Am I crazy? Are my standards lowered? Or was the episode … pretty solid? Last week, I complained that the variations on All Stars’ consistent theme “How far are you willing to go to win?†were running low. This week, they managed to get some drama that the show had never shown before. RuPaul counseling the girls is certainly nothing new; girls like Plastique Tiara were basically held at gunpoint and forced to cry about their trauma to Mama Ru. But her coming in to remind the girls why they’re in the competition and lift their spirits is different. There was no one-on-one counseling; this was a group session. Fascinating.
It’s particularly interesting to see this on an All Stars season, where the girls are supposed to be hungry professionals. That hasn’t really been the case this season. I am most uninterested in being an armchair psychologist, but it does sort of feel like part of the cause for the near-constant breakdowns this season is that it’s not filled with girls who have huge fanbases, a history of slaying Drag Race, and extreme levels of success outside the show. Typically, those are the prerequisites for getting on All Stars season, but that is not what the show has cast this time around. Instead, we have a group of girls who are wells of neediness, many of them desperate for validation from the Drag Race machine (including the fans) to the point where that rejection can lead to spiraling. Is that what I was hoping for heading into an All Stars season? Not really, it makes it so the Clash of the Titans feeling that All Stars seasons are supposed to invoke completely out of the realm of possibility. But, given what we have, I’m not opposed to the situation. It’s interesting, at least. It feels like a thematic progression.
The episode opens with the information (also shown in last week’s Untucked) that every queen voted for Jaymes to go. Given that the previous week everybody voted for Kahanna to go before she was saved by the Heidi quit, it’s kind of a surprise that nobody wanted Jaymes to continue in the competition over the girl who is on borrowed time. It seems like the girls simply did not respond well to Jaymes, to be honest, which is as good a reason as any when she hadn’t been winning either way.
I let out a deep, depressed groan when Ru entered and announced an improv challenge. Improv is very hard. Drag queens are not necessarily good at it. Some of the worst, most intolerable challenges of recent seasons have been the improv challenges (the words “SheMZ†and “World’s Worst†both send a shiver up my spine), and I counted the lack of an improv challenge on season 15 as a mark of success for the season. Part of the issue is that the way the producers conduct these challenges both precludes remarkable success and complete failure. By giving the girls characters that they have to play but not providing them with actual jokes, they are both cooping the queens in too much and not giving the non-comedy queens the space to succeed. Part of the reason Snatch Game works is that the freedom to do anything is designed to give us both wildly high successes and complete and abject failures, both of which are entertaining. The improv challenges tend to put the queens in an uncompelling middle ground.
This week is no exception. Even when I acknowledged that someone was doing well, I didn’t actually laugh out loud, and most of the failures just amounted to “You didn’t push it far enough.†That’s not particularly entertaining one way or the other.
But before that, we must address the drama of doling out the roles. It starts with a despondent Kahanna, who is depressed over the existence of another comedy/acting challenge when she’s been flopping in them all season long. What’s interesting about this journey to me is that it’s one that shouldn’t really be on an All Stars season at all. It reminds me of Gottmik or Trinity K. Bonet in their original seasons, both queens with massive weak spots who managed to get those issues sorted out to the point where if/when they do/did All Stars, respectively, it wouldn’t be/wasn’t an issue. But Kahanna got booted on the first acting challenge of season 11, so she never went through the first-season boot camp.
Then we have the Alexis/Kandy debacle, which, it must be said, Kandy is totally in the right on. Alexis telling Kandy that she should take the part she doesn’t want because the two characters are basically the same is wild when Alexis doesn’t want that exact part. It would be better if she just said she didn’t feel comfortable with the DA. When Alexis starts crying, my reaction was basically “LOL.†She tends to have meltdowns at every minor inconvenience, which is the best part of her as a character. They should get monotonous, but for some reason, I’ve yet to tire of Alexis’s attention-grabbing crying. I think what keeps it interesting is the queens’ universally uncaring response. If we had to see a group of queens rallying around her every week, that would become grating. But a queen crying to a blank wall? Hilarious.
Anyway, Kahanna and Alexis’s respective breakdowns lead to the Ru intervention, which is pretty compelling stuff. For all the times that people have gotten annoyed at Ru, called her problematic, called her the true villain of the show, etc., over the years, she’s still a fantastic TV host. The best in the game, in fact. The come to Jesus moment to the whole group is a fabulous, impromptu speech that re-inserts some life into what was about to be a completely dead challenge and episode.
We then get to the challenge, which I think is mostly okay, given the precedent. For me, Jimbo is the funniest. Her voice is hilarious and her schtank finger made me laugh too. There’s no way of knowing what is given to these girls on their sheets and what isn’t, but when Jimbo’s coaching Kahanna, she says that she came up with the voice on her own, which leads me to give her high marks. Lala is also great, high energy the whole time and coming up with jokes at a breakneck pace, although the “eloguent†bit, which is funny, was given to her by the challenge. I should note again here that neither of these queens, who are clearly the best, actually made me laugh out loud, but I reiterate that mostly just to show how I’m not into the challenge construction. It’s not their fault.
Jessica is pretty good. Improv challenges have to be her worst nightmare as an ESL queen, but she acquits herself nicely, and it was never boring to see her on screen. Kandy is … Kandy. It’s disappointing to see her get that note again because it came at her in season 13 as well, and she overcame it in that season’s improv challenge. She should have known that she can’t just be Kandy in a challenge like this. I guess Kahanna and Alexis are the worst; they certainly have the least energy. Still, the straight-man character is a worthwhile person to have in an environment like this, and Alexis, whether intentionally or not, plays it well. Kahanna is just not ever going to be a player in this type of challenge, but it’s definitely the furthest from disaster she’s been all season in a comedy situation.
The runway is Miss _______. I thought more girls would go with puns, but they mostly just do funny takes on pageant looks or random looks they just happen to have. I don’t love Jessica’s outfit as Miss Sausage Party, because the yellow dress and the sausages have no connection to each other. It could be any basic gown under there. Kahanna does Miss Tired Ass Showgirl, and if you’re going to go with that title, it needs to be a parody of a showgirl gown rather than just a very nice example of one. She’s limited. Lala gives her best look of the season as Miss Bootlegger, a classic example of a queen giving her best outfit when she commits to a character rather than just trying to look pretty. It’s funny and a fully realized persona. Kandy is Miss Arrogant, and I think she’s referencing her Bag Ball look from season 13 when she got called arrogant, even though she doesn’t expressly say that. Still, if the look needs to be explained that much, the concept wasn’t clear. She looks great, but I don’t think that’s enough. Alexis is Miss Manpig, and it’s nice to see her marry the “dickpig†thing she’s been pushing in the Werk Room into some actual drag. Lots of great details here, from the fisting glove to the fisting hankie to the jockstrap to the fact that she does all of that while sporting a gown that actually references pageants. Jimbo is Miss Titsmagee, and here’s when I’m getting a little bored. We know Jimbo likes giant boobs. This dress has nothing else to it. When you’ve been boob-based this long, you’ll need to bring more. Not enough!
Ultimately Lala wins the challenge, which seems fair. It’s nice to see her get a moment to shine, especially after I think she should have won last week. Alexis and Kahanna are in the bottom. I would have swapped Kandy for Alexis when taking in the performances and the runways as a whole, or just made it a bottom three. Still, there’s more tension when the girl nobody seems to like (Alexis) is in the bottom with the girl who continually flops, but everybody does like (Kahanna).
The lip sync assassin is Jorgeous, which is great because I love how Jorgeous lip syncs. I was thinking it was going to be a real battle until the song was announced, and then I had to laugh. I can count on one hand the girls from Drag Race who could beat the Lala Ri Experience to “About Damn Time,†and Jorgeous, who is the size of a toy poodle and half the weight, isn’t on that list. Jorgeous gives it her best, and it’s a good performance, but Lala eats her right up. Two good lip syncs in a row! We’re on a roll now! Lala ultimately chooses to send Kahanna home, which feels a bit like a mercy killing. But Kahanna can go home proud of this episode — she grew a lot.
And also on Untucked …
• Not much to speak of here. The girls seem to know that Kahanna needs to go, and Kahanna, though she doesn’t give up, might know it too.
• Are they going to bring a girl back this season? I know it’s an All Stars standard, but given the lack of a Ru message as the girls are packing up, the Fame Games’ existence, and the fact that it feels like we are finally getting down to a group of competitive girls, I don’t think it’s really worth it. But given the episode count, that would mean we’d probably have a top three? I’m not opposed.
• Alexis Michelle Watch: She’s a mess, we know it, she knows it. My favorite moment was her sharp, sharp inhale upon Kahanna being eliminated. God, this queen knows how to make a sound.
• Predicted Top Three: Based on what I said about the whole “no returning queens†thing, I’m thinking we might have a top three instead of a top four. In that case, I’m betting on Jessica, Kandy, and Jimbo. Lala had a great week, but I don’t think it’s going to be quite enough.