Welcome to our weekly look at what has been going on in the Werk Room and Main Stage of Rupaul’s Drag Race stateside.
If you want to avoid spoilers for Rupaul’s Drag Race, stop reading now.
Following the first elimination last week, the queens returned to the Werk Room where Denali had the honour of wiping Kahmora’s message off the mirror.
Kandy got very vocal about what she thought should’ve happened and singled out Elliott as the one who she thought was going to be bottom two. There’s definitely beef between the two of them. She then added Tamisha to her list of enemies when she said that her only competition now is Symone.
This week, Rupaul had the queens get into quick baby drag to dance like a spoilt child for the mini challenge. Rosé’s outfit was freaky as she played a mother with a baby on her back, but it was Lala Ri’s twerking baby that won.
For this week’s maxi challenge, Rupaul announced a ‘bag’ ball with three different bag-themed looks; Mixed Bag, Miss Money-Bags and 100% Bag Drag.
In the Werk Room Symone, Lala Ri and Kandy’s sewing skills seemed very questionable. Utica stepped in to help Lala Ri work his sewing machine as it was revealed she sews costumes for other entertainers.
When Ru re entered the Werk Room, he called the girls in pairs to have a socially distanced talk with him about their outfits. Kandy seemed to zone out but still had Ru in stitches – I still can’t understand about half of what she says!
As the girls started to beat their faces in preparation for the runway, the conversation took a turn for the more serious with Black Lives Matter being discussed and Symone and Lala Ri talking about how racial inequality has affected their lives. Tamisha then took the conversation on to the issue of black trans lives being the most vunerable.
This week, funny gal Nicole Byers returned as guest judge and took her place on the judging panel alongside Ru, Michelle and Carson. Then the ball began…
Category one was Mixed Bag, and it really was! Denali started things with a stunning crash test dummy, air bag look and Rosé revealaed his Scottish heritage with a fun bag pipe look. Joey’s IV bag nurse felt confused; Lala Ri’s bag of bones outfit looked like z cheap halloween costume and Elliott’s gift bag looked too simple. Tamisha gave old bag which felt too simple also. Gottmik wowed with an open cadaver body bag look and Symone and Kandy brought the fun. The former with massive fun bags and the latter with magic tricks.
The second look was Miss Money-Bags with the queens expected to serve opulence and own everything, complete with a design-it-yourself giant purse from Coach. The best here were Gottmik in her sparkly pin stripe asymettrical suit and Olivia’s caped suit.
Finally, the made-from-scratch finale category of 100% bag drag. Lala Ri’s oufit was just awful; some gift bags glued to a body suit. Girl bye! Symone’s final look was also lacking as was Kandy’s. The non sewing girls lack of talent showed but Utica, Tina and Olivia shone. Gottmik went over well with the judges but didn’t work for me.
Ru called out Denali, Elliott, Symone, Olivia, Tina and Kandyand told them they were safe. That left the remaing six the tops and bottoms of the week.
Joey Jay was praised for trying different hair looks but needed more for his look. Carson confused him by asking if his IV bag look was Poison Ivy. Poor Joey, he’s pretty but not perhaps the sharpest. Tamisha was read for not bringing more OTT character to her first two looks and less to her final look. Gottmik was told she had good fashion taste and was very entertaining. Rose received mostly praise. Utica got an apology from Michelle for labelling her quirky; she brought the fashion this week! Rupaul started deliberations by saying we have had one of the best looks and worst looks in drag race herstory. It was very much feeling like a Lala Ri vs Joey Jay or possibly Tamisha. The win would be a tight race between Gottmik and Utica.
Rupaul called the girls back to the stage and crowned Gottmik the winner. Eliminating Utica, Rose and Tamisha as safe, leaving Lala Ri and Joey Jay in bottom two.
The lip sync song this week was Fancy by Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX. Lala went hard witg Joey having a more subtle approach. Joey through some dollars and Lala raised a laugh by scooping them up off the floor. Joey did a good performance but lacked the humour of Lala Ri which sealed the latter the win.
Joey never felt like a winner of the series to me, but I do think prior to the lip sync Lala was by far the worst this week.
Next week the girls have to make a dancing documentary about disco. Seems there’s also some more needle between Kandy and Tamisha.
Rupaul’s Drag Race Season 13 is available on Netflix in the UK with new episodes added every Saturday.
Read previous episode recaps here.
