How Showtime Pranked Emmy Rossum On Shameless

Throughout the first nine seasons of Showtime's "Shameless," it's fair to say that Fiona Gallagher was the most important character in the entire series. "Shameless" follows the highly dysfunctional, shamelessly degenerate Gallagher family as they struggle to survive in South Side Chicago. Since Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy) proved time and time again to be a woefully inept father to his six children, it fell to his daughter Fiona to raise the other Gallaghers and run the household whenever Frank disappeared.

As such, Fiona was the primary focus of the show before her surprising departure in the series' ninth season. Unfortunately, Fiona has a tendency for self-sabotage throughout the series, and much of the series' drama comes from watching her make horrible choices. And yet, throughout it all, you can't help but root for her, no doubt due to the excellent performance of actor Emmy Rossum, who helped give the character a large amount of depth.

Despite the fact that Rossum was (in many ways) the heart and soul of the series as a whole, the team from Showtime still managed to have a bit of fun at her expense at the end of "Shameless" Season 4.

One of the biggest twists in "Shameless" Season 4 is the shocking return of Jimmy Lishman, aka Steve (Justin Chatwin), Fiona's former love interest from Seasons 1-3, who had abruptly abandoned her in the Season 3 finale. During her AMA on Reddit, Rossum revealed that the showrunners actually took extreme measures to keep Jimmy's return to the series a secret from her to the point where she only found out about the twist after the episode had already aired.

"Little did i Know, they actually FLEW Justin to Chicago, hired a different crew, kept him in a different hotel, and filmed – UNBEKNOWNST TO ANY OF US – a scene that would end season 4," Rossum wrote. "It was so top secret that it wasn't until it aired that i Knew it happened."

Rossum explained that, initially, she was furious about being kept in the dark because she had been asking the network to bring back Jimmy all season long. Rossum said that it was only after the head of Showtime sent her an email that said "GOTCHA" that she understood that the whole thing was meant to be a joke, and after that, she stopped feeling angry and was simply happy that Jimmy was back in the series once again.