RuPaul’s Drag Race Recap: Expect the Expected

Welcome, everybody, to the vast middle. Yes, it’s true — the season began with a bang (Lucky Starzzz’s shocking elimination) and has kept up the pace through the entire first part of its run. The queens who have been eliminated up to this point have, largely, been big personalities or legitimate contenders (Lucky, Joella, Hormona, Crystal), plus both saves that were built into the season have already been used. That leaves us with a middle section during which the show will have to spend a bunch of episodes eliminating queens who everybody pretty much knows won’t win. That’s mostly fine — filler is an important part of any reality-TV show because we need to get to know the contenders — but it does feel like we procrastinated eliminating a lot of the queens who need to go at some point and are left looking ahead toward a bunch of episodes that will just be kind of … there.

What I’m saying, basically, is that if you told me before the week began that Jewels, Sam, Onya, and Suzie would be in the top, with Sam getting her second win, and that Kori and Acacia would be in the bottom, with Acacia going home, I would have said, “Oh, that’s interesting that they picked four tops.” Seriously, that’s the most surprising thing that happens this week. And, again, that’s fine. We need weeks like this to establish the status quo and prove to the audience that the top performers really are the top performers. But, without much intra-queen drama and without much question as to who the performers who are eligible to go home are, you get episodes like this: no frills, no real drama, and no stakes other than who will win.

This is not to say the episode is boring — Rusical episodes are often like this, since they take a ton of work from the queens, who all really want to do a good job. It’s the kind of challenge that tends to force the queens to the highest level of performance they have (perhaps higher than they’ve literally ever been before, which I think is true of multiple girls this episode), and you can only really get there by calming down and focusing. The episode is structured almost entirely around challenge work, which is sometimes informative about the queens’ abilities and sometimes just there to throw us off. Mostly, though, this is an episode in which drag queens work hard and then put on a pretty good show.

The worst part of the episode, in fact, is not the thrust of it at all: It’s the Trauma Makeup Corner. We’ve been gloriously free of these freakishly formulaic segments for a few weeks this season, but the TMC came roaring back in full force this week. Sam talks about finding her gayness in musical theater despite growing up in the South; Acacia talks about her cystic fibrosis; and Arrietty talks about her history with bulimia. The problem with these segments, as always, is not the impulse to get to know the queens more deeply, but that the formula actually keeps the audience at a remove rather than allowing us in. All of the traumas are edited in the same parody-able way, with the same music, and without an inch of specific care put toward the stories. It’s just editors putting in hours at the trauma factory, pumping out “little boxes” of backstory.

All that to say, for a week with no surprises, very little forward momentum for the season, and a huge portion of time spent on the TMC, I think this was otherwise a pretty good episode. The challenge was good, the girls did surprisingly strong work, and the cast has chemistry. So we spent a whole week getting rid of Acacia? Well, that’s what needed to happen at this point. What else could they do? (A double elimination at some point? Who said that?)

The episode opens with all the girls shocked about Crystal’s elimination, which seems fair to me, but also a little happy about it since it frees up some space. Lydia thanks Lana for getting Crystal out, but that’s only a good thing for Lydia if she can figure out a way to take Crystal’s spot, which she has yet to do. Eyes on your own work, Butthole!

The Rusical this week is “based” on various Wizard of Oz properties, including the original movie, The Wiz, and Wicked. Only, it turns out, it’s actually based on A Chorus Line, which nobody really bothers to explain to an audience that, I presume, has very little idea what that is. It happens. There’s no casting director, and the girls are left to their own devices to pick parts (thank God), which I think is good because it makes that strategy part of the challenge. When RuPaul just assigns roles, sometimes girls just have no way out of the bottom (i.e., Katya as Diana).

Lexi tells Sam to take the Wicked Witch part, and she agrees to, smartly. Suzie and Acacia fight over the Dorothy role, and nobody likes Suzie, so Acacia ends up with it. Acacia was probably going home no matter what this week, but winning this part and then doing a bad job did not help her case. Kori and Jewels fight over Glinda, and Kori loses the role because nobody thinks Kori should get a solo. Fair!

They end up recording their own vocals for the musical, rather than either lip-syncing to randos or live singing — to me, this is the way it should always be done, because vocals are part of the challenge, but bad live singing makes me cringe out of my body. Everybody but Acacia and Kori are good, but, and this will be the theme throughout the episode, Acacia is significantly the worst.

The choreo session with Jamal is so edited that you can’t really get a sense of anyone’s ability, especially since they did not bother to include a single segment of any girls doing specifically well with him this week. We learn that Lana, Lexi, and Arrietty (who are the Tin Man, Lion, and Scarecrow, respectively, and performing in a trio) call themselves “the bottom bitches.” I would not call myself that on this show, but to each their own. Onya, we learn, does not pick up choreo very quickly, and Kori chooses to rehearse while wearing the shoes that RuPaul hates.

The “next day” (I would assume they got a few days, non-filmed, to rehearse this thing), the girls spill their trauma, then perform.

The musical, which, again, is more of an adaptation of A Chorus Line than it is The Wizard of Oz, is pretty solid. I mostly tuned out the lyrics, but nearly everybody did well. Suzie’s “Green Witch” character, which she didn’t want, is very competently performed. Her voice is good, the character is fully formed, and she’s always in it. She does great, even. Some girls, though, were stars. Suzie was not a star.

Jewels is next, playing Glinda and doing a version of “Dance: Ten; Looks: Three” (better known as “Tits and Ass”) from A Chorus Line. And when I mentioned that some girls were stars, I was talking about Jewels. Part of it is just her face, which contorts into various maniacal grins throughout the performance, and part of it is her nipple falling out, but what really matters is that she just has “it.” She’s watchable, she’s funny, and she’s deeply charismatic.

The bottom bitch trio is next, and they all do an admirable job. Seriously, they’re all very good. Arrietty gives by far her best performance of the season as the Scarecrow, even if I think she could have gone a bit further in making her body language mirror a Scarecrow; Lana’s Tin Man sounds great, and I didn’t realize she had this facility with choreo; and Lexi is the best of the group as the Lion, with her body language fully converted to feline. They all end up safe, and that seems about right to me. Nobody in this group set the stage on fire, but they all did well enough.

Then comes Sam, as a version of the Wicked Witch of the East that is also, for some reason, Cher. I wouldn’t say that I get why she’s Cher, but Sam fully sells it. Seriously, this is some pro-level stuff. Sam is great, great, great at this. The judges, quite rightly, told her previously that she had to loosen up, and normally, when the judges are like, “You did it, you loosened up!” I don’t believe them. When Rosé did her Soda Pop commercial, for example, I was unimpressed. But … this really does seem like a looser, more fun version of Sam Star. She makes the choreo look like the most natural, easiest thing in the world. This is the kind of thing that the show is good at bringing out in people — there’s no way that Sam would do this role without Michelle’s prodding, but it’s what broke her out of her shell and convinced me she’s a star. A real threat.

Lydia and Kori do a flying-monkey number inspired by “Sing!” It is fine. Lydia is objectively better than Kori — they do a cut in judging to the two of them hanging in the back, with Lydia still crouched down in character and Kori just kinda chilling that was very convincing — but neither is amazing. Kori is rightly in the bottom, and Lydia is rightly safe, but it’s past time for Lydia to do something more than skate by. Kori’s days are clearly numbered.

Onya is next, playing “Harlem Dorothy,” which is just Dorothy from The Wiz. Onya, we knew already, is a superstar. It is thus not that notable that she eats up just about everybody. In judging, perhaps to make us think that she has literally any weaknesses, Jamal brings up that she didn’t pick up the choreography very quickly. Well, she got it on the day (she executes it near perfectly in the performance), and her choreo is approximately 20 times harder than any of the other girls’, so I think that should be allowed. Seriously, rewatch the number and compare what she has to do to what Sam had to do for her winning performance. I think a little time should be allowed.

Finally, it’s Acacia. She flops. Sorry! I do not understand why she wanted this role at all — the ballad should only be for expert-level park and bark-ers, and Acacia is not that. She is the only girl in this Rusical that I would actively call “bad,” and it’s not that she doesn’t remember the words or something, it’s just that she has virtually no stage presence. Seriously, I can’t keep my eyes on her. Crazy that she made it this far, honestly. “The Music and the Mirror” this is not. Donna McKechnie, she is not. It’s just kind of sad to watch.

The runway category is “Shady Ladies,” which, it turns out, means “parasol.” Good category! Suzie wears a beige leotard. Given that, this is shockingly good. I hate the hat, but the outfit is otherwise extremely glamorous, and her makeup is looking a damn sight better. Jewels works a “merry widow” look that every drag queen should have in their arsenal. I wouldn’t say this is a particularly thrilling take on the concept, but she looks objectively good. Arrietty does a black-crystal dress with red ruffles, inspired by her Latina heritage, and she looks great. The slightly toned down but still otherworldly makeup is great on her. She’s there to be the best on the runway every week, and this week she holds up her end of the bargain. Lexi does a Schiaperelli-inspired look with a cane. Great stuff. Sam’s look is stunning. There’s no real “idea” to it, which is always a risk, but sometimes a beautiful dress is a beautiful dress. She looks amazing. Lydia’s is hideous. Fashion Nova. Awful. Kori does a Dorothy look that is, like much of her drag, competent at best. Onya’s yellow chiffon look is great from the front, but weirdly shaped from the side. Acacia wears a wig with parasols in it, which is fun. She also wears an ugly dress, which is too bad. Lana, to Jewels’s detriment, also wears an all-black outfit, though she has vampire teeth in, which differentiates her slightly. I think it’s fine! (She will need to be more than fine at some point.)

The judges pick four tops, which is mostly correct, but then Ru calls them out in a way that implies that Suzie is in the top two of the week, which I think is wrong. To me, the top two are clearly Jewels and Sam, with Sam edging out Jewels with a stronger runway. In fact, I’d also put Onya ahead of Suzie, who is a lovely fourth place. Sorry to this Boop. Jewels needs to snag a win soon. Bottom two, quite rightly, are Acacia and Kori. They lip-sync to “Wet Dream” by guest judge Adam Lambert. Going in, I assumed that Acacia would go home. By ten seconds into the lip sync, I was embarrassed to be watching this murder at all. Kori eats Acacia alive and leaves no bones. Ta-ta, Acacia Forgot! It was fun while it lasted.

And also on Untucked…

• The other girls really do not like Suzie. They rank the girls getting critiqued from best to worst and put Suzie at the bottom just to fuck with her. Wow!

• To that end, one moment that did not look good on Suzie: When she muttered “Have fun, Acacia” after the casting, then when Acacia immediately asked her what she said, she refused to back it up. Get a backbone.

• They are planting seeds of an Onya-vs.-Suzie rivalry, though it’s thus far only through Suzie’s POV. My impression is that Onya is not bothered by Suzie.

• Trauma Makeup Corner: I already discussed most of it, but I’d like to reiterate that I don’t think it is necessarily bad for the queens to share their stories, but that the show doesn’t exactly allow these stories to shine.

• Gay thoughts from gay people: Given Sam’s big week, I thought I’d ask a friend about her and turned to my college bestie Gilda Geist, who hosts All Things Considered at WCAI on Cape Cod and is currently visiting me in NYC. “Great first impression, then totally forgot about her, but after this week, she might be back in a big way,” Gilda says. “I don’t think she necessarily outperformed the other ladies in the top, but her runway was so fabulous.” At one point in our conversation, I mentioned to Gilda that Sam is 27, which made her squint, and I realized that I wasn’t sure if that was true because she could definitely be older. Turns out? She’s 24. I am shocked by this. “I would have guessed 29 or 31,” Gilda says. “Not because she looks old, but because she has a millennial spirit.”

• Predicted top four: Eh, Lexi’s been kind of skating by, and I’ve been itching to throw Jewels in there, so let’s do a shake-up this week. I’m guessing Sam, Suzie, Onya, and Jewels.