Profiles in Heroism

Last night I was witness to a singularly stunning feat of heroism. You can slot it in there with Gibson’s home run, Elways come-back in some game, Jordan dropping 45 with the flu, and Brett Favre’s maniacal insistence upon playing football until he dies.

I speak of Ms. Evelyn Smith, a competitor on the Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Island.

I won’t bore you by describing the decidedly esoteric specifics of this competition. But here are the basics:
- Trapped on an island, you need a key to get off and win $75,000
- There are only 8 keys
- To get a key, you must beat two others in a face-off
- At this stage in the game, when you win the face-off, you take someone else’s key

The political environment of the Island is tense. There’s an Alliance of the 4-5 strongest players, with a few hangers-on, that are running every decision. They are bossy, demanding, and most of all arrogant.

Evelyn is one of the few peripheral players who does not fall in with the Alliance. In this case, not being with the Alliance, is being against it. In fact, one of the major players in the Alliance, one Johnny “Bananas”, happens to be a huge asshole that hates Evelyn. He attacks her, calls her stupid, a bitch, and mistreats her at every opportunity.

Last night, Evelyn competed in a face-off, beating two men, and earning the right to take someone’s key. The Alliance, panicking at the thought of losing one of their own, threatened, then cajoled, then pleaded with Evelyn in the hope of swaying her decision. It boiled down to three options for Evelyn:

1. Taking the key from Kelly-Anne, Evelyn’s sweet and lovely best friend on the Island. Also not a member of the Alliance, taking the key from her would amount to the biggest betrayal in RW/RR challenges history.

2. Taking the key from Johnny “Bananas”. The guy who harasses her constantly and openly hates her. Also a founding member of the Alliance, who has sworn to make her life even more miserable should she cross them.

3. And finally, taking a key from Jenn, one of the Alliance’s lesser members.  Offered to Evelyn and thereby thrown under the bus by the Alliance.

Faced with this difficult conundrum, and with $75,000 on the line, Evelyn pulled an audacious move that stunned the participants and changed the game. Ignoring the threats of the Alliance, she stood up for her best friend Kelly-Anne, and refused to sacrifice the docile Jenn. Instead she grabbed the serpent by its neck, and bit off it’s head. Taking the key from Johnny.

It was truly an inspiring moment. It’s the strongest and perhaps the only non-deplorable action I’ve ever seen on one of these competitions. Where greed, sexism, arrogance and more greed define nearly every decision.

Will she pay the price and get squashed by the alliance in the coming weeks? Will standing up for herself cost her $75,000? Probably, yes. But for at least one day, she earned the respect of everyone present. Even TJ Lavin said he was proud of her, that’s like Gale Sayers saying he likes my shoes. Life changing.

-bb13