And the twists keep coming! Just when you thought you knew what to expect from tonight's Drag Race, Mama Ru drops another surprise bomb all up in your face.
No spoilers here before the jump, but we're spilling all of the T (including the eliminated queen), AFTER THE JUMP …
The less said about tonight's mini challenge, the better. The prison-themed fashion show was the kind of thing that's supposed to be funny and silly, but it ends up just feeling a little hollow and clueless. You know, it was just like Orange Is the New Black with all the FUN of prison, but without any of the decency or humanity in the storytelling. It's the kind of thing that invites a lot of racial implications, which, in the right hands, could be played into smart satire. However, most of these queens just don't have the capacity to pull that off.
Now, onto the main challenge! Remember Ru's little bit about bringing a queen back? Well, it wasn't exactly that simple. First, ALL our eliminated queens are back. They're working in pairs with the remaining contestants to create a conjoined sisters look. (All the FUN of a serious and rare medical condition without the humanity and decency that even American Horror Story provided.) The pairs were decided by mini-challenge winner Kennedy Davenport, and, to be honest, she did a pretty fair job. (I mean, could anyone have made it work with Tempest? Let's be real.) Maybe there was a little shade sticking Ginger with Sasha but, again, someone had to work with her.
So how'd they do? Here are this week's rankings:
1. Finally, Katya gets a real chance to shine. She and partner Mrs. Kasha Davis may not have been the ultimate winner, but, with Ginger slipping, Katya could seize the top spot. Joined at the vagina? Already silly. Old Atlantic City prostitutes? Even sillier. One thing about Katya is, on that runway, she COMMITS 100 percent to her look. She sells the chiffon out of whatever she's wearing and whatever character she's created. On the runway and off, she's become the most entertaining queen we've got.
2. (Tie) There's not much to judge our newly reinstated Trixie Mattel on yet, but she and Pearl delivered a stellar performance tonight. The concept was killer and their theatricality provided a whole other dimension to the challenge. Both queens serve up a unique take on drag, and have proven they've got the creativity to pull off some really interesting things.
3. While the mighty have fallen, they haven't fallen that much. Ginger was pretty doomed when she got saddled with Sasha. Concerns were raised over Ms. Minj's lack of sewing skills and that amorphous boob contraption. Although she was in the bottom two tonight, she's got way more going for her than she was able to sell tonight. Love her or hate her, she's one of the strongest queens left in the bunch. And she's not going anywhere soon. Her lip sync was an all-out manic extravaganza. Even while literally getting weighed down by Sasha, Ginger served up a hilarious lip sync that had the judges in stitches.
4. It hasn't been a meteoric rise for Violet Chachki, but her consistent growth actually gives me more hope (compared to Kennedy, whose spikes in success may have peaked higher, but she can't sustain it). She's proving she's got a bit more going on upstairs than originally met the eye. While her runway look with Max wasn't high-concept by any stretch, it was at least fully-realized. And she's gotten better at not seeming like such an ice queen.
5. In case you were starting to think Kennedy might be able to win this thing, tonight was a good reminder of her limitations. The look she created with Jasmine was a snooze. An elegant snooze, but a snooze all the same.
6. Sure, Ru's read on Ms. Fame's lack of listening ability was long overdue, but the plastic surgery critique was a little harsh, in my opinion. (Plastic surgery has been done, but Billie Holiday hasn't? Neither has old hookers? Or disco divas?) Fame is a promising queen with a heckuva lot of talent. However, I think her sensitivity might be holding her back from being the kind of fierce queen deserving of the crown.
7. Look, it wouldn't have taken a That's So Raven vision to predict Jaidynn was next to go. Even before she got paired with Tempest, odds were not in her favor. She was sweet, a hard worker and a solid queen, but she had reached as far as she was going to go in this competition.
How would you rank the queens this week?
