RPDR Finale: Who’s the Fairest Queen of All?

Posted on April 26, 2011

PinThank you, Ru. It’s like our bitchiness traveled through time and space and reached Ru’s ears months earlier, to which she exclaimed, “T Lo don’t think I’m bringing it to the catwalk this season? EAT THIS, BLOG BITCHES.”

PinNot a complaint; just an observation: the finales tend to be pretty low-key on RPDR. There is no Fashion Week or big event that the queens all have to prepare for. It’s just another challenge. Granted, it’s the hardest challenge of the season, but there’s no real wow moment.

PinBut it’s nice to see the three finalists calm down a bit and relate to each other as people for once. We’re sure some viewers doubted the sincerity, but it really was nice to see the Heathers realize the Booger deserved to be there as much as they did.

Although it was kind of funny how Alexis just couldn’t let the passive-aggressive bitchiness go and kept telling Manila over and over again about how much she “used to” hate her.

PinWe adore Ru but we did roll our eyes a bit at how blatantly the show and many of the challenges revolve around promoting Ru’s career. Hey, a girl’s got to make a buck and we don’t blame her for that, but Jesus, Mary, and Oprah, that “Champion” song will not get out of our heads today. Or should we say “Chompeeun,” since that’s how Ru sings it for some reason.

And when Michelle said they’d be meeting with Ryan Heffington, we were all, “Why does that name sound so familiar?”

PinOh, right. That guy.

We do love his casual, breezy, Charlie-perfume-ad kind of genderfuck.

PinThis would be right around the time when we started wondering if Alexis wasn’t getting the winner’s edit. Of the three of them, she’s the best at on-stage performing and choreography.

PinIt was kind of enlightening to see Raja out of her element. She was giggly and nervous and we wonder if she was that way because she has “intimacy issues,” as Ryan suggested or was she just giggly and nervous over the idea of performing at all? And by “performing,” we mean in the old-school sense that Ru requires of her girls. Raja has had a long career as a drag performer, but we don’t think she’s done much in the way of sketch comedy or choreography.

PinApparently she got over it, though.

PinTo be fair, all the queens had some issues with this part and even we thought it was a bit odd. Overt sexiness isn’t in a lot of drag queens’ wheelhouses. Truth be told, it was never part of Ru’s arsenal. Working it in a cover girl kind of way, yes. Grinding with half-naked guys, not really.

PinCute, but perhaps a little stale.

Okay, we admit it. We were bored with this finale. Sure, it looked for a split second like Raja might not win it, but most of us figured months ago that he was the winner and this episode just felt like letting the clock run out to get to the inevitable.

PinCheapest video set we’ve ever seen.

All right, ladies. Let’s see how you did.


Pin
Pin
PinIt’s true what Manila and Raja said about her: she’s incredibly polished – in fact she’s the most polished of the three finalists – but her style is … some would call it “classic,” other might say “outdated.” We just didn’t like this look. A little too Priscilla/Wigstock for our tastes. Not that there’s anything wrong with either Priscilla or Wigstock, but we’re looking for something a little more now in our drag superstars.

Pin
Pin
PinIt’s the performing where she really pulls ahead of the others. She doesn’t look as good as they do on camera, but she works with what she’s got and presents a much more energetic queen than Manila or Raja.

Pin
PinTo be honest, Ru threw us by referring to her “Florida style of drag,” but isn’t that just another way of saying “Latina drag?” That’s her genre. We’ve never heard of “Florida drag.”

It was a little sad how much she needed to hear some praise from Michelle. She really felt beat down in this competition and she can be proud that she did so well.

Pin
Pin
PinShe looks great, but was anyone else a bit disappointed with this as a finale look? Is this any better than her pineapple dress, muppet dress or black and white striped dress? She looks great, of course. But we’ve seen her wear more stunning outfits earlier in the competition.

Pin
Pin
PinAs a performer, she seemed pretty nondescript. Not enough energy and not enough attitude. It’s like she was trying to rush through her dance and get it over with. We got a little annoyed with her worrying so much about what her boyfriend was going to think. Bitch, you’re just dancing with someone. Is Sahara Davenport secretly a controlling boyfriend? The mind boggles.

Pin
PinWe realize it’s her trademark, but this time, the blonde highlight didn’t work for us. It was too distracting.

We felt bad for her afterwards, because she obviously really, really had her heart set on winning. Still, she managed to get in one tearful bit of shade before she left, making sure to call Raja old one last time.

Pin
Pin
PinWe thought this look was odd. Great idea and perfectly suited toward Raja’s style of drag, but WAY too much bling. It was really distracting while she walked the runway.

PinAnd to be honest, we thought she looked pretty rough in the video, facially speaking.

Pin
PinBut she turned it out for her dance. Alexis gave them fun party girl for this part, but Raja gave seductress and that’s clearly what Ru was looking for.

PinSo Condragulations to Raja! She was our pick from Day One (and probably Ru’s too).

PinIt’s a shame, because we definitely think she’s the very best of the lot this season (honestly, we think she’s the best the show’s ever had), but she gave a fairly weak performance overall this episode. The runway helped, like it always does, and the solo dance was pretty hot, but neither of them left us stunned.

PinWe don’t know if Raja’s going to “grow” in any way as it pertains to her drag style. We doubt she even wants to. She knows who she is and what she does well. She’s not going to become a standup comic or world-class dancer. She’s going to continue serving up fierceness because she can do it like no other queen.

Pin
PinShe’s easily the most stylish queen we’ve ever seen. That ability and depth of knowledge about fashion and pop culture impressed the hell out of us and, obviously, out of Ru.

Every reality competition ends with some fairly angry fans online, but the thing is, the show has always been very open about the fact that this isn’t so much a competition as it is Ru picking her favorite queen. We were pissed about Tyra’s win last year, but we got over it. It helps that we think Ru made the right choice this time.

[Photo Credit: logotv.com – Screencaps: tomandlorenzo.com]

Please review our Community Guidelines before posting a comment. Thank you!

blog comments powered by Disqus