RuPaul and the team of RuPaul’s Drag Race wasted no time between Drag Race season 12 and All Stars season 5. This season of All Stars is a great mix of queens and with new rules in place, it’s definitely going to be a fun season!
Returning to the competition this season are Alexis Mateo, Blair St. Clair, Derrick Berry, India Ferrah, Jujubee, Mariah Balenciaga, Mayhem Miller, Miz Cracker, Ongina, and Shea Couleé.
My favorite part of every season of Drag Race is watching the queens enter the workroom. It was especially fun to see queens like Ongina and Mariah Balenciaga back on our tv screens since season 1 and 3 respectively. My favorite look had to be Shea Couleé. She looked absolutely gorgeous! As for my favorite person in the workroom, it had to be Jujubee. I truly missed her presence!
Ru entered the workroom with the one and only Ricky Martin. They kicked things off quickly, jumping right into the reading challenge. As we all know, Jujubee is a reading legend. Of course she took home the first mini-challenge victory, but she wasn’t the only one. Blair St. Clair was also crowned the winner. Poor Ongina was struggling through the reads, more-so asking questions than actually reading her competitors. Also, can we talk about Mariah pulling those roses out when she read Shea? Where did they come from?! I loved it.
RuPaul warned us that the All Star rules were suspended and to expect a new twist. The new twist is a RuMocracy, meaning each queen gets to vote to send a bottom two queen home each week. The winner of the challenge will lip sync for their legacy against a lip sync assassin from a previous season. If the assassin wins, whoever the queens voted out will go home. If the All Star wins, whichever lipstick she has in her bra is who goes home. Get it? Got it? Good.
Remember a week ago when we watched RuPaul’s Best Friends Race was on our screens? All Stars will be much different. From the moment it started, there was already drama! India and Derrick are both Las Vegas queens. There was some past employment drama and now they hate each other. Honestly, I didn’t think their drama was necessary but I definitely enjoyed watching it go down.
As to be expected, the first challenge for All Stars was a talent show. I gotta be honest, this one was pretty rough. Shea did a performance on a pole and said during Untucked (yes, there is Untucked for All Stars now!) that she had only practiced for ten days before the performance! India did a high-energy lip sync performance that was fun. Poor Ongina struggled but I couldn’t get over her arriving on the stage in a toy car meant for children. We had a few live singers (eh). Derrick Berry gave us the most confusing performance of the evening. Her impressions of 10+ celebrities were like a car accident. I didn’t want to look, but I couldn’t help it. Mariah’s performance was by far my favorite, though. It was emotional and raw. She told a story that we all needed to hear. I think she deserved the win.
It was time for the judges’ critiques. Ross Matthews, Carson Kressley, and Michelle Visage joined Ru and Ricky on the panel. Ricky told Mariah how much her performance touched him when she was called safe. Miz Cracker, India, and Alexis got the most positive critiques. Derrick, Ongina, and Mayhem were at the end of negative critiques. In the end, India took home the first victory while Derrick and Mayhem found themselves in the bottom two.
The queens cast their vote and the lip sync assassin was sent out. This week, it was season 11 winner Yvie Oddly! It was so great to see her on the stage again. She looked great and her performance was amazing! She and India faced off to Ricky’s Livin’ La Vida Loca. It was overall a great performance that could have easily been a tie. Yvie took home the first win, which meant the cash tip was rolled over to next week’s tip. She presented the lipstick of the group’s vote, which gave Derrick Berry the chop.
Wow, what a first episode, eh? I can’t wait to see who next week’s lip sync assassin is! I’ll see you next week when the queens have to write and sing their own verse in a song! What could go wrong?
