FINALLY. This episode felt like a return to form for Drag Race: there was a mini challenge, there was pit crew (with two new members, bye Bryce and Miles), Ru looked great, we had a main challenge that was truly worth talking about, AND we had a shock elimination.
The queens enter the work room, and without skipping a beat, Trinity wipes Charlie's message off the mirror, which was very funny. The girls talk about how disappointing it was to see Charlie give up, and it's true; Charlie can give the excuses of her rib (which I don't buy. If she cracked her rib, why didn't we hear about it before?) and not lip syncing in London (which some British people have been quick to deny), but she really just gave up. Then Farrah asks Trinity how it felt to have everyone throw her under the bus (I feel like we need a new term for this). Trinity says that she feels like she should have been in the bottom because she was the leader, not for anything else. Eureka says that's probably why she was in the bottom, which Trinity completely ignores. She is getting more entertaining every episode. In her confessional, Alexis declares that this is now her time to rise to the top, and Nina says she wants to see certain people in the bottom ("sue me").
Ru walks in wearing an amazing suit, and announces the mini challenge - a selfie-taking session with the pit crew. I love dumb fun mini challenges! There are a few standouts - Alexis gets lifted up (with difficulty), Cynthia takes a blurry selfie, and Valentina asks Ru to introduce her as Miss Venezuela then gets the crew to pose like a "Chola homeboy". Alexis wins, and she gets to assign everyone's role in the main challenge - Kardashian: The Musical. The roles are: Alexis as Kris, Eureka as North West, Cynthia as Kim, Farrah as Kylie, Valentina as Kendall, Aja as Kourtney, Sasha as Lindsay Lohan, Trinity as Paris Hilton, Peppermint as Britney Spears, Shea as Blac Chyna, and Nina as Khloe. Cynthia, Aja, Peppermint and Nina all seem to be unhappy with their roles, but Nina takes it to heart, she keeps talking about it all throughout the episode. Eureka reveals that she is now on crutches because of her injury during the cheerleading challenge in episode 2, which also explains why she was sitting down during the lip sync last week. I have to hand it to her, she has such a positive attitude about it and doesn't let it hinder her performance, something which Nina could learn from.
During rehearsal, Nina doesn't take direction well from Todrick, and again harps on about not being assigned Blac Chyna. We also see Aja struggling with the moves, and then Farrah can't get a patty cake move down.
On elimination day, we see Trinity trying to get along with Eureka and she expresses her admiration for Eureka's positive spirit. Aja is shocked to see her nose has gotten thinner; and Eureka goes up to Sasha and Valentina and apologises for her joke about eating disorders last episode. It feels like a very genuine apology, and makes me feel a bit better about Eureka. Sasha reveals that she was severely anorexic through most of her early 20's, and Valentina shares that she still struggles with an eating disorder, which makes Eureka's seemingly harmless joke directed towards Valentina suddenly a lot more serious. Then, Shea walks up to the group and says that she has also struggled with bulimia in the past. It is yet another raw moment, and despite the premise being formulaic, each moment is an important message to everyone, not just those in the LGBT+ community.
Ru walks out onto the runway and she looks fantastic for the first time this season. It feels like she finally showed up. The guest judges are Todrick Hall and Meghan Trainor (who is wearing a onesie. On RuPaul's Drag Race. Girl). Ru announces the main challenge and the musical starts up. It is immediately clear that Cynthia doesn't know the words, and she fumbles her way through the entire performance. Peppermint does a great Britney, and Sasha and Trinity do a perfectly fine job at their characters (I do love Trinity's "that's hot"). Alexis does an amazing job at Kris, not only does she look just like her, but she gets her mannerisms down (even though I generally try to avoid anything to do with the Kardashians, I know enough to understand how well Alexis portrayed Kris). Cynthia's Kim is still dreadful, Nina does a surprisingly good Khloe, and Aja does a pretty strong Kourtney. Valentina's Kendall is reasonably good, but Farrah's Kylie is bad, she again fails the simple choreography. Then Shea has a quick standout part as Blac Chyna, and it becomes immediately apparent that the runway will be the determining factor in whether Shea or Alexis will win the challenge. Finally, Eureka's North West is fine, it's not a standout but it isn't bad enough to put her in the bottom. After the musical ends, Ru announces that the runway is "faux fur fabulous".
Good
Passable
Bad
Best: Shea
Worst: Cynthia
I didn't hate Alexis' outfit as much as some people did, but it would have been much better without revealing the dress underneath the coat. Shea is declared the winner (for the second week in a row), while Cynthia and Farrah are the bottom 2. After a pretty lacklustre lip sync (I focused more on Peppermint dancing in the background), someone walks up to the judges table and says something to Ru. At first I thought it was Cynthia, I don't know why. Then Ru says he needs a moment, and walks off the set. At this point, you know something is going to happen other than either Farrah or Cynthia going home. I was thinking it was going to be a double elimination. After Ru comes back, she calls up Eureka, and this immediately means she's going home, but I thought she was going to be disqualified for doing something wrong like William. Instead, Ru tells her that she's spoken with the doctor, and she can't "under good conscience" let her continue in the competition, giving her an open invitation to return to Season 10. It's a very emotional moment. I understand this probably makes me spineless, but my opinion of Eureka immediately changed and I felt really bad for her. It's a horrible way for anyone to go, especially considering her injury occurred while doing a challenge in the competition. After Eureka leaves, Farrah and Cynthia are both declared safe. I was kind of hoping maybe Ru would do a triple elimination and get rid of both of them as well. My prediction is that they'll both be in the bottom two next week. It's only a matter of time before they're both eliminated.
So that was it for this episode. I said last week I wanted nothing more than for Eureka to go home, but this wasn't the satisfying end I was hoping for. I wanted her to go home because she did terribly in a challenge and was outperformed in the lip sync, but let's hope that she learns from her mistakes and returns next season with a better personality. Next episode is Snatch Game, and, honestly, I'm not expecting a lot from these queens. I think Shea, Sasha, Peppermint and Nina will do very well at whatever characters they're doing, and I'm expecting Cynthia and Farrah in the bottom.
Ranking
By default, the eliminated queen is last on the ranking. Ranking is based upon consideration of a holistic view of previous performance and the way they are presented in the storyline and editing.
This week the ranking has changed a little. Before it was based on who I objectively think is doing the best; however, I'm now basing it on statistics: amount of wins, amount of highs, amount of lows and amount of times in the bottom two. Looking back at past seasons, I discovered that every single winner has had the most challenge wins. In seasons where the winner had the same amount of wins as another queen, the winner had more highs, less lows and less times in the bottom two. There's only one season where the winner was absolutely evenly matched with another contestant, I believe it was Raja and Manila. What I'm trying to say is, I think this is a good indication of who will take the crown.
11. Eureka
10. Cynthia - Cynthia is one lucky queen. If Eureka wasn't sent home, I'm sure she'd be gone. Her time will be up next week surely. She has been underwhelming in the challenges and runway. For a queen who has been given the opportunity to come back, she has not been doing well at all.
9. Farrah - I'm pretty sure Farrah is evenly matched with Cynthia, but I put her above because this is not her second time in this competition.
8. Aja - Aja has been surprisingly underwhelming this season. I'm worried that once the fat (Cynthia and Farrah) is cut off, she'll be the next to go.
7. Peppermint - If I remember correctly, wasn't there a rumour that Peppermint went home first? That certainly didn't come to pass, and I don't see her going soon.
6. Alexis - She made herself pretty unlikeable in this episode. She chose the standout character for herself but then blamed everyone else for her runway look? She needs to get a grip. She's been doing okay so far. The next 5 girls have all won a challenge, so she's the best one who hasn't won a challenge yet, if that's any consolation.
5. Nina - I was worried about her last week, and I'm even more concerned this week. She's great and I think she has a good chance of at least being in the top 4, if not the top 3. But she needs to get out of her head if she is to do so.
4. Trinity - Like I said before, we all underestimated Trinity, and I don't think she's going anytime soon.
3. Sasha - Though I've felt like she has faded into the background a little bit so far, statistically she's doing well. It's a bit hard for me to fully consider her win an actual win, since it was paired with Shea, but they both brought it last episode, so she deserves it.
2. Valentina - I still can't fully get behind Valentina. I feel like she's putting on a facade and we're not seeing the real her. That being said, I still like her. At this point, I feel like she's an almost guarantee for top 3.
1. Shea - I said it last week, I feel like Shea just got started and now she's going to be unstoppable. So far, she's proving me right. I would love for her to win the next challenge so she can be the first queen to win 3 challenges in a row.
This week the ranking has changed a little. Before it was based on who I objectively think is doing the best; however, I'm now basing it on statistics: amount of wins, amount of highs, amount of lows and amount of times in the bottom two. Looking back at past seasons, I discovered that every single winner has had the most challenge wins. In seasons where the winner had the same amount of wins as another queen, the winner had more highs, less lows and less times in the bottom two. There's only one season where the winner was absolutely evenly matched with another contestant, I believe it was Raja and Manila. What I'm trying to say is, I think this is a good indication of who will take the crown.
11. Eureka
10. Cynthia - Cynthia is one lucky queen. If Eureka wasn't sent home, I'm sure she'd be gone. Her time will be up next week surely. She has been underwhelming in the challenges and runway. For a queen who has been given the opportunity to come back, she has not been doing well at all.
9. Farrah - I'm pretty sure Farrah is evenly matched with Cynthia, but I put her above because this is not her second time in this competition.
8. Aja - Aja has been surprisingly underwhelming this season. I'm worried that once the fat (Cynthia and Farrah) is cut off, she'll be the next to go.
7. Peppermint - If I remember correctly, wasn't there a rumour that Peppermint went home first? That certainly didn't come to pass, and I don't see her going soon.
6. Alexis - She made herself pretty unlikeable in this episode. She chose the standout character for herself but then blamed everyone else for her runway look? She needs to get a grip. She's been doing okay so far. The next 5 girls have all won a challenge, so she's the best one who hasn't won a challenge yet, if that's any consolation.
5. Nina - I was worried about her last week, and I'm even more concerned this week. She's great and I think she has a good chance of at least being in the top 4, if not the top 3. But she needs to get out of her head if she is to do so.
4. Trinity - Like I said before, we all underestimated Trinity, and I don't think she's going anytime soon.
3. Sasha - Though I've felt like she has faded into the background a little bit so far, statistically she's doing well. It's a bit hard for me to fully consider her win an actual win, since it was paired with Shea, but they both brought it last episode, so she deserves it.
2. Valentina - I still can't fully get behind Valentina. I feel like she's putting on a facade and we're not seeing the real her. That being said, I still like her. At this point, I feel like she's an almost guarantee for top 3.
1. Shea - I said it last week, I feel like Shea just got started and now she's going to be unstoppable. So far, she's proving me right. I would love for her to win the next challenge so she can be the first queen to win 3 challenges in a row.
