It’s another make-your-drag challenge for the queens! We’ve said it before, but we wish Drag Race would do an entire season like this, Project Runway-style. Even when there are seamstresses pitted against queens with glue guns, the playing field feels a little more leveled when drag queens are forced to do the work of making drag instead of simply unpacking it from their trunks.
But first, there was an incredibly silly and funny mini-challenge where the queens were tasked with applying their makeup on a plane going through turbulence. More of this nonsense, please.
Ru chose Tessa because she had the clowniest look, but Nehellenia’s whole beat is shockingly good.
The queens were asked to pair up with someone they’d like to have a cocktail with and Nehellenia didn’t get picked by anyone. You could either see that as a warning to Nehellenia that the other queens aren’t feeling her or you could see it as a bunch of queens being mean girls. It depends on which side you identify with most.
We don’t know if it was planned this way, but having the queens work with some other queen’s materials was a sharp way of pointing out that the playing field has never been level. Well-established queens like Alyssa are going to have much finer materials than some of the up-and-coming girls and it was interesting to see how each of them navigated the situation. Tessa made no attempt to hide how thrilled she was to be getting Alyssa’s bag. Alyssa, for her part, was a little snotty about Tessa’s fabrics, but for the most part, she kept it fun.
Nehellenia, on the other hand, just can’t keep a thing off her face and wound up crying over Kitty’s suitcase, which is at least a little ironic, because Kitty was one of the girls who showed up with expensive fabric.
As always, starting with the proviso that no one really knows how things play out in real time on this production because everything is edited to tell a story, it seems pretty clear that a decent portion of the queens find Nehellenia to be a bit of a whiner who tends to make everything about herself.
On the flip side, it’s pretty easy to conclude that Kitty likes to needle people a bit and when it became clear that Nehellenia was questioning her taste, she got a little offended by it. It never really went anywhere, however, and in the end, it didn’t matter because both of them were declared safe. Still, we think it’s safe that this dynamic is going to continue to play out.
Category Is: It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere! Which lewk are you serving at happy hour? ✨ #GlobalAllStars pic.twitter.com/lBCkSHOze5
— RuPaul’s Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace) September 13, 2024
We said a couple of weeks back that Alyssa relies too much on wigs and legs when she doesn’t have a world-class costume. For all her complaining, this was perfectly fine drag costume material with which to work. It’s on her that she made such a basic and unflattering tube with it. She should’ve been in the bottom, but it looks like she’ll have to murder one of her competitors on stage for that to happen.
Tessa did very well with Alyssa’s suitcase. The look was stylish and well made, although we think the gorilla arm was a proportional mistake.
The judges were right to praise her makeup evolution (thanks to some tips from Kween), but as soon as she walked out in this, we knew she was in trouble. For all of Nehellenia’s complaining, we think Soa probably got the worst suitcase. It’s well-styled, but the dress looks glued together.
She clearly got in her own head a bit and wound up panicking. This was not a great effort, but it was a pretty decent save from being a disastrous one. Using paper to make flowers was smart. We just wish she’d kept the spray paint effect restricted to them.
This was very ambitious of her, and the results aren’t as impeccable as she’s capable of, but it’s a strong, bold look that plays to her strengths and gives Ru exactly what she wants. It would have been a much stronger look without the wings.
She should get a lot of credit for stepping so far out of her comfort zone that she’s pretty much unrecognizable. The padding proportions were off and the bust flowers sit way too high, but it’s still better than Alyssa’s.
All things considered, it’s not bad at all, but her entire aesthetic is getting a little tired and stale. Stepping outside your comfort zone isn’t always reward (just ask Gala), but it would be to her benefit to walk out in something surprising at this point.
In Nehellenia’s defense, this really is a mumsy textile that doesn’t automatically cause one to think of drag queens. She did a pretty great job with it, but it’s clearly not her style.
This was admirably executed, but the proportions are awkward. It needs a little more length on the skirt. Also, the styling isn’t great. The gloves and the fishnets are too much and the hair and makeup doesn’t coordinate well with the design. The dress says “hit the club” but all of the styling is matronly.
Tessa won with Alyssa’s materials and that seems about right to us.
Soa and Gala were in the bottom. We can agree with putting the former there but it really should have been Alyssa in the other spot. We hate to say it, but the second the song started we knew Soa was leaving. It was a pretty epic battle overall, but Soa’s costume was ugly and unflattering while Gala looked scorching hot. Every once in a while, it’s good to be reminded that the judges are affected nearly as much by how you look during a lip synch as how well you executed it.
Kinda sorry to see her go, especially since it continues the streak of sending home the non-English-speaking queens.
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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