see Fiona again, that Emmy will come back and do a thing here or there for us. But I also wanted to be true to the idea that even though she’s the oldest sister, she’s been the mother to her siblings for all these years. I wanted to be true to that moment when you realize that you did a good job, and they’ve moved on and don’t need you as much, and you need to actually think about what you want now and who you are. She’s given up a lot of years of trying to figure out exactly who she was supposed to be to take care of them, and this seemed like the best way to do it.
TVLINE | I’m not talking about her dying, but she did go through a really dark time and could have potentially gone out in a very somber or difficult way. But then in the penultimate episode, things took a happy, lucky turn for her. Was it important for you that she went out on a high note?
Yeah. We didn’t think that she had completely turned herself around, but we wanted her to not be without any sort of hope whatsoever about her possible future.
TVLINE | Was this the ending you always envisioned for Fiona? Or did it shift over time?
It shifted once we knew that [Emmy] was leaving. To suggest that we plan anything very much… that would be incorrect. We think about it, but you don’t want to think about it too far ahead, because you want to be aware of changes that happen. Like what happens with people as they grow up or get older, and things change for the characters and the actors. So you want to be open to it. If Emmy had wanted to stay longer, and we were ending the series, I think we would have left her probably getting married or [at] some other step in her life, moving forward, but she would have still been very much a part of the family and part of the place. But Emmy has been terrific for nine seasons and came to me and said she was ready to try some other things. She’s a very talented writer and director, in addition to being a wonderful actress. She got married to Sam [Esmail] a couple years ago, and they spend a lot of time apart. All of it went in towards her taking the next step in her life.