The Real World Homecoming, Episode 3: Becky with the Bad Share

By Caryn Brooks

Have you ever had a nightmare where you’re stuck in an ‘80s movie and the bratty rich pretty girl who makes everyone’s life really difficult doesn’t respond to her comeuppance in the end like she’s supposed to? You know, that big pinch that forces her to re-evaluate her purpose in life? And because she doesn’t absorb that comeuppance, she continues on in life as the pretty girl whose Daddy pays her rent and she floats through life believing she did something extraordinary to receive such blessings? Until finally, she’s 50-something and she gets challenged on it and she totally disintegrates in front of everybody and you’re there, and it is so…hard…to…watch? A nightmare!

Wake up and welcome to Episode 3 of The Real World: Homecoming aka Return of the Becky.

As I predicted, this episode picks up with the Exile in Fragileville. It replays the Becky and Kevin arguments from the first season and ends with Becky leaving the house.

What happens in between is a masterclass in microaggression. Y’all, Becky literally says “I lost my skin color” while explaining how she isn’t racist because she studied Afro dance with actual Black people!!! Kevin keeps sinking into his puffy jacket and his beanie keeps sliding down his face closer and closer to his eyes. He has no problems having these conversations, but why does he always have to be the one who does it? It looks like he’s getting retraumatized and he’s using his coat as a cocoon.

We later learn that the group had made a pact not to go after each other, which may explain why the rest of the group tries to talk about themselves in order to shift the narrative. (Julie tries to model better behavior by talking about how she definitely said racists things when she was in the loft in the ‘90s and it also seems like she’s trying to get Kevin to back down a bit by saying, “We have to meet people where they are.”)

We can’t blame Kevin when he goes for the jugular and mentions that Becky keeps talking about her chateau in the South of France and then there’s plenty of footage to back it all up (there’s a guest house and a pool, y’all.) And again, what is her job?

But nothing seems to be able to flip the Becky switch to “off.” Norman, very clearly understanding how bad this will be for Becky’s brand, tries to remind her that this is being filmed and to think about how this will look in front of the viewing audience. When she still doesn’t pipe down, he resorts to an angry “Shut up!”

She runs off with white tears flowing in her wake.

Huddles with other cast members occur, overheard is Becky complaining that she had been set up and she felt used. She packs her bags.

But in the confessional, Becky confesses: “Those elitist things, everyone has a right to earn.” And to emphasize the point: “Life is not fair. It’s not meant to be fair. That’s the fact.”

And that, my friends, is the essence of white supremacy. And to quote Maya Angelou: “When people show you who they are, believe them.”

Bye, Becky, bye! Realllllly.

Image credit: Paramount

Originally Published March 19, 2021. Updated April 2, 2021.