S11.E13: My Big Fat Family Heartbreak

[Meow Mix]

If this is real both Whitney and Glenn have a very dysfunctional relationship and should probably be in family therapy.  They both behave poorly to each other in different ways.  It's not enjoyable to watch two grown adults taking shots at each other like this.  

My mother was widowed in her mid 60s when my father lost his battle with cancer.  I would never have dreamed of acting like Whitney did.  She is still in the house they had together even though she admits it's large for her needs.  But she loves it and is willing to make the effort to keep it up.  She's a grown adult with her own mind and I wouldn't dream of telling her what to do.  At some point, she will probably downsize, but once again that is her decision not mine.

One thing I have noticed in my own family and families of others I know is that for some of us, no matter how poor communication is or whatever, when there is a crisis teamwork takes over.  When my father died without any discussion or argument each of us took on some part of taking care of things so Mom didn't have to.  We all have our different strengths and together we were amazing.  As hard as Dad's death was, that was my family's finest moment.  I would have missed out on that if I or my brother had suddenly declared ourselves CEO and shut everyone else out.  

[bichonblitz]

On 11/29/2023 at 11:08 PM, Yeah No said:

I'm usually the one giving people the benefit of the doubt but in this case not so much.  Angie etc. have too much to gain and seem way OTT eager to get close to Glenn

I wonder if Whitney and Hunter now regret the "urgency" to get to know this new family. They should have taken it alot slower. The constant visits, vacations in Europe, etc are a bit much when they only first met a few months ago. I will say it's all because TLC wanted to make a season out of it and the new family is reaping the benefits from all the free TV comps so now Whitney has  to deal with the fall out of her father wanting to move to spend more time with Angie.  Too much too soon. 

[BAForever]

On 12/2/2023 at 11:26 AM, Meow Mix said:

If this is real both Whitney and Glenn have a very dysfunctional relationship and should probably be in family therapy.  They both behave poorly to each other in different ways.  It's not enjoyable to watch two grown adults taking shots at each other like this.  

My mother was widowed in her mid 60s when my father lost his battle with cancer.  I would never have dreamed of acting like Whitney did.  She is still in the house they had together even though she admits it's large for her needs.  But she loves it and is willing to make the effort to keep it up.  She's a grown adult with her own mind and I wouldn't dream of telling her what to do.  At some point, she will probably downsize, but once again that is her decision not mine.

One thing I have noticed in my own family and families of others I know is that for some of us, no matter how poor communication is or whatever, when there is a crisis teamwork takes over.  When my father died without any discussion or argument each of us took on some part of taking care of things so Mom didn't have to.  We all have our different strengths and together we were amazing.  As hard as Dad's death was, that was my family's finest moment.  I would have missed out on that if I or my brother had suddenly declared ourselves CEO and shut everyone else out.  

Hugs to you Meow Mix. When my mom died, all kids pulled together. Her lawyer said he's never seen such a large family been "so good" in legal matters after a parent death. Whitney loves Glen, but their strange dynamic has been going on for years. No one in her family ever told her no growing up I think- and she feels like it's her job to take care of Dadwe. I would think Hunter would be happy to see Glen in Alabama. He can go back to Atlanta then knowing his dad was with family.

[Mothra]

20 hours ago, bichonblitz said:

I wonder if Whitney and Hunter now regret the "urgency" to get to know this new family. They should have taken it alot slower. The constant visits, vacations in Europe, etc are a bit much when they only first met a few months ago. I will say it's all because TLC wanted to make a season out of it and the new family is reaping the benefits from all the free TV comps so now Whitney has  to deal with the fall out of her father wanting to move to spend more time with Angie.  Too much too soon. 

I think the rush to cozy up to the new relatives was a bit much, too, but I think it bespeaks TLC's desperation in trying to salvage something from this shitshow.  How many more times will even the most hate-watchingest fan continue to tune in to see (choose one from column A, two from column B plus beverage) Whitney embark on a new career for about two seconds before she quits; Whitney fall in lurve with (your choice:  Lennie,  Boo-Bear--forbidden love!!!,  the Germanman, the Swissman, the insert your fave impossibly far away and unbelievable man; Whitney forces Glenn into some kind of awkwarder relationship where she is doyenne of his castle.  The choices are endless, and endlessly repetitive, and endlessly predictable.

I think TLC latched onto Angie also because Whitney can barely conceal her misplaced sense of superiority--hell, she can't conceal it at all!  And what drama *that* could produce!  I think Whitney believes Angie's family is trashy and not sophisticated enough to hang with the snooty Thores.  I bet offscreen, in private, Whitney makes merciless fun of them as hicks and red-necks, not people she would otherwise have in her life.  And TLC has to be aware of this.  Surely it's worth one more season of seeing Whitney make an absolute ass of herself.

And it's all the juicier because Glenn and Hunter seem to be genuinely fond of their new relatives and really want to get to know them.  So Whitney as we've seen focused on Glenn's affection for his new granddaughter (who I guess W. saw as her main competition for Daddy's affection) and so worked hard to show that she, Whitney, was *better* at everything.  But now--yikes!--Daddy has chosen *Angie* to go to the Bobst plant, and Daddy wants to move to Ala to help *Angie* find her adopted son (that Angie was a teen mom has got to rate really high on Whitney's trashometer)--dear glob!  Has Whitney misplaced all her energy in trying to defeat granddaughter (and it's typical that Whitney would match--equate?--herself with the cute, young, engaged woman rather than with her real competition, her own half-sister) when the viper in her breast was Angie all along?

Why wouldn't fans be hooked?  The biggest expense for TLC is hauling all this bunch on fancy vacations a few times a year--and I'm sure part of that is paid for in product placement advertising.  So *everybody* wins!

[LuvMyShows]

On 11/29/2023 at 8:17 PM, Meow Mix said:

That episode description made me laugh.  It was so dramatic like they were stuck up in the Alps in the middle of a blizzard or something.  I suspect the train has issues occasionally and they know what to do. 

I really wonder if the whole train-breakdown-need-to-evacuate thing was orchestrated by the show. Clearly it's happened before, and no one was panicking, so maybe the show figured they could get it to happen for them? At any rate, calling it a "rescue mission" was beyond absurd.

On 11/29/2023 at 8:17 PM, Meow Mix said:

 I agree with @SabineElisabeth that family therapy or at least Whitney finding a good therapist to work through some of this would be an excellent idea.  

My thought for one thing she could cover in therapy, is her revisionist version of her childhood, and even adulthood, regarding her parents never praising her or Hunter for trying, and it had to be for getting great results (or whatever she said). Uh, does Whitless not remember that she's been filmed, and we've seen countless examples of Glenn and Babs praising her half-assed efforts?

On 11/29/2023 at 8:17 PM, Meow Mix said:

And if it's like every other season ending cliff hanger on this show, it won't be mentioned again just like the big romances with Lennie and Buddy and Whitney flying off to get a proposal from George Glass.

I am mortified that I didn't recognize the George Glass reference, and I will now turn in my Brady Bunch card!

[Pi237]

This season has finally convinced me that Whitney is in on the joke. She undoubtedly watches every season that airs, and reads all the feedback. This show hasn’t shown her in a positive light since season 1. In fact, they seem to go extra out of their way to make her look bad. No one would endure that year after year after year, unless they knowingly accept the bad edit to keep ratings. 

[princelina]

12 hours ago, LuvMyShows said:

I really wonder if the whole train-breakdown-need-to-evacuate thing was orchestrated by the show. Clearly it's happened before, and no one was panicking, so maybe the show figured they could get it to happen for them? At any rate, calling it a "rescue mission" was beyond absurd.

Interesting!  I get that her family cares, but a whole trainload of strangers letting Whitney get first helicopter because she claims she's feeling poorly?  Perhaps they were all paid to hang around until the Thores got first copters, and then all hustled back to the train 😃

7 hours ago, Pi237 said:

This season has finally convinced me that Whitney is in on the joke. She undoubtedly watches every season that airs, and reads all the feedback. This show hasn’t shown her in a positive light since season 1. In fact, they seem to go extra out of their way to make her look bad. No one would endure that year after year after year, unless they knowingly accept the bad edit to keep ratings. 

Or she has no self-awareness at all and thinks she looks just fine . . .

[LuvMyShows]

12 hours ago, princelina said:

Interesting!  I get that her family cares, but a whole trainload of strangers letting Whitney get first helicopter because she claims she's feeling poorly?  Perhaps they were all paid to hang around until the Thores got first copters, and then all hustled back to the train 😃

I'm thinking the latter (minus the pay)! But even if the former, I wouldn't have been complaining that someone who seemed to be in medical distress went first...and the Swiss probably aren't as much impatient a**holes as we Americans can be!

19 hours ago, Pi237 said:

This season has finally convinced me that Whitney is in on the joke. She undoubtedly watches every season that airs, and reads all the feedback. This show hasn’t shown her in a positive light since season 1. In fact, they seem to go extra out of their way to make her look bad. No one would endure that year after year after year, unless they knowingly accept the bad edit to keep ratings. 

12 hours ago, princelina said:

Or she has no self-awareness at all and thinks she looks just fine . . .

Again, going with the latter! She probably sees how much 'good' (in her mind) was documented...her stellar weightlifting performance, all those stairs she climbed that time with Will (trainer and Jessica's dad), her heroic overcoming in the 10K 8K 5K, her desirability to all these boyfriends paid escorts, etc. Add to it that what we see as negative, she probably doesn't, because she was doing the behavior in the first place! For example...she showed up for that 'date' with the restaurant owner's much younger son, looking every bit the matronly, practically 40-year old that she is, and then expressed surprise that he didn't call her afterward. We think that's delusional...she sees nothing wrong with it. 

On 11/29/2023 at 6:00 AM, BAForever said:

No way in hell Glenn announces his moving intentions on the trip- so producer driven.

On 11/29/2023 at 8:17 PM, Meow Mix said:

And I was totally creeped out by Whitney telling her to move to Greensboro and live in Whitney's house.  That was just weird.  I also don't understand why Glenn needs to move to Alabama to help her find her son.  I would think that since Angie has made all these contacts so far that she would know more about doing a search like that than Glenn or Whitney.  I was glad she shut Whitney down immediately.  How many people does Whitney need living with her?  

100%. The weirdness of Whitney suggesting that Angie move to her house and occupy one bedroom, away from her large family in Alabama and her own spacious home, to do Internet work in Greensboro, made no sense. I think it was producer-driven, to provide a more dramatic contrast to the reveal of Glenn going to Alabama.

[Gramto6]

As things appear now, if I were Glen, I'd be going to "Alasker" to get the f**k away from Whitney!!

[Mothra]

On 12/5/2023 at 11:48 PM, princelina said:

Interesting!  I get that her family cares, but a whole trainload of strangers letting Whitney get first helicopter because she claims she's feeling poorly?  Perhaps they were all paid to hang around until the Thores got first copters, and then all hustled back to the train 

Oh, if I were on that mountain, and there was a chance to get loud-mouth asshat Whitney out of there, I'd jump at it.  Yes!  Yes!  for the lurve of glob, get her away from me!  Leave me here to camp out in the train--just get her out of my life.

And to the question as to whether Whitney realizes how unappealing she is (and has been throughout the series), I think she's not quite seeing herself as others see her.  I truly don't think she knows how awful she comes across ("awfully?"), and totally agree that she needs therapy, serious therapy, because what will happen to her when the show inevitably ends, and all the people who are "interested" in her now want nothing to do with her?  So many of them--not just the barnacles--stick around because of the perks of being on the show, not to mention the paycheck.  If people are no longer constrained by the benefits of being her "friends," how will they treat her?

 

[auntjess]

12 hours ago, Mothra said:

If people are no longer constrained by the benefits of being her "friends," how will they treat her?

I hope, as she deserves to be treated.  She's been asking for it for years.

 

[Natalie68]

On 12/1/2023 at 10:31 AM, monagatuna said:

I'm not sure buying earrings at Target is a good identifier of class. Most Americans shop at Target. Pretty sure most of Whitney's decorations and jewelry came from Target, and she shills for WalMart. So maybe they don't have money. I don't think we can judge their financial situations from what we see on the show. But their actions show that they outclass Whitney by miles, middle fingers notwithstanding. (Truthfully, I have trouble judging a woman for a double middle finger to a grown woman who's been calling my child "bitch" for months, but what do I know, for me a middle finger is a lighthearted gesture of affection.)

Plus, being of a lower economic status doesn't mean you are going to scam anyone.  Some of THE MOST wealthy people I have known dress like they have as much $ as I do or less.  Having worked in Montecito I have seen my share.

[bichonblitz]

On 12/6/2023 at 12:26 PM, LuvMyShows said:

100%. The weirdness of Whitney suggesting that Angie move to her house and occupy one bedroom, away from her large family in Alabama and her

Doesn't Angie have a husband? I thought we saw him at the Alabamer reunion.

Edited December 8, 2023 by bichonblitz