"Father's Day" is the fifth episode of the second season of the American television comedy drama Shameless, an adaptation of the British series of the same name.
The series is set on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, and depicts the poor, dysfunctional family of Frank Gallagher, a neglectful single father of six: Fiona, Phillip, Ian, Debbie, Carl, and Liam.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 1.01 million household viewers and gained a 0.5 ratings share among adults aged 18–49.
Sheila (Joan Cusack) is shaken by the revelation, but Frank (William H. Macy) views this as an opportunity to collect Eddie's life insurance benefits and pension.
As he celebrates in the Alibi, Kevin (Steve Howey) informs Frank he is a prime suspect in his death, as Eddie threatened him in the bar before his disappearance.
Ian (Cameron Monaghan) meets with Colonel Kirk McNally, a United States Department of Defense representative, hoping to be enrolled into West Point.
Club gave the episode a "B+" grade and wrote, "The world of Shameless is a large one, what with the Gallaghers themselves, their co-conspirators, and their romantic entanglements, so the temptation to turn it into an equal-opportunity ensemble show is an understandable one.
Any episode that pushes Fiona to the fore is automatically going to appeal to me, and "Father's Day" definitely did that, but it also successfully braided together some hanging threads and renewed the interest in some characters and storylines that had started to wane.
"[4] Kevin Fitzpatrick of TV Overmind wrote, "last week's Shameless, or the seemingly monumental development of having Justin Chatwin officially return as 'Steve,' but that really wasn't what 'Fathers Day' was all about.
We find a dead body, a hooker living at Chez Gallagher, a potentially-cheating Kevin, Frank in handcuffs, some seriously below the belt prison violence, Fiona's rich girl charade and of course, the return of Steve.