Ian Gallagher got a romantic -- if unconventional -- send off on Sunday night's episode, and fans had some feelings about it.
Spoiler Warning! Do not read if you haven't seen Sunday night's episode of Shameless.
Goodbye, Ian.
Last week, Cameron Monaghan revealed to fans that Sunday night's episode of Shameless would be his last, and sure enough, the Gallagher family said goodbye to one of their own, who was given a romantic -- if unconventional -- exit. Ian heads off to prison where he is reunited with his first major love interest on the show, Mickey Milkovich (Noel Fisher), who has been imprisoned since season 6.
"I rolled on the cartel I was working for, and in exchange, guess who gets to pick where he gets locked up?" Mickey tells a flabergasted Ian, who can mutter only, "Holy f**k."
"Oh, hey, I got bottom, so, you're on top," Mickey playfully adds, as "Pink and White" by Frank Ocean stars playing, and the two share a kiss on the jail bunk.
It's probably the sweetest way a love story (that concludes in prison, anyway), could end, and after the episode, Showtime shared a sweet video looking back at the couple's major moments on the show.
While fans had to be sad that Monaghan would be leaving the show, they cried tears of joy with how he left, taking to Twitter to share their reactions -- and sobbing emojis.
"All good things come to an end," Monaghan wrote on Twitter last Tuesday, confirming his exit, after appearing on the show since it originated in 2011. "An old cliche, but one that rings true with a sincerity and clarity especially in moments like these. Everything ends."
Of course, Monaghan isn't the only actor saying goodbye to the long-running Showtime series. In August, Emmy Rossum, who plays Fiona, the beloved big sister and de facto head-of-household for the Gallagher family, revealed that season 9 of the show would be her last.
"The opportunity to play Fiona has been a gift," Rossum wrote in a farewell letter. "There are few characters -- female or otherwise -- as layered and dynamic. She is a mother lion, fierce, flawed and sexually liberated. She is injured, vulnerable, but will never give up. She is living in an economic depression, but refuses to be depressed. She is resourceful. She is loyal. She is brave. I knew it the second I read the pilot script, this was different, this was special. I tirelessly prepped the audition with my coach Terry Knickerbocker. I walked to the appointment in the rain so I looked disheveled. During my third audition, when I got the part IN the room, I literally jumped up and down screaming in joyous relief and disbelief. Quite simply, the last eight years have been the best of my life."
Earlier this month, ET spoke to William H. Macy, who plays Frank, the Gallagher siblings' derelict father, who admitted that at the table read for Rossum's last episode, he let the waterworks flow.
"I'm the one that blew it. We did a table read for her last episode, I cried right in the middle of the table read in front of everyone," Macy revealed. "It was so bad and my voice turned into some weird voice I'd never heard as I was trying to muscle through it and then everybody else started crying, so at least I didn't look like a complete jerk."
Watch the video below for more.
Shameless airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime.
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