Please don’t take our late recap as a sign that we’re over this season. On the contrary, this was probably the best episode yet. It’s just that these hot summer weekends keep taking it out of us (and also because content is so skint at this time of year that it doesn’t make sense to post too much on the weekends).
But this episode offered two things in perfect balance: interpersonal drama and high entertainment. What more could you want from a gaggle of drag queens? Shade and fierceness in equal measure; that’s what it’s all about.
While Mistress’s attempts at shenanigans at the top of the episode were annoying to watch, they were also extremely, deeply gratifying. Sure, watching a villain flame out dramatically might have its charms, but to us, it is far more satisfying to watch one simply fizzle out and collapse when she realizes no one gives a shit about her shit anymore. Mistress was PISSED that she wound up in the bottom last week and if she were the kind of entertaining reality show villain she claims to be, she’d have made a big, campy stink about it and made sure that everyone was paying attention to her. Instead, she shut down completely and only managed a few limp attempts at pissing the other queens off. It was SO FUN watching all of them kind of shrug and move on from her nonsense. You could watch the ego collapse in real time.
As we figured, they waited until the semi-finals for the library challenge. Like the lip syncs, these things are so edited that it’s nearly impossible to get a read (pun unintended) on how anybody truly did, but we’re not surprised that Ru gave the win to Bosco, because that bitch has got a mouth on her (complimentary).
After that, it was time to get ready for the talent show. There was a lot of filler in this episode (there’s been a lot this season generally), but we’ll never get mad at Drag Race for spending some time talking about trans people and the attacks they’re suffering at the moment.
As for that talent show, it was fine, we guess. These are All-Stars, so none of them were likely to get up there and completely choke. It’s kind of disappointing that almost all of the queens defaulted to a dance number with an accompanying hype track. Too many queens tried to be weird and clever with their talent entries over the years, and unfortunately, the show rarely rewarded any of them, so they now all do roughly the same thing. We give Aja credit for doing something interesting and culturally relevant with her number, but it was kind of a frenetic mess.
Bosco kept her lyrics crystal clear and instead of doing the kind of acrobatic routines most of the queens call choreo, she served up classic burlesque style. She also made the best use of her dancers. We think it was right to reward this act as the best, but largely because we think it was the smartest use of that one minute each queen was afforded.
We confess to not quite getting the whole office scenario and we felt like her lyrics were mostly incomprehensible, but credit where it’s due: it was a highly energetic and polished performance.
As expected. And that may have been the issue here. Doing a classic Mama Rose-style number may be a perfect fit for Ginger – and to be clear, she absolutely bodied the number – but she didn’t offer anything new. And while Ru was impressed by the performance, she generally doesn’t go for Broadway-style drag queens.
She did great. Not first-place great, but “You bitches totally underestimated me” great. Loved the costume.
She looked amazing and we can’t really argue with the performance, but like Ginger’s, it was a little too expected. At this point, we can understand the impulse of wanting to give the judges what they like to see from you, but unfortunately, they also want to be a little surprised each time. It’s kind of an impossible brief to fulfill.
Perfect example: the judges want to see originality, but that’s nearly impossible to do effectively in a one-minute talent number. We give Lydia all the credit in the world for wanting to stick to the weirdness that got her this far, but everything she was trying to do was too complicated, with too many moving parts, for such a short number. If one thing goes wrong, you have no time to course-correct. And she didn’t.
We also give Mistress credit for trying to do something original, even as we clap with glee watching her self-destruct because of her own personality flaws. The bit was risky as hell, but her performance of it was kind of dismissive and perfunctory because she really thinks she shouldn’t have to try too hard and she made the hilariously stupid choice to make fat jokes about Michelle and TS part of the piece. If it had been remotely funny, none of this would have mattered, but she never bothered to get to that part. Also, the costume was terrible.
Category Is: Foiled Again! Which lewk was your silver lining? #AllStars10 pic.twitter.com/GbFo52XgcN
— RuPaul’s Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace) July 12, 2025
Everybody looked spectacular for the runway, as one would expect at this point.
Because the category was so focused, the looks all got a little samey, but that’s not really a mark against them. Of all of them, we’d say Aja’s was probably the lest interesting and could have used an edit or two. Bosco is simply drop-dead stunning in that gown (although we confess to not loving the wig).
Daya will never fully abandon her punk butch queen preferences, so this made for a fun way to interpret a gown, even if it did look a little craftsy. Ginger looked beautiful, but the whole ribcage element was just strange to us. Irene’s wings were jaw-dropping and we think she might have been looking at a top spot if the arms weren’t a little goofy looking.
Like Aja’s, Jorgeous’s look was fine, but overdone. LOVED Lydia’s for being the most original on the stage.
But no costume needed more editing than Mistress’s, which is kind of a shame, because it could have been a stunner if she’d removed about five pounds of chains from it.
Can’t really argue with this win. At this point, we think the main prize is coming down to Bosco and Ginger.
We suppose the producers couldn’t resist pitting these two allies against each other, but we don’t see how anyone else deserved to be in the bottom. The other numbers might not have been the most original, but they weren’t outright flops.
We can’t really say who deserved to be eliminated because the lip sync was highly edited and they both seemed pretty evenly matched. But Mistress, for good or ill, decided to create a storyline for herself this season and the problem with reality show villains who try to create their own storyline is that ultimately, the producers are the ones who decide when to end it, and they’ll do it in a second if they think it’ll satisfy the audience.
They will also bring a bitch back just to shake things up, so watch this space.
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]
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