One of the meanest and nastiest queens to ever participate in RuPaul’s Drag Race finally went home this week. Bye.
A moment that I’ve been waiting for since RuPaul’s Drag Race season 11 began many weeks ago has finally happened. One of the meanest, nastiest and downright cruelest queens to ever compete on this show has finally been sent home. More on that later.
The show picked off with Scarlet Envy’s controversial elimination. The RPDR fanbase believe that she won the lip sync over the super forgettable Ra’Jah O’Hara, but nevertheless she was sent packing. Ra’Jah puts some salt in that wound by telling the girls that she doesn’t even care what Scarlet’s lipstick message to everyone was. The bitterness that Ra’Jah exuded will be seen through much of this episode and into Untucked. It basically made Phi Phi O’Hara and Roxxxy Andrews’ worst moments on their individual seasons look like they were happily playing with a box full of puppies.
RuPaul told the girls that their mini-challenge is to do a potato sack race while wearing fake boobies (boob-ography). The campiness of this show has its awkward and weird moments to it; however this was just downright hilarious with how they paired a very Chariots of Fire type of screen movement with tig ole bitties flopping everywhere.
Nina West and Shuga Cain won and earned themselves a cool $2,500 in cash. Yay. The maxi-challenge this week is not Snatch Game. The fan-favorite episode usually happens when there’s only nine girls left, but spoiler alert, it happens next week.
It’s a design challenge! I’m so thrilled that they are emphasizing the importance of design this season as it’s something that really hasn’t been at the forefront since the earlier years on this show. This time around the queens must design something around organic materials, which included items like bark and corn.
Design challenges can be weird when it comes to filling the 90-minute timeframe. Ru made up for that by stirring the pot to ensure that we aren’t just talking about some farm-to-runway lewks by asking some of the queens who should go home. Vanessa Vanjie Matteo and Silky Nutmeg Ganache both said Yvie Oddly but do it in a way that doesn’t come off as threatening, at least to them. Silky said she’s injured and needs to go, while Vanessa didn’t really have much of a reason other than Yvie clocking her repeated aesthetic. This will play out in a glorious way after the episode airs and Untucked begins.
Ru also talked to Plastique Tiara and brought up the lack of personality that she’s shown so far. What transpired after that is nothing short of truly heartbreaking, as Plastique bawled her eyes out while discussing how her family hasn’t supported her drag career to this point. I started to cry along with her as you could feel how depressed this made her feel. Ru held Plastique in her arms and let her know that she would be her mother moving forward. This may have been the most emotional moment the show has ever seen….
Until they go to Ra’Jah’s ignorant self who decided to read Plastique to filth in her confessional. She questioned the correlation between Plastique’s personality not being shown with her bringing up her family in the coldest and meanest of ways. At that point I wished that the producers would’ve just cut her mic and sent her home.
Moving on. There’s a segment with Alyssa Edwards who came to teach the girls how to properly walk down the runway. I’m more than fine with Alyssa coming back each season to bring her unique personality to a new crop of queens, and she did it again this time with this filler, I mean funny part of the show. She also told them that they must do some choreographed ho-down type number on top of their original design. Yee-haw.
The guest judges this week were actress Amber Valletta and Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kandi Burruss. Michelle Visage and Ross Mathews took over the runway portion of the show with their endless puns about organic clothing that would make Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) jealous.
The safe girls this week were Shuga, Vanessa and Silky. I’m shocked that Vanessa was safe, as she didn’t really do much with her look. It was rope paired with an ill-fitting skirt. She’s been read by the judges about her aesthetic all season long, so for her to be safe with this was kind of puzzling to me.
The bottom three were Nina, A’Keria and of course… Ra’Jah. I liked A’Keria’s denim look! I thought it fit her much better than Vanessa’s and was shocked to see her in the lower group. Nina did an outfit primarily made of corn husks which I liked. I’ve enjoyed her aesthetics so far and it’s frustrating that the judges haven’t. The bottom three should’ve been Ra’jah, Vanessa and Silky instead.
Ra’Jah and A’Keria ended up lip syncing for their lives, and we knew what the result was going to be. A’Keria danced circles around her competitor to “Strut” by Sheena Easton and sent her packing. BYE! Seriously bye. The most bitter and rude queen to have ever been on RPDR in my opinion. The way she constantly just read everyone else in the nastiest of ways and kept surviving even though she was always in the bottom really was never fun to watch. Also, good luck with your career after what you said about Plastique.
I usually don’t include Untucked in my recap, however the fighting that occurred between most of the queens needs to be discussed. Yvie screamed at Vanessa and Silky for them throwing her under the bus with Ru, and rightfully so. Silky could barely defend herself while Vanessa did her best to try to come from a good place with it. Silky has a big mouth behind the scenes but can’t back that up when confronted. Vanessa can and did, and even though I love Yvie it was good to see someone go head to head with her after she has openly stated her feelings about many of the girls to their faces this season.
Plastique gets a message from home from her boyfriend which Ra’Jah once again ruined by claiming that her family story doesn’t add up. Plastique then comforted Ra’Jah and apologized to her. WHAT THE F**K? Ra’jah, stop trying to be Bianca Del Rio when she tried to figure out Laganja Estranja’s back story during season 6. Leave the damn girl alone and soak up your bitterness somewhere else. Good lord what an embarrassment.
Next week is Snatch Game at Sea! I have no idea what that means as the trailer was heavily edited but here’s hoping that no one tries to drown Yvie… literally and verbally.
This is the opinion of one contributing writer and not that of Instinct Magazine or other Contributing Writers.