The My 600 Lb Life Angela episode depicts a woman who is quickly becoming one of the most controversial of the show’s new cast members. Angela Gutierrez is just about out of patience with the way the world treats the obese. But her own weight loss journey contains some dark secrets…
Angela, a native of southwest Ohio, makes the arduous journey to Dr. Now’s Houston office in a number of awkward positions. Those positions go from literal to figurative when no one in Angela’s family can accompany her. Angela is then forced to reach out to an ex-lover.
The My 600 Lb Life Angela episode is already getting pushback
Early viewer response to Angela’s episode appears largely negative. Angela, 44, is a former drug addict who already underwent one weight loss surgery much earlier in life. And her response to Dr. Nowzaradan’s weight loss program…well, we don’t want to spoil anything.
Because you wouldn’t know any of that from the early teaser. Per TLC’s official synopsis for the episode, things are tight for Angela from the outset:
When Angela’s family is unable to accompany her on her weight loss journey to Texas she is unsure what to do. At the last minute, she reaches out to an old flame, Eric, who still has love for her and is willing to make the trip.
In addition, thanks to an early preview from Monsters and Critics, we know a little bit more about the specifics behind Angela’s dilemma. While she and her 23-year-old daughter Andrea are very close, Andrea suffers from multiple sclerosis, and needs her own caregivers.
Meanwhile, Angela’s 19-year-old son Chris has been his mother’s caregiver on and off for years. But Chris a new job and is about to strike out on his own.
Though her son is capable of stepping in as caregiver once more, Angela can’t bring herself to ask Chris to sacrifice any further.
Finally, it’s also important to note that Angela, like her daughter Andrea, also suffers from multiple sclerosis. (While the risk for MS can be passed down from parents to children, MS itself is not hereditary.)
Keep that detail in mind before you watch the preview clip below. It will make Angela’s reaction to being put in a hotel room without a handicapped bathroom — a situation similar to what we saw with Maja Radanovic a few episodes back — more understandable.
“There’s no possible way. None,” says Eric, upon seeing the inadequate bathroom. “It’s just a regular, full-size bathtub.”
Eric heads off to talk to someone at the front desk. This leaves Angela, weary from the 1,100 mile journey, alone to vent her frustration.
“The first thing I see is the bathtub,” Angela begins. “It’s not a roll-in shower. How you want [me] getting in that shower? Do wheelies? I mean, come on. I’m just really pissed. There’s not even a handicapped seat in there.”
(At this point the audio becomes a bit staticky, and it seems possible that part of Angela’s dialogue was taken from an unseen phone call with the front desk.)
“A lot of people think that’s minor — it’s not!” Angela says, beginning to yell, the toll of the long journey from southern Ohio clearly wearing on her. “When you’re driving, in the van, with blankets tucked up under your folds and your mass, you are sweaty.
“I don’t care if there’s AC,” Angela goes on, unfolding her skin from beneath her dress and airing it out above the toilet. “You want to be clean, and you don’t feel clean. A person my size, I don’t care how much you clean — you’re dirty.”
In conclusion, Angela shouts, “This is not a handicapped room!”
The My 600 Lb Life Angela episode is available for early streaming here, courtesy of TLC.
(Photo credits: My 600 Lb Life Angela via TLC)
John Sharp is Starcasm’s chief editorial correspondent-at-large. Tips: E-mail john@starcasm.net or Twitter @john_starcasm.
