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RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE: Let’s Get Sea Sickening Ball

Posted on February 08, 2025

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For this week’s episode, RuPaul’s Drag Race unveiled the shocking twist of sending one person home for doing a bad job on the challenge. We are reeling from this unforeseen development. It was also the week of the drag ball challenge, which is a lot of fun to recap but always reduces Lorenzo to tears, sobbing the same question every time: “Do I have to screencap thirty-three fucking dresses?”

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But first, we got a cute, naughty mini-challenge that felt like a throwback to the show’s messier, raunchier days.

 

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Because it’s always a good time completely stripping the dignity from these girls before asking them to serve up jaw-dropping looks. Granted, it’s not like any of them were anything less than totally game.

 

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These are the worst Pit Crew costumes in the history of Drag Race. Everyone should be ashamed. Anyway, the queens had to use this pile of artfully curated trash to make the third of their nautical-themed ball looks.

 

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Ru came in for her usual arms-length consultations and it was all very yadda yadda yadda. It’s a struggle to not fast forward through these scenes. Obviously, it makes sense to have Ru come through the Werk Room and assess the offerings, but it’s all so mannered and staged, with every queen trying to figure out the right string of words to get the right sort of encouragement from Ru, that it just feels flat at this point. We wish the show had a Tim Gunn-like figure who could go into the the Werk Room and offer real consultations and critiques. They should just bring in a different All-Star every week to do that.

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We’ve been saying all season that one of the best parts of this year’s crop of queens is that they’re all willing to be a little messy on camera. To be fair, in seasons long past, an incident like the one with Lexi’s costume would have set off a season-long grudge with multiple showdowns.

 

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Instead, it got resolved within a day, thanks to everyone being a little bit more grownup about it. Lexi wildly over-reacted, although we can understand being pissed in the moment. Onya did not cover herself in glory with her handling of the situation. It was clearly a mistake, but her reluctance to speak up about it just looks shady as hell, especially after the drama with Jewels’ trim. We wonder if the other queens will be side-eyeing Onya after this.

To answer Lorenzo’s tearful plea, no, you do not have to do 33 screencaps, baby:

 


Sticking with safe girls: Jewels’ look is all wig and jewelry, but the bathing suit is a big nothing. Lydia’s look was generic except for the multiple penises. It’s like she wants to do surreal drag, but never takes it as far as it needs to go. Onya’s look was okay, but we didn’t love the wig. Suzie Toot should’ve got read for filth for this one. We defended the drag clown, but this is just sad and barely counts as drag at all. Kori’s look was cute, but she has no range whatsoever. Lexi’s look was bold, but honestly a little boring.

Jewels’ look was pure stunning. If other looks were up to this level, she’d have been in the top. Lydia’s look was a mess. Onya’s look was creative and unexpected. Lydia’s look was cutely unexpected but she’s still serving the same ugly drag face. Kori’s look was the best she’s worn all season, but the wig was a miss. Lexi’s look was gorgeous but we wonder if the judges are starting to get tired of her serving body all the time.

 

Jewels’ look wasn’t bad, but the bodysuit was cut way too high on her right side. Lydia’s just looked like a pile of spray-painted trash, which it was. Onya’s look was impressively designed, but she should have laid off the brown spray paint a little. Suzie’s look was okay, we guess. Kori’s is also okay, but we’re tired of seeing her in mini-dresses and blonde wigs. Lexi’s look sums up her whole approach to the runway, which is to wear a swatch of fabric and then sell it with attitude and styling. We feel like she’s going to get called out soon. Now for the tops and bottoms:

 

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Crystal’s Barbie look was as cliched as Michelle noted, but the wig change was cute and inspired. Her unconventional materials look was one of the most impressive of the night. In fact, we think it’s what landed her in the top because her sea creature look was kind of ugly.

 

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Sam showed real range this week. Her bathing beauty look was cute, if a little basic. Her sea creature look (yes, Lorenzo compiled these collages out of order, but let’s not bother him about it on a Saturday) was inspired and a huge surprise coming from her. Our only quibble is that the chains holding the skirt together should have had a stiffness to them because she could barely walk in it. The trash look was pure genius and if her bathing beauty look had been a little stronger, she might have won this week.

 

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Arietty took the tip prize because all three of her looks were equally strong. Her sea creature was the most stunning look of the night. Her trash drag was cute and well-executed and her Avatar-inspired bathing beauty look was genius.

 

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It’s a nice comeback for her. As for those bottom girls…

 

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None of Acacia’s looks were terrible, but none of them were all that great, either. We feel like this sums her entire drag up. Clock’s ticking on this one.

 

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Hormona got hit with the critique that’s about to hit a few more girls if the judges have any interest in being consistent: she has no range. The looks are all cute, but they’re very standard drag. Any one of these looks could have been improved with a wilder wig, an unexpected beat, or more outrageous shoes.

 

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We remain deeply unimpressed with serving body as a drag technique. Lana’s bathing beauty look (center) was striking, but only because she has such a stunning body. The actual drag is basic. We won’t drag (no pun intended) her sea creature look (left). It wasn’t the best of the night, but it was sharply interesting. Her trash drag (right) was a big nothing. We’re not even sure what she was going for.

 

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Lana and Hormona wound up in the lip sync. We have no reason to argue against it except we think Acacia was probably more deserving of either of them.

 

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We wouldn’t necessarily call it an epic lip sync, but it was an interesting one to watch because whoever was winning it changed from minute to minute.

 

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But in the end, we think it was time for this one to go. She’s a good drag queen, but she doesn’t have the range the competition asks from these queens. This is a problem with the season 17 cast generally and we’ll be interested to see if more queens get eliminated because of it.

 

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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