The meeting-of-queens episode is a difficult feat. Going from seven to 14 queens is in some ways an even bigger challenge than just doing a full 14-queen premiere, because most of the audience doesn’t have a working knowledge of the individual characters yet, but there are already a lot of story lines to keep track of from the two previous episodes. That means some queens are going to get short shrift in favor of the girls who are more adept at catching the camera’s eye. Part of the fun as a viewer is learning which queens know how to manage that and will be our main characters moving forward: Who is getting a long-term story line versus a short-term one? What relationships are being revealed? Who appears to be quietly working, not realizing that they’re on TV?
A sewing challenge is an ideal venue for this. It’s the only regularly deployed early-season challenge that’s an individual challenge, and having all the girls in the Werk Room together gives them a lot of time to show off their personalities and demonstrate how they interact with each other. Plane Jane gets to be shady, Nymphia gets to be quirky (while secretly in control the whole time), Q gets to be a dorkily endearing crafter, Mirage gets to be a mess that ultimately does okay, etc. While comedy and performance challenges can cause impressive amounts of early drama by forcing the queens to work together, sewing challenges let the queens further establish themselves as individuals, so that when they have to collaborate, the audience can understand where each of them is coming from.
The big swing this week is the show continuing with the Rate-A-Queen conceit. As in the premiere, it really only serves to mirror some semblance of the judges’ choices. Sapphira and Mhi’ya’s top and bottom placements, respectively, aren’t guarantees, but they have clear logic to them. The more important aspect of the Rate-A-Queen twist comes from the queens’ rankings being given to them. Notably not included are individualized rankings, which feels like a Chekhov’s Gun that the producers have at their disposal to pull out whenever they wish.
The second big swing is making the aforementioned sewing challenge a ball. This is only the second time the show has done a ball with a full 14 queens — the first being in season 14 — and 42 looks is an utterly overwhelming number. It’s virtually impossible to remember each queen’s individual set of three looks. The upside, though, is that when a queen really stands out, as Nymphia does this episode, it means a lot.
Nymphia has an all-timer of a table-setting episode this week. She gets tons of personality-based content that shows off how fun she can be, while being simultaneously characterized as a savvy strategist who the other girls don’t quite have a handle on yet. Then she tops that with a series of looks that, from my vantage point, make up one of the best ball packages of all time, culminating in a final look that could be the best Werk Room–sewn look ever made on the show. Her performance this week reveals the value of her not being in the top two last week, giving the audience an ever-so-slightly delayed payoff that makes her win feel less like domination and more like acknowledgement of an individually good week.
Meanwhile, two separate queens are developing a classic “always the bridesmaid†arc. Dawn has yet to be picked out of the pack for individual attention from the judges, and she gets the coveted sad reaction shot to the top group’s announcement after talking in the Werk Room about how excited for the challenge she is and how much she loves sewing. I don’t think this narrative will continue for too long — Dawn still seems like a top girl to me — but I don’t think she’s been robbed yet.
Q is getting the other bridesmaid story line, though hers comes from getting the No. 2 placement two episodes in a row. This week I warmed up to Q a lot. Her clear joy in the act of creation was adorable, and the way she wears her heart on her sleeve is very sweet. She’s a crafter! It must be frustrating to not win yet, but her earnestness gives that story pathos. Because it’s been kept from her, now I want Q to turn it out enough to win. Fingers crossed for an unconventional-materials challenge in a few weeks.
Plane Jane continues to show off her screentime-hogging skills this week, coming off a bit more fun (but still shady) in the fallout of her ranking move. That is until Untucked, when she, for objectively no reason, spits some vitriol at Amanda Tori Meating, who mostly manages to stand up for herself through sheer theater-kid energy. Her conversation with Nymphia in which Nymphia somehow correctly deduces that Plane put her in sixth position nudges along that Chekhov’s Gun nicely. There’s also the revelation that she and Morphine, the two shadiest of the group, are sisters — if the show doesn’t cast their mother, Athena Dion, on the next season, what are we doing here?
Sapphira, notably, gets what is known over in the Survivor edgic community as a “cool down†episode. There’s no concern that the audience will forget who she is, but after her supremely dominating first week, the editors give her plotting and characterization some time to breathe. It’s clear she’s in it for the long haul, so this is about pacing.
The other big characters of the week are the disasters — girls with short-term story lines about doing (or potentially doing) poorly. Mirage earns a solid fakeout via a panic over her constructed outfit, which ends up okay because her final look works with her whole “fierce stripper†vibe. Hershii holds up a pleated skirt made out of socks that are clearly still socks, gets a death glare from Ru, changes her outfit into pre-made pants, tells her drag origin story, then goes home. It’s pretty typical first-out stuff, but I found her charming the whole way through. Mhi’ya sews a tube. Geneva has some misplaced confidence and gets shaded by Plane for it.
The five other queens don’t get much to do. Morphine is a strong narrator, but most of her relationships (with Mhi’ya, with Plane) seem to be told through the other queens’ eyes. Plasma attempts to lightly shade Sapphira, then mostly just resides in the confessional block. Megami is a non-presence other than when it’s revealed that she was at the bottom last week. Xunami is a non-presence the entire time. Amanda’s story line is largely saved for Untucked, but it’s impressive how much she chews every line she is given. She doesn’t do a lot, but she remains a presence.
So that’s how the queens are doing meta-narratively, but … How are the looks? Let’s go, quickly now:
Geneva: Unfortunately deserves her bottom placement. That Miss Muffet look is too heavy. Salma Hayek may be a mother, but is she famously a mother? Last look is bland.
Dawn: Looks great in each of her looks, and it’s very impressive that she made them all. Unfortunately, unlike the top three queens, she has no “wow†moments. The Audrey Hepburn mother has the same issue as Geneva.
Hershii: Disaster. The bee look is cute enough, if not exciting. Mother Nature is ill-fitting and ugly. The last look isn’t even bad in a fun way, unfortunately. She’s got loads of personality, but the ball just isn’t her challenge.
Mirage: Body queen knows how to dress her body. All cute, character-based looks, and I have a good sense of Mirage’s style. The way she sells the final look, black eye and all, really elevated it.
Megami: Dawn calling her the “Eeyore of Drag†colors everything about her. Need her to stop wearing the flimsy pink triangle pin. The Gaga is rough, but the other two are fine enough, with the final look being impressively constructed.
Amanda: So thrilled she managed to make it through this challenge unscathed. Also shocked. All her looks are better through the lens of her personality, particularly the first one with the cat pelts and the tent silhouette. John Waters would love this queen. The face isn’t necessarily good, but it is looking a damn sight better.
Morphine: The confessional she gives about her final look had me cracking up — she’s funnier and better-natured than the premiere made her seem. The other two looks are cute enough.
Mhi’ya: The first one is just a pageant gown with a new title thrown on it; hilarious. The Lil’ Kim look is less draggy than the Lil’ Kim original. The final look is actually fine, but when Ru tells you to step up your personality, do it immediately. As in, “on the runway while you’re still talking to her†immediately.
Q: Gorgeous looks. Would have won a good deal of balls if she didn’t have to deal with Nymphia. My favorite might have been the Judy look — simple, but all the details are so right, and Judy is the perfect choice for a mother challenge.
Nymphia: If there’s a knock against her this week, it’s that the Angelina Jolie dress doesn’t look much like the original. With that said: HOLY SHIT. Can’t say enough about that final look, and the androgynous Little Boy Blue is insane too. The fact that she can make that level of high fashion while having this ebullient of a personality solidifies her front-runner status.
Sapphira: That pumpkin look is a real stunner, Eve is great, and the final look is very well-made, if not my favorite style. Remains a huge threat.
Plane: It became a little clearer to me this week that some of Plane’s vitriol comes from a place of insecurity. Her looks, while overall witty and good, have a slightly cheaper vibe than those of most of the other girls. I normally wouldn’t care, but in the context of her near-constant coming for other girls’ drag, it stands out. Also: If you’re going to show off your body as much as she does, you should be able to match your tights to the rest of your skin. Come on now — it looked like she was wearing khaki pants.
Xunami: Love love love the egg. Not sure yet, however, where Xunami really stands out from the other girls. I’d like to be surprised.
Plasma: Not feeling this girl yet. With Tweedle-Dee, I agreed with Dawn: It doesn’t read and is kinda ugly. Anne Boleyn is fine. The final look is honestly kind of ugly.
So Nymphia wins (woohoo!), thrusting Q into the second-place position again. Mhi’ya gets saved, and Geneva and Hershii lip-sync to a deeply random Ava Max track. It’s not a great lip sync, but Geneva solidly wins it. Happy to have her for another week.
Also on Untucked …
• We already covered the important part of Untucked in the recap. Loved the moment when Morphine tried to protect Amanda from Plane for a second.
• I missed mentioning Mhi’ya talking about how she learned she could flip when she was out flipping with her cousins last week. A real oversight on my part.
• Another oversight: It appears that Plane Jane is referred to not as “Jane†but as “Plane.†I will follow suit moving forward. Also: lol.
• Trauma Makeup Corner: Hershii shares how she started drag at 15.
• Gay thoughts from gay people: My Drag Race viewing-party chat is now named Amanda Tori Watch Party. Also, my boyfriend has sung the words “I’m Geneva, la diva mas Latina,†so many times it is now embroidered into the folds of my brain.