TLC’s “My Big Fat Fabulous Life” closes out its 11th season on Tuesday with Swiss vistas, helicopter rides and a bombshell that strongly suggests the reality show will be spending more time in Alabama.

As you may recall, Season 11 has featured some big shifts in the family dynamic, one of which brought Dauphin Island into the picture. At the beginning of the season, protagonist Whitney Way Thore, her brother Hunter and her dad Glenn were grappling with the death of matriarch Barbara Thore. But they also were looking forward to meeting up with Angie, the daughter Glenn gave up for adoption many years earlier.

That brought them from Greensboro, N.C., to coastal Alabama to meet Angie and her large family as they vacationed on Dauphin Island, a meeting shown in a couple of episodes that aired in October. And Whitney Thore later had a video date with an Alabama man who showed her his pet baby flying squirrel.

A running theme of the season has been Glenn Thore’s desire to check off some “bucket list” experiences, such as visiting Switzerland. In the aftermath of his wife’s death, he’s been pondering what it means to be starting a new chapter in his life and in an exclusive preview clip provided to AL.com by TLC, that results in a bombshell revelation: He has decided to move to coastal Alabama, to be closer to Angie and her family.

In the clip, Whitney Way Thore does not take the news well at all. “We just lost our mother and you know, I don’t want to lose my dad,” she says.

It’s not particularly flattering moment, as emotionally honest as it might be, and Thore has a few things to say about that. But maybe it’s one that provides some insight into the show’s longevity: It plays up the everyday drama of life without over-amping it into melodrama, so that the emotional ups and downs stay relatable.

Thore said she wasn’t at liberty to talk about whether there’ll be a 12th season of “My Big Fat Fabulous Life,” and TLC hasn’t made a statement. But Thore’s Instagram feed contains what seem like some pretty solid hints in recent posts. In one clip, showing her visiting nephew Ryne’s “Gulf Coast Connection” seafood restaurant in Kentucky, she mentions that her whole production crew is enjoying a meal there. In another clip from the Kentucky visit, she refers to something Hunter is doing by saying, “Maybe if you watch next season, it’ll make the cut.”

Other Instagram posts show a return to Alabama, where Thore attended a bridal shower for her niece. That too will have to wait for a future episode: The upcoming finale takes place entirely in Switzerland, as Glenn explores his bucket list and his possibilities.

“It was a wonderful opportunity for us to bond as a family and Angie and the rest of the family had never been out of the country before,” said Thore. “So I think that was extra special for them as well. And we had a wonderful, wonderful time.”

That said, this “family bonding” session also meant adjusting to a whole new dynamic.

“You know, my dad went from being just a dad to being a great-grandfather overnight and my brother and I became an aunt and an uncle overnight,” Thore said. “And it’s kind of interesting because, you know, Angie is my sister but she’s 15 years older and her daughter is my niece, but she’s 15 years younger. So generationally I’m kind of like, right in the middle of both of them. And sometimes I identify more with Angie and sometimes I identify more with Jamie. A lot of times Angie can feel more like my aunt because she’s very maternal and Jamie and I can cut up just like we’re sisters. So sometimes I actually refer to Jamie as my sister. I have to make sure I get everybody’s titles right.”

Thore’s control-freak tendencies and competitive streak have become a bit of a running joke, and they’re on full display in this finale. At one point, someone else comments, “If there’s any way that Whitney can control something, she’s going to try to control it.” Thore herself says, of her father’s affections, “I have never felt like I’m not the favorite child, really, in my life. And I’m feeling it now.”

Thore said one thing she doesn’t get to control is the editorial decisions of the show. “I don’t have any choice, you know, what people want to see and what they want from the show,” she said. “I have no choice. The show is produced and edited, so that has nothing to do with me and I’m sure you can imagine how I feel about that.”

As to whether the friction and flaws make the show more relatable, Thore said she can’t offer an objective opinion. But she’s glad they leaned into the discovery of Glenn’s lost daughter and her family.

“It’s hard for me to kind of zoom out and see the show,” she said. “I live my own real life every day, so I don’t really have the same perspective of it that a viewer has. But I do know that I think this is a really important thing to include and that it’s really relatable for a lot of people. And I’ve heard so many really amazing stories about families reuniting. I’ve heard a lot of family drama. I’ve heard, unfortunately, some stories that started out similar to mine that didn’t end so well.

“So I think one thing that we try to do on the show, no matter what, we try to just be a mirror for people so that they can see themselves on television and relate to us in different ways. And I think that certainly with this new development, that’s what we’re accomplishing. And so that makes me feel good.”

Thore said she has enjoyed her visits to Alabama.

“Every time I visit some place I always think like, ‘Oh, could I live here?’ And the only thing that would keep me from living in Alabama would be the heat. I can hardly stay in North Carolina and Alabama is a little bit hotter. But I like it. I think the people are very friendly. Everyone I met, certainly everyone in Angie’s family, which is vast.

“I mean, that’s one thing now is [that] any time … I could be, you know, standing there with a cousin and I wouldn’t know it. In fact I was just there with my niece for her shower and we were in a little local boutique and this woman came up and she said, ‘Oh, I’m a fan,’ and we started talking and then I said, ‘Oh, niece and my sister are here too’ and then Jamie walks over and then in five seconds they were talking about, like, cousin Huey’s like double hip replacement. It turns out we’re all related. It’s just really wild to think about.

“But no, I loved Alabama,” Thore continued. “I haven’t seen as many alligators as I was promised. But I do look back at the fact that I was swimming in that water and I just feel that that probably wasn’t safe because I feel like there were probably gators in that water. I’ve been down to the coast there and had a blast. And I went to Buc-ee’s for the first time. We had a blast there. That was something really amazing. And yeah, I love it. So I’ll be back often, I’m sure.”

Thore said that regardless what the future holds, she’s grateful to the viewers who have made “My Big Fat Fabulous Life” a success.

“We would just like to thank everyone for their support for the last decade that we’ve been doing this show,” she said. That was especially helpful after her mother’s death, she said.

“We already have been so embraced by them and loved by them,” she said. “I can’t imagine the whole thing having gone any more smoothly than it has. It’s really just wild. And specifically to the people in Alabama, thank you for welcoming us with open arms. And we will be back.”

For more on the show, visit its official website. The new episode airs at 8 p.m. Central time on Tuesday, Nov. 28, according to TLC. It can be seen on service providers and streaming services that carry TLC programming and on the TLC Go app. You also can stream “My Big Fat Fabulous Life” on Philo or fuboTV.