After an emotional goodbye to Baby last week we enter the midway point of the competition already. The queens gather at the mirror to applaud the strength of Baby putting her health first, alongside this proud at how she took hold of her own narrative. We love supportive friends, and with that said words are exchanged towards their performances within ‘Lairy Poppins’ Musical.
With a new day, we get new confessionals and table chit-chat, which went on longer than what we normally get. Sometimes it feels short and choppy, we get an insight into their thoughts and feelings about how they’ve all progressed so far. Jonbers Blonde is still craving that sought-after badge, Black Pepper wants to regain the top position and Cheddar Gorgeous is just happy to have a seat at the workroom table.
It’s that time of the competition I love to hate, it’s snatch game time. This season has been so incredibly funny, and creative with a great cast so for once I’m excited to see what becomes of this season’s snatch game. Discussions are had over who is to do what, and we see some exciting ideas coming to fruition. But of course, RuPaul enters to shake up that positive mentality and throw doubt into the air. This week he’s joined by double snatch game-winner Baga Chipz, here to offer words of advice on the way to win. Le Fil and Pixie Polite are first up to step up for advice, Le Fil has two options Posh Spice and Marie Kondo. Opting to do Marie Kondo, which already is worrying. She’s known as a quiet character, of which Ru and Baga raise a concern about that good ole question “Can you make it funny?” On to Pixie and her choice of Dame Shirley Bassey, another eye raised from everyone.
The next trio to come forward is Black Pepper with a pink sparkly hat, asked to guess who could it be Baga exclaims “Bimini” I did too, the pink hat is a staple. But instead, Black Pepper will be Lil Nas X, a bold choice especially as her confidence isn’t radiating for this challenge. Cheddar Gorgeous has two options Elizabeth I and Quentin Crisp. Cheddar seems confident in her ability to do both yet opts for Elizabeth the 1st the bloodthirsty horny young queen. Dakota Schifer surprises by portraying the gay icon Pete Burns, I’m surprised by her choice as he’s a strong and outlandish character. Her portrayal will be based on his time on UK celebrity big brother, which holds countless iconic scenes, moments, and one-liners, to put pressure on Ruapul to mention his friendship with Pete.
Lastly, we have Danny Beard and Jonbers, the seeds of doubt are spread, sprinkled, and sowed between the two by Ru. Jonbers had Irish songbird Enya as her choice, only to be shot down by Ru, and he wants her to do St Paddy or a female version of the character. Ru loves stupidity and wacky, she seems hesitant at being stereotyped but this could either work or fail spectacularly. Danny beard is going to be Louis Walsh or so he thought, Ru thought he was to play singer and iconic presenter, Cilla Black. The doubt creeps in and we see Danny for the first time looking doubtful about what he can pull off.
Welcome to season four’s ‘Strictly’ Snatch game, strict as we’re joined by Tess Daly presenter of Strictly come dancing, and dancer AJ Odudu first of all Dakota and Cheddar stand out straight away. Dakota is Pete’s twin and Cheddar portrays Elizabeth manically and wildly. We have Jonbers on the front row holding it together, her portrayal of saint Paddy is hilarious, we dont know what the character sounds or acts like. This is the perfect concoction to play it how they want, we have Pixie, Black Pepper, and Le fil on the snatch game struggle bus. None of their jokes land and it’s painful to watch. It was the Cheddar Gorgeous sow, she saved the snatch game from becoming bland and a bit unforgettable, add to this Dakota and her bang on Pete Burns and these three made snatch game.
Back in the werkrrom and everyone’s aware of how they performed we have no delusional queens this season. The runway theme this week is ‘Tickled Pink,’ and a runway that speaks to my soul, the discussion next is so important and I’m so happy it was aired on national television. Cheddar Gorgeous sits beside Dakota and explains the historical importance of her outfit. Her pink triangle costume represents the holocaust and recently the HIV/Aids activism in which she is a strong advocate. The way she talks, and explains is so stoic, strong, and to the point, for those younger viewers watching once again, Cheddar is out there helping with keeping these a talking point and getting the information out there.
As she says her talking point is over and let the runway begin, let’s get pink this week’s judges we have resident Alan Carr, and joining him is Girl group legend Mel B of the Spice Girls. Out first is pink princess Dakota who looks like a runway couture model. For me Cheddar, of course, stole the runway, it was fashion but it carried such a strong and powerful message embedded in death=silence across her body. The other end of the spectrum is Jonbers living out her showgirl fantast, the various pinks and feathers are blooming beautifully. I would say this week is easy to spot who the tops and bottoms are, although I think she should be in the top Dakota and Danny are safe for this week.
They should have kept all the queens on the stage considering they’re aren’t many left now, so the critiques are dished. The tops this week are Jonbers and Cheddar Gorgeous, rightfully so Cheddar is the winner of this week’s challenge, Jonbers was so close to that badge. Unfortunately, this leaves Le Fil and Black pepper in the bottom to fight it out, this week’s number is Spice Girls ‘Stop’, a favorite of mine, and the performances they both give our flipplity, wacky, and acrobatic class. It became RuPaul’s Drag Race Gymnastics class! It was close but alas we say goodbye to Le Fil.
The competition is hotting up and it’s anyone’s race at this point with wins all tallying out evenly, so are you happy with who went home? Who stole the snatch game for you? Catch RuPaul’s Drag Race UK every Thursday at WOW Presents Plus in the United States and on BBC Three and Iplayer in the UK.
