It’s week 3 of the second season of Rupaul’s Drag Race UK and here’s a handy recap of all the goings on.
If you want to avoid spoilers for Rupaul’s Drag Race, stop reading now.
Last week we waved goodbye to Cherry Valentine and Tayce lived to fight another day. Veronica reveled in her win and A’Whora kept her opinions to herself for a change. I do hope Veronica doesn’t start to get too big for her boots however, as part of her charm is her humbleness.
A new week begins with a new mini challenge as Ru enters the Werk Room to declare a quick drag limbo challenge. A fun way to test the queen’s flexibility and comedy chops in some cases! With guest DJ Jodie Harsh spinning the tunes the bar was literally lowered time and time again. Ellie’s outfit left little to be desired with the other queen’s fearing she may pop the ball. Two queens reigned supreme; Veronica and Tayce.
Ru then asked the queens to pair off with their best friend in the competition with the pairs being Veronica and Tia, Tayce and A’Whora, Ginny and Sister Sister, Ellie and Lawrence and Bimini and Asstina. Then Ru dropped a twist; the pairs would each get the same box of materials and have to create an outfit that is better than their bestie’s. Colour-themed boxes were given to each pair to help them eliminate their fashion frenemy.
In the Werk Room the pairs of queens seemed to work collaborative to help each other create outfits despite the fact they are competing against each other. We learned that A’Whora has a fashion design background (and says her drag goes against her when it comes to landing jobs) and Tayce doesn’t. There was lots of gossip again about A’Whora and Tayce’s past (and current) chemistry with Lawrence stirring the pot with Rupaul.
Ginny opened up to Sister Sister about not loving herself and how she is non-binary. Bimini, joined in the conversation supporting Ginny as she too is non-binary. When Rupaul did his rounds he challenged Ginny to try and embrace a sexy persona rather than bring the comedy every week; a challenge Ginny was mulling over.
Veronica has a background in theatre and costumes, with Tia confessing that she’s the one we’ll all be screaming at when she says she can’t sew despite having watched the show for years and knowing it was coming.
Bimini and Asstina ended up with the blue box with the former looking at showing off her body (yet again) and the latter trying an anime inspired schoolgirl look. Asstina’s confidence is fast becoming arrogance to me – I’m not a fan.
The Scottish queen pairing of Ellie and Lawrence have a slightly odd chemistry. It very much feels like Lawrence feels like he is the experienced queen and Ellie is her junior but not sure Ellie sees it that way. They do get on, but there’s definitely an undercurrent of hierarchy there. The pair talked about how there’s no money to be made in Scotland with drag and they have several jobs on the go, but Lawrence explained ‘I’m not quite sucking willies yet!’ Ru then shocked all the girls by telling them if you didn’t wear it best in your pair you’d automatically be in the bottom.
On the runway, the special guest judge was Jourdan Dunn who was wearing a stunning Welcome to the Thunderdome dress. She joined Ru, Michelle and Graham Norton on the panel as the lights went down.
First out was Tayce whose black leather dress looked very fashion if a bit flung together (complete with lots of safety pins – a design feature and a practical thing too). She was up against A’Whora’s disco inspired sparkly black cat suit and floor length jacket. I was a little underwhelmed by the latter after she bigged herself up as a fashion designer.
Ginny Lemon tried hard to look sexy but was still wearing her trademark Gaga Telephone yellow wig and comfy heels. The dress looked a bit like a piece of fabric wrapped loosely around her. Sister Sister was an interesting boot/trouser look and a blue face.
Veronica’s dress has been put together well but felt quite dated. Tia meanwhile served, in her words, ‘an adequate dress that is on my body..just about’. It was a hideous mix of green, ruffles and bows.
Asstina’s costume was very plain; a long sleeved velvet top and a short pleated skirt. With such broad shoulders she looked very manly and the costume looked very plain and simple. Bimini however had made a dress with a complete lace back that looked very Viviene Westwood.
Ellie and Lawrence had gold and Ellie was out first in a buckaneer inspired gold body suit pirate boots and Marie Antoinette hair. Felt a bit panto to me (as Graham later said too). Lawrence served a bit of Downtown Abbey meets Dallas mature, posh slut.
Ru chose A’Whora, Sister Sister, Veronica, Bimini and Lawrence as the ones in each pair who wore it best. These queens were all safe and Lawrence was crowned the best of the best this week winning a Ru Peter badge. Personally, I’d have gone for Bimini.
That left the remaining five as the bottom queens this week and each was critiqued. Tayce was complimented for her look but the horn hair was too similar to a look she did in week 1. Ginny was applauded for trying to be sexy but told to where bigger heels and sort the dress to make it even more figure hugging. Ginny told the judges that she’s had it drummed into her head that she’s worthless so hearing nice things from them is hard to believe. We could be seeing the start of a confidence journey here – hope so; love a bit of Ginny.
Tia made the judges laugh when Michelle asked her what she thought the critique was going to be. The judges had nothing nice to say about her outfit but did talk about her frame and how she could look like a fashion model. Tia got a little emotional from that comment and clearly doesn’t have much confidence in her looks.
Asstina was read for the plainness of her outfit with Ru saying she was taken out of the illusion. She was praised for her stunning legs and looks however. She got emotional but I do feel like she is a bit all about herself. Ellie was told that had she not been with Lawrence she might not be stood here in the bottom five.
It was clear that Tayce and Ellie would be safe as the judges deliberated. Meanwhile in the Werk Room, A’Whora got upset that she didn’t win and Veronica suggested that she shouldn’t have helped Tayce so much. A’Whora then laid in to Tia and said she wants her out because she doesn’t think she is good enough. As the other girls joined them, Asstina once again was cocky saying she hopes she is in the lip sync because she would kill the competition.
Back on the runway, Rupaul saved Tayce, Ellie and Ginny leaving Tia against Asstina to lip sync to Dua Lipa’s Don’t Start Now. It felt like Tia would be going home but she battled hard and added levels of humour and quirk to her lip sync whereas Asstina played it very seriously. Ru saved Tia much to Tia’s own surprise and we waved goodbye to Asstina. I was happy and think Ru has made the right choice.
Rupaul’s Drag Race UK Series 2 is available on BBC Three through iPlayer with new episodes each Thursday at 7pm.
