RuPaul’s Drag Race Recap: Snatch the Crown

How much does Snatch Game really matter anymore? Here’s a fact for you: Between seasons three and ten, every single winner of a regular season except Violet Chachki either won or was in the top during Snatch Game. Here’s another fact for you: Since season 11, not a single winner has been in the top for their Snatch. Isn’t that interesting? It’s not like there’s a rule that no winner of a regular season should be good at Snatch Game anymore, but I do think it’s emblematic of a shift in priorities on the show’s part — a general pointing away from innovative performance, which used to be a necessary factor in winners, and refocusing on visual iconoclasm (Yvie, Nymphia, Sasha Colby, etc.) in the social-media age. I don’t think it’s a mistake that Aquaria, who won both her Snatch Game and Ball, marked the fulcrum point of that change.

I bring it up because I think Snatch Game does actually matter this season, despite all the evidence of the past six seasons stacked against me. Partly, that’s because most of the front-runners were critiqued this week, and partly it’s because the season seemed to regard it as important. A big name (Crystal) was sent home this week when a smaller name (Lana) could have sufficed. A front-runner (Suzie) was knocked down a peg, and they spent much time discussing why that mattered. Two separate girls (Jewels and Lexi) got huge boosts during judging, including one (Lexi) who they weren’t really required to talk to at all, given that she was straight up not in the top or the bottom. They just wanted to use Snatch Game to reiterate that she is a star (if not an intentionally funny one, yet)! That’s all interesting.

Let’s start with Suzie, because, to me, that’s the most interesting thing that happened this week. A few recaps ago, I bemoaned that the other girls were dumb enough to let Suzie get the underdog narrative, but this week, the editors do something I wasn’t expecting: They curdle the Jinkx edit. And make no mistake: That’s what this is. Right after Snatch Game is announced, they immediately cut to Suzie giving a confessional in which she says, “The Snatch Game is what I, Suzie Toot, am here to do.” Twelve seasons ago, immediately after RuPaul announced the Snatch Game, the editors cut to Jinkx Monsoon, who said, “This is what I came here to do.” Immediately, the editors set us up to compare the two performers. But then, before the challenge, Suzie’s a little cocky. Then, after she gives a middling performance (which I’ll discuss in more depth later), she’s utterly convinced of her own success. Jinkx Monsoon without Jinkx Monsoon–level performances is not Jinkx Monsoon, and Suzie acting as if the other queens are delusional for not seeing her vision, and particularly some of her comments about Onya’s performance in Untucked, made me side-eye her. Suzie Toot is not the underdog, she just paints that way basically.

It’s really fun to watch the Jinkx edit curdle in real time — Suzie is clearly pushing to be an underdog, but that only works if the other queens are not expecting you to win the challenge, and then you do. When everybody is like, “Suzie’s going to do a good job,” and Suzie goes, “Yes, I am,” and then she’s bad, well … that’s just fodder for disappointment. And here’s the thing: Suzie Toot, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, would win Snatch Game. It’s a setback! And? It’s interesting to watch.

Part of the fun is that Snatch Game matters to Suzie. When I say that Snatch Game might matter this season, that’s partly why: Generally, this is a group of queens for whom something like Snatch Game would matter because, to the level that any of them will be successful, it will be based on their performances. No queen this season is as well rounded as Sapphira or producing looks at the level of Nymphia. Season 17 is a group of diamonds in the rough, and we’re seeing who can level it up in real time. Every single one of the queens has giant gaping holes in their résumés already (with Suzie’s growing even bigger this week, and she was nominally the front-runner). A difficult iconic challenge like Snatch Game does matter because it shows who stacks up on a historical level to previous performances in Drag Race history and who can’t compete.

With that in mind, let’s run through the performances.

Acacia Forgot is first in the lineup, doing Trisha Paytas. She doesn’t get much shine this week, per usual. As Trisha, she is characteristically fine. Putting on absolutely no voice when impersonating Trisha is a bad decision, as is the fact that she basically just does a dumb blonde. Also, doing Trisha at all is a bad decision, given that RuPaul clearly has no idea who she is. Look, Acacia is getting sent home soon, and the show is okay with everybody knowing that. She has no story line, and she fills the space until they bother to boot her.

Next is Suzie, doing Ellen Green (who iconically played Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors). I talked about her story line already, so I’ll just say this: This is a very competent sketch-comedy performance in that the character is clear and consistent. The issue is that the jokes are not funny, making me think that, moving forward, Suzie is a better actor than she is a comedian. That’s not great.

She is then followed by Lexi Love, doing Gilbert Gottfried. This is the work of a star. Lexi is so watchable as Gilbert, but she is technically terrible. Within her first answer it becomes clear that she is both incapable of coming up with any answers, but also entirely committed to her character. She beats herself up out loud throughout Snatch Game, but does it while keeping in her Gilbert Gottfried voice. It’s kind of amazing. It’s supe-committed. It wouldn’t work if Lexi weren’t a star, but the thing is, she is a star. Good for her.

Sam Star is next to Lexi, playing “pageant coach and QVC queen Kim Gravel” (I’ll take their word for those credits). It’s super-competent, and clearly Sam is incredibly prepared, but Michelle uses this week to give Sam the critique that I’ve been begging for with her for weeks: Michelle pitches it as “we don’t know the real you because you’re too perfect.” I would phrase it as “she is so polished that she does nothing surprising.” It’s just kind of … boring drag. Look, I like Sam, but her mother, Trinity, had some real grit to her that Sam can just never seem to muster. I am interested in seeing if she can unlock some honest weirdness moving forward.

Sitting next to Sam is the biggest bomb of the episode, Lana Ja’Rae, who plays Rosa Parks. There have been queens who have done a kind of “Killing the Sacred Cow” type Snatches before: Symone played Harriet Tubman to good effect; Salina EsTitties played Mother Mary to middling effect; the Down Under girls are offensive all the time, playing mothers who babies were eaten, Jesus, etc. Lana, interestingly, gives a performance with absolutely no edge to it. She simply plays a normal woman with a somewhat tenuous connection to buses. At the beginning of the Snatch Game, she claims later, RuPaul throws her off by saying, “Is the bus still running?” which was her joke. To clarify: That is one joke, it is not a joke, and it is only considered a joke because RuPaul says it all the time, which means it makes no sense for Lana to be confused when Ru … says it. Awful, awful, awful.

The bottom row is led by Onya as Eddie Murphy, who kills it. Her Eddie impression is shockingly solid, but the bigger point is that she is just a charming, fun, funny time. I could watch Onya impersonate Eddie Murphy for hours. It’s really great. Later, Suzie claims that Onya played herself. I do not think that this is correct, and I’m not going to litigate if she would have said that about a white girl, but I will say that I wondered! Sorry!

Arrietty as Cupid is terrible. She has no character and no lines. Just tragic. Nice makeup, though!

I think Lydia’s David Lynch is pretty solid, all things considered. Ru and Alyssa Edwards (who does the Werk Room walk-through, hilariously, since she’s terrible at Snatch Game) tell her to do Lynch instead of Catherine O’Hara because his dry humor is fun, and though I mostly think they were setting the girl up, it pans out. She has a fully developed take on the character and an occasional joke. It’s not as big as it needs to be to vault her up the standings, but she’s safely safe.

Then it’s Jewels as “Miss Bigfeet.” Here’s the thing: I usually hate this shit. To me, Snatch Game is an impersonation challenge, so you should do an impersonation. But also: Jewels is really great. She has a really complete character, she’s quick, she has jokes, and the costume is really fabulous. There’s a real argument that she should have won the week (I do think she has more straight-up jokes than Onya), but honestly, I’m just thrilled to see her finally getting some praise from the judges. Well earned!

She’s followed by Crystal, who is doing Nicole Richie. What can I say? It’s terrible. The makeup is creepy as fuck, she’s so self-serious, and later on the runway, she says she wishes she could have tapped into the tumbleweed she played earlier in the season, which is like … what? I get that her elimination was a surprise, but I’m fine seeing her go after this. On a TV level, I found even Lana’s Rosa Parks more watchable.

Finally, it’s Kori doing Big Ang, which is whatever. Definitely safe, but I’m still waiting on a challenge performance that convinces me she’s more than cannon fodder.

During the break between the challenge and the runway, Suzie thinks she could win, which all the girls know is not true. Sam Star comes over, quite bitchily, to give Suzie a taste of reality. We’ve already talked about Suzie, but I’ve gotta say: Sam is great in this scene. She’s charming but acidic, and, most important, right on the money. I’d like to see more of this character in her drag.

The runway category this week is “Nailed It.” Acacia’s Swiss Army knife–inspired look is my favorite of her looks so far. Polished, fun. Suzie’s “Iron Lady” look is just great — glamorous and weird. Lexi does a Cher look, which is just okay. After the Cher runway last season, we know what a good Cher look is, and this wouldn’t be in the top five of those. Sam’s plastic-surgery look is played out. Been there, done that, more bored of it than I am of Marie Antoinette. Lana’s “Damsel grabbed by King Kong” look is nice enough. Kori’s mime is so bad it’s funny. Just ugly. Crystal looks great as the Wolf Man. I love that she has nails on her feet. Jewels wears something I’m into conceptually (a look inspired by her robotic spine and tumor), but in reality it’s just a little ugly. Lydia does very conceptually interesting drag, but I’ve yet to see a concept that I can follow. Arrietty’s future-kitty look is fabulous. It was the best of the night, per usual. Onya’s ’90s hair-show look isn’t the most elaborate, but it is a fully realized character.

Onya, Jewels, and Sam end up in the top, though Sam is a clear third place. Lana, Arrietty, and Crystal end up in the bottom, and Lexi gets critiqued, too, just because the judges want to talk with her. Last week, I complained that Jewels and Lexi were being shafted by the judges in favor of the more-bland Sam and Crystal. This week, it appears that the show agreed with me: Even Sam’s top placement comes with more negativity than Lexi’s weird safe placement. To Sam, they say, You were good, but we need something else to consider you a star. To Lexi, they say, You were bad, but it’s okay because you’re a star. Historically, the latter is preferable on this show.

Ru ultimately saves Arrietty, which is fine by me — I’d rather get another week of her world-class look-serving than another week of Lana flopping or Crystal being competent. They lip sync to “Hands to Myself” by Selena Gomez. I assumed at the beginning that Crystal would send Lana packing easily, but neither really set the world on fire. Still, I was surprised that Ru kept Lana, and excited that it seemed to indicate how important this week is to the judges. If your Snatch Game is bad, you can go home, period. With Crystal gone, I think the girls are going to get scared.

And also on Untucked …

• Suzie comes apart at the seams in the first part of Untucked, though I hope it gets worse as the show goes forward. Quinta Brunson, guest judge, comes back. That part is cute enough since the girls clearly love her work.

• The Gay.I. Snatch Game contestant bit pissed me off. Just have Michelle do it, honestly.

• The elimination order this season is cumulatively starting to look a little insane. Acacia, Lana, Kori, and Lydia are just … still there, not doing anything in the challenges. Of them, I’m coming to think Lydia has the most upside, just because she’s at least original. But unless one of them breaks out, that’s a lot of weeks with boring eliminations, especially since Arrietty could go home at anytime, too.

• Onya is officially the front-runner following this week, I think, both given the challenge performances and the story line.

• Trauma makeup corner: N/A this week.

• Gay thoughts from gay people: On that note, re: Lydia, I’m not really the ideal person to judge her David Lynch impersonation, since I am admittedly only passingly familiar with his work (more of a Haynes and Almodovar guy, come at me). As such, I asked my dear co-worker Rebecca Alter, who just fashioned our Lynch obituary, to give her review. “What a nice and eerie confluence, a month after the passing of the last good man in Hollywood, David Lynch, that Drag Race would have a Snatch Game featuring a David Lynch impression!” she said. “How delicious, when Lydia Butthole Kollins threw his name out in the werkroom, that this season’s resident Hater-Without-a-Leg-to-Stand-On Kori King made a whole scene of not knowing who that is! And how disappointing that that is what LBK’s impression was! David Lynch is probably the easiest to imitate director, with the most distinctive voice and identifiable quirks, outside of maybe Orson Welles. Fans don’t just love his work; they love him as a wholly embodied character of a guy who was always sort of performing David Lynch drag. LBK mostly missed the mark, although that makeup was a dead ringer for Dean Stockwell in Blue Velvet. Then again, on a Snatch Game this calamitous, some ass-play jokes were enough to put her in the upper half of the pack.”

• Predicted top four: Holding steady with Onya, Lexi, Sam, and Suzie. Would I prefer Jewels over any member of that four but Onya? Yes. I need to see her win a challenge first, though.