Photo: Michael Becker / FOX
It’s hard to imagine a show like The Masked Dancer – an offshoot of everyone’s favorite dystopian nightmare The masked singer – being stranger than its premise. Celebrities in elaborate costumes dancing for other celebrities who have to judge their performance and guess who they are based on their movements? Right. Why not. Nothing else matters, and honestly, most days, I’m just relieved that the room I’m in isn’t on fire. But somehow, even in this economy, Dancer gave us a real shock. The Thursday night episode revealed that beneath the moth mask was none other than Elizabeth Smart.
Although she is currently an activist and best-selling author, her most visceral memory of her may be that of a girl who was kidnapped when she was 14 and was held against her will and sexually abused for nine months before being rescued. Now, you may be asking yourself: Why a moth? Are they particularly resistant insects? A butterfly was taken and was that the best thing? No. No, it is much, much darker than that, my friends. Before his identity was revealed, Smart explained his choice of clothing in a now completely horrifying intro video that made many guess that the celebrity underneath was actually Monica Lewinsky. “You know, moths don’t look for the spotlight,” said his voice in disguise. “It attracts us, whether we like it or not.” So, you see, the moth is a prisoner. And while Smart has survived her highly traumatic ordeal, becoming an inspiration to trauma survivors everywhere, her celebrity status is just another form of captivity that she has learned to survive in the best way possible. Sit with this for a minute and then tell me that these programs are not exactly the prime-time entertainment we deserve.