I’m sure this theory has been tossed around the internet since the beginning of the show, but I wanted to share my thoughts on it and provide some evidence that is given over the course of the show.

I’ve been watching the marathon on Showtime in preparation for the final season, and there have been moments and pieces of dialogue that lead me to believe that Frank genuinely loves his kids, but there’s a major reason why he is the way he is: Monica.

In the series premiere, Frank monologues about himself and the kids and gives somewhat loving descriptions of each of them, from Fiona all the way down the line to Liam. He brings up and admired both Lip and Ian for their intelligence and persistence pertaining to their goals in the earlier seasons. When Monica comes back into their lives towards the end of the first season, Frank becomes an almost completely different person, bending to Monica’s will and forcing the kids into taking her option of adopting Liam into consideration. Of course, they don’t listen to him, but this lines up with his future actions later down the line.

When Lip graduates high school in season 4, Frank shows up at the Alibi and congratulates him and seems genuinely proud that one of his kids made it through high school. When they go out to eat and go ice skating, Frank seems happy getting to spend time with hid eldest son, and does his best to show love and support to Lip. Even when Frank is sick in the hospital from his liver starting to fail after throwing up blood, he seems upset with what Fiona says to him about the rest of the kids loving him as a father figure.

At the end of season 6, when Frank crashes and ruins Fiona’s wedding with Sean, he has good intentions, but because of him being high and having tension with Sean, he executes his good intentions in a bad way. In his eyes, he wants Fiona to marry someone who won’t lie behind her back, or someone who can provide her with happiness with the rest of her life. He even mentions how he genuinely had fun planning the wedding with her.

You’re probably wondering how this ties into Monica as I’ve only mentioned her once with these examples. Well, I believe that Monica was so abusive and destructive towards Frank when they first got together that it destroyed him morally and emotionally. I believe that Frank was excited to have kids with Monica and had the intention of being a great and loving father to every single one of his kids. But, with how bad Monica was to him and for him, he lost the good-natured part of himself that now makes it hard to show genuine love and affection to his kids. There’s plenty of more examples I could go through that I believe support this theory but the ones I’ve provided feel like the most important ones for this theory. I can’t wait to see everyone’s conversations under this post about this theory. And I hope you all enjoy the hell out of this final season.