Has Frank Gallagher taken his last breath?

If Shameless Season 11 Episode 11 was any indication, then the man who didn't raise any of his kids took his fate into his own hands and ended his life.

It's hard not to feel a little bit emotional about it. He's been a horrible man, but the family decided to take him for who he is somewhere along the way.

Even Lip had a surprise chat with him that hit me right in the feels. We knew it was coming, but him injecting both doses of heroin into himself to end his life was tragic.

If you watch Shameless online, you know he's been struggling with alcohol-fueled dementia. He's been crafty as ever, but he had no clue what he was doing half the time, causing him a lot of confusion.

He also got "DNR" tattooed across his chest, meaning that there's a good chance any EMT will not even attempt to revive him.

My concern with this final storyline for Frank is the throwaway line about the golden brick. If he truly knew there was anything of value in the house or anywhere else, he would have dug it up years ago and cashed it in.

I can't be the only one who thinks his suicide note will include something about the whereabouts of this brick that could help turn things around for the family.

The most tragic thing about his death is that it will give Lip a nudge in the right direction. Lip has been circling the drain for a while now. He's under immense pressure and wants to find a way to cope.

That's why he's probably going to return to alcohol and drugs unless something is done. If he finds Frank's body, he will start to question his own decisions in life and how he doesn't want to wind up in the same boat.

Lip playing hardball about the house was another sad development. He thought he managed to get through to the property developer's assistant, but he learned the hard way that a deal should be closed immediately.

It's not hard to see why the property developer was so interested in that particular street. It needs regeneration, and with the surprising success of the Southside's gentrification, it will be another way to make money.

Lip desperately wanted the sale to go through to allow him to wash his hands of the house, get enough money to move away, and give his siblings some money.

Now that he's at a loss for what to do, maybe the family will pitch in and complete the house before it's too late. It's also possible the Gallaghers will find a way to revamp the house and keep it under their name to avoid it being changed too much.

I'm not sure what to make of the addition of Heidi at the last minute. The positive is that she got more development in her limited scenes than Debbie has had in her 11 seasons on the show.

But putting Debbie together with someone so chaotic is a recipe for disaster. Frannie wanted another mom, but she probably didn't want it at the expense of her biological mom being sent to jail.

Yes, Debbie seems poised to become a gun-wielding thug, and I'm not so sure I care about it all that much. We have 60 minutes of the series left, and it would be nice if Debbie reached her full potential.

Then again, Shameless has always been about showing the people less fortunate in the world, so perhaps expecting happiness all around is me expecting too much.

Out of all the characters, Carl remains the most consistently written. He's always been about helping people. It was easy to see him as a cop because we knew he would be able to change things.

Shameless typically tackles topics by making fun of them, so it was nice the police brutality storyline was handled much better.

Carl getting demoted for doing the right thing and sticking up for the people harmed by police was unfortunate, but I guess he's going to get a change of career on Shameless Season 11 Episode 12.

Mickey's struggle to adapt to living in the West Side is typical Mickey. He's never going to be able to leave his old life behind, no matter how much Ian pushes.

Ian has strived to have a better life, well away from the confines of the South Side, but there are only so many times Ian nudges Mickey before it's too much.

This is not a healthy relationship by any stretch of the imagination, but Shameless has never been about perfect people. These characters have their imperfections, but I don't feel comfortable leaving Ian and Mickey bitching at each other about living in the West Side.

There has to be a bigger hook on the series finale to give fans the closure they deserved. It's 11 seasons, and if they're acting like this, what will they be like in the future?

As the penultimate episode, it was inevitable the episode would conclude with a cliffhanger, but did anyone else expect Fiona to pop up at the last minute and wonder what the heck was going on?

If Emmy Rossum were really returning, the end of this episode would have been the perfect place to do it. Unfortunately, the series has one episode remaining, and there have been no notable returns.

This series has had hundreds of characters throughout that could pop back up to wrap the story up.

As a penultimate episode, I expected much more because I'm at a loss how the series can wrap up in a satisfying way with one episode remaining.

What are your thoughts on the developments? Do you think Frank will miraculously be revived in the finale when the EMTs arrive?

Hit the comments below.

Catch the series finale Sunday, April 11, on Showtime.

Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.