Shameless recently wrapped up season 8 on Sunday and luckily Shanola Hampton (aka Veronica) recently discussed exactly what went down.
Warning: if you haven’t seen the Shameless season finale yet, major spoilers ahead.
The end of the season saw a big change for Veronica and Kev: the end of their relationship with Svetlana. Although the thruple had already broken up romantically, V and Kev were still stuck with Svetlana since she had essentially stolen the bar from them. But the couple were determined to get Svetlana out of their lives for good, and by the end of the finale, they had done just that. They married her off to a rich, old white man and off she goes!
According to Shanola, the ending was inevitable. She told Cosmo,
“There was never going to be a moment where they would ever be what they were the season before, because she stole the bar from them and she made Veronica look stupid and she did things to really hurt Veronica and Kev’s family — she took food out of the babies’ mouths and made them struggle. So it had to come to an end. That’s not to say the Svetlana character couldn’t have gone on to other things, but with Kevin-Veronica-Svetlana, there was no way to come back from that.”
But saying goodbye to Svet, aka Isidora Goreshter, in real life was much harder. Shanola said,
“Isidora — you’re talking about a Hollywood dream story. This is a person who came on the show and was expected to do one scene — the sex scene, with one line — and be done, never to see the Russian whore again. And she made it five seasons to a series regular last year. She worked her way all the way up, which is such a testament to her talent, and it was really a great vibe to be able to play opposite her. It was definitely bitter, but I know she’s going to go on and do unbelievable things.”
The season 8 finale was a bit controversial among fans. Many felt the finale was a whimper, with no big cliffhangers or changes among the Gallagher clan. Fiona continues to deal with her new life as a building owner, Lip is still learning how to deal with his sobriety, Carl is going back to military school, Debbie is working her welding job, and V and Kev are back to owning the bar.
Luckily, this won’t be the end for the Southside crew. The show has already been renewed for season 9, but it’s not been announced yet whether that will be the final season. According to Executive Producer Nancy Pimental, they don’t even know how the series will end.
“We have end game ideas, like a couple little things, for once we know it’s the official end. We’re a bit more fly by the seat of our pants in letting the stories and characters kind of inform us of where they want to go. But we have a thought or two of where we want to go and who we feel like will have some sense of success and some sense of who will stay where they are.”
The team is truly playing it by ear and haven’t even started writing the next season yet. Shanola said,
“The writers haven’t even been back in the room. I don’t even know if they’re staffed yet. That would be fun, but I have no idea. I was with a couple of the writers last night and they seemed to honestly not know what was going to happen. I don’t know! It’ll be fascinating for us all.”
Shameless season 8 is available on Showtime and seasons 1-7 are available on Netflix.
