'Shameless' Showrunner Opens up About Happy Ending for Emmy Rossum's Fiona

Emmy Rossum's Fiona ended up going back home in the Shameless fall finale, but it is possible for [...]

Emmy Rossum's Fiona ended up going back home in the Shameless fall finale, but it is possible for her character to have a happy ending before Rossum leaves the show at the end of season nine.

In an interview with TV Line, showrunner John Wells was asked if Fiona could have a happy ending after losing her boyfriend and apartment in "Down Like The Titanic."

"Yes, although there are a lot of fairy tales about what a — excuse the pun — happy ending is for most people. What is that we need to be happy? What is it that we want? A lot of these ideas about what it's supposed to be like are not what really makes us happy, and that's what she's starting to figure out," Wells explained.

"I hope that at the end of the next seven episodes that you'll feel pleased about where she ends up," the executive producer continued. "But I don't want to suggest that suddenly everything is rosy for Fiona."

In fact, Wells said Fiona still has "some further to fall" in the second half of the season. She is going to learn that her Gallagher siblings no longer need her as a parental figure and has to decide what to do next.

"Up to this point, her life has been defined by raising her siblings — not that she had a choice. Who's she going to be now when they're basically all growing up or grown up?" Wells told TV Line.

One thing Wells could guarantee is that Fiona will not be killed off. He told The Hollywood Reporter that Fiona is leaving the family, but would not say what finally makes her reach that decision.

"I'm being vague because I don't want to lose the fun of what she actually chooses to do or how that comes to be," Wells told THR. "I hope that people who have invested as many years in watching the show and caring about these characters as we have that it feels satisfying and enjoyable."

In August, Rossum announced she would be leaving the show at the end of season nine.

"The opportunity to play Fiona has been a gift. There are few characters — female or otherwise — as layered and dynamic. She is a mother lion, fierce, flawed and sexually liberated," she wrote on Facebook. "She is injured, vulnerable, but will never give up. She is living in an economic depression, but refuses to be depressed. She is resourceful. She is loyal. She is brave."

Rossum went on to say that the Shameless family was the family she never had as an only child.

"We have made over 100 hours of television. That's no small feat," she wrote. "There's a new study that says it takes 100 hours to become friends with someone. The Gallaghers have been in people's living rooms for 100 hours. So, it makes sense. We can feel your connection to us, to these characters. In the airport, in restaurants, on the street, when people call out 'Hi Fiona' 'Oh my god, it's Lip' or 'Screw you Frank!' ... it feels good."

New episodes of Shameless return on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET on Jan. 20.

Photo credit: Isabella Vosmikova/SHOWTIME

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