In light of Alex Jones‘ insane rant over drag queens reading to children; Shade: Queen of NYC aired this episode right on time. The focus of this week’s episode was Marti Gould Cummings‘ wish for future children, paired with some So You Think You Can Drag drama.
The episode kicks off with an adorable exchange between Marti and a baby on the street. Through this interaction, we learn about her wish for children in the future with her husband. This week had a lot of amazing quotes, but I think Marti asking the mother “where did you get him?” just may be my favorite. Marti gushes over how wonderful her husband Blake is with kids, which was so sweet. Until Marti BODY SHAMED A BABY. A true monster, right? Just kidding, we all love a fat baby. Plus, Blake insisted it was “P.H.A.T”, not “F.A.T” anyway.
Okay enough with the cute stuff, let’s get into this week’s drama. Finally, we get to see Holly Box-Springs! In this episode, she meets up with Paige Turner for her So You Think You Can Drag All Stars photoshoot. Both she and Paige look absolutely stunning, and the shoot goes well until Paige tries to give her some costume reveal advice that Holly thought she had no place giving. Nothing terribly shady, but just a little taste of drag queen drama.
We see even more of Holly when she meets up with Tina Burner to ask for some costume help for So You Think You Can Drag. It seems like Tina and Paige are not the best of friends, and Holly was nervous to ask for help with the costuming but knew Tina was the best in the biz. The two go back and forth, a little shade is thrown when Tina asks if Holly really thought she was an all star, and insisting that going back to So You Think You Can Drag was a backward step for Holly. In the end, Tina agrees to help Holly, but like every good friend promises to disown her if she loses. I love the relationship between Holly and Tina because it reminds me of every friendship I have. I really loved when Holly was showing Tina the fabric she wanted to use and Tina simply replies, “Time for the Easter parade?”.
Holly and Tina then head over to Marti’s place, where she’s practicing for the drag queen story time she’s doing. Marti is reading a book about acceptance to an audience of kids in New Jersey and used Holly and Tina as her test audience. Here we get to watch Marti struggle with not swearing (#relatable) while reading this children’s book. My favorite part being when she opens the first page of the book and says, “This is a fucking novel!”. Holly and Tina were a hilarious audience, heckling Marti the whole time. The test run was… well… not great. The amount of “F-bombs” earned her a 7/10 from Holly and a 2/10 from Tina. She may have not exactly passed the test, but it was a lot of fun to watch.
Finally, the story hour has arrived! Marti and her husband Blake head over to New Jersey for the event. Again, Marti is nervous she was going to swear in front of the kids (again, another #relatable moment. For me at least). Then in true reading to children fashion, we watch her struggle with her boobs in the front seat, asking Blake if her boobs look funny. He replies, “Of course they look funny, they’re fake, they’re socks.” Okay, maybe that was my favorite quote of the episode.
The couple arrives at the Hudson Pride Center for the story time. Holly and Tina are there to support Marti. “Drag queens stick together, even if it means going to New Jersey”, Marti explains. Marti absolutely slays the story time. She was amazing with the kids, and Blake agreed! Nothing warms my heart more than an adorable interaction between drag queens and children, but can we take a moment to appreciate the looks on the kid’s faces when Marti walks in the room? I think those expressions perfectly mirrored mine when I first went to a drag show.
This weeks episode was heartwarming with a splash of So You Think You Can Drag drama. What did you think of this week’s episode?
Be sure to tune into Shade: Queens of NYC Thursday’s at 10:30 PM on FusionTV or on fusion.net.
