Drag Race S10: "Snatch Game"
Sunday, May 6, 2018 at 11:10PM by Nathaniel R
S10E7 Behold the ever-divisive power of the "Snatch Game". It tends to totally shake the chess board and upend expectations about who the final three or four will be. Though some fans have called for a moratorium on the signature challenge, after diminishing returns each season, others claim that it's always been thus: half terrific, half abysmal. We used to belong to Camp A but we're back with Camp B. And if you can't hack it in the Snatch Game, you're often next on the chopping block. But the episode didn't begin with the game but with the Reading Challenge. The library opened and Eureka, still on a roll, took yet another win.
Here's a funny visual example of how divisive these episodes are. Check out these competing headlines that popped up when I was searching for images from the show...
You're a winner, baby
Much to our surprise neither she nor Miz Cracker, who were our 'either/or' bets to win the Snatch Game, managed to do so. And, in fact, the very last person we expected to be able to handle that particular challenge -- Aquaria! -- aced it. While her Melania Trump impersonation was short of Laura Benanti's comic genius level, it was perfect in the short dose punchline appeal of Snatch Game. Even better Aquaria managed spontaneous improv banter in character. WHERE DID THIS COME FROM? We've never seen Aquaria be this whip-smart or funny at all before. She suddenly looks like a contender for the top three.
Aquaria's mermaid fantasy was sublime
Asia and Aquaria had the most inventive mermaid looks
Eureka got even bigger laughs for her hlarious Honey Boo Boo but Aquaria sealed the win by also outdoing herself on the runway with the most inventive lewk in the mermaid fantasy challenge. A mermaid in an oil spill? Brilliant and the best look by at least an Olympic Sized Pool margin. Did you catch the webbed hands?
Sashay away
Monique Heart, 'the ooh ah ah sensation,' left us far too soon. Not that she didn't majorly fail in this episode with a very weak unfunny spin on Congresswoman Maxine Walters. But Monique was the season's best narrator and we'll miss her confessionals enormously. She also brought a much welcomed discussion of the economic disparaties of drag into the equation. Some queens, we learned, go into major debt preparing for the show. They're all banking on a huge career payday afterwards, even if they lose. Others come to the show with nothing (like Chi Chi Devayne in her year and Monique now) and get far on personality and scrappy invention. But it's definitely not a level playing field. Kameron Michaels whose looks have been much showier than her personality, admitted to spending more on her drag than she spent on the downpayment of her house in Nashville !!!
Quotable Bitches
"I'll take my check" - MONIQUE HEART
"Bring back... my gills." - RUPAUL
"Not even a meditation in a zen garden with Buddha would have prepared me for the Snatch Game" - AUDRA MCDONALD
Name dropping
Guest judges: the glorious Audra McDonald slaying, and Kate Upton and even Alex Trebek in a cameo; Pop culture references this episode: Bette Midler aka the Divine Miss M, "Smash," Divine, "Empire," Whitney Houston, Edith Head, Destiny's Child, Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn in Snatched, Barbie, Ursula and The Little Mermaid, Tina Turner, Battlestar Galactica, Jaws, and all the impersonated celebrities on Snatch Game.
Rankings
Shifts from last week indicated with arrows...
| PREDICTION | PREFERENCE |
 |
 |
| Subject to change as we get to know them | |
| 1. 🔺 Eureka |
1. Eureka |
| 2. 🔺 Aquaria | 2. Monét X Change |
| 3. Asia O'Hara | 3. 🔻 Asia O'Hara |
| 4. 🔺 Monet X Change | 4. Miz Cracker |
| 5. 🔻 Miz Cracker | 5. 🔻 Monique Heart OUT |
| 6. Kameron Michaels | 6. Kameron Michaels |
| 7. 🔻 The Vixen | 7. 🔺 Aquaria |
| 8. 🔻 Monique Heart OUT | 8. Dusty Ray Bottoms OUT |
| 9. 🔻 Blair St Clair OUT | 9. The Vixen |
| 10. Mayhem Miller OUT | 10. Yuhua Hamasaki OUT |
| 11. Dusty Ray Bottoms OUT | 11. Blair St Clair OUT |
| 12. Yuhua Hamasaki OUT | 12. Mayhem Miller OUT |
| 13. Kalorie Karbdashian Williams OUT | 13. Kalorie Karbdashian Williams OUT |
| 14. Vanessa Vanjie Mateo OUT | 14. Vanessa Vanjie Mateo OUT |
Gif as episode grade
Reader Comments (13)
I feel like everyone has predicted Kameron Michaels to leave since the very first episode - yet here she is - Top 7 - and one of the four girls to have NEVER lip synced for their life.
I'm thinking Eureka is the frontrunner, which annoys me. Aquaria is growing on me and is definitely Top 3 material. The Vixen is Dead Woman Walking. She'll be gone next week.
I love Aquaria. She is sometimes grating but genuinely an artist.
My ranking based solely on the Snatch Game performance:
1. Eureka
2. Aquaria
3. Kameron Michaels
4. Monét X. Change
5. Miz Cracker
6. The Vixen
7. Monique Heart
8. Asia (but loved, loved, loved that runway look that clearly saved her from bottom two)
What my Top 3 have in common is a perfect pick of character that plays to their strenghts. How queens can still come unprepared for this challenge is just baffling.
So... Aquaria emerges as one of the frontrunners, while Miz Cracker is gradually fading into the background. I didn't expect that at all just a few episodes ago. By now, it would surprise me to see Cracker end up in the Top 3.
Also: I'm not sure Beyoncé is a terrible choice for Snatch Game per se, but she just seems to attract stunning-looking runway queens who seem to be lacking the creativity to create characters (unless given great direction, as Asia was in 'Tap That App') and are drawn to her because she looks stunning, as well, and it's fairly easy to create a physical resemblance with the right wig. I seriously doubt Tyra, Kenya Michaels and Asia could have turned anybody into a Snatch Game winner. (Although... coked up Whitney does sound like it could have worked. So maybe I'm doing Asia injustice here.)
Side note: Would I watch Bianca Del Rio's Drag Race? Heck yeah, of course I would!
I don't particularly get the fascination with Eureka who was funny but who seems to rely on a constant bag of tricks. Even if she admittedly turned that bag of tricks more than I thought she could. Monet's was absolutely my favorite performance, unfortunately her runway wasn't up to par to Aquaria's.
I'm definitely in Camp B as well. Snatch Game has always been a mixed bag, usually delivering the best results when you have plenty of strong comedy queens (S06 and S05). Otherwise I still love it as the staple challenge. It asks queens to mix up all their skills (wit, ingenuity, looks, creativity, humour) and deliver. Though not an infallible test it most certainly continues to separate the scraps from the contenders. A true winner must be agile enough to be at the very least decent in this challenge. Which is a rule that continues to hold other than who's generally considered the weakest winner.
Which is why I was so pleased and surprised with Aquaria. I need more than looks from a queen and she finally showed me that she's got more than looks. She absolutely delivered, and once again, Snatch Game allowed us to highlight a queen who could easily contend for the win.
While it wasn't the best Snatch Game in Drag Race it was still a lot of fun. It was easy to rank each person on their Snatch Game.
Best:
1. Eureka - Hysterical. My stomach hurt from laughing so much. Completely fearless in her commitment to her part.
2.Aquaria - She did her homework. She played up so many quirks. Her remarks were perfect.
3.Monet X Change - She just knew exactly how to play this. So funny and very natural. It just worked so well.
Fine
4. Kameron Michaels - Chyna was a very good choice. Kameron was funny when she needed to be, but it would have been nice to see more interjections.
5. Miz Craker - Dry humor and the kind of humor she was going for did work. Sadly there wasn't a lot of it. Positive she stayed in character.
Just Plain Bad
6. The Vixen - There was just not enough character to work with. I could tell she was trying, but a whiny child just isn't funny.
7. Monique Heart - This had a lot of potential, but it wasn't well planned or executed at all. Also, she broke character which was just awkward.
8. Asia O'Hara - Beyonce could probably be parodied well, but on this show it was just a mess. Reducing Beyonce to a mean mom just didn't make any sense.
Monet and Aquaria were great. For me Eureka was fine, she rely on those type of characters and her loud personality, but it works well for the competition.
Miz Cracker, bless, i think she needs a a win immediately or she will sashay.
I heard that Kameron Michaels has been given a ghost editing so far because she will start delivering mesmerising performances soon (lyp sincs) and send many favorites home, creating a momentum. I hope that is true because I like this Seabiscuit realness narrative.
Miz Cracker’s Snatch Game is the perfect example for why I’m always intrigued but underwhelmed by her. She’s got great ideas (Dorothy Parker!), but there’s something missing with the execution. I still think she’s top 3 material because she’s got more to offer than most of the others, but I rarely feel like she lived up to her promise.
Just loving this season still. So much drama (better the natural kind than the forced kind), talent, and unpredictability. Vixen is interesting because she seems to be playing the early 2000s version of a reality TV villain—but it’s the wrong tone for this particular show. And it clearly is a defense mechanism so I do feel for her and wish she would get out of her own way.
I think Eureka hurt herself because she pretty much already did Honey Boo Boo on the runway during denim and diamonds. I also didn’t appreciate the drawings as answers because it made her contributions more of an established set piece than improv.
Congrats to Aquaria who has been delivering iconic looks week after week. It was a genuine surprise to see her deliver on Snatch game: she has shown glimpses of cleverness (“some girls read books...”) but a lot of awkwardness in skits. Glad to see her do well. I am feeling a Violet Chachki edit to some degree—which would set her up for a redemption/personal growth arc. That said, she didn’t look good at all after the Vixen feud. Will be hard to recover from that.
Sad to see Monique go but it was the right call after an uninspired snatch game, same-same mermaid (same material as demin and diamonds), and an epically bad lip sync (which she owned. It may go down as a camp classic once she has a moment of redemption or big career). She does seem poised to be an All Stars return but she needs to put in the time and the work without losing herself. She seemed a little entitled to an AS opportunity in “Whacha Packin” which was not good. She seems like a good Miss Congeniality contender at this point but I would hate to see her come back from AS having lost all of her joy (like Chi Chi). Wishing the best for her.
Kameron continues to roll with it and show range. Hoping for bigger things. Miz Cracker has never been tops for me and she has been taking huge stumbles. I think she was hoping for her Little Edie moment—take a less widely recognized character and make it iconic—and she was just forgettable. Not a trainwreck like Asia, Vixen, and Monique, but equally disappointing because she’s supposed to be a comedy queen (imagine if Bob had been forgettable!?). Asia continues to show range and creativity on the runway (I personally liked the mask—it was bizarre and unique in a good way) but I worry about her long term prospects because of her difficulty with skits. Tap that Ap was all about her great makeup. Her improv and line readings continue to leave much to be desired. I would guess that she slays Vixen in a lip sync soon. Congrats to Monét for killing it—but I admit that it was hurt by the recent Chi Chi version despite being far superior. Familiarity back to back isn’t great because it makes it seem less creative—even through she had no way of knowing.
I can’t wait to see how this one turns out (binocular raise).
One of the worst Snatch Games I've ever seen. Time to either retire it or revamp it fully. Clear case of diminishing returns year after year after year.
Aquaria is truly a revelation! Who'd have thot she wld pull off the snatch game AND the runway (Italian Vogue, no less!!) A truly deserving winner!!
The Vixen shld've been the one to go had Monique did memorize the song. Pardon, but gurl is just plain nasty, combative n blind to her own shortcomings!! She had managed to out-phi-phi Phi Phi O-Hara herself! Making her IMO the worst queen to ever appear on drag race.
Her childish, nasty, defensive, luv to dish it but cant take it attitude has managed not only to alienate all the other queens but many viewers as well.. She is doing more harm to her brand than she realised! i hope for the peace o mind o everyone, may she b eliminated soon! 😂
The money issue is radioactive.
One third of the runways should be sewing challenges—including the ball episode.
One third should be "realness" runways: executive fish, nurse fish, nun fish, etc.
One third should be the "eleganza/extravaganza/fantasy" themes where folks can go nuts.
It seems like every week is an extravaganza nowadays. That rewards people who can throw money at the themes for maximal effect.
Such a shame to see Monique go, but it was mostly her own doing. The two worst snatch game performances were Asia's and The Vixen's, by a clear mile. If she hadn't clapped back at judges during critiques, she probably would not have been in the bottom two. Instead, she showed herself to be completely defeated and then decided to not take advantage of Untucked to try to learn the words at all for the lip-sync.
Aquaria's performance was a surprise, and I think that surprise factor carried her to the win. Eureka was probably funnier, but it was already expected of her and she served something she kinda already done before in the Bossy Rossy episode. Ru probably did not want to hand Eureka three wins in a row (four if you count the reading mini challenge).
Miz Cracker was fine, but I expected her to soar on this challenge. Turns out even Kameron out-performed her.
Mermaids runway was mostly a failure for me. Most queens kinda looked the same and had obvious takes on the theme, except for Aquaria, who truly shone, and Asia, who was serving some neon shape of water realness that I really dug. This runway plus Monique's attitude certainly saved Asia from having to lip-sync.
Untucked was a glorious mess. The Vixen imploded in a meltdown that was simultaneously Laganja AND Phi Phi O'Hara, with added obscenities. She clearly fronts strength and lashes out as a defense mechanism. She bucked pretty hard under pressure and, unlike previous arguments where she had solid points and could present herself as reacting to an attack, this time around she was making absolutely no sense (criticizing Eureka for not changing her behavior based on other's criticism, when she proudly announces to everyone that she is the way she is and will not change and you better deal with it), behaving like an unhinged person and coming for people who were not provoking or attacking her (especially Eureka, but even Kameron Michaels at some point). I hope she can turn it around, focus on her drag and grow as a person and as a professional, because I do believe in her potential. She is a super compelling character on TV and I credit her frankness for forcing both Aquaria and Eureka to up their games and reassess their attitudes. She also killed the Miz Cracker x Aquaria nonsense right at the get-go and I am sure it would have been a full season arc (a la Coco x Alyssa) had it not been for The Vixen.
I still find Eureka to be an annoying loud queen, but I must give her props for channeling her features into three weeks of dominance on the show, absolutely slaying the Snatch Game, and also for how she has been smartly handling The Vixen. She prodded her, got a reaction (forcing the animosity out), apologized, tried to approach for peace talks and, when that failed, kept her reserve. It has been fascinating to watch Eureka excel and not mind The Vixen's envy or anger or criticism. Eureka's indifference surely played a part on The Vixen's unraveling this episode.
Monique is a huge loss, but what a cast and what a season! I'm living for it.
MrW - I would definitely watch Bianca's Drag Race as well!