Karen Maguire

Karen Maguire^[1] (née Jackson; born 12 June 1987), is a fictional character from the Channel 4 drama Shameless portrayed by Rebecca Atkinson. She appears in every series and the longest running actor on the show. At the start of the series she is shown to be a 'slag' and a 'tart' sleeping with multiple men but by the end of the show she is 'mature' but with an 'harder edge' due to the fact that she becomes a Maguire at the end of series 4. During the series, she has both blonde and brown hair.

The U.S. counterpart is played by Laura Slade Wiggins, but only appears in the first three seasons and never marries into the 'Milkovich' family (the U.S. version of the Maguire family).

Before 2007, Karen doesn't have as many major storylines but after she features in majority of them heavily. Altogether Karen has appeared in 129 episodes and is the one of two (the other being Frank Gallagher) to appear in every series. In reality, Rebecca Atkinson's partner is Ben Batt who played Joe Pritchard in the show, who Karen had an affair with in series 6 and 7.

Storylines

Before 2007

Karen is the daughter of Sheila Gallagher and her second husband, Eddie Jackson. Nigel and Delia are her half-brother and sister. She becomes estranged from both parents throughout the series. She is Lip Gallagher's girlfriend in series 1, but seduces Lip's father and her mums new partner Frank and has an affair with him. She then leaves to stay with her grandmother but later returns in the Christmas episode and has dinner with the Gallagher family. She is still however shown to be the same when she performs oral sex on a soldier to get into a contaminated Chatsworth estate. The same episode, her mum gives birth to twins, Nigel and Delia. She later works at The Jockey, the local pub (and it would be a running gag of how Karen constantly serves Frank a drink knowing he won't pay for it). She got the job by pretending to be a lesbian to Jez. She begins friendships with Kev Ball and Jez. Kev's partner Veronica is jealous of Karen as she flirts wuth her and headbuts her several times getting herself banned from The Jockey, however they later make friends when Karen gets Jez to allow her in The Jockey. She does this by kissing Jez and getting closer to her before asking. Sheila believes that Karen is a lesbian so Karen goes along with it and leads on Jez, who is an open lesbian. Sheila finds out and hopes that one of her newborn twins become one. Sheila leaves in series 4, when she separates from Frank, whom she married in series 3. The marriage turned out the be bigamous as he was still married to his previous wife.

Karen continues to have sexual encounters with many men until she meets Jamie, her future husband.

2007–13

Karen is considerably more mature in series 4. Jamie Maguire returns from prison and moves in the pub with her and Jez. The Maguire family are feared amongst Manchester and have a gangster reputation. Her and Jamie become a couple and he asks to marry her. She says yes but soon has doubts. On her 'hen night' Karen, Jamie's sister Mandy and his mother Mimi attempt a robbery. At first Karen doesn't want to be part of a gangster family and learns that Jamie has murdered more people. However at the end of the series, she runs to The Jockey to which her and Jamie marry in front of friends and family. Jamie and Karen then co-run the pub. Series 5 sees her becoming increasingly, albeit grudgingly, more involved with the Maguire family and their somewhat violent way of life such as ordering Paddy to torture Jamie's cell mate into confessing his crime so He wouldn't get locked up again. Karen suffers a miscarriage early in season 6 and very soon after, her changing behavior and the loss of their child starts creating a large rift in their marriage. As she and Jamie argue over shared ownership of The Jockey and other problems which leads his termination, Karen finds herself drawn to her sister-in-law, Mandy's, abusive boyfriend Joe Pritchard, and has sex with him shortly after Jamie moves out. Joe becomes increasingly controlling, threatening to reveal their affair, and makes a failed attempt to buy out Jamie's portion of The Jockey. During this, the Maguires find out Joe has been physically abusing Mandy, and Jamie is almost sent back to prison after brutally beating him. When Jamie moves back in with Karen, she is able to end her affair with Joe by threatening him that if she claims to the Maguires that he's once again been beating Mandy, they will murder him. The last episode of series 6 reveals Karen to be once again pregnant; however she is unsure whether the father is Jamie Maguire or Joe, who laughs and tells her "You belong to me now."

In the first episode of series 7, Karen is two weeks overdue in her pregnancy, and can't wait to have the birth over and done with. When Mimi tells her that sex several times a day could make her waters break quicker, Karen tells that "they've" been "at it" all the time, and flashbacks show that she's been having sex with both Jamie and Joe, implying that her brief affair with Joe from series 6 has continued, despite Karen's often cold attitude towards him. In the same episode, Karen goes into labour after having a brief confrontation with Joe in the empty bar of the Jockey (Everybody else were celebrating at Frank's birthday party). After taunting her, Joe decided to help a scared Karen deliver what could be his son, who would be christened Connor Joseph Maguire. Despite playing happy families with "proud dad" Jamie, Joe tells that she's kidding herself into thinking that she wants Jamie, when she really only wants Joe, branding Jamie "boring". Karen would then engage in risky sex in the Maguires' living room with Joe, nearly being caught out by Paddy. Afterwards, Joe would declare that he loves her and they should be a family. Along with Karen's out of control behavior with Joe, she starts to act strange and starts losing Connor on a regular basis. For example, she hides her baby in a dresser drawer. On the third episode of the 7th series Karen starts to act in a strange manner by becoming obsessed with exercising and thinking that she can start her own fitness business, bouncing on a trampoline outside, going out late at night to buy groceries and putting baby Connor in a wardrobe. Karen's erratic behaviour deteriorates further as she starts ripping wall paper off the walls and playing music at high volume, even attempting suicide by falling from a window at one point. She is saved from her suicide attempt by a quick-thinking Paddy Maguire, who shows his sensitive side when he expresses deep care and sympathy for her. Finally Karen has to be restrained by medics and is placed in a psychiatric unit. Karen is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. When she returns home, she struggles to repair her marriage to Jamie, who is unable to have sex with her because the image of Karen during her breakdown is deeply ingrained in his mind. Jamie, unknown to Karen, begins having sex with other women for money, and to get away from her. Jamie does not derive any pleasure from having sex with other women and is motivated by the financial gain. Eventually he stops prostituting himself when Paddy discovers what Jamie has been up to and tries to be happy with Karen.

As much as Karen is repulsed by the sordid nature of her affair with Joe, she is also drawn to it, and is disappointed when Joe briefly stops seeing her. When he begins going to anger management meetings, Karen repeatedly tries to taunt him, throwing cereal around his shop and offering to resume their fling, but he refuses. Karen, pretending to be Joe's wife, drops into one of his meetings and listens to him as he talks about his attempts to control himself and how much he cares about her and their son.

The uneasy distance between Joe and Karen continues until Joe's father dies. Joe wants to start a new life with Karen and Connor and pushes Karen repeatedly to take Connor and leave Jamie. She also stops taking her medication, with her more erratic personality being closer to Joe than to Jamie. Joe eventually takes matters into his own hands, telling Jamie that he's sleeping with his wife, and he wants her and "their" son. Feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what she wants, she leaves with Joe, warning him that Jamie will kill them. In retaliation, Jamie digs up Joe's dead father, and confronts them outside the store, telling Karen it is her last chance to come home with him, and leaving the body at the side of the building. She stays with Joe, but soon begins to question her choice as she starts taking her bipolar meds again. After some close scrapes, Joe and Karen manage to sneak Connor away from Jamie, and Joe announces they're leaving the Chatsworth estate, although Karen is becoming increasingly unsettled at both the idea of a future with Joe and the feeling that Joe's decided what will happen without giving her a choice. She confides her worries to Ian Gallagher, who sneaks into the trunk of the car right before they leave the estate, worried for Karen and Connor. As Karen's doubts rattle Joe, she is subjected to verbal and finally physical abuse finally realizing Joe has been manipulating her the whole time. When Karen attempts to call Jamie, telling Joe this was all a mistake and she had to go home and fix things, Joe begins strangling her. Ian gets out of the trunk, and repeatedly hits Joe in the back of the head while in an act of self defense until he releases her and falls to the ground. Telling Karen to take Connor back and do whatever it takes to make it work with Jamie, he drags Joe's body to the trunk and then drives the car away leaving Karen to decide to continue on to her planned destination and start a new life with Connor or finally stop running from her problems and take Ian's advice and going back to Chatsworth so Connor could live a normal life with both his parents raising him.^[2]

In Series 8 Karen returns to speak to Jamie, and they begin going to marital counseling, during which Karen admits that she made a mistake, and tells Jamie that Joe is dead, although not how he died. After several rough sessions in which he makes it clear that he finds it difficult to forgive her, Jamie tells her that he wants her and Connor back home, and that they will have to see if it can work out. At the beginning of her voiceover for episode four, he lets her out of the cab, and she walks through the Chatsworth estate, with jeers of "slag" and "slapper" being yelled by others, and egg thrown at her. She meets back up with Jamie at the Jockey, where he gives everyone 30 seconds for people to say whatever they like to her, before they accept that she's his wife and he won't allow it to continue. He then headbutts one man who passed the allotted time before walking out of the room, leaving Karen standing alone. Still feeling like an outcast and wanting badly to make her marriage work again, it's only after she runs into Frank at the hospital that she realizes she's tired of being judged for her past mistakes.

Jamie used his power of attorney while Karen was ill to put the Jockey solely in his name, and at first he is very cold towards her after her return, ignoring her suggestions and making it clear that the pub was no longer hers, but his and run with Mimi, leaving Karen feeling very left out. She explains to him that she knows she has to earn his trust back, and just wants him to give her a chance. After Jamie is overwhelmed by the chaos of trying to organize Libby's wedding party, he asks Karen to help them, finally acknowledging that he does need her, and does appreciate her. Later, he takes her back into their bed and things begin to return to normal for the couple.

Karen briefly tries to run a clown business before several male customers attempt to assault her, during which she shoots one in the thigh with one of the Maguire's stolen guns. In a later episode, we see her standing in front of the Jockey, scowling up at the "Jamie Maguire, proprietor" sign. After winning a card game from Jamie, she demands that he return the pub to her. The couple is then later seen standing in front of the pub looking at two signs, one of which says "under new management," and the other saying "Jamie and Karen Maguire, proprietors."

In series 9, a man from Jamie's past arrives in Chatsworth and wants him to kill a man who has supposedly been abusing his daughter. Karen finds out this is false and sets him up to show Jamie what she can do. Also at the end of the series, Karen goes on collections to show that she is part of the Maguire family and shows her feisty side.

She later finds out that Jamie has been having an affair with Gloria Meak, but doesn't say anything. She stages kidnaps and attacks on herself and gets Jamie to pay £200,000. She reveals herself when he gives the money and keeps it but she agrees to stay with him if she's in control of everything and no more secrets. From then, Karen is portrayed as having a harder edge, especially when she confronts Gloria about the affair. However, when Karen sees Mimi's niece, Ruby Hepburn's dead body, due to her falling out of the window after stabbing Mimi, she and Jamie decide its best to share responsibility especially when he asks what she should do with the body because of her making decisions.

In series 11, Jamie finds out that his father isn't actually Paddy, which means that he isn't a 'true Maguire', however him and Karen both agree that it isn't in the blood, but Karen supports Jamie when he feels like people are looking down on him and he won't have his reputation. Jamie and Karen search for his father who turns out to be Adi Blanco, who has unfortunately died. In time, the family move into Chatsworth. When Lip returns after 6 series away, Karen tells him about how his father has a job and is trying as Lip still thinks he's a 'selfish man'. She also helps him when he is beaten up, then berates him for choosing to get wasted and make reckless choices over looking after his daughter. He later departs again before returning in the last episode along with some of his other siblings who had departed before.

By the end, Karen is happy to say that she is a 'Maguire' and she is finally part of a family.

References