Sumith Prasad
In Netflix’s comedy film ‘Family Switch,’ Angelica is a mysterious woman who appears before the Walkers as a fortune teller who can predict the future of the family. While she offers to impart her wisdom concerning what the family needs, Jess and Bill lead their children away from her to the planetarium. Angelica then initiates the body switch of the family members, making it appear as the doing of the planets’ alignment. When the Walkers need any assistance, Angelica is there for them by appearing out of nowhere. There’s definitely more to Angelica than what meets our eye! SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Force Behind the Switch
When the Walkers first meet Angelica, she appears as a fortune teller with a trick or two under her sleeve. Since Jess is in a hurry to celebrate Christmas with her family, she leads the rest of the Walkers away from her. Angelica, however, doesn’t easily give up on the Walkers. She meets them again while the family sees the planets’ alignment and makes the body swaps happen. Angelica can be described as a “repairer” of the family as she indirectly forces the Walkers to mend their relationships with one another. When the Walkers first meet her, they are a struggling family as far as their connections with one another are concerned.
In addition to Jess and Bill’s failure to get into their children’s world, the couple deals with the loss of the spark that once bound them together. That’s the reason why Angelica asks them to “view things through the lens of one another.” When their bodies get switched, the Walkers do exactly the same thing without even being aware of how they are following the fortune teller’s words. Jess approaches CC’s dream of playing in the national soccer team through her eyes and realizes that the latter isn’t her to struggle in the future. CC, on the other hand, puts herself in the shoes of her mother to understand the gravity of the latter’s sacrifices for her children and family.
Angelica’s awareness concerning what the Walkers need to be a family again cannot be just because she is a fortune teller. Beyond her outward appearance, she can be a very familiar figure who aspires for the best of others.
The Gift-Giver
Angelica can be seen as a counterpart of Santa Claus. Santa is mainly seen as a gift-giver who leaves behind what someone really wants or needs. In a way, as far as the Walkers are concerned, Angelica does exactly the same. At the time they meet Angelica, they need the connections that form a family more than anything. Even Jess gets obsessed with Christmas only because she wants them to feel the sense of being a family. When Angelica and the Walkers’ paths cross, that’s what the fortune teller “gifts” them, although she uses an unusual method to do the same.
When Angelica switches the Walkers’ bodies with one another, they learn to think and act through the POV of the others. Jess realizes how much CC’s ambitions mean to her to accept her dreams. Similarly, Wyatt understands that his father is not an uninspired man. He gets exposed to Bill’s talents and specialties once he starts to inhabit the latter’s body, which makes him accept and appreciate his father better. These realizations help the Walkers to repair their broken relationships and reconnect as a family. Even when the switch doesn’t get reversed when they try for the first time, they seek comfort in the understanding that they can deal with anything as a family.
The Walkers receive this gift of a repaired family through Angelica. As they gear up to celebrate Christmas, they cannot wish for a better present, which makes the mysterious woman a substitute for Saint Nicholas.
Read More: Is Ed Helms a Musician in Real Life? Did He Really Sing in Family Switch?
