by Chris Feil
[a large cardboard giftbox rolls in and after a few confusing seconds, Chris emerges] I’m back, bitches!
Forgive my Shangela moment, I’m just that excited to be back on the Drag Race beat after Nathaniel kindly took over in my absence for last week’s fantastic Snatch Game. But while that episode felt like a real return to form, this episode was the show at its peak, serving full talent, drama, and emotion the way its best episodes do. The 90210 challenge and big hair runway concept were relatively unfussy, proving that RuPaul’s Drag Race excels by keeping its focus on the queens...
Appropriate for a 90210 challenge, shade was the first meal of the day. In no time at all, you have Trinity lambasting the departed Cucu, Sasha mocking Farrah’s whininess, and Valentina calling out Alexis’s opera-sized ego. It’s been one of this season’s delightful surprises to discover that it’s Valentina taking on the role of resident goofball, if less surprising to see her bitchier side. (Shade, check.)
“Linda Evangelista (9021HO Remix)”
Farrah has rightly earned her reputation as the pouter, but Aja is just as prone to childish ranting like her iconic rant against Valentina in Untucked. Aja makes a scene and goes from having a larger role (providing her some much needed spotlight, no less) to a small uninteresting one - “a bitch playing a bitch in the last scene” as Peppermint puts it. All that messy drama and she didn’t even get a catchphrase out of it this time.
Cut to Shea getting immediate praise from Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling during filming while Aja stumbles. But the bigger problem on set was Nina Bo’nina The Cool People At [Pause] This School Brown’s attitude when given direction. It’s interesting to see the queens in Untucked last week get so similarly frustrated with Nina as it seems much of the show’s audience has become. Nina doesn’t just self-sabotage with her defeatism, she does so with her anger at feedback. WE WANT TO LOVE YOU NINA! (Long-game narrative, check.)
Back in the workroom, the queens gave me what amounted to tear-soaked whiplash. Cancer affected many of these queens lives and in different kinds of ways: Trinity caring for her grandmother while in high-school, Shea’s opportunity to reconcile with her father, Sasha’s bald-headed inspiration coming from her mother. (Tears, check.)
Aja, the Bed-Stuy Medium
At least Aja got one opportunity to show her sweeter side by hyping her skills of speaking to the dead. I wonder if she’s current taking appointments - I want a ghost to tell me I’m perfect, beautiful, and that I look like Linda Evangelista. (I'm a model, check.)
The Bigger the Hair, the Closer to RuPaul
A big hair runway sounds a little basic, but you need this kind of wide open-interpretation runway at this point to help the queens stand out with their own point of view. High concept or new bars of difficulty do not always help Drag Race. Plus, the worst runway was... maybe Nina, who still gave us a gagworthy RuAnimale Jocelyn Wildenstein feline realness paint. Good looks all around!
Trinity becomes a more formidable competitor every week, and she locked up her second win for her manic mom. You can argue that with less to do than Valentina or Shea, she nabbed the win by making the most of her screentime. I’d still give Valentina the win - who’d have also expected that her best work would be in acting challenges?
Can you remember the last time on a competition show where the obvious bottom 2 both gave passable performances? If anything cemented their spot in the lipsync, it was their bad attitudes. Sasha’s position in the bottom three could have just as easily been swapped out for any of the safe girls - I thought she was quite funny, but to be fair she didn’t follow through on her direction to go bigger.
Finally They Do “Finally” in a Lipsync
CeCe Peniston always makes me feel myself. Now I’m just imagining an Adventures of Priscilla sequence where Nina performs as various kinds of wild felines. (Great lipsync, check.)
Close call on the lipsync, but Aja is rightfully sent packing. She went out as much on top as she could, Michelle Visage correctly saying her look was her best yet. Farrah is likely our next to go, unless she can make a major step up - then we’ve got a real race to the finale with a tight, talented lineup.
And speaking of Farrah, she gets a lovely message from home on this week’s Untucked and another excuse to whine but adorably this time:
So yes, this was a damn perfect episode that managed to check off every box that makes this show what it is! Here is my current ranking of the queens:
- Shea Couleé (unbeatable at this point, no?)
- Sasha Velour
- 🔺Trinity Taylor
- 🔺Valentina
- 🔻Nina Bo'nina Brown (the mighty have fallen)
- Alexis Michelle
- Eureka O'Hara OUT
- Peppermint (though I am hopeful)
- Farrah Moan
- Aja
- Cynthia Lee Fontaine OUT
- Charlie Hides OUT
- Jaymes Mansfield OUT
- Kimora Blac OUT
Gif as Episode Grade:
