Drag Race RuCap: "Good Morning Bitches"

Condragulations, Teyana Taylor, you're the winner of this week's episode.

CLÁUDIO ALVES: It’s legitimately impressive how this season is falling apart so close to the finish line. Who decided the last competitive episode of the year should be another damned comedy challenge? Specifically, the return of season 9’s dreadful Morning Show parody!?! I don’t know what’s going on in those producers’ minds, but it’s nothing good. At least, the challenge results were so obvious that there’s no debate about who should end up at the bottom, the two teams presenting a real case of "hydrogen bomb versus coughing baby." Honestly, Know Your Meme should reference this episode on their page about it. Then again, they sorta spoiled it all with a lip-sync verdict that left me scratching my head in confusion. But there’s a lot to talk about before we get there, including some heinous AI art. Aren’t you excited?

NICK TAYLOR: I’m not! From bones to skin, this was such an insufficient semifinal challenge for these queens...

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Drag Race RuCap: “Karens Gone Wild”

This episode of Drag Race is brought to you by the STOP! THAT! TRAIN!, in theaters this summer.

CLÁUDIO ALVES: Well, that was an interesting hour of television. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss would be proud of Mama Ru, because she truly subverted our expectations. Now, let’s wait and see if Drag Race can stick the landing after this shocker or if, like the last season of Game of Thrones, it’ll crash and burn and relinquish all the audience goodwill it accrued so far. Maybe it’s wrong of me to reduce the entirety of “Karens Gone Wild” to its ending, but that’s surely what it’ll be remembered for, a moment of such unprecedented Drag Race gaggery that we must go to the All Stars seasons to find another example of someone with so many challenge wins going home before the finale. I’m still trying to process the results, whether they’re fair, so this RuCap will be an opportunity to sort out my feelings. How about you, dear Nick? Are you glad for a surprise? Or are you livid? Somewhere in between?

NICK TAYLOR: It’s a gag, though mostly it just bums me out...

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Drag Race RuCap: “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Drag Queens”

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Terry Covington, who passed last year.

NICK TAYLOR: In the grand tradition of the Drag Race makeover challenge, I have no idea what some of the judges thought they were watching. Hyping up how bullish Michelle is about drag family resemblance really just emphasizes how vague and stupid her standards are. Our dear eliminated queen seems to have been sacrificed primarily based on the track record, and since the judges have largely been under-acknowledging her performances of late, I call bullshit. Meanwhile, I don’t see anything to the challenge winner except honoring a good track record and cementing her place in the finale. The queens and their cowboys were a delight, reminding us how much pathos this challenge can inspire with guests who want to be there, but it’s a bitter aftertaste to end the night on.

CLÁUDIO ALVES: The first 40 minutes of this episode were representative of the best Drag Race has to offer as queer television, mixing camp and pathos, bawdiness and cute men with fagcents and even some advocating amid the fun. The last 20 minutes were some of the most infuriating nonsense I’ve ever seen on this program. These judges were trying so hard to jam their crap down my throat, I felt like I was suddenly living through Pasolini's Salo…

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Drag Race RuCap: “A Toast to Alyssa Edwards”

Who needs Oscar gold when Alyssa Edwards is serving golden goddess on TV?

NICK TAYLOR: Yes, the Academy Awards were fun, lots of gorgeous expressions of gratitude and admiration between fellow artists and fellow human beings. It was wonderful, it was funny, but did anyone give a speech as good as the queen’s best roasts? Certainly, no one matched the deranged peaks or flailing lows brought out for the "Toast of Alyssa Edwards." The diva herself looked quite good, proving all that glitters really is gold. I do need white pageant girls to stop wearing blonde units only a few shades removed from their pale, pale skin. Still, the glamour was there, and the episode was very entertaining. Were you dazzled, diva?

CLÁUDIO ALVES: I think Amy Madigan would have fun at a roast, but I’m not sure she’d be a good roaster. Maybe Jessie Buckley could thrive in that environment, as she feels like a cool lady and her speech and vague air of Olivia Colman-esque humor. We should be asking ourselves who, from the Oscar set, we want on Drag Race, and my answer is Malgosia Turzanska, who showed up to the Academy Awards covered in safety pins and would’ve surely fought for a Discord top-two placement last week. Oh, but you asked about the actual roast Drag Race episode, not imaginary AMPAS crossovers. Well…

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Drag Race RuCap: “Drag in a Bag”

Even Mama Ru was having a good, silly time this week. The vibes are immaculate.

CLÁUDIO ALVES: Well, our returned queens’ makeover hopes were dashed. Instead, we got a pretty lackadaisical filler episode, lacking urgency, devoid of great stakes and even bereft of an elimination. To make matters worse, it also probably means we won’t have a ball this season! Still, despite all that, “Drag in a Bag” was a delightful hour of television that finally got me rooting for Jane and Discord, finding them entertaining in their respective frustration and “good vibes only” attitude. Ru certainly seemed to enjoy the queens this week, having fun with them in a way that’s rare to see outside the Drag Race UK set. Were you similarly enthused by this episode’s shenanigans, or are you starting to get restless, anticipating the final stretch of a season that, so far, seems to have an obvious victor? Too obvious, perhaps.

NICK TAYLOR: Too obvious is absolutely the right word for it, yet who else could reasonably take her on at this point? Thank god she finally had fun on the show. Hell, everyone had fun, even as they were rolling on the floor from sleep deprivation and inventing competitors from the scraps of whole cloth. I had fun, even though the queen’s anti-Discord campaign and the show’s continued neglect of Darlene as a legitimate threat make me worry about their futures...

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