So, it kinda feels like the world is on fire, right? Now more than ever, we need silly episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race to keep us sane. This week was much needed. Let’s talk about drag and get our minds off of the anxiety we may be dealing with!
We got two premiers this season, which means this episode was the first meeting of all the queens! It’s always fun to see the queens come together because they forget all the drama that happened between them in the prior episode to band together against the other group.
RuPaul greeted the queens with the reminder that they would no longer be safe from elimination this week. Oh, and with the Pit Crew as well. We got a mini-challenge this week! Ru made the winners of the last two weeks, Widow Von’Du and Jaida Essence Hall line up the queens from the group opposite of theirs in order of who they thought was their strongest and weakest opponent! Shady! Widow went first and put Sherry Pie as her strongest and Aiden Zhane as her weakest. Jaida picked Gigi Goode as her strongest and Heidi N Closet as her weakest. This helped determine who would be the team captains for the week.
Now, Widow, Jaida, Heidi, and Aiden would be leading their groups in an improvised episode of the new hit tv show, ‘The World’s Worst’. It’s a show all about not being talented. Love that. Aiden’s team consisted of Brita and Sherry. Their storyline was three girls who all said the same time. Aiden quickly considered that maybe they shouldn’t speak at the same time. Sounds like a… great idea.
Jaida’s team consisted of Jan, Rock M. Sakura, and Dahlia Sin. They were doing some sort of fruit themed number? I have no idea. They had several character changes. Rock wanted the role Jaida wanted, but she wouldn’t give it up. Heidi’s team of Gigi and Jackie Cox were old ladies. Jackie taught them the rule of improv: YES AND! When asked if Heidi had any experience in improv, she said yes… in the bedroom. Finally, team Widow, Nicky Doll, and Crystal Methyd struggled to assign their character roles. This challenge was chaos.
It was time to film their improvised numbers. Carson Kressley was the Ryan Secrest of the competition, which was great. Team Heidi went first. They had to audition for the star-studded judge’s panel of Ross Matthews, Charro, and Ornacia. Gigi’s character was dead, while Heidi really took the challenge head-on and performed terribly. She is a character and we love her. My favorite quote of the episode may have been Gigi’s, “It’s hard to stand out as a corpse.” Very true, very true indeed.
Team Widow was next. They were squirrel scouts looking for their reality tv show merit badge. Widow’s character was drunk and she really sold it. They made nut butter and attempted to sell them in a Shark Tank-style moment. It was a little messy but, I mean, they were supposed to be bad.
Then came team Jaida, the Fruity Patooties. Jan was a big gay grape, Rock was an orange, Jaida was a bad apple, and Dahlia was… broccoli? Turns out those fruits weren’t gay after all. They knew who won the Superbowl!
Finally, the three girls with one brain were up. They got some laughs from Charo and Ross but they did not feel great about their performance. Back in the workroom, Brita and Sherry had some words for team leader, Aiden. They didn’t feel she provided them with leadership.
Aside from the drama, Dahlia shared that she has a twin who is also gay. My favorite part of this story was that she came out to her mom in an Applebees. Now, her twin brother wants to do drag. Incredible. Meanwhile, Heidi was putting on a prosthetic nose, which was fun.
It was time for the main stage! Joining Ru was Michelle Visage, Ross, Carson and Oliva Munn. The category this week was buttons and bows, which was cute. I really enjoyed Jan’s voodoo doll look, Heidi’s Pinocchio gig, Gigi’s orange button ensemble, Jaida’s Barbie-inspired outfit.
It was time for the judges’ critiques. Aiden, Jaida, Jan, Rock, Gigi, Brita, and Widow were all safe this week. As for the others, Dahlia got high praise for her look but not as much for her performance as broccoli. She fell into the background. Heidi got high praise in both her performance and outfit. Her Pinocchio backstory was the cutest! Jackie was another queen who got a lot of love for both her look and performance. Crystal wasn’t as lucky. She struggled to make her character specific in the challenge. Crystal had a tough time on the runway, breaking down about how Crystal makes her confident and asking for a change in makeup made her uncomfortable. The judges gave her so much love and I hope she uses that motivation to her advantage. Nicky’s critiques were also centered around how she fell into the background. Sherry got high praise but honestly, what is the point of talking about it?
In the end, Sherry won. Heidi, Jackie, and Crystal were safe. That left Nicky and Dahlia in the bottom two. They lip-synched to Ariana Grande‘s Problem and both removed their headpieces which meant business. Nicky didn’t really have the words down, which I think she gets a pass on because of the language barrier. This performance fell a little short for me. I thought Dahlia did a little better than Nicky, but I’m not RuPaul. Dahlia is the first queen to depart.
This episode was a lot, huh? Can’t wait to chat with you all about next week’s fashion ball! Stay safe out there. Wash your hands, check in with your friends, and give yourself some extra love. The bars and clubs may be closing, but we are still a community. Take care of yourselves as we navigate this stressful time.
