by Chris Feil
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars is back! Wheels are apparently in this season (thank you, Trixie Mattel and Aja), so I’m rolling into the workroom on my Rascal scooter to once again go deeper into Drag Race than Sasha Velour goes into a gay history lesson.
This season some of our All Stars have had mega success after their season, like Milk’s ad campaigns and Shangela and Trixie’s growing television careers. There’s also favorites who were denied a top 3 spot like Kennedy Davenport, Chi Chi DeVayne, and BenDeLaCreme. Throw in Brooklyn goofballs Thorgy Thor and Aja and respected S2 pro Morgan McMichaels. Oh yeah, and one more significant addition.
Since we got the queens’ first workroom looks out of the way, we’ll skip right onto the big news of the mysterious 10th queen in the competition...
CAMEROOOOON! That’s right, Drag Race’s first ever winner Bebe Zahara Benet returns to the competition. Aside from the obvious twist, her inclusion is intended as a major reintroduction of the first reigning to an audience that might be unfamiliar to her gifts. The fandom has grown exponentially since she defeated Nina Flowers to the title almost ten years ago and the unavailability of season one has kept newbie fans from knowing what a talent she is.
It’s the norm for competition shows like this to have winners participating in their All Stars seasons so this isn’t revolutionary, even if we had thought an all winner season might have been in the cards. And I’d argue it’s perfectly fair to the other queens on balance alone - Bebe is risking the reputation her crown affords her while the other queens can only benefit from another opportunity. If anyone is against a winner returning to the competition, consider her confessional look a preview of what she'll wear to your funeral.
As with last year’s All Stars kick-off, the first mission was the Reading Is Fundamental challenge. With season queens come seasoned reads and this was one of the tighter rounds of Reading the show has ever seen. BenDeLaCreme was declared the victor for his brainier set, perhaps laying ground for the dismantling of her Miss Congeniality title the show is already playing up.
Best Read
Milk (as Sia?) - “I always thought her name was Angela and people were telling her to shut up.”
Runner Up: Trixie’s puns for Milk (“2%?) and Shangela (“You’re gonna Halle-lose.”)
Largely it was Morgan McMichaels receiving the early season platform boost this episode, but not for the positive. Quickly cast as the willful villain, her assurance that she would try to eliminate the strongest competition was a surefire way to place a target squarely on her own back. As Aja put it, a perfect strategy that should be kept to yourself, girl. Also a strange one considering the judges pick the bottom two that you choose from anyway.
The main challenge was a variety show and kind of blurs together. Thorgy played violin, Shangie shablammed, and Kennedy cartwheeled onto a raised platform. Trixie faired best of the queens that presented original music, but needed even just one joke to make the subdued risk pay off. Milk’s conceptual paper doll routine was a creative highlight even if her delivery quickly went flat.
However, the episode doesn’t make good on that promise of exposure for our queen from Cameroon. VH1 excluded her from tons of press for the sake of a twist that it forgets almost immediately after it delivers it? No ma’am, it does not sit well with me. Not to mention that she performed well and stood out in a variety show plagued with sameness, and should have wedged either Thorgy or Shangela from their high critiques.
But the best two performances of the night were an easy call: Del’s titacular, hilarious burlesque and Aja’s firestorm of jawdropping choreo. Del’s booby tassle routine was both everything we wanted from her and a skillset she never really got to show on her season. Meanwhile Aja’s precise spinning, outfit revealing, body-thrusting feat of daring was everything we were promised she would deliver on her season and never got. Both of these acts remind of Roxxxy Andrews triumphant first performance on All Stars last season though, so let’s hope that’s not too ominous for their later performances.
Worst Critique - Vanessa Hudgens: “I’m so into voguing right now.”
When even a positive critique can make you cringe. (Let's hope the mainstay judges keep up this newfound helpful criticism though.)
Chi Chi’s ability to deliver All Star quality while being true to her DIY aesthetics has been one of my biggest question marks for the season, and her rightful place in the bottom this week spells doom. She was sloppy in presentation and forethought, but was clearheaded enough about what went wrong to assuage that better things could come. Meanwhile Morgan “I charge for that” McMichaels entertained even as she was taken to task for her undercooked, unraveling performance. Sadly for ChiChi, it seemed sealed up.
Best Look (But) - Morgan McMichaels

Now this is drag! Too bad it came undone in performance.
The lipsync was a nailbiter between Aja and Dela with the titty-tassling goofiness of Miss Creme winning out. Which spelled bad news for Morgan when Dela started in on her circular, not-quite-consistent logic to avoid unfair eliminations with an unfair elimination. What’s the end game of forcing slippery ideas of fairness on the competition? Does Del not realize that there is no Miss Congeniality awarded in All Stars?
But of course Morgan might return, because this is All Stars and there was that cryptic ending (does that “I’ve got your back” mean Ru might have more say this time?). For a premiere, this was a solid start and promises a season that could unfold in any number of ways. There’s always a whif of predictability with Drag Race but I’m not catching one yet, save for a frontrunner or two.
The episode was dominated by the top/bottom two (with Trixie jokes peppered throughout), so hopefully the air time will be more balanced for the queens in upcoming episodes. Ranking is tough to not apply preconceived notions in an All Stars season, but based on this premiere my ranking is such:
- BenDeLaCreme
- Aja (AYO, SIS!)
- Trixie Mattel
- Bebe Zahara Benet
- Shangela
- Kennedy Davenport
- Milk
- Morgan McMichaels OUT
- Thorgy Thor (not a cute look snubbing Bob the Drag Queen so much)
- Chi Chi DeVayne
Gif as Episode Grade:
What did you think of the premiere? Who are you rooting for?