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RuPaul’s Drag Race, S7E12 Recap: And The Rest Is Drag

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Last week on Drag Race, Katya crushed Pearl and Kennedy and went home anyway, ending the show. This week’s episode is just an overlong epilogue, like in Return of the King.

After the Elimination

All four girls are clearly crushed about Katya’s exit, and Kennedy is maybe limping from her energetic lip sync? Ginger cries about it in her interview, while Kennedy takes all of half a second to congratulate Violet on her win before “NEXTing” her. Bold move coming from someone on the precipice of dismissal about two minutes prior. Pearl defends Violet, “Kennedy Davenport, your Hello Kitty was a Hell No, Kitty,” to which Kennedy responds, “This is not a sewing competition.”

What now?

Any time any of the girls utter the phrase, “this is not an XYZ competition,” you know they are high on their own fumes and headed for dismissal. It’s an everything competition – sewing, dancing, acting, being funny, being beautiful. It is clearly labelled as all of those things. The only time I have seen something on the show where it was straight up not that kind of competition is when the girls had to play basketball in All Stars, and they all thought that was hilarious.

Violet, appropriately, comes for Kennedy and Ginger and their hesitance to sew, and Ginger says, “I’m not a seamstress, I don’t know how to sew, but no other bitch on this show has been able to sing like me or act like me.”

What now?!

Did she miss the season with Jinx? Or the one with Courtney and Adore? Or the one with Latrice and Willam? The past three seasons have been lousy with amazing singers and actors. Did she see Darienne’s spectacular meltdown in the acting finale? Hell, even Sharon and Phi Phi turned out to be good singers when they were paired against each other. I can concede that Ginger ranks in the top group of actors on the show of all time alongside Jinx, but it’s not like she’s the obvious theatrical all-time champion. It’s just more huffing her own fumes. [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race, S7E12 Recap: And The Rest Is Drag

RuPaul’s Drag Race, S7E11 Recap: Hello, Kitty Girls!

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Previously on RuPaul’s Drag Race: we had another busted runway concept and the somewhat unfair dismissal of Trixie.

After the Elimination

Ginger is appropriately both sad about Trixie and congratulatory about Katya and Violet, but then brings up the elephant in the room – now that Miss Fame is gone, Violet is the only girl who has yet to lip sync!

Ginger claims she “just wants to see it,” but it’s hard not to react as if someone is saying they want to see you sent home. Violet fires back, “Ginger, how does it feel to have a weakness? I feel like you’ve been really strong this entire competition – but I felt that I really got to see this week.”

MROWR.

Ginger says she does all her crying after they head home from the work room, and then comes back with her game face on – which Pearl and Kennedy agree to. Nice show of solidarity and strategy there. Ginger does a lot of whining in the work room, but she doesn’t let us see her truly upset.

This was the best intro chat of the season. I think we’re going to see some great interactions in this final five that we probably wouldn’t have had if some of my other favorites like Trixie and Max made it this far. Plus, much as with last season, there are really no under-accomplishing villains – even Pearl on the weaker side has fought for her spot. [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race, S7E11 Recap: Hello, Kitty Girls!

RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S7E10 – “Prancing Queens”

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This week’s challenge changed up our top spot compared to last week, eliminated a dark horse, and seemed to emphasize the futility of rooting for a certain fan favorite. The fight for the top has become so tight we’re going to start using decimal places in our average scores this week – only .1 separates our top two, but the gap gets much wider after that.

#1 Violet Chachki (avg 1.8, was #3, 1, 3, 2, 4, 1, 1, 1, 1)
Violet is back in the top spot with a second challenge win, a humanizing performance, and still no trip to the bottom two. If you put any stock in the editing forming the story of a queen, she is the one with the most momentum – we’ve seen her personality change and her abilities grow. With next week sure to be a solo challenge, it will be the true test of if she has what it takes to go all the way. It could also be a safe chance for Ru to put her in the bottom two against Pearl, which would be an equalizer heading into the top four.

#2 Ginger Minj (avg 1.9, was #1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4)
Ginger’s run has an air of inevitability after being saved again after a dreadful performance, but the shine is definitely off of this big queen at this point in the game. We’ve seen her fail, make excuses, and attempt to throw other queens under the bus. That’s not a great look on a potential winner, especially after a pair of very kind and gracious superstars. Ginger will be on stage at the finalé, but really needs to play to her strengths and likability in the next two episodes if she wants the crown.

#3 Kennedy Davenport (avg 3.2, was #2, 3, 2, 5, 3, 4, 6, 2, 2)
Kennedy is finally willing to show off some of her strengths with a bold dance performance, and she truly might have what it takes in both fashion and performance to knock off any of the remaining queens in a head-to-head performance. Yet, despite how much the judges enjoy her, there’s very little excitement about her run – it feels like just another pageant. Her one risk of not making the final three is simply lacking a convincing argument for Ru as we go down to the wire. We’ve already seen her go for inexperience over safety once with Sharon over Chad Michaels – and Chad was one of the most impeccable queens in the history of the show. Kennedy can’t claim that.

#4 Katya (avg 4.8, was #5, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6)
Katya gets another win, but does it mean anything? Despite being the breakout star of the season, RuPaul has never shown a shred of excitement around Katya aside from telling her she’s addicted to anxiety. It’s as if Ru was expecting a gimmick queen due to Katya’s Russian theme, and when she didn’t show up with it Ru just gave up on crafting another narrative. Every single fan of the show would tell you Katya should be in the final three, but Ru didn’t know that when she made her decision last summer. If she truly goes out at the fourth spot the fan backlash will be impressive.

Here lies Trixie with her average of five. She absolutely deserved another week to play compared to Pearl.

#5 Pearl (avg 6.9, was #6, 6, 5, 7, 8, 10, 9, 7, 6)
It’s time to go home, Pearl. While this lady is super likeable, she has one of the weakest fashion senses of a top five queen. Ru is pushing hard for a caterpillar-to-butterfly transformation here, but Pearl is more like a snake that molts – we’ve seen her grow, but she hasn’t fundamentally changed into a new thing.

RuPaul’s Drag Race, S7E10 Recap: Prancing Queens

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Last week on drag race: the queens had to do their best Divine-inspired performances for John Waters, and Fame just wasn’t the right kind of terrible – which meant Trixie is still in the competition and the ranks got shuffled.

After the Elimination

The girls are all giggles as they head back into the workroom fresh from the runway and Miss Fame’s elimination. Violet seems to have grown some genuine, Real Girl TM emotions and will miss Miss Fame, and Katya’s eyes tell the same story. Violet unintentionally calls back to the best Untucked of last season, interviewing, “Fame probably felt really attacked.”

Well, we all know how that can go, right Laganja?

Violet also feels how close her brush with the bottom was as the only remaining non-lip-syncing contestant – which maybe leads Katya to declare war on her? It’d be smart; Violet is the Top-3-bound lady who Katya is most likely to knock off head-to-head.

The rest of the queens seem to be over the elimination (and Miss Fame, in general), which isn’t a big surprise. Despite not being a villain in the slightest, Fame had a lot to say and never quite put her talent where her mouth was. Pearl, particularly, takes exception with Fame calling her out in the “Who should go?” quiz in front of the judges panel. She claims that the ire will only inspire her to greater heights.

A New Day!

The ladies return to their stations to discover Miss Fame left them all brief individual notes, because she is that thoughtful. Everyone is rude about it (Kennedy slightly less so, maybe because her note was so glowing, calling her a “class act”), because outta sight outta mind! They don’t want to be reminded of the girl they just left behind the day before. [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race, S7E10 Recap: Prancing Queens

RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S7E09 – “Divine Inspiration”

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This week we got another funny challenge, and while the challenge itself didn’t shake things up too much compared to last week, Ru’s judging decisions did. What queens performed well but worsened their outlook?

#1 Ginger Minj (avg 2, was #2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4)
As she hits the three-win mark we have Ginger back in the pole position and guaranteed for the final I was an early fan of her fashion, but I’m noticing a distinct lack of willingness for the judges to tag her on anything at all! Is this a free pass for a bigger girl who finally brought a closet full of silhouettes that can compete? Or, is that when she’s performing live her personality actually the biggest thing in the room?

#2 Kennedy Davenport (avg 3, was #3, 2, 5, 3, 4, 6, 2, 2)
Kennedy flew under the radar again this week, but much like Ginger the judges are seeing something special about her that isn’t shining through on this side of the screen. What fascinates me is the SHEER NERVE of her playing it coy this far into the competition. Any subtle performance or runway could easily yield another lip sync! I don’t think we’ve ever seen another competitor as unflappable, and none of the other queens are coming for her at all. [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings, S7E09 – “Divine Inspiration”