There’s nothing we like better than seeing a nasty piece of work like this get his comeuppance, and no-one better to deliver that vengeance than Jamie Maguire, who has displayed remarkable self-control since coming out of prison, especially considering what he was in for. But now that his mask of non-violence has slipped, revealing the demon that always lurked just beneath the surface, how is he going to avoid a return ticket to pokey? There’s a clue in his name. When the clan Maguire pull together, they’re a formidable force. Trouble is, as Jamie soon discovers, not only are they not pulling together, most of them are pulling in different directions. And some of them may as well just be pulling.

So Joe takes a kicking and Mimi takes the rap, while Mandy carries on visiting Joe as if nothing had happened. With Paddy still shooting up, his protection business is going down the pan, and it’s not helped by Micky and Shane, who were clearly swimming in a different pool when the Maguire genes were handed out. It’s left to Jamie to show them how intimidation should be done. With very little left to the imagination, is the answer.

Meanwhile there’s a special delivery to Paddy’s while Frank is on baby sitting duty. A very special, pure, delivery, with a warning from the delivery boy to make sure it’s well cut to avoid killing any punters. Paddy’s cunning is operating at full stretch, and he tricks Frank into running an errand so he can get his hands on the smack. Frank returns in the nick of time, and his struggle to stop Paddy administering a lethal injection is heard by the boys, so finally Paddy’s secret is completely out of the bag. And so is he.

With the majority of this episode devoted in one way or another to the Maguires, you had to be on the ball to spot any humour, which was sparse and fleeting, and appears to be becoming ever more so in this series. What humour there was, was as black as Shameless is famous for, one memorable moment being when Mimi was bent over being “prepared” for prison. After a deal of grunting and grimacing Paddy declared “right, that’s the phone. Ready for the charger?” I guess it helps that she’s had four kids.

If you tuned in late you’ll have missed the most light-hearted humour of the night, which happened in the first five minutes when Frank took to the pitch in place of Carl (who was late). We’re used to seeing Frank dribbling, but he doesn’t usually have a football between his legs at the time. In fact he was so good I thought it would turn out to be another of his hallucinations but no, he really did score that goal. Nice one Frank.