While Big Brother has gotten better about representation in recent years, it still has a ways to go, particularly as it relates to featuring older houseguests. If we get more than two houseguests over the age of forty in a season, it feels like a win. As frustrating as that can be to think about, it's just as inspiring when we do see an older houseguest play the game and really show what they're made of. That's what Big Brother Season 28 cast member LaTrice Verrett did earlier in Season 28 when she won the Wall endurance competition. Lala turned 58 years old in the Big Brother house this summer, and her Wall victory makes her the oldest houseguest to accomplish this in the history of the show.
If you're unfamiliar, the "Wall competition" has Big Brother houseguests standing on a ledge, up against a wall, while holding onto something (a bar, handles, etc). The wall usually tips forward at times, and they're occasionally sprayed with liquid or slime. Whether they slip or are too tired to hang on, one by one, the contestants drop. The last person up on the wall wins. In Season 28, that was Lala. She outlasted houseguests who were younger than her, including an MMA fighter, and secured the Head of Household title for the week.
As a woman who's approaching my 50s, I really wanted to hear more of her thoughts about her accomplishment when we had the opportunity to submit questions following her eviction last week. Like her performance in the Wall Competition, her response on the topic didn't disappoint.
As Lala noted, she came into the game wanting to play the Wall competition, and even now, she gets emotional talking about winning it:
Coming into this game, the one thing I really wanted to do was The Wall. I've talked about The Wall for forever because, to me, The Wall represents more than just strength and ability, it really takes a mental strength. I get really choked up when I talk about it, because of the fact that I was able to stay on that challenge longer than an MMA fighter who's almost half my age. And to win that showed to me, and to women of a certain age, that you can go beyond what you think you can go.
That in itself is inspiring to hear, but what really got me was what Lala said about those final seconds that secured her the win:
I literally was ready to drop. I was done - my body was done. And I said, 'LaTrice, do your countdown,' and I said, before I drop, after I made my deal with him, I was like, 'I'm safe - I'm safe from being re-nommed, everything, I'm good.' He said, 'You're good,' and I said, 'Let me just stay up there one more minute, do my countdown.' One-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three, one-thousand-four, one-thousand-five...' At five, he fell.
If you watched the competition, you saw the moments she's referring to. It seemed like Lala and Kamu had struck a deal for him to win, and it was just a matter of Lala dropping. However, she held on, and as she pointed out to us, she was counting internally, just trying to stay up for a little bit longer. It was in those seconds that Kamu lost his footing and fell. Lala wrapped up her experience with these inspiring words:
So, when you think you can't go anymore, when you think you can't do anymore, go that little bit more, because I'm telling you, the possibilities are endless. And that's what I experienced on the wall, and that's what I pushed through.
I love this so much, and I'm going to do my absolute best to remember Lala's words and what she showed us on the wall during this Big Brother season.
I'm not entirely of the mindset that "age is just a number." Our age is a mark of the years we've lived, and I think there's too much value in that to dismiss it entirely, even with good intentions. Maybe not all of us can or will be as fit as Lala is at 58, but we work for and with what we've got. The message of pushing ourselves a little bit more can apply to anyone, regardless, and I really want to remember what she said the next time I need that advice.
I also really hope Lala's performance this season inspires Big Brother to consider including more over-40s (and over-50s!) in a future Big Brother season.
You can catch past episodes of Big Brother with a Paramount+ subscription. Season 28's Wall Competition is featured in Episode 17.
