Lip Gallagher was one of the most popular characters on Shameless, but that popularity was likely because fans chose to ignore some of the troubling and unlikeable aspects of the character. Shameless introduced American audiences to the problematic Gallagher family, a clan stricken by poverty that lives together on Chicago's South Side. Led by absentee alcoholic (and possibly sociopathic) patriarch Frank, there are six Gallagher siblings living together in one house who are primarily cared for by their eldest sister Fiona. However, when Fiona left in season 9, Lip became the central character of the Gallagher children.

Out of all the Gallagher children, Lip was the biggest conundrum. Played by The Bear's Jeremy Allen White, Lip was constantly torn between his academic success and his tumultuous upbringing. While he excelled more than his peers and family in school, Lip doesn't graduate college and ends up making a fair few poor relationship choices along the way. While Shameless was a show that embraced the flaws of its characters, there were aspects of Lip's character throughout the series that make him a much harder character to like when looking back.

Lip Kicked Fiona Out Of The House

Season 9, Episode 11, "The Hobo Games"

Considering that he has a history of problematic drinking and substance abuse, and generally hasn't always made the best decisions in life, Lip Gallagher is one of the last characters in Shameless with a moral high ground from which to judge others. This is why it was such an aggravating character moment in the season 9 episode "The Hobo Games" when Lip kicked Fiona out of the Gallagher home for drinking.

Instead of showing Fiona some comion for her own problems with drinking and substance use, Lip gives in to his anger and forces Fiona to leave the Gallagher home.

Granted, Fiona had just unknowingly tempted Lip's AA sponsor, Jason, into relapsing, and caused problems for Lip's attempts to adopt Xan. However, instead of showing Fiona some comion for her own problems with drinking and substance use, Lip gives in to his anger and forces Fiona to leave the Gallagher home. It was a moment of huge hypocrisy for Lip, and was especially frustrating since it was a missed opportunity to be a beneficial presence in Fiona's life instead of a source of more problems.

He Knowingly Interns At An Illegal Company

Season 7, Episode 4, "I Am A Storm"

Season 7 of Shamless included a plot thread for several episodes where Lip started working at a tech company, a job that Professor Youens arranges for him. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the company is involved in several shadier dealings, and that their business model may not be entirely legal. Rather than do the responsible thing and quit, Lip decides to continue working for the company and even uses their questionable methods as inspiration to make himself some profit.

This is yet another moment of poor decision-making from Lip. Deciding to stay on at the company backfires too, as it ultimately costs him his place at college. The biggest grievance many Shameless fans have with Lip is that he squanders many opportunities, not to mention his intellectual potential, when he sees a chance to make a short-term gain — and choosing to stay at an illegal company when he has so much on the line is a prime example of this particular character flaw.

Lip Killed An Old Man

Season 9, Episode 3, "Weirdo Gallagher Vortex"

Lip has a complex relationship with parenthood and guardianship, which has led to several low-points for him throughout Shameless. However, one that doesn't get addressed anywhere near as often as it should came in the season 9 episode "Weirdo Gallagher Vortex". In this episode, Xan is in hospital after breaking her arm. Since he's not her legal guardian, Lip finds he's unable to have her released from the hospital with him. In typical Lip Gallagher fashion, he cooks up a plan to get what he wants, and amazingly, this one doesn't seem to backfire.

Essentially, Lip creates a distraction by pulling the oxygen tank and life- from another patient in the hospital. This causes a medical emergency that requires all the doctors and nurses on the ward, and during the chaos Lip and Xan are able to sneak out. It's not known exactly what happened to the elderly male patient Lip chose, but there's every chance they could have died. Even if they survived, Lip had no way of knowing they were OK, meaning, from his perspective, he was completely willing to murder a helpless patient in a hospital just to ensure Xan stayed in his care.

He Ruined His Girlfriend's Career

Season 6, Episode 6, "NSFW"

Almost all of Lip's romantic relationships in Shameless have been problematic, but his fling with Helene saw Lip at perhaps his most irresponsible. In fact, this single relationship contains several examples of the worst things Lip Gallagher did in the show, and not just because of the ramifications it had for his own life. It's safe to say that Lip ruined his girlfriend Helene's life, or at the very least her career.

During season 6, Lip's other girlfriend, Amanda, finds out about his relationship with Helene, and in a fit of jealousy leaks naked photos of her rival in Lip's dorm. Once these photos get out, Helene's career is all but over. She has to attend a hearing at the university, and is only able to keep her job by agreeing to cut things off with Lip for good. However, even though she evades being fired, her professional reputation is forever in tatters. The whole situation could have been avoided had Lip never taken the photos, and, of course, not been cheating on Helene with Amanda/Amanda with Helene.

Lip Tries To Make Charlie Relapse

Season 8, Episode 2, "Where's My Meth?"

Lip has done some unforgivable things in the pursuit of romance, but few moments were as low as in season 8 when jealousy led him to try and make Charlie relapse. In season 8 of Shameless, Lip is desperately trying to persue a relationship with Sierra, who has been growing close to Charlie. Rather than respecting Sierra's desires and choices, Lip instead decides that he'll make recovering addict Charlie fall off the wagon by giving him a pizza topped with Cocaine.

The moment is almost hard to watch, especially since Lip has had his own struggles with sobriety, and knows just how badly he'll end up destroying Charlie's life if he causes Charlie to relapse.

Thankfully, Charlie doesn't eat the pizza and instead continues on with his journey to sobriety. It's an incredibly spiteful moment from Lip, and is among the most inexcusable things Lip ever did on Shameless. The moment is almost hard to watch, especially since Lip has had his own struggles with sobriety, and knows just how badly he'll end up destroying Charlie's life if he causes Charlie to relapse.

Lip Didn't Recognize Ian's Sexuality

Season 1, Episode 1, "Pilot"

From the very first episode of Shameless, it was made clear to viewers that Ian and Lip were far more like best friends than brothers. Despite their extremely close relationship, however, Lip failed to realize that Ian was solely attracted to men and that he was in a secret relationship with his married convenience store boss.

It didn't take long for Lip to accept Ian after coming out, but it's still very surprising that Lip didn't know or Ian didn't feel comfortable disclosing the truth with his closest confidante. It says a lot about Lip's views on sexuality early on in the show, and while there aren't any moments where Lip is outright homophobic, it may well be that some of the things he said to Ian in the past made Ian fearful to disclose the truth to his older brother.

He Used Karen To "Test" His Brother

Season 1, Episode 1, "Pilot"

When Lip Gallagher found out that Ian was attracted to other men, he wasn't initially ive and didn't even fully believe his brother. He punched Ian for messing around with his boss out of fear that he was being taken advantage of and brought him to Karen's house to "test" his orientation. Lip asked Karen to perform oral sex on Ian, to see if he might just be confused and could possibly enjoy being with a woman.

This is offensive to both Karen — the girl Lip eventually fell for — and Ian, whose preference wasn't a choice and wasn't something he should have been forced to prove.

Lip Didn't Want To Live Up To His Potential

Season 2, Episode 8, "Parenthood"

Most of the Gallagher children grew up thinking that they couldn't possibly amount to anything in life. Fiona constantly struggled to balance her obligation to her family and her own personal ambition, Ian's difficulty accepting his own bipolar disorder held him back, Carl's fondness for his derelict father initially made him want to be just as wild as Frank, and Debbie's only real goal was to be a teenage mother.

Lip, meanwhile, knew that he could accomplish big things, but he simply didn't want to.

Lip was resentful of the fact that his family expected him to be their "golden goose" and make enough money to help them get by, so he didn't try particularly hard at anything. He seems to use his street smarts far more often than he utilizes his actual intelligence. This is the primary conflict between him and Fiona in season 2, as Lip is determined to drop out of school, but Fiona won't let him. Having his entire family relying on him is a weight that's simply too heavy for him to bear.

He Didn't Step Up As Liam's Guardian Until He Had To

Season 4, Episode 6, "Iron City"

When Monica Gallagher left her husband and children and Frank started spending more time at the local bar than with his family, Fiona was forced to step up and take care of her siblings. She became their primary guardian despite also having several jobs and a variety of other things on her plate. Lip was smart enough to help ease Fiona's workload and take on some of the responsibilities around the house, but he didn't really seem to start doing so until his hand was forced.

After Liam overdosed as Fiona accidentally left substances lying around the house, Lip rose up to be his main caregiver. He started taking care of his baby brother and worked harder to provide for his family. That being said, it really shouldn't have taken such a major slip-up from Fiona for him to do that and Lip had a tendency to shirk responsibility for as long as possible thanks to his growing resentment surrounding his family's attitude about his prowess in school.

Lip Didn't Take His Education Seriously

Season 6, Episode 12, "Familia Supra Gallegorious Omnia!"

Lip is constantly praised for his intelligence, but he may actually show the least respect for the education system out of all of the characters on Shameless. While he was in high school, Lip took money from his fellow students to take their SATs for them. A few months later, he simply dropped out of school in Shameless season 2 even though Fiona threatened to kick him out of his home if he did so.

While he did actually put in some effort in college, he quickly found himself expelled because he couldn't control his temper and assaulted a campus guard.

While he did go on to get his GED, Lip never would have graduated if it weren't for Fiona's constant nagging, and he wouldn't have attended college if Mandy didn't apply for him. The final nail in the coffin for his educational career is when Lip didn't graduate college in season 4. While he did actually put in some effort in college, he quickly found himself expelled because he couldn't control his temper and assaulted a campus guard. He failed to fully realize how his actions might affect his future, leading to his disappointing ending in the Shameless series finale.