Last week was the best episode of season 7 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Can it continue its Ru-naissance? Not too many queens are happy that Trixie Mattel has returned to the competition. This queen is, but Miss Fame and Kennedy do not share my correct opinion. Will this drive the queens even further apart? Looks like Female Trouble!
If Snatch Game is the most iconic main challenge of Drag Race, then the reading challenge is easily the most anticipated of the mini challenges. The queens take turns reading each other (look it up—you’ll get it), and whoever is the funniest/sassiest takes the challenge. Here are the highlights!
“Katya, where do you get your outfits, girl? American Apparently Not?!”
–Trixie Mattel
“Ginger Minj, did you ever find out what happened to Carol Anne from the poltergeist in the television?”
–Trixie Mattel
“Trixie Mattel, making fun of you is like shooting clownfish in a barrel. Unfortunately, that’s about a fishy as you’ll ever be!”
–Ginger Minj
It shouldn’t surprise that Trixie excels and wins the mini challenge.
For this week’s main challenge, the queens screen test for an homage to the Sultan of Sleaze, John Waters. Where is Jinkx Monsoon and Pandora Boxx when you want them?! The girls separate themselves into their own teams (a surprisingly easy decision considering the amount of drama every week), and Ginger is matched with Trixie, Kennedy with Katya, and Pearl, Miss Fame and Violet scrape together with the energy of a shoulder (padded) shrug.
Each queen’s musical screen test is based on an iconic Waters film. Let the poop eating commence! Katya and Kennedy seem like a weird pairing, and their take on Female Trouble allows them to beat the crap out of each other for a few minutes. I could throw a Christmas tree on a few of these girls. If you throw Ginger in a crib and smash her with eggs, you’ll get a rather hilarious rendition of the Eggman from Pink Flamingos. The only pairing that kind of, well, stinks is Miss Fame and Pearl as an angel and devil trying to persuade Violet to eat (or not eat) a pile of poo. It’s the type of celebrated entertainment we’ve come to expect from Drag Race. Unfortunately, Violet’s padding makes her look like Divine auditioning for 16 and Pregnant. None of it works.
Perhaps I’m too much of a personal cheerleader, but Katya chould have won this challenge. Ginger Minj takes another trophy (her tally is now at 3), and not everything can be as fun as a pussy willow. The theme on the runway this week is Ugliest Dress Ever. Katya’s afghan dress looks like it came directly from my mother’s basement (“If Mary Elizabeth Monstrantonio barely survived a meth lab explosion and was cast in a porno version of Raggedy Ann—that’s what I’m giving you). Violet’s clown-inspired tent is by the most wretched, but Miss Fame somehow manages to make a poncho rather striking (“You need ugly lessons,” John Waters tells her). Before RuPaul critiques everyone, she makes everyone go down the line and say who they think should go home. Pretty much everyone says Miss Fame. They throw her under the bus, slam it into reverse, and run her over and over again.
Violet is the only Divine safe and Pearl and Miss Fame land in the bottom two. They lip sync to Demi Lovato’s “I Don’t Care,” and you can collectively hear Drag Race fans screaming back to their televisions, “WE DON’T CARE WHO YOU SEND HOME, RUPAUL!” Early in this episode, Pearl even admits that she’s coasting, but she sends Miss Fame (and her brand) packing. The highlight of the performance was the two girls flipping each other at the exact same time. While Pearl is clearly a fan favorite, can she survive much longer? Ginger Minj is inching her way to that crown…can she be stopped?