Can you effectively read a queen after one episode? I’m not so sure, since the only season I got to watch without knowing the winner first was last season – but, eventual winners do have a way of standing out in their first appearances either in look or personality.
How do these ladies rank after a single engagement? Let’s take a look.
#1 Violet Chachki
This queen’s fashion ranged from simply pretty to avant garde, she’s fishy (i.e., like an actual girl), she dishes great commentary, and she won the first challenge. Welcome to a world with a target on your back, girl. Now we need to see that personality – she could be one who wilts under the lights of the theatrical challenges. If not? Major danger, and a suitable follow-up win for a younger queen after Adore didn’t quite make it.
#2 Kennedy Davenport
This is the experience of a Coco Montrese without the constant self-sabotage, and her fashion sense is impeccable so far. Plus, she’s apparently a dancer? She’s going to be a polished force to be reckoned with (although I have to wonder about her sewing after that circus tent resort wear). Also, clearly there’s a good story to be had in a more-experienced, black, southern, curvy winner. No way she misses the final three if she can stay consistent.
#3 Ms. Fame
So very fishy, but we’ll see if she has the performance chops for the more personality-driven challenges. While I suspect she’s a fierce competitor, I could see her pulling a Trinity Bonet and feeling she’s above one of the challenges or a Courtney Act where she just doesn’t realize she’s not the best. Without Tempest in the ix I get the sense she is going to be the remaining seamstress to reckon with. However, that ridiculous first outfit shows she’s capable of the occasional misstep and bad paint job, which could be her undoing.
(Here’s where I’d have Tempest. So sad.)
#4 Ginger Minj
Super cute, super funny, and already breaking her looks out of the big-girl box by mixing up her silhouettes. She seems like she’s going to have some layers to her, and she is going to fight for her right to stay on the show. I could see her in the final three of Violet and Fame cancel each other out.
#5. Katya
We didn’t get too much from her on this episode other than her strong editorial sense. I get the feeling there’s a lot of depth here – she came to play, she’s magnetic in the interview segments, and she intentionally didn’t reveal too many cards in this episode. Plus, since she’s a character queen, she’ll probably be a strong performer, but she’s not going to force the Russian thing to the exclusion of another winning opportunity (a-hem, Max). I wouldn’t count her out.
#6. Pearl
The edit would suggest she’s not too-important and maybe a little young-dumb, and since she’s not going to do the latter better than Adore did she’s probably more the former. Yet, I generally enjoyed her fashion due to her Madonna obsession (or: an obsession with Madge’s 90s designers). We need to see more, but I think she can fend off the women below her if she’s a decent performer. That’s a big if, though – there’s always got to be some queen who thinks acting and comedy are beneath her, and Pearl is already coming off jaded.
#7. Kandy Ho
Despite being a major bitch to Tempest, she has a decent editorial sense and she’s a decent lip-sync artist. She probably doesn’t have the skills to keep her in it long-term (especially without being able to sew), but if she can take care of her shading problem this week might not be her only upset of the season. I sense a villain.
#8. Trixie Mattel
She’s going to get read for the fashion and/or the make-up eventually, but she also seems very smart and self-aware. There could be a major growth arc here if she gets dinged hard by the judges and bounces back, and there’s no way they dropped in the edit of that drag shame from her boyfriend’s family for no reason.
#9. Max
Right now her old-lady schtick feels very one-note, especially because Jinx and Ben just did it better and sexier in the past two seasons. Maybe she’s a Tammy Brown style of ultra-random comedienne, which not many of these queens seem to be, and she’s already better at fashion than similarly crazy Milk. I’ll say one thing: if she tries a crazy old lady in Snatch Game she’s not going to get the three-peat.
#10. Jaidynn Diore Fierce
Her utter lack of taste isn’t going to keep her in it very long, so hopefully she is mega-funny in the performance challenges because I do actually like her.
#11. Jasmine Masters
A train wreck. The judges didn’t like the one thing she did right. My money is that she’s a better lip sync performer than one of the ladies below her on this list. Plus, her whole wardrobe cannot possibly be off-the-rack separates!
#12. Mrs. Kasha Davis
Too forgettable. I just remember her as the more boring of the two housewives, and the better one just got kicked off!
#13. Sasha Belle
No depth, no taste. It’s amazing they let her escape this episode. She seems like a nice girl and boy, but she’s pure cannon fodder.