It’s the girl group challenge! And the girlies are FIGHTING! Possibly because so many of them were TERRIBLE. Let’s get into it!
Nehellenia thinks no one likes her and she’s making everyone feel like shit about it, which is fun for us to watch. We’re not sure there will ever be a line in Drag Race herstory to top “I thought she was Miss Congeniality, but it turns out she’s a cunt.” Like we said previously, a lot of the huggy-kissy sisterhood stuff in recent seasons of Drag Race has felt less like queens being supportive of each other and more like queens realizing that they could hurt their careers if they looked like bitches. In other words, it felt fake as hell. Drag queens are competitive even when they’re not in competition with each other, and the culture rewards anyone who can throw shade or read a bitch for filth. We’d rather see these bitches get into it with each other than paste on fake smiles. Granted, Nehellenia needs to get the hell over herself. As Soa pointed out, this is not the time or place for anyone to be worrying about whether people like them enough. And Nehellenia’s passive-aggressiveness is frustrating for all of the other queens because there’s no way to rebut “Everyone hates me.”
But we’re jumping around a bit. The episode kicked off with a pretty dumb mini-challenge, but it was only done so that three team captains could be named. Why they’re doing 3 girl groups in a week where the number of queens isn’t divisible by three eludes us.
There were the usual “writing the lyrics” and “working on choreo” scenes, but nothing of note happened during them. Kween Kong’s group named themselves D’Vybe (all three groups came up with pretty great names, which is interesting when you consider most of them speak English as a second language) and were given a “Latinx” version of Ru’s song “Say Love.” Soa gave an energetic performance and wrote most of her lyrics in French, which we loved. Pythia was a mess up there. Kween is a great performer who knows how to command a stage. Unfortunately, none of them were in sync or in tune with the other.
Miranda’s group, Fresh M.E.A.T. (thank you, Alyssa), were tasked with the K Pop mix of “Say Love,” and we think they got a bit of a raw deal, because unlike most K Pop, this version was difficult to dance to. Alyssa’s a good choreographer but she didn’t have much to work with, so there was a lot of stomping and pointing. The costumes were fun and we like how they coordinated without being too matchy, although Tessa should’ve worn some thigh-highs. Eva did alright for herself, Tessa was kind of a mess, Alyssa did her best (which was better than anyone else in the group. The judges were hard on Miranda about her performance and we honestly don’t understand why. She commanded the stage. If the issue was that her choreo was rough, well, that was true for 95% of the queens.
Vanity’s team, The Back Door Girls, got the Europop mix and the benefit of having Kitty on the team. Her drag can reasonably be described as “Europop star,” so she made the best candidate to whip them into shape. She was clearly the best in the group, but Nehellenhia turned out to be a very energetic performer who also knows how to command a stage AND she wrote her lyrics in English, which couldn’t have been easy for her to perform. Gala did okay. Vanity was fine. Again, we’re not sure why she was singled out by the judges. We’d say Tessa belonged in the bottom over her.
Category Is: Color My World! ✨ Which lewk are you finding at the end of the rainbow? #GlobalAllStars pic.twitter.com/V7REWQAbOU
— RuPaul’s Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace) August 30, 2024
It wasn’t mentioned in the runway category (which was so generic as to be meaningless), but every queen’s look came with several dramatic reveals. From the left: Eva’s evil queen theme was fun and well-executed. Miranda’s costumes were obscure in meaning (you couldn’t tell she was supposed to be a boy in the beginning and you couldn’t tell that the doll attached to her stomach was supposed to be…well, a doll) and the final non-binary dress was pretty ugly. Tessa’s reveals were really badly executed, but the final clown look was great. Alyssa’s costumes were craftsy-looking. We know she’s an icon, but she relies way too much on wigs and legs to complete her look. Soa’s looks first two looks were interesting and ambitious, but her final look was just okay. Pythia’s looks were insanely ambitious, but we’re always going to be a little less impressed with drag that completely covers the wearer. The first look didn’t feel like drag at all to us. The second look was ugly but we were impressed that someone attempted crochet drag. The third look was great. Vanity’s multiple pride flag reveals were impressive and her final look, while simple, was pretty fabulous. Kween’s coat and hat were just a coat and hat. The second look was even more unimpressive, but the final look was fun. Every one of Nehellenia’s look were impressive as hell, ending with the best look of all, which is hard to do. Gala’s costumes were gorgeous. The girl simply won’t do a tuck, and it’s interesting to long-time Drag Race recappers like us to note how the show’s definition of drag has evolved over time. Ten years ago, she’d have been read for filth for that bouncing bulge. Kitty’s costumes didn’t impress us.
Having said that, she won this one handily. We realize there’s a growing rumbling that the show is rewarding the queens Ru already knows, but if you go on performance and ignore the runway looks, she was clearly the winner.
Unfortunately, the judges aren’t all that consistent in their critiques, so it appears that Miranda was placed in the bottom specifically because of her runway looks. Honestly, if it were up to us, it would have been Tessa and Pythia up there lip-syncing. We really don’t understand why they settled on Miranda and Vanity.
We’re sorry to see her go and we don’t think it was deserved. Her health issues made her performances all that much more impressive and the season is losing something by not having her odd little version of drag in the mix.
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: Paramount Plus via Tom and Lorenzo, World of Wonder Productions, Inc./Paramount+]
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