Every season of RuPaul’s Drag Race features a roast challenge. It’s something we’ve come to look forward to. We love to watch the queens roast other queens, but sometimes it’s the queens who struggle who give us the most entertainment. This year’s roast was no exception. Let’s get into it.
The episode opened up with the queens reflecting on the elimination of Tina Burner. Utica sent her home in last week’s lip sync battle. Tina’s friends were obviously upset, while Utica played into that while also patting herself on the back for her performance. It was a bit awkward.
After we got all the emotions out of the way, RuPaul entered the workroom with the mini-challenge for the week. The queens would be making their own makeup tutorial videos, but in pairs, with the help of Anastasia Beverly Hills president Norvina. We all knew Gottmik had this challenge in the bag. Well, until we realized they were in pairs because one queen would be acting as the arms for the other. This was a fun mini-challenge! Rosé and Kandy Muse came out on top in the end.
Once the queens were returned to their rightful bodies, Ru shared that this week’s challenge was the roast! But this was not just any roast, it was a nice girls roast. The queens would be poking fun at three miss congenialities of season’s past. Heidi N Closet, Nina West, and Valentina would be the victims. However, I don’t think those three had much to worry about. A lot of queens were concerned about this challenge because they did not consider themselves joke-cracking funny.
Since Kandy and Rosé won the challenge, they got to pick the order of the show. Kandy will open and Rosé will close, putting themselves in the two spots that can either be the best or worst performances of the night. The show will play out in this order: Kandy, Symone, Utica, Gottmik, Olivia Lux, and Rosé.
One of the absolute best aspects of these challenges is watching the queens practice their jokes in silence. The lip-syncing, the physical actions, the laughs to themselves. We all remember Alyssa Edwards laughing to herself in the corner during the season 5 roast. This season, Rosé was giving me that energy, and Kandy and Symone made sure to call her out for it.
Before hitting the main stage, the queens got to run over their roast jokes with Michelle Visage and Loni Love. After the fears she experienced in the workroom, Gottmik got positive responses to her jokes! Rosé was hilarious, and Symone was adorable trying to get her jokes across. Olivia and Utica struggled the most. Poor Olivia had so much confidence going into the run-through, but her jokes didn’t land. Utica was another story. Her jokes were overly offensive and the worst part was they weren’t even funny!
Then came elimination day. As the queens were getting into drag, the queens reflected on how comedy and drag have gotten them through difficult times as queer people. Of course, that turned into them poking fun at each other. It was fun watching them banter. You can tell this group really enjoy spending time together.
The roast kicked off with Nina, Heidi, and Valentina walking the main stage. They all looked great, but I especially loved Heidi’s look. As for the jokes, Kandy, Gottmik, and Rosé got a lot of laughs. Utica was clearly going to find herself in the bottom two. Her performance was uncomfortable to watch. She called on Ru to stand up from her seat at the judges’ panel and was given the middle finger as a response. Loni Love even called her out for bombing mid-performance. Yikes, it was rough! Symone and Olivia were the other two who struggled, though they looked great in comparison to Utica.
We were robbed of a runway walk this week to make more time for jokes. Fine, I’ll take it. Ross Matthews joined Michelle, Ru, and Loni to give the critiques. Kandy, Gottmik, and Rosé got the highest praise, as we expected. Utica was clearly in the bottom and it was between Symone and Olivia for the second spot in the bottom two.
When all was said and done, Kandy Muse got her first win of the season while Symone and Utica found themselves in the bottom two. The former maxi-challenge teammates faced off to No Tears Left to Cry by Ariana Grande. Symone was perfect in her performance. It was clear she was going to stay.
So we bid farewell to Utica. I’ll see you next week as we watch the queens perform in the future hit film, Henny I Shrunk the Drag Queens. It looks like that episode is going to be a long, dramatic ride. Let us know what you thought of this week’s episode and your predictions for next week in the comments below!
