Shameless Will Explore Baby Liam's Parentage

Shameless fans wondering about where the youngest Gallagher child came from will soon get an explanation.

In the Showtime series, drunken patriarch Frank (William H. Macy) is so unreliable, his oldest daughter Fiona (Emmy Rossum) has to manage the hectic household and her five siblings. Baby Liam (Blake and Brennan Johnson) is obviously of mixed parentage -- born from the same mother, but with an unknown father -- a fact that was glossed over in the show's premiere.

Shameless is biggest drama premiere in seven years

"We've explained the inability to figure out his heritage," executive producer John Wells said at the Television Critics Association winter previews Friday. "But there are actually a couple episodes coming up -- [Episode] 9 and 10, somewhere in that area -- in which there's an attempt to figure that out."

"The chaos in the family is such that they honestly don't know. Everyone has their own theory and they try to figure out which theory is correct."

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And even though Liam's origins will be explored, don't expect the Gallaghers' treatment of him to change, regardless of what they discover.

"I think it's really cool that nobody really cares," Rossum said. "They're just a family and love each other, and it doesn't really matter if they share 100 percent genetic material with each other. They're in it to live and love each other and take care of each other. A good person steps up to the plate and says, 'This is a child, I need to take care of this child' and does it."

Shameless airs Sundays at 10/9 c on Showtime.