Well, what had happened was… a bunch of low-performing queens got handed an improv challenge that was way too hard for the bulk of them to handle so instead they saved all of their dramatic skills for non-competition work.
At least that’s what it looked like to us. The whole thing got a little silly and the results of the challenge did not turn out to be worth all of the carrying on, but essentially Alexis got in her feelings, Kandy doesn’t have any feelings for anyone other than herself, and Kahanna dealt with the sudden realization that she’s not as talented as the rest of the queens.
Are we wrong here? Alexis probably was being a little manipulative with her tears, but Kandy was also being a bit of a jerk to her. Kahanna got inside her head and decided it would be more dignified for her to not try at all than to try and fail at a challenge for which she was poorly suited. Mama Ru had to head back into the Werk Room to slap some sense into these queens, which means Kahanna’s threat to leave must have been taken seriously by the producers, but we didn’t believe she really intended to leave. She just wanted all of the girls to beg her to stay.
Anyway, there was something called an improv challenge except all of the bits were highly edited, so it didn’t feel remotely like an improv exercise and we have no idea how the work was done or if the girls were given any direction or how many takes they had to do to get a workable one. All we know is this: It was boring as hell.
No one was truly bad. In fact, everyone gave off a sense of competence and confidence that didn’t quite feel like it lined up with how they were all acting in the Werk Room beforehand. But the flipside of no one being terrible in the challenge is that no one was really all that great in it, either. We’ll give Kahanna props for pulling herself together and delivering a solid, well-realized character. Jessica Wild made a meal out of that taco line, but considering how off-the-cuff funny she tends to be, we were surprised she didn’t run away with this one.
Jimbo gave the best, most realized performance and created a much stronger character than almost all of the other girls.
Alexis gave us Alexis. It was fine and polished, but unfunny.
Kandy just did Kandy because that’s all she can do. As a performer, she’s extremely limited. She can’t even so much as modulate her voice to create a different character. This was LaLa’s moment to shine and she took it and ran with it. Again, no one here was really all that funny or fantastic, but she nailed her character to the wall and delivered exactly the kind of performance Ru was looking for.
The runway category was “Miss (Fill in the Blank),” and we have to say, we were kind of disappointed with the overall efforts. You’d think handing a bunch of drag queens an open-ended beauty pageant theme would yield some over-the-top result, but only a few of them delivered.
Jessica’s Miss Sausage Party was a cute idea, but the gown was a little plain and the sausages looked a little too cute and plush. We realize real meat would have been impractical, but something that actually looked like real meat would’ve done much more to sell this idea. We’ll give Kahanna credit, she came as “Miss Tired Ass Showgirl,” and damn, if that wasn’t exactly what she served.
Lala’s Miss Bootleg was hilariously well observed and executed. She wasn’t really giving us pageant queen with the outfit, but the concept was solid. Like Kahanna, Kandy just leaned into her own persona without doing much work for it. The tiered tiara wig was cute, but the outfit was a big pile of nothing.
Jimbo delivered another quintessential Jimbo look. It was funny and he sold it, but the big-titty girls are starting to get a little old from him. Alexis’ Mss Manpig was the most creative out of the looks and if we were judging on runway alone, we probably would’ve given it to her. From the single leather glove to the piss-stained hem, it was sly, naughty, raunchy, and queer to the bone.
But it was Lala’s week for sure. We have no problem with this.
And while we might have wondered if Jorgeous was capable of snatching that $10,000 lip sync prize out of LaLa’s hands, the second Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” kicked in, we knew how things were going to go. Because if LaLa Ri can’t tap into the joy and attitude of a Lizzo song for cash money, she doesn’t deserve to be there. Fortunately, she cleaned up.
And she sent Miss Kahanna home. We have no problem with this because she’s been on the bottom too many times, but we wonder if her dramatic interlude this episode had something to do with it. After all, why would you fight to save a queen who almost walked away from it all the second things got difficult?
Legendary Children: The First Decade of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Last Century of Queer Life, a New York Times “New and Notable” pick, praised by The Washington Post “because the world needs authenticity in its stories,” and chosen as one of the Best Books of 2020 by NPR is on sale wherever fine books are sold!
[Photo Credit: Paramount Plus via Tom and Lorenzo]
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