The Shameless Scene That Had Fans In Tears

The line "you were my mother too," continues to resonate with fans, a decade after it was uttered on the air. While Frank Gallagher has done his best to ruin his children's lives on occasion, the Gallagher matriarch Monica (Choe Webb) is arguably the most toxic. After battling with mental illness, Monica left Frank and all six of her children. She returns in Season 1 Episode 9 to reclaim her youngest, Liam. Monica argues that he is her child and she has a right to keep him and start her own family.

What is so devastating about the scene is how Fiona has reached adulthood alone. She has had to handle Frank's alcoholism as well as essentially being a mother herself. Fans are unanimous about how heartbreaking this is. "11 seasons later, hundreds of other shows watched and this single sentence is still one of the most heartbreaking thing I've ever heard," one Reddit user named u/frdlyneighbour wrote. 

Redditor u/pinkdietmountaindew agreed, writing: "I watch that scene when I need a good cry." In the scene, Fiona sobs as she recounts everything she did to raise her siblings. While she was the one that grew up without a mother, Monica is choosing to pick one child over all the rest. This is at the root of Fiona's childhood trauma and a wound that never goes away.