What an episode. In many ways good and in many ways bad. Let's dive straight in.
After Cynthia's elimination, Pep tries to give her a fond sendoff, but Trinity shuts it down and stakes her claim as the new official cucu. I love Trinity. In a first, Valentina gets a little shady in her confessional towards Alexis, and while I don't necessarily disagree, I was surprised and worried that Val might be getting a little bitter. Nina says she will let down her guard from now on, and I really hope that's true, otherwise it will be her downfall. Sasha does a funny Farrah impersonation, and Trinity painfully rips the black censor bars off of Valentina. Finally, it cuts to a bizarre shot of Trinity's butt before going to the theme sequence.
Red alert: we have she-mail! I'm glad to see it again, and Ru didn't disappoint, delivering a funny one-liner: "Freeze you honky bitch!". Ru announces that we will rewind to 1993, then threatens Farrah when she says that's the year she was born - "I'm gonna fucking... fuck you up!". As someone who was born several years after Farrah, I worry about what Ru would say to me. So the challenge is announced to be an acting challenge of Beverly Hills 9021-HO. Since Peppermint survived the lip sync last week, she gets to assign the roles. After Aja states that she is happy with whatever role but that there's a couple she'd prefer, she goes off when she doesn't get either of the picks. Shea, probably noticing that it's a bigger and better role for her, smartly offers to swap with Aja, which Peppermint enforces.
During the shoot, Nina reverts back to her old ways and doesn't handle the criticism from the guest judges - Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling - well. We also see Aja and, to a lesser degree, Sasha, struggling with their parts. On the other hand, Trinity is absolutely hysterical, Shea is great, Farrah, Peppermint and Valentina are pretty strong, and Alexis starts off a bit subdued but takes the critique and steps it up. We get an awkward making out scene between Aja and Peppermint, which is a bit much.
In the sad moment for the episode, Trinity reveals that her mum died when she was 8 and was raised by her grandparents. Sadly, her grandmother got sick with cancer when she was 16 and died 2 years later, so Trinity dropped out of high school and taught herself in order to look after her grandmother. It really is touching and offers a newfound respect and perspective to Trinity. However, then everyone else jumps in, and Shea reveals her dad, and Sasha her mum, have also passed away from cancer. I understand that it is an important topic of discussion, but the queens have already had a lengthy talk about cancer this season, so it feels like a retread.
Cut to the runway, and Ru comes out in a very nice velvet (or velour) dress, and her makeup is a bit better, though her padding is still ridiculous. It is announced that the runway theme is "big hair everywhere".
Good
Passable
Bad
Best: Aja
Worst: Trinity
This was a pretty good runway. The worst one was Trinity's, her outfit and hair were horrendous. Aja looked incredible, for the first time her makeup was really great. She has been getting better and better throughout the season and she finally looked amazing tonight, which is why it was such a shame to see her go. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
We see the acting scene and it is very good. Trinity and Shea are the clear standouts, with Trinity being a cut above. On the other hand, Nina and Aja floundered. Trinity is rightfully declared the winner of the challenge, while Aja and Nina are delegated to the bottom 2. The lip sync is okay, Nina does better and Aja is sent home. It was a shame to see Aja get increasingly better and then leave once she truly gets there, but it is understandable.
Ranking
By default, the eliminated queen is last on the ranking. Ranking is based upon overall performance.
9. Aja
8. Farrah - She did well in this challenge but it is not enough to push her up the ranks. Next challenge is a roast, so I think her time will be up.
7. Peppermint - Like Farrah, she was good this challenge, but unless she secures a win she's going home soon.
6. Nina - Unfortunately it has been all downhill from the first episode for Nina. Hopefully she'll redeem herself soon but if not, she's going home.
5. Sasha - I thought Sasha was a guaranteed top 3, but she's getting overtaken by other people. Maybe she won't be in the finale after all.
4. Alexis - She did okay this episode, not a top performer but perfectly okay. They're definitely editing her to look bad, if not the villain then at least just annoying. It makes me concerned.
3. Valentina - It's bizarre how it feels like Valentina is coasting even though she's consistently in the top. I think she's very good but she's not outdoing herself like others are. It doesn't matter though because she's top 3 for sure.
2. Trinity - I'm so happy Trinity won her second challenge. She really deserved this win, and I think this pretty well cements her as at the very least top 5, if not top 3.
1. Shea - Shea, again, killed it this week. At the moment, she's my pick to win. I'd ultimately prefer Trinity just because we all thought she was going home first, but Shea deserves it just as much.
I want to apologise that this is out a few weeks late, I've been so busy with uni work that I haven't had time to put together any recaps, since they take me quite a while. Another disclaimer: I understand that succeeding episodes have happened as I'm writing this, but I'm doing my best to remember how I felt at the time of watching it and not taking into account how I feel about certain queens now. With that said, let's get into it.
So this episode was Snatch Game. If I had written this recap a few weeks ago (when I was supposed to) I would have said that this Snatch Game was average. But since I've gotten my brother into Drag Race recently, I've rewatched all the seasons, and I have to say that I reckon this is up there with one of the best. There's usually a few cringe-worthy terrible performances, but there was only one this season. Maybe that has to do with the fact that this season's was much shorter than normal, I'm not sure.
After Eureka's shock eviction, the girls are understandably pretty shaken up. Farrah, upset about her underperformance thus far, calls Nina out on her attitude, but quickly retreats. They make amends almost immediately. The editors tried to play this up as much more of a big deal than it was, it was clear that Farrah was just taking her frustration out on Nina.
The return to form of the last episode was short-lived, as there is no mini challenge or she-mail this week, which is a shame because I think this season is the best Ru has looked in the she-mail segment.
Skipping straight to Snatch Game, the contestants were:
Trinity - Amanda Lepore
Sasha - Marlene Dietrich
Aja - Alyssa Edwards
Nina - Jasmine Masters
Farrah - Gigi Gorgeous
Alexis - Liza Minelli
Peppermint - Nene Leakes
Valentina - Miss Universe Colombia (Ariadna Gutiérrez)
Shea - Naomi Campbell
Cynthia - Sofia Vergara
The good performances were from Sasha, Nina, Alexis and Shea. Sasha appeared to be nervous but still had a lot of funny jokes. Nina was hilarious as Jasmine and cleverly answered the questions in her own way. I'm not familiar with Liza but I still found Alexis' performance funny. Shea's Naomi was hysterical and if it was based on performance alone, Shea was my favourite. Valentina's performance was made to look better than I think it was, like her cocaine answer was dumb, and if anyone else had said it they would have played the shady sound effects. However, I did enjoy her performance. Trinity was only shown once so it's hard to tell how she did. She looked exactly like her, and she had a couple of jokes that landed so I'd say she did fine. Aja was also only shown once, but it wasn't hard to tell that she did terribly, in my opinion anyway. I think that if you're going to do a character that has already been done, you need to do it better, and Violet's Alyssa was definitely better than Aja's. I mean, Aja couldn't even do a tongue pop! Finally, the bad performances were Farrah, Peppermint and Cynthia. Farrah's performance wasn't as bad as her character choice; I thought she played a pretty realistic Gigi, but when will these queens learn that you need to play a character with a bigger personality? Peppermint's Nene fell flat, but it was not as abysmal as Cynthia's Sofia. I would say that Cynthia's performance was the worst ever on Snatch Game. It didn't make sense, there wasn't even an attempt to make jokes, she didn't try to look like her. It was bad.
The story this week was Peppermint coming out as trans. I'm very happy for her and glad that she finally felt comfortable enough to share that with all the girls. My only question is, wouldn't at least some of them have already known that? Alexis, Sasha and Aja are also from New York (and the four of them are on that horrible song). But that's beside the point I suppose. The point is that Pep is incredible and brave and deserves to be commended.
The runway theme this week is Night of 1000 Madonnas pt. II. For starters, Ru looked okay this episode. Not as bad as a couple of other times this season. I like whenever she wears a different hair colour, so she gets credit for that. It looks like they're still figuring out her makeup though, and her padding is too much.
Good
Passable
Best: Valentina
Worst: Cynthia
It seems absurd to me how we've again managed to have double-ups with looks. I can understand somewhat for the Material Girls look, but the Met Gala look is such an oddball that I don't know how two people thought of it. Valentina's was my favourite, it blew me away when I saw it because it was so unexpected. While none of the looks were bad this episode, Cynthia's was close, if only for the beard. Alexis wins the challenge, and I was so happy for her. I thought my prediction had come true and it would again be Farrah v Cynthia, but it was Cynthia and Peppermint up for elimination. I was worried because I love Pep, but she wiped the floor with Cynthia. Her gunshot move was everything, her classic dorky dance moves were great, she nailed it. Cynthia sashayed away, and even though I love her, it was definitely her time.
So that was another pretty good episode. This season is sub-par, and I don't know what's holding it back from being one of the best. This cast is certainly my favourite group of girls yet, so it's not that. Hopefully the season gets better from here. I'm going to watch it regardless, but we need a bit of drama or something. Also, if we could ditch the sob story segment that would be lovely.
Ranking
By default, the eliminated queen is last on the ranking. Ranking is based upon overall performance.
10. Cynthia
9. Farrah - A few episodes ago I said I couldn't stand Farrah. That's definitely not true now, I don't dislike her, but I still think she's got to go next episode.
8. Aja - I don't know what's up with Aja this season. I, and everyone else, expected her to slay the competition, but she's been coasting by on safe. There's only been one episode so far where she hasn't been safe, and that's because she was in the bottom 2. She needs to step it up if she's to make it to final three. At this point though, I think she's got only a slim chance.
7. Peppermint - I really adore Peppermint. I don't think she'll make it to the top three but I would love her to. Unfortunately, I think our time with her is coming to an end. I was worried when she had the moment this episode because that's usually a sign of a girl going home, but thankfully she slayed the lip sync. She needs to win a challenge soon.
6. Trinity - I'm getting a little concerned. I really enjoy Trinity now but she's slipping down the ranks. She might not have too long left. I thought she had a good chance at making the final three a couple of episodes ago, but now I'm not so sure.
5. Nina - Oh Nina. She's absolutely incredible, but I'm worried about her. Her paranoia is going to ultimately result in her downfall, I can feel it. Every week now I'm nervous for her because I've loved her from the start and I was so happy when she won the first challenge, but now I don't think she's got too long left.
4. Alexis - I was so happy that Alexis finally won a challenge. She's been in the top the past two weeks so she deserved a win. While her performance wasn't personally my favourite, I think she earned it. I'm beginning to wonder though if they're starting to paint her as a bit of a villain, judging by the way she said at the start of the episode how Cynthia, Farrah and Nina need to be cut, and from her Untucked rant last episode. We shall see. I hope not, because I really like her.
3. Sasha - I wonder when Sasha is going to win a challenge on her own. She definitely deserves to win one. Since her only win is shared with Shea, part of me feels like she shouldn't have such a high ranking. But I still think she's top 3 material for sure.
2. Valentina - What can I say about Valentina? She's still slaying as usual. At this point she is almost guaranteed to be in the top 3.
1. Shea - I've really grown to enjoy Shea. I still don't see her being knocked off the top spot. She's definitely going to be in the top 3, unless she royally screws up, which I don't think she will.
