RPDR All Stars 3: E5 - Can-aroon!
Saturday, February 24, 2018 at 10:00AM
Chris Feil in Andy Warhol, Drag Queens, LGBT, RuPaul, RuPaul's Drag Race, Television

by Chris Feil

Drag Race fans got a mega-serving of the ever popular show this week with an All Stars design challenge followed immediately by the announcement of the season 10 cast. The big tenth season will be following the ongoing All Stars season without a break, so in 2018 the Race is a marathon. We’ll briefly look at the new contestants, but first we have to unpack (oops) the season’s first dud episode.

Last week Shangela played up the drama for a middling Snatch Game and gave once expected frontrunner Trixie Mattel a major fakeout, ultimating sending the beloved but stuck-in-first-gear Chi Chi DeVayne. The first agenda once back in the workroom was to lay the Notegate drama to rest...

Dela’a watchful eye here may have been strictly for the cameras, but this image is like a gay Vermeer. As if Shangela’s effusiveness and genuine affection for Trixie in this moment doesn’t further show how last episode’s drama was for the audience’s benefit, it also showed her at her most genuine. Trixie’s gratitude was also undercut by a real respect for Shangela as well, and strangely this felt like one of the most connected moments between queens all season.

And a new power couple was born!?

Am I crazy to think that this could be the potential alliance to catch up to BenDeLaCreme’s winning streak? Trixie could definitely use the push at this point and Shangela has been aiming for allies.

The next morning, the queens returned to a mini-challenge surprise (remember those?):  a photo shoot inspired by Andy Warhol’s notorious Polaroid portraits. The queens brisk through their looks and cool cucumber fashion fish Aja wins the advantageless mini (maybe it’s fine to let the minis go...). Suddenly Amy Adams swoops into workroom and snatches the win from Ajas hands.

We have been craving a design challenge and this week we finally have one. The Warhol theme keeps running with the queens charged to create looks inspired by Studio 54 and show their branding expertise by creating their own wearable version of Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans. “... Like a big can?” Lineysha Sparx asks, still in her Celia Cruz outfit. Yes, Lineysha, exactly that. The queens are wearing soup cans.

Reader, this is a bizarre challenge. While some queens take this part of the challenge to its silly extreme, some of the girls just end up walking the runway in an oversized tube. Branding is a crucial element to a queens success after Drag Race. That the show has grown increasingly aware of this is reflected in their challenges, but this one mostly underserves its purpose. And eventually is mostly ignored in critique - with the exception of the queen who most misses the mark.

Helpful Fish. Generous Fish. If My Sister’s In Trouble, I Will Always Help Her Out Fish.
It wouldn’t be a design challenge without queens helping queens. Aja helps out a surprising clueless Bebe, while Trixie and Shangela get adorable over Shangie’s continued construction issues.

Poor Shangela has taken two whole months of sewing classes to still have the same issues that sent her home on on season 2 (and almost on season 3). Luckily she has the smarts to keep it simple, even if she goes a bit literal with the disco theming. Hey Mr. DJ, put a record on your body.

Before the runway, the queens discuss how they think they will move forward with eliminations considering everyone’s very different performance record thus farn. Dela becomes a walking version of the Math Lady meme, and claims trying to find a mathematical formula to help keep things fair. Of course Kennedy doesn’t want it decided off track record (she currently has the most trips to the bottom despite a win). And yet her theory of not overthinking the decision is wise. Notions of potential alliances with certain queens are still conditional, poor performance and critique is still subject to perception, and a minor misstep that landed a queen in the bottom doesn’t equate a major screwup. Following your gut will keep you out of your head (just look at how it’s weighing on Dela).

The runway was similarly underwhelming, with the queens serving simple looks except for Aja’s beaded vest and opaque jumpsuit. Bebe’s glorious sequined dream and Trixie’s disco Barbie were the most transportive to the Studio 54 era, but suddenly Amy Adams returns on the runway in a fur coat and deep cut dress and screams on a toilet.

The Dela is growing restless. Not only did her soup can dourly joke “winner of literally everything” but her success was used against her. Granted while she served one of the weakest looks, it would be different for the judges to say that than what they did say: that she was a disappointment simply because she didn’t win. Doesn’t that brush aside the achievement of her four straight wins as if they mean nothing? Her enthusiasm is waning with carrying the weight of having to send queens home, but this kind of critique can’t help either.

But Dela wasn’t the only one to be critiqued unfairly. With the soup cans, the judges turned Kennedy’s typically praised goofiness against her and dinged Shangela for an off-putting fish soup as if she had actually served it to them. It was Aja that took the full force of the judges. She didn’t present anything recognizably her in the branding exercise, and her lovely outfit was seen as a stretch for the era. It didn’t help that Aja gravely put her foot in her mouth with mispronounced icons and mismashed her references and showed her young age. A Mortal Kombat death blow was dealt when Ru hurled a gaspingly catastrophic read:

Obviously you weren’t here for a lot of the history of humans on this planet.

And perhaps that sealed what was to come, though Shangela was sweating her major miss of an outfit. This week the coasting queens Bebe and Trixie took their first win and delivered a purely delightful lipsync. This season has had a lipsync problem, never quite delivering the heights we want from what should be the competitive peak of each episode. But both queens were eager to change their trajectory and in doing so they turned the party to Diana Ross' "The Boss". Rejoice! A great lipsync has been given unto us!

Finally newbie audiences have been given the full Bebe Zahara Benet experience! The poise, the magnetism, the elegance, the damn good time. If the barometer of a good lipsync is “would/how much would you tip” a performance, then I just took out a second mortgage for Bebe. The deck was admittedly stacked against Trixie with the song choice, but she never showed it if she knew that. Trixie hasn’t ever been a strong lipsync artist (“I lost a lipsync to Pearl. Do you know what it’s like to lose a lipsync to a partially sedated twink from Brooklyn?”) but this was such a cathartic moment for her after last week’s stumble. We want to keep seeing Trixie having this much fun even if she doesn’t maintain this momentum.

Bebe however just proved herself in a big way and then sadly sent Aja home. At this point with Dela’s waning drive and Shangela’s stumble, it feels like the playing field could be leveling out... slightly. Drag Race has had its predictability issues, so it’s always welcome for the show to organically unfold. But shouldn’t this rapid shift also translate to a more exciting episode? Doesn’t it just feel like they wanted to get this episode over with to get to the Handmaid’s revenge twist? (We’ll find out next week what RuVenge is in store.)

But what an unfortunate end for Aja.

Rarely do redemption arcs pay off so well and triumphantly on Drag Race than what she was able to achieve. Did the show root for her as much as we did, I wonder. In my heart of hearts, Aja was the one I was truly rooting for from the second she stepped back into the workroom, the most lovable of all the queens and most audacious. It looks like Bebe is our last remaining nice girl. Unless Aja will be the won who makes it back into the competition next week.

How are the queens ranked before the RuVenge bell rings?

  1. BenDeLaCreme (please come back refreshed next week, though)
  2. Shangela
  3. Aja OUT
  4. 🔺Bebe Zahara Benet
  5. 🔺Trixie Mattel
  6. Kennedy Davenport
  7. Chi Chi DeVayne OUT
  8. Morgan McMichaels OUT
  9. Thorgy Thor OUT
  10. Milk OUT

Gif as Episode Grade:

BUT WAIT - THERE’S MORE!

We have our season 10 queens to dish over! I'll ignore my concern that these queens might be overshadowed by All Stars currently running, because this lineup is ferocious. Once again, you’ll see a strong sampling of New York queens and returning season 9 queen Eureka O’Hara. I'll try to not let my pre-season love cloud my judgment by I am most excited for the legendary Asia O'Hara and a former college pal Dusty Ray Bottoms. The best news is we have only a month before we get to know and adore each of these queens! Here is the cast of season 10:

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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