For at least one half of this week's episode, the show title could have been changed to "Horrors." Fred and Mary easily had the worst dust and cobweb situation seen in the history of "Hoarders" (Mon., 9 p.m. EST on A&E). Both Dr. Chibaud and Matt Paxton came to the same conclusion upon seeing the interior of the house. It looked like something out of a haunted house.
The cobwebs were so thick and coated with dust that it was hard to imagine anyone lived there, and yet until the county effectively removed the family from the home, Frank and Mary were living there with their 14-year old son. He was sleeping on a mattress thrown on top of a pile of junk in the living room. And yet even when asked directly about this, Frank indicated he seemed happy to be there.
As it turned out, the kid was far more excited about the prospect of having his room back. But as the clean-up got underway, it was revealed that the house was in about as bad of shape as everything that was inside of it. And while Frank never seemed to quite get the enormity of the situation, at least the check-up showed that the family is sticking with the follow-up therapy and working toward getting the house in a livable condition again.
The other story focused on an unlikely hoarder in Barbara, who lived in a very nice neighborhood in California. The loss of her son pushed her into hoarding, but it was the support of her other two sons pushing her that slowly helped her to break her old habits after an unexpected inspection of the outside of the home put her in crisis mode. She was a classic hoarder throughout, trying not to face her demons and focusing on the most minute of details.
Probably the most startling reveal of this episode was when her sons were shown her freezer, so they could get an idea of how bad her situation was. Barbara had said she mostly eats out, and it's certainly hard to imagine her going into the freezer for food when it was filled with maggots crawling all over the food in there.
When the inspector arrived at one door, it was a mad rush to get the freezer out of another before he came inside. Otherwise, he would have likely been forced to act much more harshly. As it stands, he gave her a reprieve so long as more progress was made. The follow-up prognosis was good, with her sons standing by her side to continue the clean-up, and Barbara participating in the available therapy.
Catch new episodes of "Hoarders" every Monday at 9 p.m. EST on A&E.
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