Season 16 Snatch Game - Power Ranking RuPaul's Drag Race S16E08

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16, Episode 8 was the Season 16 Snatch Game! That meant we also got our annual “The Library is Open” reading challenge – plus, an unusually animated Dancing Queens runway theme.

It’s incredible that an oddball challenge spoofing old game shows from way back in RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 2 has become the most iconic challenge on every franchise of the show – and also the most harrowing gauntlet for its contestants.

Hearing Drag Race queens talk about their Snatch Game experiences is like hearing war stories, even when they are from queens who do well.

No matter how well you prepare for Snatch Game by working on your impression and your improv skills, there’s just no way to completely anticipate how Ru will react and volley with your character. Planning answers and bits ahead of time isn’t always the wisest move, because you’ve got to be able to follow Ru’s lead in the room and pick up on what she finds amusing.

I was fascinated to see some strong queens miss these hints, while one in particular snatched every one.

What does that mean for our Power Rankings compared to last week’s epic “The Sound of Rusic” Rusical performance power rankings? Things have been truly shaken up, with one unlikely queen pushing into contention for the finale while a previous surefire winner sags in the rankings. Plus, we have a new supreme as a certain Russian doll turned into a real live queen over the course of this episode.

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best drag queen win!

Reminders: I consistently refer to Drag Race artists with their drag names and with she/her pronouns even when they are not in drag, which is the convention of the show. Some performers may have different personal pronouns. Drag is inherently brave, political, and artistic, and all drag is valid. It’s also hard to do. Every drag artist in the world deserves endless essays dedicated to their talents and life stories. I’m commenting on drag artistry in how it fits the established expectations of this specific television program, but the reason I’m commenting at all is because I am obsessed with drag and the people who create it.

RuPaul’s Drag Race, Season 16 Episode 8 – Season 16 Snatch Game Power Rankings

Before we get to our power rankings for the Season 16 Snatch Game, let’s appreciate the true mother of Drag Race – Mother Dust herself, Chad Michaels!!!!!!!

Cher as the Pope of Glamour. Absolutely impeccable. What else can you say?

I continue to live for all of Ru’s problem-pattern suits. I would wear every damn one. And, I love her long-sleeved, short-skirted dress… thought, I’m not too sure how I feel about her peculiar headband or her gladiator heels.

#1 – Plane Jane, 2 wins (was #4, 5, 5, 3, 2, 4)

Plane Jane finally takes the lead in our Power Rankings after a masterful and self-assured Snatch Game. But, that’s not the only reason!

On this episode Plane Jane finally showed some humanity beneath her villainy. She exposed her emotional self in her workroom chat at the mirrors about her grandmother and life in Russia for queer people. Then, it happened again on the runway in the moment she realized she had won Snatch Game. It’s a split second of Drag Race I’ll replay when I need serotonin, just like Tatianna’s lip sync win (well, tie) from All Stars Season 2.

Whether those moments were genuine or deliberately self-produced, suddenly Plane Jane looks less like the season’s antagonist and more like its most-dynamic character – in addition to being the queen who is the best at playing the game of Drag Race.

Of course, a big part of playing the game of Drag Race is the literal game within Drag Race – Snatch Game! Plane Jane made an inspired choice with Serbian pop star Jelena Karleuša. She got to pair Lady Gaga looks with a Eastern/Central European “over it” personality.

Not only is that a personality I am CERTAIN Plane Jane has direct experience with, but she also brought actual jokes to Snatch Game. She was not just coasting on her accent and mannerisms. Even if she somehow prepped “number one BBW … Beautiful Balkan War survivor” as a joke and slickly inserted it into her volley, there’s no way she could have anticipated Ru’s question of “deceased or diseased” and slickly answered “both.”

Plane Jane’s Latin Ballroom runway was beautiful, but I think she suffered slightly from Xunami’s dress appearing first, it having more fringe, and Xunami doing more Salsa during her runway performance. I saw Plane delivering some footwork, but it just felt a bit reserved after seeing Xunami.

Also, Plane’s body was slightly fighting against that very demure dress. That’s a lot of bare shoulders to be showing in a pretty, skimpy outfit on a masculine body. And, Plane had the illusion of back rolls(!) thanks to the tight, clear straps on the back of the dress.

None of that takes away from how lovely Plane Jane looked in this outfit. I just don’t think it was a slam dunk “best of runway” when up against both Xunami’s similar costume and also Nymphia Wind.

That didn’t stop Plane Jane from snatching her second win after a non-stop string of high placements. As stern and merciless as she wants to play her drag character, there was no way she could hide her elation once Sapphira was called safe and she realized she had won the legendary Snatch Game.

In that moment, I kinda fell in love with Plane Jane. People can talk all they want about how she is a villain or a supposed bully. For me, this episode showed she still has the same hopes and dreams as every other queen who comes on this show. The fact that she has them while also flawlessly playing the part of the villain and also being great at every possible challenge makes her one of the most intriguing queens we’ve ever met on this show.

Plane Jane is surging at the perfect time She has shown herself to be entirely capable of doing well in a design challenge and she still has an immunity potion for two more weeks! To me it seems like she is cleared for takeoff directly into the finale.

#2 – Sapphira Cristál, 1 win (was #2, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1)

Sapphira Cristál delivered a studied, hilarious take on James Brown in Snatch Game and put on a show on the runway. She narrowly missed a win for a second week in a row – mostly because Plane Jane was just more “laugh out loud” funny in Snatch Game.

Sapphira’s James Brown was very, very good. She had the look, the cadence, the vocal, the references… and the jokes. Everything you need for a studied Snatch Game performance!

Yet, I can see where RuPaul was coming from in the critiques about how Sapphira could have pushed it even further. Was this as bold as James Brown? As dirty? Did it have enough random shouts and exclamations? I just don’t know if Sapphira took it as far as Kennedy Davenport as Little Richard, to give a famous example.

Then, on the Dancing Queens runway, Saphhira continued her “kiss up to RuPaul” routine with a Drag U Majorette performance. It was cute and the moves were slick, but I feel like that was to distract from the fact that this is one of the weaker looks in Sapphira’s package.

I’m not debating that it is giving Majorette, and I love the amount of sparkle (and structure!) on the leg. However, having her bust double as a pom pom was distracting and gave her a weird shape. Maybe if she detached it to use as actual pom poms at some point?

I dunno. The top bugged, that’s my final answer.

As Sapphira’s fellow early-season front-runners begin to lose traction in the struggle to stay in contention for the finale, it seems to be smooth sailing for Sapphira. Yet, I think Sapphira has an outside chance at flopping in next week’s gothy design challenge – and she has no more immunity potion to save her. Of course, there is NO WAY that RuPaul will dismiss Sapphira from her first lip sync – and, I suspect, there’s no way Sapphira would lose. But, that bottom two placement would put a ding on her run and give Nymphia a chance to bounce back (and Plane Jane a chance to continue her domination).

#3 – Plasma, 2 wins (was #7, 6, 3, 4, 7, 2)

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Plasma didn’t deliver the Season 16 Snatch Game knockout she probably wanted for herself. Her impersonation of Patti LuPone was entirely safe. On the plus side, she deliberately weaponized her BFA on the runway to make the judges howl with laughter with her tap performance.

When I think of my (albeit limited) knowledge of Patti LuPone, I picture a grande dame diva who comes off as initially affable but then gets her hackles raised in righteous anger about any little transgression. Not that she’s mean! It’s just that there are many stories about LuPone not hesitating for a second to unleash on people she views as annoying, untalented, or disruptive.

I’m not sure how Plasma could’ve squeezed more of that into Snatch Game. I think it would’ve gotten old if she just yelled every answer, or if she had a staged bit planned. Yet, I do think she could’ve played with some Snatch Game tropes we’ve seen before, including the “chicken-shit gigs” gag from Chad as Cher in Season 4 or Jinkx’s whole “is that my camera” bit from All Winners.

I’m not saying Plasma should have lifted either one wholesale. I just meant that she could’ve expressed being upset about being in such a stuffy set sitting so close to other people, or she could have demanded they shoot her from her better side… anything that would’ve played more “diva” than what Plasma was serving. Even Ru teased this with asking her right off the bat about a role she didn’t get. Ru was fishing for outrage!

Plasma definitely could’ve taken this Dancing Queens runway tap costume much further in literally any direction. That said, Ru immediately got the reference to “Danny Kaye and Vera Ellen in White Christmas.”

Except… Vera Ellen was in fucking drag in that movie. Look at this:

So, even if RuPaul got the reference, I don’t know if Plasma pushed this runway as far as possible in the looks department. However, her tap dancing was incredible!

I’m sure Plasma is kicking herself for missing a top spot in Snatch Game, but she doesn’t have time to wallow: next week is a third design challenge, and Plasma has been in serious danger in the past two. This time there’s no more fodder to hide behind. Plasma needs to avoid being in the bottom three with Mhi’ya and Morphine at all costs – not only to avoid a bottom placement altogether, but because she isn’t guaranteed to survive the outcome of either of those matchups.

#4 – Q, 1 win, 1 lsft-win, 1 lip sync (was #3, 3, 4, 7, 4, 3)

Q got in some solid shots as Amelia Earhart in the Season 16 Snatch Game, but it never gelled into something fully comedic. Yet, she’s positioned well with yet another design challenge on the horizon.

Q’s concept was there as Amelia Earhart. She had the look and I loved her manually miming wind flowing through her scarf. She even had some themed “I’m in a plane!” types of responses for Ru. Yet, that never quite came together into one gestalt performance. Q lacked a central conceit to her character and humor aside from “flying.”

I feel like that’s often the case for queens in the top left spot in Snatch Game – they start well and get a decent edit, but they often lack the killer jokes it takes to land a win. I wonder if there’s a certain pressure to being in the first spot, or if the show just has a tendency to place stronger comedy queens there.

I should do some data analysis of Snatch Game seating positions versus placements! Hmm… there’s something to keep me occupied in the off-season.

Q’s wonky neon robot was a fine choice for a Dancing Queens runway – even prescient, given Q’s dancing difficulties this season.

Speaking of difficulty, I find this look kind of hard to look at. It’s just so many different colors and shapes and textures. It’s definitely a step down from Q’s typically-unified visions, but I appreciate that she gave us robot as a neon-colored crash test dummy instead of the boring metallic bots we’ve seen many times before.

Q occupies a precarious spot as a potential finalist. There’s another design challenge next week, which works in her favor. But, with Nymphia (and Plane Jane!) in the mix, Q might not walk away with an assured win. After that… who knows?! All this time we’ve been treating Q as if she is a comedic theatre queen thanks to her Talent Show, but now that we’ve seen Plasma at work I’m questioning if Q really fits the bill. Plus… Q’s Amelia was kinda similar to her Stonewall Brick from RDR Live, wasn’t it? I’m curious to see her comedy chops tested further with something like a standup challenge.

All I’m sayin’ is that Q might not sail through the remaining challenges as cleanly as I would have predicted a few weeks ago. And, she absolutely will not survive a lip sync against any of the remaining queens. Her only hope to reach the finale is to steer clear of the bottom two.

#5 – Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige, 1 win, 2 lip syncs (was #13, 13, 10, 6, 6, 9)

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Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige has emerged as an unlikely potential finalist purely by showing that she is willing and able to listen to RuPaul’s feedback.

I’m of two minds about Mhi’ya’s Season 16 Snatch Game as Trina’s cousin Shaquita.

One one hand, I’m always annoyed by Snatch Game performances as fabricated relatives of famous people. Snatch Game is an impersonation comedy challenge, and if there’s no impersonation to assess than you’ve skipped out on 50% of your grade.

On the other hand, the whole point of Mhi’ya’s late-stage pivot to this character was that it is an impersonation of the kind of girls in Miami that she knows and loves. Ru challenged her to channel a specific kind of high-energy, high-stupidity personality, and Mhi’ya stepped right up and delivered.

From that perspective, this was a good Snatch Game.

Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige had the right dance moves for 90s Hip Hop on this Dancing Queens runway, but I’m not sure she nailed the style prompt. The bottom of the outfit was definitely reminiscent of something I could imagine seeing on Salt-N-Peppa, but not those billowing pirate shirt sleeves. A similarly color-blocked leather jacket over a rhinestoned ribbed tank top would’ve sold it for me.

Mhi’ya is now in the unusual position of getting to play spoiler against a highly-qualified cast of queens. As Nymphia fades and Q seems inconsistent, either one of them could both be surprised in later weeks by this black horse (wonk wonk) flipping her way past them in a lip sync right into the finale. Several queens will be in danger unless Mhi’ya is quickly defeated next week in the design challenge. Except… who is going to eliminate Mhi’ya in a lip sync? It might be a good way to test Plasma’s mettle (and she has been bad at designing), but I’m not sure Ru is willing to risk Plasma yet with more acting and comedy surely on the way. The only queen who can legitimately defeat Mhi’ya could be Sapphira.

#6 – Nymphia Wind, 2 wins (was #1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 5)

Nymphia Wind absolutely cratered in the Season 16 Snatch Game as Jane Goodall. All of her easy wit from the workroom seemed to elude her entirely. This performance (plus a similar near-miss in Girl Groups, saved by Megami’s songwriting) doesn’t bode well for Nymphia as we see fewer team challenges and more requirements to prepare her own material for Drag Race staples like standup or branding.

I’ll give Nymphia one thing: this Jane Goodall likeness is uncanny. She did some truly magical special effects makeup work here. However, “chimp noises” is not a sound Snatch Game strategy.

I think Nymphia missed a trick here in that she could have played Goodall as completely out-of-touch with reality like Ben de la Creme’s legendary Dame Maggie Smith (which was a whole decade ago – please excuse me while I turn to dust). I’m not sure how much it would have helped her with these Season 16 Snatch Game questions, but she could have used that as an excuse to play Goodall as whacky or rude as she felt like.

This was Nymphia’s first time abjectly failing in a challenge, but it was accompanied by another one of her stupefyingly superb runways. From what I’ve seen, this Dancing Queens runway takes some liberties with actual Japanese Butoh outfits, which can be much more plain and stark than this fluttering dress. But, there is absolutely a quality of torn and ripped pieces, a connection with nature, and a slight horrific element to the Butoh costumes I’ve found online.

I think having Nymphia in the same season as an incredible designer like Q and a resourceful queen like Sapphira is somewhat spoiling us on just how next-level Nymphia’s runway looks have been. Not only is her construction on par with the most-costly designer looks we’ve ever seen, but Nymphia’s editorial vision could be the all-time best on a Ru-hosted series of Drag Race. Her ability to turn out looks as varied as her wired-ties design look, last week’s COMME des GARÇONS knockoff, and this incredible fashion version of Butoh is nothing short of extraordinary.

Despite trying to keep her major talents under wraps from her competitors, Nymphia still may have surged too early. Luckily, next week is yet another design challenge – which gives her a real chance of bouncing back and padding her win count. But, can Nymphia really snatch the Drag Race crown with a pair of design challenge wins and 1/4th of a Girl Groups win? At some point she needs to bring back that sassy humor we saw in the very first mini-challenge to make Ru laugh. I won’t be ready to put Nymphia back into the potential winner’s circle until we get an unhinged RuPaul laugh in response to her antics in the next few episodes.

#7 – Dawn (was #5, 4, 7, 8, 5, 6)

Dawn needed to break out this week and she had a real chance to do it as Meghan McCain – a wretched person she would have no problem mocking. Instead, Dawn delivered a puzzling lack of character and one of the plainest runways of the evening. I think she narrowly escaped a trip to the bottom. Can she redeem herself next week in the design challenge by snatching a critical win from the grasp of Q and Nymphia?

Dawn’s Meghan McCain felt like it never even began.

When I think of how to make Meghan McCain funny, it’s about saying outrageous things and then immediately either doubling down or contradicting herself. Sometimes both. Also, I don’t think Dawn snuck in a single “when my father…” reference into the entire Season 16 Snatch Game.

I was waiting for a rambling, hemming-and-hawing answer like, “Well, of course, I’m against Lady Bunny and everything she stands for… except for when I’m kind of into it. I’m a conservative but I’m cool, you know. I’m a Millennial. I support the dolls. I mean, my father was a maverick! But, in principle, I’m against it. Except this once. So, anyway, I just wrote down: bombs.”

That would probably merit a blank look from Ru and a shade rattle, but at least it would come off more like Meghan than whatever Dawn was doing.

Dawn looked twee in her Polka look for the Dancing Queen runway, but that’s about it. This was a cute dress, but from the neck down it needed some serious dragging up other than the cute pair of witchy high heels.

I think Dawn has gotten too comfortable in this competition. I believe she’s trying as hard as she can, but she has also had some minor positive reinforcement from the judges that has allowed her to think of herself as one of the “top girls” and not one of the canon fodder. This isn’t as obvious on the main show as it is on Untucked.

Yet, now Dawn is one of only two queens remaining in the show without a win – there’s no one for her to look down her nose at anymore other than Morphine. It is absolutely 100% critical that Dawn wins the Design Challenge next week if she has any hope of making the Top 6, let alone the finale. She needs someone else to deal with whichever of these very capable lip syncers hit the bottom the next week – because I think RuPaul would be happy to sacrifice her to any of them. Plus, a win might cushion her the following week for what I’d predict is either an acting or branding challenge while she waits for whoever remains from Mhi’ya and Morphine to be eliminated

From there, I just don’t know if there is a path for Dawn to make it any further other than by beating Q in a lip sync. There is NO WAY that Ru gives up Sapphira, Nymphia, or Plane Jane in favor of keeping Dawn (and, I have my doubts Dawn can beat Plasma).

#8 – Morphine Love Dion, 1 lip sync (was #9, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8)

Morphine Love Dion seems as though she has been marked as an inevitable next out by the judges no matter what she does in the challenges. Yet, one place the judges can’t rob her as easily is in a lip sync. Morphine showed some true fire in her lip sync to “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” in a performance that was both emotional and muscular. But… it might be slightly too little, slightly too late.

Morphine Love Dion’s performance as Anna Delvey in the Season 16 Snatch Game had some actual laughs in it, which is more than I can say for Nymphia, Dawn, or Xunami. Maybe it’s because I don’t know this person or her story at all, but I found this slinky, supercilious character-study (complete with a suspiciously unspecific accent) funny all on its own even if Morphine only landed one or two mild jokes.

Plus, it’s just incredible to see Morphine doing plain, low-glam beauty makeup!

Morphine Love Dion delivered a spin on a Flamenco look for her Dancing Queens runway. I was mildly into it. I’ve seen a fair amount of Flamenco performances in my life (more than the average person, surely!), and this immediately read as a Flamenco costume to me even with the pleather bodice and the skirt being just a train.

Unfortunately, in a runway filled with several impeccable outfits, even a strong one like this fell towards the bottom.

I was skeptical of Morphine and her talents at the start of the season, but over the past few weeks she has really grown on me. She isn’t a natural comedian, but she knows how to take up space on stage and project her personality while doing it. I see now that she’s more than a bar queen… but, I still don’t see the killer instinct of a Drag Race winner.

I was right when I said last week that the only way for Morphine to survive Snatch Game was for Dawn or Xunami to be sacrificed (though I didn’t bet it would be a sacrifice to Morphine). Next week she’ll need to escape the judges’ insistence that she must be the next queen to depart by surviving yet another design challenge. Morphine has to hope she can outdo Mhi’ya and at least one other queen so she doesn’t have to lip sync again. At that point she will have cracked the top half of the competition, although I’m not sure there’s a way for her to get from Top 7 to Top 6 unless she beats Q in a lip sync the following week.

Eliminated: 9th Place – Xunami Muse, 1 lip sync (was #10, 11, 9, 9, 10, 7)

Xunami Muse made the mistake of fabricating a high-concept, whimsical character for the Season 16 Snatch Game, when instead she should have played someone as no-nonsense and quick-witted as herself. If ever there was a queen who could make a Real Housewife funny, it’s Xunami Muse.

Something interesting about Xunami I learned in her Whatcha Packin with Michelle Visage is that she is a professional stylist. We’ve heard a lot of queens say they are stylists on this show, but with Xunami it was written all over her mixed-and-matched runway package. She has a real skill for combining different labels or upcycling vintage garments that we haven’t seen on American Drag Race in a long while – partly because there is an expectation that everything must be haute couture. Yet, good styling can beat mediocre custom design on many days of the week.

Usually when queens are eliminated before the halfway mark it’s either a heartbreaking failure to click with Ru or an expected elimination of obvious fodder. I don’t think Xunami Muse fits easily into either of those categories. She is a capable artist who did fine or better in every challenge Drag Race had to offer up until this episode. I didn’t feel like she had wore out her welcome at all. Honestly, she’s one of the most refreshing and genuinely likable contestants we’ve recently met.

I’m gutted to see Xunami go after her first true unforced error in the competition. Xunami’s run on the show really goes to prove that a lot of going far on Drag Race comes down the randomness of who you are cast against and the order of the challenges. In a season with one or two fewer powerhouses, her placement might look a little different – but, she may have still bombed just as hard on Snatch Game.

10th Place – Megami, 1 win, 1 lip sync (was #14, 9, 8, 5, 8)

11th Place – Geneva Karr, 1 win, 1 lsft-win, 3 lip syncs (was #6, 10, 12, 11)

12th Place: Amanda Tori Meating, 1 lip sync (was #11, 7, 6)

13th Place: Mirage, 1 lip sync (was #8, 8)

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14th Place: Hershii LiqCour-Jeté, 1 lip sync (was #12)

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"See You Next Wednesday" Neo-Goth Design Challenge - Power Ranking RuPaul's Drag Race S16E09 – Crushing Krisis says:

March 4, 2024 at 5:00 pm

[…] does yet another design challenge mean for our Power Rankings compared to last week’s Season 16 Snatch Game Power Ranking? Not only did we lost a front-runner, but one queen lost a bit of momentum and another one started […]