For Queen and Country - RuPaul's Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2 Episode 1

The Olympics of Drag Race is back! It’s RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2 Episode 1 – a Queen’s Variety Show talent performance and a national pride “For Queen and Country” runway.

That allowed 11 queens from 7 different Drag Race franchises to show off their brands and how they’ve grown since their original run (or, in a few cases, how they stayed exactly the same).

The entire point of the Talent Show as a challenge on Drag Race is for each queen to have a minute of uninterrupted stage time to show off the idiosyncrasies of her personality and aesthetic.

Very few queens actually manage to do that.

Across many franchises, we’ve seen dozens of queens misunderstand this challenge as “deliver your club performance (without using a licensed track).” Really, the challenge is, “give us a commercial for your brand that people will always remember you by.”

Think of some of the most-impactful talent show performances we’ve seen on Ru-hosted franchises. For me, that includes Tatianna, Willow Pill, Anetra, & Jimbo. They were all unique, slightly surreal, and surprising while also making complete sense once we got to know the queens better. Tatianna is about unclockable realness with moments of silliness. Willow Pill is about making light of morbidity. Anetra is about being a ballroom-imitating martial artist.

And Jimbo is about… baloney?

Those performances can be endlessly imitated, but the original magic will never quite be recaptured because each one was as much about talent as it was about brand and personality.

Three queens figured that formula out on this episode, and it was unsurprising to see all three of them in the top of the critiques.

The same thing is true about any kind of runway about local or national pride. It’s not about dressing as a cheesesteak if you’re from Philly. It’s about showing your home and what it means to you as seen through your own unique lens of drag.

What did that mean for our power rankings compared to my pre-season prognosticating? Two queens quickly vaulted to the top, a shaky queen solidified her standing, and one predicted finalist didn’t have the intense glow-up I was expecting.

(Want to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World outside of the UK? For most of the world, it’s available with a Wow Presents Plus subscription as soon as the episode is done airing.)

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best international drag superstar 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 UK vs. The World, Season 2, Episode 1 – Queens’ Variety Show & For Queen and Country Runway Power Rankings

Before we get started, let’s take a moment to enjoy Mother Ru’s looks on an episode where she sounded as though she was at death’s doorstep.

Ru’s runway suit was giving me father-in-law realness rather than his typical swanky menswear fashion. Maybe he was making a point to dress more like a BBC presenter for this initial appearance – or maybe he just felt like shit that day and couldn’t be fucked with wearing one of his elaborate suits.

I don’t know about the pink ascot with the red pants, though.

On the runway, I loved her lime-green plaid – and, Raven absolutely went off on Ru’s makeup this episode.

In fact, before we begin, enjoy a bonus Raven! Even though every queen now knows Raven is Ru’s personal makeup artist, I’m sure they were all quaking in their heels for a second when they thought Raven could really be the twelfth queen in the cast since there were only two other American queens in the lineup.

#1 – Marina Summers [DRPh-S01 Runner Up, Pre-Season #3]

Marina Summers came fully prepared to take advantage of her time on the global stage and it showed. She was flawless in every single second of this episode – from her entrance to the Queens’ Variety Show to the “For Queen and Country” runway.

First, I have to say how much I loved Marina’s entrance line: “It’s time to give colonizers the chop.”

It’s a hilarious line on its own, but it’s also a multiple-entendre since all of the franchises represented here are of countries known for their colonizing history (except for Australia – more on that later).

In fact, both Spain and America specifically acted as colonizers of the Philippines!

Plus, there is the insider joke of RuPaul’s Drag Race acting as a drag colonizer as Ru’s influence, aesthetic, and taste spreads to (or, we could say, “infects”) the drag of every country around the world.

It was hard to tell this without zooming in on this outfit, but I think the fabric was made of sequins or glitter packed so densely that they resembled a metallic suit of armor. It was a stunning look to burn off on an entrance!

Also, clock those gorgeous bare legs – a trademark of Marina’s runways.

We’ve seen so many queens lip sync to music on Drag Race talent shows over the years. Yet, few of them bring a track that is an event. Sure, sometimes the songs feature some terrific vocals (we all remember feeling the Jantasy), but they don’t tend to be epic tracks that could hold up against the radio-friendly artists typically featured in a lip sync.

Marina Summers bucked that trend with “AMAFILIPINA,” which is even more epic in its full music video form.

If I understand correctly, Marina actually borrowed an existing Filipino pop track to remix into her own song – which is a brilliant strategy for a queen who wants radio-quality production on her Drag Race song. It doesn’t hurt that Marina can really sing and really dance, to which she added a brilliant executed poi/ribbon routine.

Honestly, it sounded and looked like something from a Lady Gaga concert. I don’t know if we’ve ever seen a queen go off quite this hard as an actual pop star on any Drag Race franchise before.

As I worked on this post I looked back on my comments on Marina’s run on Drag Race Philippines Season 1.

I was reminded that I was slightly skeptical of her at first, with her bare legs, lack of stoning, and color-blocked runways. Yet, it only took a few weeks for me to appreciate Marina’s intelligence and the level of preparation she put into every single aspect of her drag. My only real critique of her was that she sometimes over-thought how to apply the “Marina Summers Brand” to each challenge.

On the RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World runway, Marina was herself through and through. Her “For Queen and Country” national pride outfit included all of the same qualities she showed off on Philippines Season 1, but elevated to a whole new level.

I think this version of Marina has figured out exactly how to apply her brand to every moment she gets to appear on camera while still completely fulfilling each assignment. I’m hard-pressed to name a queen whose All Stars return has been this electrifying for me since Ben de la Creme on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 3.

I seriously get butterflies of anticipation in my stomach every time Marina is on screen as we wait to see what she will do.

All Stars seasons are well-known for awarding underdogs and unlikely queens in the first episode only to cut them down shortly afterward. Yet, I can’t see Ru cooling off on Marina that quickly. Marina is a slightly unknown element in a design challenge next week since Drag Race Philippines Season 1 had an insanely high-difficulty flowers design challenge (which Marina slightly avoided by using the fewest flowers of everyone in the cast), but next week is also a ball – and you know Marina’s packed looks will be next-level.

#2 – La Grande Dame [DRFr-S01 Runner Up, Pre-Season #2]

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La Grande Dame served pure camp and managed to Jimbo the talent show without actually being reminiscent of Jimbo at all.

What does that sentence mean? More on that in a moment.

La Grande Dame quickly established herself one of the all-time fashion greats of Drag Race, not only because of what she wears but because of how she walks it. She is in the runway walk hall of fame with queens like Shea Couleé.

It doesn’t hurt that LGD is six foot five out of heels – she truly is proportioned like a runway model!

With all that in mind, I loved that she didn’t go totally over-the-top for her entrance look. Her (hand-painted?) mini-skirt and matching boots were fun, vibrant fashion. There will be plenty of time for La Grande Dame to pull out things that are more stunning and severe. I think she was wise to start with something more easy-going.

That strategy carried through to La Grande Dame’s Queens’ Variety Show performance.

If there is one thing Ru loves more than laughing, it’s laughing at something truly unexpected and absurd. La Grande Dame nailed that ineffable mixture perfectly with her looped laughing track.

On its own, the concept is thin – the laughing track alone isn’t all that impressive. It was LGD’s unhinged performance of it that made it memorable – especially the way she repeatedly shifted between gawky nerd and runway model in her delivering.

There was never any question in my mind that this was a challenge-winning performance. I could’ve figured it out even without the insane hooting and hollering from Ru and Michelle.

La Grande Dame struck gold with this “For Queen and Country” runway being paired with the Talent Show, because it let her drive her goofball brand home with a truly absurdist runway that somehow was also high fashion.

It’s a damn frog impaled by the Eiffel Tower, y’all! The way the frog-limbs were puppeted by LGD just added to the transfixing quality it had as it moved.

I’m not sure this would have hit as hard if it was paired with a more-sedate challenge performance from La Grande Dame, like Girl Groups. But, coming on the heels of her maniacal Variety Show performance it really drive home that she is a weirdo as much as she is a fashion model.

If there is one limitation La Grande Dame might encounter this season, it’s the lip syncs. She was never Bottom Two on Drag Race France Season 1, but we did get a nail-biter of a lip sync for her to advance to the finale. While La Grande Dame moves fluidly while performing, she’s not really a dancer. Her best bet is to totally embody a track

That’s fine on a regular season, especially when you rack up as many high placements as she did and simply need to escape elimination. However, one way La Grande Dame won’t want to imitate Jimbo is with a string of lip sync losses on this season after this first thumping by Marina Summers. Multiple losses might diminish her luster, and it doesn’t position her well for a final Lip Sync for the Crown if it’s against Marina (or, I suppose, Keta Minaj – though that’s unlikely)

I suspect this is going to be an immediate concern next episode, as La Grande Dame will be the odds-on favorite to win a combined design challenge and ball.

#3 – Hannah Conda [RPDRDU-S02 Runner Up, Pre-Season #1]

Hannah Conda proved my pre-season prediction correct: she’s ruthlessly great at just about every aspect of drag and Drag race. Hannah delivered a near-perfect showing this episode, but got slightly outplayed by a pair of new-to-Ru queens in Marina and La Grande Dame.

Hannah Conda can deliver opulent drag, but she’s going to do it with her minge out. I know it looks like she is lifting up her skirt in this still shot of her entrance look, but the skirt is actually just cut that way.

This sumptuous, finely-detailed brocade is the sort of high-quality drag I’ve come to expect from Hannah after seeing some of her runways on Drag Race Down Under Season 2. Also, her mug is stamped. The nose contour. The glitter eyelids. It’s magnificent.

Hannah Conda isn’t known for any one talent in particular, beyond being hilarious. That was on full display in the Queens’ Variety Show in what I would call one of the most-successful cabaret performance we’ve ever seen on Drag Race.

I found this song funny even before we add in the gags like Hannah growing bored with the piano midway through or bungling her reveal only to show the wrong-colored underwear.

Yet, I can understand why it didn’t win. The rhythm was slightly off – not in Hannah’s singing, but of the cadence of the gags. It felt as though it was missing a punchline somewhere in the middle, and with all the talk of “cracks” at the close of the song it felt like it was setting up an ass reveal that never came.

That said: as a non-singer, Hannah delivered one of the most-consistent live vocal performances we’ve had in a talent show. It’s not always about big, flashy vocals. Sometimes it’s just about good breath control and hitting the notes. Hannah did that very well (and another queen did not).

Hannah Conda’s frill-necked lizard was one of my favorite “For Queen and Country” runway looks of the episode. Priscilla Queen of the Desert was one of my first exposures to drag after RuPaul herself, so I immediately got this reference. Yet, it didn’t feel as though it was deliberately imitating a Priscilla look, just paying homage to the iconic lizard costumes in one of the numbers in the film.

Beyond that, I was particularly moved that Hannah was deliberate in paying tribute to Australia’s First Nations peoples in the design of her garment, at length in her voiceover, and in using her platform to advocate for a treaty. Actually, I wept when she made this reveal.

Please give me a moment to unpack the layers of this for all of you non-Aussies and Kiwis.

Unlike New Zealand, Australia’s modern government was not established via a Treaty with its indigenous people. The country has a horrific history of racism, oppression, and violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with little recognition or recourse for their community.

One response to this situation is the proposal of “Voice, Treaty, Truth” – to create a voice for First Nations peoples in society and in government, to establish treaty agreements at the national or state level, and for the Australian government and society to more widely acknowledge First Nations history and culture (including violence perpetrated against them and their land).

When Hannah brought this look to Drag Race UK vs. The World during filming last year, Australia was en route to a referendum on “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice” on 14 October 2023. It was more colloquially known as a the “Indigenous Voice to Parliament” referendum. It proposed creating a federal advisory body of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (voted on by their communities and balanced by gender) that could make recommendations to the government through established channels.

Such a body has existed previously in Australia, but it is not enshrined in law and can be formed or dissolved at the whim of each government. It wouldn’t have the legal power to enforce reparations like the power held by New Zealand’s Waitangi Tribunal, but it would formally establish the “Voice” part of “Voice, Treaty, Truth” – and, perhaps help with the latter two parts.

Unfortunately, the referendum failed by a vote of 60% to 40%.

Before her Drag Race Down Under run, Hannah Conda had performed material that included racist tropes and jokes. Hannah began to take action to acknowledge her behavior and make reparations beginning in March 2021 – nearly a year before even applying for the show. By all accounts of her peers and community members, Hannah has not only apologized for her past material, but has become an active ally and vocal supporter of the causes of First Nations peoples.

It’s not for you, me, or anyone else but an Australian First Nations person to decide if Hannah’s efforts have been meaningful. However, I found it particularly powerful to see her use the first runway presentation her international platform to acknowledge First Nations peoples and to advocate for a treaty. That’s something she decided to do on her own because it is now a part of her brand.

It was especially powerful for me to see at the very moment that New Zealand’s new right-wing government is calling for a referendum to reinterpret and weaken our own treaty (something I’m sure hasn’t made the news outside of NZ and Australia).

(Also, this new government has disassembled a nationalized “Three Waters” plan (that’s fresh, waste, and storm water) under urgency because it included aspects of Māori co-governance. This, despite the fact that we’re in the wake of the country being hammered by floods last year (“storm water”), we’re spending another summer with waterways we can’t swim in due to biological contamination (“waste water”), and we’re in the midst of my region being on the verge of a water emergency despite a lack of drought because our infrastructure leaks 40% of all water on the way to its destinaton (“fresh water”).)

I think it’s critically important to see white, non-indigenous people choose to amplify the voices, causes, and art of indigenous people on an international stage in a way that’s not appropriative. It’s something I would like to find a way to do on Crushing Krisis! It was especially powerful to see on this “For Queen and Country” runway that has an air of colonization baked right into the title.

In the words of Marina Summers, it’s time to give colonizers the chop.

And, speaking of the chop, I could’ve done without that stuffed tail.

Hannah Conda kicked this season off with an incredibly strong showing that was just a hair out of contention for a top spot. While she isn’t a design powerhouse, I doubt she’ll be given the boot next week – and after that we’re sure to hit Girl Groups, Snatch Game. and other performance challenges where she is a favorite to win.

#4 – Choriza May [RPDRUK-S03 6th/7th, Pre-Season #6]

Choriza May delivered a perfect vision of the campy cartoon reality that lives inside of her brain. In a season that seems heavily weighted towards funny queens, her ability to follow her own creativity to strange and hilarious places might be one of the best secret weapons in this cast.

I can’t say that I enjoyed Choriza’s entrance look, though it was obviously a high-quality garment. I think the shape of her waist and the length of her skirt was confusing to look at and created odd proportions. That wasn’t helped by her framing the blue of her dress with even more blue of the exact same shade.

I think the dress could have used more yellow at the waist and bustline to make it pop more against the tulle cloak, but it still would’ve been weirdly shaped.

I may not have enjoyed Choriza May’s entrance look, but I was in love with her talent show performance.

I am in awe of Choriza’s absolutely daft approach to songwriting. Have you heard “My Pussy is Like a Peach“? She’s not making drag music, or club music, or any kind of music other than exactly what she hears in her head. This song – “Party in Hell” – feels like a mashup of Squirrel Nut Zippers and the B-52s – absolutely bonkers big band party music with a darkness at the center.

I also loved every single aspect of Choriza’s performance – from the outfits to the props to the dancing. It was a perfect visual realization of her song as much as Marina Summers was. I think few queens in franchise history have communicated the full force of their talent and creative vision as well as Choriza did in this performance.

And then we come to Choriza May’s “For Queen and Country” runway.

I think it was clever for Choriza to take this prompt literally as a way to emphasize her Britishness, especially when some fans (me included) might be asking why she didn’t appear on Drag Race España All Stars. Choriza was a judge on that show! It’s her deliberate choice to present her Spanish culture through a British lens.

That’s all well and good, but… this runway is a BOOT. It’s all executed fine. It’s just not flattering to Choriza, and it feels like cosplay more than it feels like drag. I can’t exactly say it needed to be “dragged up” since it’s already as campy and shiny as possible. It just felt like Choriza in a costume, rather than Choriza serving glamour.

Based on Choriza May’s looks this episode, I think this will be her major challenge this season – and perhaps her dominant narrative. There’s a way for her to thread the needle between her cartoonish vision and main stage eleganza, which I think she did well in her Talent Show and badly in her other two looks (and on her original season).

If she can thread that needle in next week’s Ball challenge and beyond, then she is going to be a tough competitor nipping at the heels of what already looks like a tight top three. However, in a cast packed with fashion queens (and also Hannah’s budget), Choriza might find that weak runways repeatedly lock her out of reaching the winning lip sync.

#5 – Scarlet Envy [RPDR-S11 10th, RPDRAS-S06 9th, Pre-Season #5]

Scarlet Envy amped up (and vamped up) her delusion to deliver the most confident and unbothered version of her drag we’ve seen to date. It’s amazing to consider her transformation as a performer across the past half-decade.

Scarlet Envy’s entrance look was perfectly on brand – a bold saturated red, a bit of a frilly boudoir vibe, and playing with androgyny by showing of a broad window of her flat chest. All of it was more elevated and polished than ever before, especially when compared to her past two entrance looks.

It might not be the most-exciting garment, but it is 100% Scarlet Envy.

Scarlet Envy made a bold choice to sing live in the Talent Show when she isn’t particularly known as a singer. I think this vampy cabaret tune about how Scarlet makes poor decisions for Drag Race might have hit harder if Hannah Conda hadn’t essentially delivered the same act with a bit more intent and polish.

Still, I found this performance delightful even if it wasn’t an obvious winner. A few of the jokes were a bit flat, but Scarlet maintained her character throughout and held the stage exactly as she would in a night club. I think it’s hard to do that on the Drag Race stage when you’re performing an unshowy song behind while standing at a microphone rather than doing a big dance routine. Scarlet succeeded where others have faltered.

Then, in almost a perfect echo of Scarlet’s talent show song, she made a poor decision on the runway.

This “For Queen and Country” runway is a direct adaptation of a look (and a joke) from Drop Dead Gorgeous, which is high camp cult classic that exists outside of Ru’s canon of go-to favorite references. On top of the reference being outside of Ru’s wheelhouse, Scarlet’s somewhat poorly-executed Mt. Rushmore included an image of Ru that was an obvious riff on her bootleg holiday ornament.

That’s just too many layers upon layers of things that don’t amuse RuPaul in the slightest, even while Scarlet wore a dress that RuPaul would absolutely wear herself.

Alas, this is the story of Scarlet Envy. She has a consistent approach to humor and a widely-recognizable set of reference for anyone who has been terminally online for the past 25 years. However, that humor and those reference do not resonate with RuPaul in the slightest.

While Ru is still not remotely amused by Scarlet, Scarlet always turns out a design challenge. I think next week could be a very real opportunity for her to snatch an early win. Plus, I can’t imagine that producers will be in a hurry to eliminate the season’s only remaining US queen, which should give Scarlet some heavy plot armor to keep her out of the Bottom Two for at least the next three episodes.

#6 – Tia Kofi [RPDRUK-S02 7th, Pre-Season #4]

Tia Kofi may have had the biggest glow-up in this entire cast, but she’s still the same slightly-awkward, slightly-tentative queen we met back in Season 2.

Tia Kofi essentially entered as Scary Spice in an amped up version of her original workroom entrance outfit. Everything about this catty catsuit screams BUDGET compared to the off-the-rack original.

Tia was never one to be stoned and glittering on her original season, instead leaning into pure camp for her much-maligned runways. This look sends a message right off the bat that she came back ready to pander to the expectations of Drag Race.

Unfortunately, Tia Kofi’s live vocal performance didn’t show off her pop star glow-up. If anything, it was a disappointment when compared to her absolutely daft “Rats – The Musical” performance from Drag Race UK Season 2.

I think there were a few specific elements dragging down what could have easily been a standout performance.

First, the look. Matte black garments without contrasting texture just don’t read under the Drag Race runway lights. They turn into a dark vortex that swallows up light and obscures your figure. The way to make that work is not to add giant, lumpy, billowing black sleeves!

Hilariously, the weird lumpy quality of Tia’s sleeves were echoed in her hair. Her pigtails were too low on the sides of her head and needed more lift and separation from her scalp. Instead of coming off as a big, voluminous hair, they looked more like elephant ears.

(I have this same problem with my hair – I just cannot get my ponytail to stand far up enough from my head! I want to feel my full Madonna Blonde Ambition ponytail fantasy.)

Then, we come to the performance. Tia Kofi is actually a good songwriter, but I think she made a tactical error by bringing a song with a Gaga-esque repeated syllable with the “la-la-la-lips” refrain and many other repeated syllables. It’s hard to sing that sort of thing well live because it requires precision and breath control, which Tia struggled with throughout her performance.

(That’s especially true on an “ah” vowel with a hard-to-repeat consonant like “l.” There’s a reason that when Gaga does this sort of thing it’s often on “m” and “r” and she turns “ahs” into “uhs.” She might come off kooky, but the Lady knows what she’s doing.)

I think Tia needed a much thicker background track with stacks of harmony to help support her performance. I would’ve simply skipped singing the “la-la-la-lips” line live and let the track do the heavy lifting for me.

Unfortunately, that added up to a total flop in the Talent show for me – and, judging by Ru’s forced smile, I think she felt similarly.

I think Tia Kofi was saved by a trip to the bottom by her “For Queen and Country” runway, though I don’t think it was particularly strong.

Yes, this ballgown in a lovely Nigerian print and it’s nice to see Tia in a garment with some volume, but it’s completely unflattering on her figure. She looks less like a glamorous woman and more like a bell about to be rung. I hated the low bustline and the placement of the breast cups. I wanted the waist to poof outward more to emphasize Tia’s figure. I wanted her dossier to be absurdly stoned to contrast with the lovely flatness of the dress’s print.

To me, this is the same Tia Kofi with the same aesthetics and challenges we saw on her original season – just with better makeup and a bigger budget. I was so excited for the strong, confident, glowing version of Tia I’ve seen in media appearances to return to smash this season. What we got instead is a queen who is still not pushing things far enough who gets by on Ru finding her charming.

Tia Kofi’s last go at a design challenge was one of the lowest (and funniest) points of her original run. I think that leaves her narrative primed for a big win next week if she can show off some newly-acquired sewing skills… except, that means she would have to beat La Grande Dame and Scarlet Envy. However, even if Tia delivers something that’s just “adequate,” I can’t see her slipping into the bottom this early when she has the distinction of being Ru’s pre-existing favorite in this cast.

I just want to see her do something more than be Ru’s favorite.

#7 – Keta Minaj [DRHol-S02 4th, Pre-Season #7]

Keta Minaj arrived on the global Drag Race stage delivering exactly what I expected from her – something a little dark, a little weird, and a little messy.

Keta Minaj’s entrance look was the peak of what she is capable of in her “dark lady” take on drag. Her dress is flattering to her lean, muscular figure, looks hella expensive, and still manages to incorporate the slightly creepy vibe she loves to bring to her drag.

Also, even though I will never love a black lip on a drag queen, Keta delivers a truly perfect glossy black lip here.

I think Keta had a major stroke of luck that a few queens completely crashed and burned in their Queens’ Variety Show performances, because hers was a total mess. Most of the act was just walking around and performing awkward stunts until Keta started performing a pommel horse routine out of nowhere. She went from an lumpy initial costume to a cheap-looking and weirdly-proportioned reveal outfit that just didn’t look great.

Keta has an incredibly toned, muscular body that she loves to show off without wearing much on it. I think a lot of people might think of that as “genderf*ck” because they see her obvious strength as inherently masculine. I think that’s a mistake. News flash: women and femme people can be muscular and strong. Having muscles is not inherently masculine.

We need to deprogram ourselves from saying a queen is giving “boy body” every time she looks strong in drag.

However, I think you can look strong and wear something flattering, and this dance costume wasn’t it for me. I appreciate the shape of the top of it to try to give the illusion of a chest while not wearing breasts, but something about the proportions of it were off. It was too deep and looked like it was too small for Keta or falling off of her body.

Then, Keta Minaj repeated the same awkward, lumpy reveal on the “For Queen and Country” runway! Granted, her post-reveal look was a lot more sleek and exciting than her dance costume, but her traditional Dutch pre-reveal look was obviously a just a “reveal coat” without much merit on its own.

Luckily, the finle look nodding to Keta’s Indonesian heritage showed off what really works about her drag – giving long, slinky lines with bold colors and jagged edges.

I don’t know how much success Keta is going to find this season with her severe and often-messy take on drag. She is her own special brand of maximalist who sometimes needs to step back and edit down her ideas so they have more impact. People talk about her being “robbed” on her season, but I clocked early on that she could never be a winner when she brought so little focus to her impressively-strong drag.

(Plus, her makeup was pretty crunchy at points – something that no longer seems to be a problem).

If Keta Minaj can pare down her unfiltered concepts to something slicker and and more-focused, she could be a force to be reckoned with this season. She is equipped with every single skill possessed by the other queens in the cast and a vision that is uniquely her own. I think there’s a world where she has a very real chance of going head-to-head with La Grande Dame as the fashion model of the season, especially if she keeps things streamlined next week in the Ball challenge.

#8 – Gothy Kendoll [RPDRUK-S01 10th, Pre-Season #10]

Gothy Kendoll seems almost completely unchanged from the in-over-her-head kid we met five years ago on the debut of Drag Race UK.

Gothy’s entrance look was a nod to her Drag Race UK Season 1 elimination outfit. I think this tiger-striped corset is an awesome custom piece and Gothy’s cinch is shocking. But, the plain black skirt doesn’t add much, and the sad little capelet adds even less.

Plus, somehow Gothy still hasn’t developed a runway walk after four years since her original appearance on the show. Heck, even if we take the “runway” out of that statement, she just walks awkwardly.

Gothy brought a potentially impressive fire performance to the Queens’ Variety Show. Key word: “potentially.” I don’t know if anyone could possibly look more tentative and unimpressive while stroking their body with live flames.

One of the key intangibles of any performance is that the audience wants to feel safe. Whether that’s singing cabaret or doing something potentially-dangerous like performing with arial silks, when a performer is clearly in control of their presentation it lets the audience lean in and enjoy it. Then, we get to debate things like if the performance was focused enough. For all of my critiques of Keta’s talent performance, there was never a hint that she lacked full control over it.

Despite having an impressive talent to show off, Gothy never displayed the power, control, and confidence it would take to pull us into watching her. It’s not that she was showing fear of getting burned. She simply doesn’t know how to hold space on a stage.

I think Gothy Kendoll’s “For Queen and Country” runway was a success. Her dragged up version of a British Royal Guard isn’t so different in concept to what Choriza presented, but Gothy’s outfit feels like drag rather than cosplay. The poofed shoulders, the tiny black corset giving an illusion of absurdly round hips, the “fuck me” high lace stockings in place of the traditional black boot… Gothy put this iconic look through the “drag filter” in a way that Choriza did not.

Of course, she still walked it in the most awkward possible way – but, it looked good!

I am not the kind of Drag Race viewer who laments that a first out queen gets a chance to return to the show. That’s never a “wasted” spot in the competition. Even at her most-awkward, Gothy is creating drag art at a caliber the vast majority of us could never possibly achieve. If anything, I think every early out should have a chance to return once they feel like they’ve had the time to learn and grow from their elimination. We certainly saw that from Kahanna Montrese on All Stars 8, who came back gorgeous and ready to try anything.

I’m just not sure if Gothy did all the learning and growing she could do to make the most of this second chance. I’m seeing the same queen we met on UK Season 1, only with veneers and a bigger budget. I really hoped that a half decade of modeling, DJing, and making porn would yield the same Gothy but with a fearless “fuck you” quality underlining her innate awkwardness. Instead, we’re still seeing a kid still working on figuring herself out.

Even if Gothy still has more growing to do, I think she has some staying power in this competition now that she cleared the hurdle of surviving the first week. For all of her weaknesses, Gothy is a stunning makeup artist with a fantastic eye for fashion and the budget for high-quality looks. I think that’s going to lead to a surprising result in next week’s Ball challenge, but as soon as we hit Girl Groups or Snatch Game she’ll be in danger.

#9 – Jonbers Blonde [RPDRUK-S04 3rd/4th, Pre-Season #9]

Jonbers Blonde really suffered from coming back so quickly after her season. It left her no time to develop herself based on what she saw on screen. Instead, we have a queen who keeps insisting she’s “fashion” while serving anything but.

When Jonbers used her entrance as a redux of her Irish stereotype Snatch Game character – complete with snake references – I cringed so hard that my soul nearly got squeezed out of my body.

We’ve seen this sort of All Stars return before – a queen who simply doubles down on the one vaguely meme-able moment she had on her original season rather than building up to be something more. Yeah, it worked for our sponge-queen Monet X Change, but Monet is also a mega-watt talent, natural comedian, and incredible dancer. She could get away with one more sponge reference on All Stars 4, especially since it was poking fun at her own weaknesses.

Jonbers is poking fun at one line in Snatch Game that made Ru laugh. She is calling herself a “fashion pig,” but I don’t think any of us know what that even means – including Jonbers herself.

Jonbers Blonde’s talent was walking in front of a fan.

Yeah, this track had a few jokes in it. But, they were mostly jokes about the most minor of moments of Jonbers’ original run. I think the funniest bit in the whole performance is when she exclamed “don’t shoot my hands” to her faux pit crew photographer. In that one moment I was reminded of the silly, unpredictable quality that made Jonbers so enjoyable – but, that’s something that’s incredibly hard to reproduce.

In the same way she decided snakes were “her thing” due to one joke in Snatch Game, it feels like Jonbers has decided she is a fashion queen because Ru said one of her runways was flawless. This “For Queen and Country” runway was anything but flawless.

It’s like Jonbers knows some words in the language of fashion, but doesn’t know how to combine them into coherent sentence. Jonbers doing fashion is like me saying I speak French and then exclaiming “Voulez vous coucher fromage le garçon baguette, hon hon hon.” The cropped, long-sleeved green blouse is a mess. The muddled, bundled green skirt is a mess. The black flower fascinator is a mess. It’s all a mess.

I’m sorry. I really don’t mean to come off as such a Bitter Betty here. I actually liked Jonbers on her season, even if she was hopelessly outmatched by a final two that was obvious from the start. I’m simply mystified by the complete lack of self awareness that leads to what she delivered on this episode.

The irony is that part of what made Jonbers shine on her season was exactly that same lack of self-awareness. She has no self-conscious qualities to her drag. She presented the things she wanted to present and made it work in the way she wanted to make it work. That’s what was so charming about her.

I think Jonbers is now trying to reproduce that randomness, but instead of pulling in more non sequitur references and presenting them with confidence she’s simply doubling down entirely on things she has said and done before.

I believe there’s a strong chance that Jonbers hits the Bottom Two next week in the ball challenge if the looks from her suitcase are as weak as her package tonight. Even if she survives (which might only happen against Arantxa or Gothy), I just don’t see her as being long for this competition unless she finds a way to reconnect with her ability to genuinely surprise Ru.

#10 – Arantxa Castilla La Mancha [DREs-S01 7th, Pre-Season #11]

Arantxa Castilla La Mancha feels like she just arrived at having a great regular-season package while most of the queens around her are delivering a high-budget All Stars glow-up.

Arantxa’s entrance look excited me. She gave Cruella de Vil as a crash test dummy that has been clawed by cats going to a debutante ball.

Or maybe it was an actual reference I just didn’t appreciate. The point being, she looked great, and there was enough contrast to this more-is-more look that every element of it popped against every other element.

Compare this tulle skirt to the tulle Jacket from Choriza May’s entrance look. They’re virtually the same garment! But, Arantxa rendered hers in black-and-white to emphasize each layer, and her yellow bodysuit pops off in the center of all that fluff. Plus, the black-and-white don’t look out of place since she echoed them in her hair.

I think a “what’s my name” style of routine is never a bad idea, especially if you are a queen that Ru is meeting for the first time. Yet, where Arantxa Castilla La Mancha failed in this performance was in making it entirely one-note.

Moaning your own name while feigning sleep is not a talent. I think there was a way to begin there and escalate to something even more absurd. Imagine a riff on Pokémon (or, Being John Malkovich) where Arantxa “woke up” and went about her daily routine while only saying he rname over and over – while seducing a man, having a lover’s quarrel, or getting dressed or undressed.

That would be exactly the sort of absurdity that RuPaul lives for. Instead, we got a feigned orgasm and a weird incest riff.

Arantxa Castilla La Mancha’s “For Queen and Country” runway was fun but confusing. At first I thought she was holding a jacket draped over one arm. Yet, as she continued to walk and turn, I realized that she had one giant flowery hip, like an asymmetric botanical tumor growing out of one side of her body.

I appreciate the whimsy of it. It wasn’t the best look of the night, but it wasn’t the worst – and, I’ll take some well-executed stupidity over a earnest fashion fail. Yet, I also worry about what this look (and her “60s teenager” drag in the Talent Show) means for the rest of Arantxa’s runway package. It might not be the flop of Jonbers or the weirdly-proportioned cartoons of Choriza, but I also doubt it’s going to make a mark against the top queens in this cast.

I think Arantxa Castilla La Mancha is a charming narrator for the season, but I get the sense she is back to enjoy a re-do of her original run as a trans woman with a budget rather than compete for an All Stars crown. That “happy just to be here” vibe makes for a lovable contestant, but the lackadaisical approach to her talent show doesn’t scream “winner to me.”

If we’re talking about momentum and narrative, I feel like Arantxa doesn’t have much to work with. That marks her as a painless early out on a season with a tight top pack of competitors. I think the best case scenario for her would be to survive next week’s design challenge, luck into being safe in Girl Groups the following week, and then make a graceful exit in the comedy or branding challenge sure to follow.

Eliminated: 11th Place – Mayhem Miller [RPDR-S10 10th, RPDRAS-S05 7th, Pre-Season #8]

Mayhem Miller is a beloved icon of drag whose talents simply aren’t meant for a drag competition.

I have watched so many hours of Mayhem on Binge Queens and on Try Guys videos. She is effortlessly charming and instantly magnetic in every appearance. However, she’s also a certified weirdo. The one story of hers that always sticks out to me (as related to Trixie) is that sometimes she becomes so flustered with her sink full of dirty dishes that she simply throws them all away and buys new dishes.

She said, “I just don’t like doing stuff like that.”

That’s not normal… on so many levels. Who knows if that story is apocryphal or true. Maybe it’s something that happened once that Mayhem has spun up into something larger and sillier to talk about in interviews.

Regardless of the truth of the story, I feel like it says so much about Mayhem’s approach to life. She refuses to be bothered by anything. In fact, she will go out of her way to remain unbothered, even if that means going to lengths that no other person would go to.

That’s exactly the Mayhem Miller we saw in this episode. When she faltered in her Talent Show, she didn’t struggle to pull out something that worked. She laughed at herself and was unbothered. She threw the dishes away and prepared to start over, heading into the Untucked deliberations offering alliances as if she was a frontrunner.

Maybe I’m reading too much into that story. Maybe Mayhem’s Talent Show flub really was just a combination of nerves and Long COVID brainfog. But, what came after – her spirited negotiation and joyful exit – are exactly the Mayhem Miller we’ve known and loved all along.

I hope Mayhem gets to keep doing what she loves and gets paid enough for it to afford new dishes every week (although at some point she should consider the environmental impact of that and maybe also look into getting a dishwasher).