This episode isn’t likely to go down as one of the more epic or legendary in Drag Race history, but for the first time this season, all of the challenges produced entertaining results that worked to, in Saphirra’s word’s “separate the wheat from the chaff.” Granted, the results weren’t surprising, because let’s face it: the wheat was separated from the chaff by the third episode.
First, we got treated to a fairly lively, if not overly shady, library session. While all of the challenges this episode were well executed and a lot of queens stepped their pussies up, there were, as we said, exceedingly few surprises. Xunami and Plane gave the best reads (based on the highly edited versions we got to see) and queens like Q and Mhi’ya gave some of the worst.
Then we got a visit from the best to ever do it – “it” being Cher. We gasped when Chad Michaels walked in because for a split second, we really did think it was the OG. The only thing that snapped us out of it (intended) was the realization that the real Cher would’ve probably shown up in a track suit.
The main challenge was the Snatch Game, of course. Some of the queens made very smart choices that played to their strengths and some of them were just completely delusional about what they were doing.
We very much appreciate the heart cutouts, don’t you?
Just a sort of half-assed idea that never went anywhere. She had a couple of plane jokes, but she didn’t really have a character established and, as we said once before, she has no real sense of comic timing. She’s mostly just loud. She looked great, though.
This has got to be one of the bigger WTFs in snatch history. After all this time, we just don’t understand how anyone approaches Snatch Game with a concept, but no jokes at all. She had nothing. Her banana obsession is dragging her down. She’s literally at the point where she’s yelling out “BANANA” as if that were a concept, joke or character. Let it go, girl. Your drag is too good for this schtick.
Um… ditto? Except all the parts about the banana. She had a great character design and a concept with some potential but she had no jokes at all. The only difference between her and Nymphia or her and Morphine was that she opted to create a character instead of impersonating one and that’s always going to put a contestant on their back foot. Drag Race is not as overt about its influences as it once was (although we were happy to see Ru reference Paris is Burning for the Library challenge), but this challenge was originally based on the long drag tradition of celebrity female impersonations, which goes back close to a century. If you’re going to skip past the impersonation part, you better have one hell of a snatch.
It’s time to say something. Three little words that are going to piss off any Dawn fans reading them: FAILURE TO LAUNCH. We keep waiting for Dawn to do something amazing and this was the episode and challenge that made us realize how little of an impact she’s making so far. How do you pick Meghan freaking McCain and do so little with it?
It’s always a risk to do man drag for the Snatch Game, but Saphirra was smart to do James Brown, not just because he could get the look down fairly easily, but because he knew Ru would respond to it. Ru will sit politely while you do your little made up snatches or social media snatches, but if you give him a snatch that he can reference and understand, you’re already ahead of your competitors.
She was good enough, but we suspect she’s about to get called out on the limitations of her musical theater drag. Play someone born after 1975, girl. Shake it up a little.
Looked great, had no jokes.
Mhi’ya abandoned her original idea to play Tiffany Pollard and created her own character, rapper Trina’s cousin Shaquita. We’re not sure why she didn’t just do Trina since she’s evidently referenced her in her own act before, but to everyone’s surprise, she really pulled this one out. The trick to Snatch Game is to be a shark, constantly moving, never stopping, showing no seams. She just went for it and kept on going.
Much like Plasma and her Broadway Babies, Plane is in her glory when she’s playing cunty Eastern (or in this case, Central) European women, so it never actually mattered if no one else got the reference. She was funny, she had the character down cold, and she looked great.
The runway category was dance-based and some of the interpretations were pretty cute. To our surprise, we really didn’t like Q’s robot design. Her costumes are usually so gorgeous and this one was garish and had a confusing design. We’d never look at that thing and think she was supposed to be a robot. Dawn’s polka drag was cute and Plasma’s mid-century tap dancer was both extremely on brand and just a little eyeroll-worthy. All three of them were safe.
Xunami’s latin ballroom look was stunning.
Just gorgeous. Nymphia will always have her costumes to save her ass.
Smart, cute, and pure drag. Honestly, we thought she was the clear winner this week.
Also a gorgeous look. What can we say? We have no critiques for these bitches.
Having said that, we think the design here could have been improved a little but the references to ’90s hip hop were strong.
Even she seemed surprised that she won it, but we’re not going to pretend to be mad about it. Yes, Saphirra would’ve been our choice, but Plane’s snatch was solid and this is the prettiest and most polished she’s looked all season.
Somehow, Nymphia did not wind in the lip sync, although we can’t say we disagree all that much with how this shook out. The thing is, while they’ve never been frontrunners, they’ve both had enough encouragement from the judges, and enough skill as queens, that they really turned this into a lip sync worth watching. Maybe not epic, but very entertaining, with a feeling that something real was at stake.
It’s a shame, because we think she had more in her, and we’re not even entirely convinced she lost the lip sync, but sometimes, it’s not that deep. The girl’s snatch just wasn’t good.
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 The Year by NPR is on sale wherever fine books are sold! It’s also available in Italian and Spanish language editions, darlings! Because we’re fabulous on an INTERNATIONAL level.
[Photo Credit: MTV via Tom and Lorenzo]
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