I legitimately lost my cool after the latest episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race concluded last night.
The final six paired up with some of the eliminated queens to make them over into members of their own drag families.
What this episode really was about, at least from my point of view, was exposing Silky Nutmeg Ganache for the hack that she’s been this entire season. I did my best to write a piece on the Chicago queen recently that pointed out her positives and negatives, but that mindset (the positive one) is gone based on her behavior last night.
Silky’s confidence finally started to shake from the very beginning of this episode. The girls reconvened in the werk room after Shuga Cain’s RIDICULOUS ELIMINATION. Vanessa Vanjie Matteo once again lost her s**t over her second consecutive bottom two placement, but the focus went right back to Silky who felt embarrassed over what the judges said to her. You should feel that way. Your busted hip padding could be seen by Ray Charles and, contrary to what some of the judges said, your performance in the magic challenge wasn’t that great.
Mini-challenge time! This was a fun one where the girls attempted to make the other queens fake slap them in a game called Slap Out of It. They did this in season 10 where Asia O’Hara was declared the winner after RuPaul accidentally slapped her for real. The girls traded barbs with one another that fared much better than the ones they did during the Reading is Fundamental challenge.
Brooke Lynn Hytes was declared the winner. Then several of the eliminated queens from this season returned to the werk room. The only ones not present where Mercedes Diamond Iman (Oppalence), Kahanna Montrese (please do me) and Ra’Jah O’Hara (bye).
The challenge was for the current queens to make over the eliminated ones as members of their own drag families. Brooke got to choose who she wanted to work with and then paired everyone else up. Here’s how that went:
Brooke chose Plastique Tiara
Nina West with Shuga Cain
Silky Nutmeg Ganache with Soju
Vanessa Vanjie Matteo with Ariel Versace
A’Keria C. Davenport with Honey Davenport
Yvie Oddly with Scarlet Envy
Silky thought that Brooke pairing her with Soju was strategy as she went home first, can’t walk in heels and compared her entrance look to Ronald McDonald. Way to be a cyster, sis.
The werk room was filled with a ton of drama while the girls got their looks ready. Ariel brought up her missing wigs in a story that didn’t make a lot of sense. Just find them and leave with them. This was clearly filler and I was bored with it just like I was bored with Ariel throughout her time this season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPTY5o6aEBA
What was the delicious cherry on top of a nasty tasting episode was Ru going in on Silky. Like, really, REALLY going in on her. And I loved it. Ru said what we were all thinking about why she looked so busted on the runway last week and why she isn’t being receptive to the critiques she’s been given. Silky has a hard time trying to explain herself when backed in a corner (see: all the times Yvie read her to filth on Untucked) and couldn’t even get out any decent words this time around as well. Ru’s reactions to that just said it all.
Other notable things that happened before the runway was Soju’s hilarious walk in heels and chatter about what she’s known for: a cyst. Scarlet told Yvie that she was surprised to see Vanessa and Silky still in the competition. A’Keria overheard and brought it up while the girls were getting painted. Once again Silky showed her true colors and refused to hear any of Scarlet’s reasons as to why she felt this way. Yvie called her out and said that she was pretty much stubborn for not listening to any sort of critiques, which was a running theme throughout this episode.
It’s runway time! The guest judges this week were the fabulous Wanda Sykes and Lena Waithe. Fun! Let’s break down each of the groups:
Nina and Shuga: LGBTQ pride smacked onto two different but fabulous ensembles. The rainbow flag on Nina’s, the trans flag on Shuga’s. I loved it.
Brooke and Plastique: Serving high fashion in the best way possible.
A’Keria and Honey: Davenports at their best. Loved the red and yellow colors individually on them.
Silky and Soju: A hot disco mess with Soju’s makeup looking like a Raggedy Ann doll was smashed repeatedly on her face.
Vanessa and Ariel: Cute. Kind of nice. It was nice to see Vanessa in an ensemble that didn’t show her distracting chest tattoo for once.
Yvie and Scarlet: Denim done fabulously. I enjoyed every minute of it.
The judges were overall pleased with Brooke, A’Keria and Vanessa. Michelle Visage, who has been fiercely vocal about Vanessa’s repeated looks this season, finally gave her a compliment on what she made for her and Scarlet.
Their reasonings for not liking Nina and Shuga’s looks baffled me. Nina dressed Shuga as if she was a member of her own drag family, which she mentioned was very charitable and giving back to our community. You could see that in the designs, and although I can agree that they didn’t look similar they fared a hell of a lot better than what Silky gave Soju.
Ross Mathews said that Yvie and Scarlet’s outfits looked a bit homemade. I disagreed with this, but they needed to have a top three and bottom three so Yvie was dragged into the bottom portion of it although I don’t think she deserved the reads she received.
In the end it was Nina and Silky in the bottom two. They lip synced to TLC’s “No Scrubs” and it was just so bad on both of their parts. Silky talked a big game behind the scenes about her lip-syncing abilities, but all she did was utilize the back of the stage. Nina stood in the same position and danced weirdly.
Ru knew it was bad and said “Meh” before asking Nina to sashay away. I’m infuriated by this as Nina was doing well throughout the competition and was only criticized for her runway looks which I thought were fabulously campy. Also, you sent a queen home who exhibited pride in the most beautiful way possible over the crushed velvet hot ass mess that was Silky.
Two weeks in a row now where the wrong girl went home. This was not the final five I envisioned and I’m sort of left puzzled as to who will make it to the final four now. I don’t think Vanessa or Silky should be there, but one of them will, so my money will more than likely be on Silky given the amount of bulls**t drama she’s created this season. So help me god, though, if A’Keria or Brooke gets sent home over one of them.
This is the opinion of one contributing writer and not that of Instinct Magazine or other Contributing Writers.
I was looking forward to Yvie demolishing Silky in the lipsync. It would have been epic, with Silky flopping around on the stage like a big ole fat beached whale while Yvie gyrated all over the place with class. Alas, it was not to be, none of these girls will ever have to lipsync against either Yvie or Brooke, that will be saved for the Final Two, mark my words. I don’t care if my opinion sounds like fat-shaming, because it’s true. Watching Silky HEAVE herself up off the floor and pant for a couple of seconds before resuming her sad lipsync was just awful. Yes, Nina did nothing to help herself at all by just standing there waving her arms, but based on her entire track record of the season, Nina should have remained.
If I’m being generous I’d say Ru didn’t know what he was getting into when he got into bed with VH1. It’s all fake drama for those silly teenage girls that are now watching, and us hard-working queens have to sit by while this train wreck of a season progresses.
I soooooo wanted Yvie to lip sync with Silky and demolish her like we all know she would. Nina deserved better.
When I read your columns, it’s like you’re inside my BRAIN !!! I heartily agree with EVERYTHING you said, especially the last two ridiculous eliminations. I don’t think either Shuga or Nina could have won, but they are WAY more deserving of getting to the Finale than either Vangie (adorable but over her head) and the delusional Silky (unbearable and NOT TALENTED !) I think Brooke has been the obvious VIP for a long time now, but I’m a fan of Evie and A’keria too. Usually I’m so “on board” with Ru’s decisions, but at times this season, she’s been totally off base ! My hope is that either Shuga or Nina win Miss Congeniality – cause either / both deserve it – AND they will both have bigger careers than Lady Nutmeg Nutjob !?!