The most anticipated episode of each RuPaul’s Drag Race season is no doubt Snatch Game. It’s a perennial favorite of the show’s fanbase that separates the front runners from the ones that will be sashaying away sooner than later.
It worries me, however, if Snatch Game will have that same affect for this group of girls as the two that ended up in the bottom have done consistently well all season. Hmm.
The latest episode picked off where the last one ended with Ra’Jah O’Hara being eliminated. There’s still a ton of tension in the room between Vanessa Vanjie Matteo, Silky Nutmeg Ganache and Yvie Oddly over their Jerry Springer type battle that occurred in Untucked minutes beforehand.
Silky was hurt by Yvie calling her untalented amid them battling once again inside the werk room and Vanessa continued to scream at Yvie for the words that she has spewed at her. Their arguments have been some of the ugliest this show has ever seen, and my hope that the bickering between them doesn’t take over S11 similar to what #PuppyGate has done for The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills this season.
The mini-challenge this week revolved around the girls creating their own self-help books which is just an excuse for RuPaul to promote her own. Does anyone remember the disaster that was the Holi-Slay Spectacular last year? That whole thing turned out to be one giant plug for Ru’s Christmas album. This rings similar to that, but then again when it’s your show… you can do what you want.
Silky won the mini-challenge with Eat It: The Chronicles of the Buffet. Fun fact: this is Silky’s third overall mini-challenge win. Does this really factor up at the end of the season though? I often find that these bits are more funny than memorable. Anyways, Morgan McMichaels joins the girls to present Silky with a $1,000 credit from Postmates… out of her ass. No thanks.
This transitioned into what we’ve all been waiting for: Snatch Game! Except this time it’s Snatch Game at Sea because of a particular sponsor they have. Nothing drastically changed like how they did Snatch Game during All Stars 4, just a more nautical set.
Ru brought season 5 winner Jinkx Monsoon in to talk to the girls about the characters they were thinking about doing. She did the same thing with Bianca Del Rio last year. Jinkx showed, in the 10 minutes she was on screen, why she won s5 as her personality and humor are still just as strong today as they were many years ago.
Some of the girls that didn’t feel confident about this challenge included Vanessa, Yvie and Brooke Lynn Hytes. Each of them said in their own way that impersonations aren’t something that they usually do, which is an odd thing to say because you know that this episode is included in every season. Even if you don’t know how to impersonate someone, shouldn’t you rehearse ahead of time seeing as some of you have been auditioning for the better part of the decade? SMH.
It’s time for the Snatch Game! The guest judges this week are Veep’s Tony Hale and actress Clea Duvall. I’ll break down each competitor from weakest to the best.
Brooke Lynn Hytes as Celine Dion. This wasn’t funny. At all. And Brooke easily knew this. Her attempts to make Canadian-based jokes like talking about poutine didn’t land at all and it was severely awkward to watch.
Vanessa Vanjie Matteo as Danielle Bregoli. Vanessa is so funny that it boggles me that she couldn’t pick a good celebrity to do for Snatch Game. Danielle is known for one thing, “Cash Me Outside,” but that’s not funny in an arena like this.
Yvie Oddly as Whoopi Goldberg. It just didn’t make sense. None of it did. Yvie had ample opportunity with Whoopi to make her funny. Maybe she could’ve attempted impersonating Whoopi being the moderator on The View to quiet the other queens down. Instead, we got nothing from her.
Plastique Tiara as Lovely Mimi. She was a tad better than the other girls in terms of catching on quickly and finding some humor in her character. Plastique was able to go back and forth with Silky a bit, which was fun, but there was nothing else that made me go LOL.
Shuga Cain as Charo. This was adorable! Shuga really showed off her comedic skills by expertly playing someone who is already such a larger than life character.
A’Keria C. Davenport as Tiffany Haddish. The Ru-pon comment was hilarious and she evoked a lot of Tiffany-ish vibes throughout Snatch Game. Also… A’Keria > Monique Heart when it comes to this impersonation.
Silky Nutmeg Ganache as TS Madison. Such a clever choice as TS. Just like many others in this Snatch Game, she’s such a unique personality that Silky really did a great job at. Silky clearly knew a lot about TS and that showed during every frame that was on her during the challenge.
Nina West as Harvey Fierstein/Jo Anne Worley. If Nina did bad in Snatch Game, she was going to go home. It’s that simple. But she pulled it out with two characters that may not be so big with the younger crowds, but she nailed it on both ends for the ones that know both really well.
Vanessa and Yvie have a come to Jesus moment before the runway begins and resolve their issues. Yvie also tried to make things better between her and Silky by complimenting her Snatch Game performance, but Silky wasn’t buying it. “No thanks,” Silky said. These two aren’t resolving anything truly anytime soon.
The runway this week is sequins! Yay! One word for each of the looks goes as follows:
Vanessa: Swimsuit.
Brooke: OMFG.
Shuga: Stunning.
Nina: Patriotic.
Yvie: Pantsuit.
Silky: Turquoise.
Plastique: Meh.
A’Keria: Love
A’Keria and Plastique are declared safe, which wasn’t too shocking. Vanessa once again got read to filth about her repetitive runway looks by Michelle Visage, even though Ross Mathews did his best to defend her by saying that a brand within her is developing there.
In the end, Silky is declared the winner while Brooke and Yvie were in the bottom two. Yikes, neither of these queens should go home at this point. Yes, their Snatch Games sucked, but there should be something much bigger taken into question in terms of how they’ve done in their overall game. If anything, it was Vanessa’s time to go, as she really hasn’t done that much to prove why she’s still in the game at this point.
Brooke and Yvie lip sync to Demi Lovato’s “Sorry Not Sorry” and it is honestly one of the best things RPDR has ever given us. Both girls gave some severe acrobatic realness that left everyone simply stunned. I’ve re-watched it five times today and am still blown away by them both.
Ru made it a double shantay and kept both girls, rightfully so. This means that we are still at eight, with no clear front runner in sight after this week’s episode. Holy moly. I’m actually excited about this season finally.
This is the opinion of one contributing writer and not that of Instinct Magazine or other Contributing Writers.