Bon retour, mes chers lecteurs, dans plus de classements! Drag Race Belgique Season 2 Episode 6 was Le Crime du Drag Express, a murder mystery acting challenge in the style of Agatha Christa paired with a “Tenues Saxy” saxophone runway.
I think this was one of the strongest episodes of the season. That’s not only because we are now down to a smaller group of queens. I think this is a cast that benefits from attacking structured material rather than writing, constructing, and choreographing it all themselves. This was a well-written acting challenge by Drag Race standards and it had incredibly high production value compared to the green screen affairs of the American franchise.
Also, the subject matter was especially appealing to me because I got my start as a performer acting in Agatha Christie plays! My high school produced an Agatha Christie play every other year, and I went from being a bitchy butler with one scene as a Sophomore to the lead investigator with 115 pages of dialog as a senior! That made it fun to see how these queens dealt with roles of different sizes and differing levels of plot intrigue.
Of note, one of Christie’s main recurring characters was mustachioed investigator Hercule Poirot – a former Belgian police officer.
(Sometimes it seems like I’ve got a personal backstory for every kind of Drag Race challenge! I swear, this is just my actual life! I think I just grew up in the perfect period to catch many of the campy references that Ru and the producers still bring to the show, and I’ve now spent decades in both the performing arts and in marketing. That’s why I love this show so damn much – it really does draw directly from my life experiences all the time.)
With just one more week before the finale, our Power Rankings have gotten incredibly tight compared to last week’s Snatch Game power ranking. I think we have an obvious winner, but there is still tight competition for the 2nd and 3rd spots – and one queen could wind up playing a major spoiler next week
(Want to watch Drag Race Belgique outside of Belgium? For most of the world, it’s available with a Wow Presents Plus subscription as soon as the episode is done airing.)
Lecteurs, start your engines. Et, que la meilleure Drag Queen gagne!
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.
Drag Race Belgique Season 2 Episode 6 – Le Crime du Drag Express acting challenge & Tenue Saxy runway Power Rankings
Before we get to our power rankings, let’s appreciate the continued style evolution of our host Rita Baga.
On one hand, I am fully in support of her hot pink jumpsuit in the workroom. I think these jumpsuits are incredibly on-trend in fashion, and Rita employs them in a pleasingly androgynous way. I wouldn’t be mad at all if they became her workroom signature in the same way Ru has his loud blazers and open-at-the-collar shirts.
I cannot say the same for this dowdy, dishwater-grey take on Bowie-esque glam rock on the runway. I’m still not exactly sure what color this suit is. Really, it’s the absence of color. The same garment in literally any more vivid hue would’ve read better. Yet, it also had some proportion problems. I think the blazer stops at the exact wrong place, and the cut of the hips and crotch of the pants is awful. We’ve seen Ginger Minj get read for giving similar cameltoe on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 2 and the shape of the pant legs is hateful – not quite a flare but not quite a taper, either.
#1 – Alvilda – 2 wins (was #2, 2, 1, 1, 1)
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Alvilda continues one of the most-dominant runs across all Drag Race franchises with a confident acting performance full of nuance. The camera loves Alvilda, and the judges loved her runway despite it being the most arts-and-crafts of all the Tenue Saxy runway looks.
I could not stop looking at Alvilda as The Countess in the Le Crime du Drag Express acting challenge. She has the sort of quality that Ru invokes when she says “you were born to do drag” or “the camera loves you.”
Alvilda had moments of playing big, but she also brought subtlety and actual character work to her character in a way that pulled me into her performance. That was combined with several silly moments of physical comedy. Altogether, it came across as extremely confident and controlled. And, it read extremely well in the camera (as opposed to playing broadly in a way that will read from the stage).
Also, I enjoy that Alvilda painted an older character without using age lines or saggy makeup. She portrayed The Countess as a woman of a certain age by painting a more pale, silvery base and a more severe blush without entirely sacrificing her typical mug/
I’m glad I have so many positive things to say about Alvilda’s Le Crime du Drag Express challenge performance because I hated her Tenue Saxy runway.
I hated it so much.
While I loved the chic deconstructed saxophone as a sort of alien spine to her look, Alvilda was just wearing a plain black bodystocking fronted by circles of gold-sprayed cardboard. It was giving me Shangela wearing a pair of records and some tinsel but without the tinsel. I’m not against queens being crafty and building their own looks, but using flat cardboard panels takes away the dimensionality from your look, especially when they swing and flap freely while you walk. If you’re going to take that tact, perhaps sandwich two pieces of cardboard around a thicker slice of corrugated plastic or some other similar thick, inflexible material.
I can’t believe the judges were so enthusiastic about the look. I couldn’t tell if it was all genuine, or if they were simply fluffing up their front-runner in a moment of runway weakness.
Something I noticed throughout the episode is just how perfect Alvilda’s makeup looks. Her blending and buffing skills are unmatched in this cast. Alvilda starts with a very pretty face out of drag that does not require too much re-shaping and illusion, but the level of precision and gloss she brings to it fascinates me.
I suspect Alvilda will do just fine with next week’s makeover challenge. Yet, late-season makeover challenges are often a place for some rigged judging. Even if Alvilda does not struggle to replicate her beautiful mug on a makeover partner, the judges could give her a “lip sync for your vulnerability” similar to Jinkx in RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 4. Even if she hits the bottom, there’s no way Alvilda misses making the finale – where she will absolutely walk away with the crown.
#2 – La Veuve, 1 win, 1 lip sync (was #1, 4, 7, 4, 4)
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La Veuve has finally re-ascended the rankings to be in contention for the crown again for the first time since Episode 1! But… is it too little, too late?
Playing the investigator in a Christie-esque production can be a thankless task. Often you don’t get to do any emoting, but just have to spend your whole time expositing. (I enjoyed Knives Out for subverting this trope by making its hero investigator a ridiculous fish-out-of-water so that his expositing is the joke.)
La Veuve found so many little bits to play in her version of this Herculea Poirot detective that she always felt active and engaged in every scene. There were so many clever bits of physical comedy and moments of careful inflection. This was the La Veuve we saw in the talent show in week one – completely in control of the pace and delivery of her performance.
It’s interesting that La Veuve struggled through this competition in weeks that required performance of more impromptu works only to notch another commanding win on this Le Crime du Drag Express acting challenge. It speaks to her thoughtfulness and preparation. Honestly, it makes me like her even more, since I’m much the same.
I don’t have many strong feelings about La Veuve’s Saxy runway outfit. Did she deconstruct the sax too far to turn herself into a peculiar steampunk train conductor? Maybe, maybe not.
However, I was struck by the fact that she was wearing a distinct amount of makeup in this look, with huge drag eyes and her distinct too-high slash of contour and blush. Often her face has looked so plain and pale on the runway. We’ve seen her getting ready enough times now that I know she is applying foundation and contour, but on the runway it often seems like she’s just in her bare skin! Maybe that’s down to losing so much of the real estate of her face to her beard, including being unable to overdraw her lips. Or, perhaps some of her foundation is too pale and is not reading well for camera.
Either way, it was a relief to see her in a more recognizably “drag” stamp of makeup tonight. While I don’t think there should be a rule that you must feminize your features to present successful drag, I just wish we could see La Veuve once with more of a glossy, blended look like Alvilda.
All of that will become very relevant for La Veuve next week with a semi-final makeover challenge. Is La Veuve’s paint distinct enough to copy onto another face? And, is she a strong enough make-up artist to make that work? I strongly suspect we’ll see a second lip sync from her next week, which won’t do wonders for her (very slim) chances of upsetting Alvilda in the finale.
#3 – Loulou Velvet – 1 win, 2 lip syncs (was #3, 1, 2, 2, 2)
Loulou Velvet was fine but slightly inconsistent in her acting and the judges had a peculiar grudge against her very clean and somewhat-whimsical runway.
I think Loulou made a strategic choice in asking for the role of The Conductor – or, at least, being the only queen to mention being interested in the role alongside other roles. You can win with small parts on Drag Race if you have a vision for how to make them specific.
However, Loulou’s vision was somewhat one-note, and when Rita Baga started giving her (good!) direction the consistency of Loulou’s performance fell apart. In the final edit of Le Crime du Drag Express, it felt like she was playing The Conductor differently on each line.
I loved Loulou’s Tenue Saxy runway. I don’t know how you can top a leopard print deconstructed saxophone! Yet, the judges seemed to feel that the runway was a tribute to Loulou’s own style and not to the theme.
I don’t understand how that is a problem. Shouldn’t every runway be a tribute to a queen’s own style!? For me, this may have been the best runway of the evening because it didn’t rely on nude delusion or arts and crafts, and the scale of it was better than La Veuve’s.
Of course, it was giving “tuba” or “euphonium” more than saxophone, but I’m willing to let that slide for something so whimsical.
I feel like Loulou Velvet is now squarely out of contention for a win against Alvilda. We’ve simply seen too many weaknesses from her and not enough stunning runways. In the end, she has wound up with a similar edit to Athena Sorgelikis – polished, but not fully in control of her powers.
Loulou has a distinctive stamp of a mug inspired by burlesque stars, which may serve her well in next week’s makeover. Can she out-paint Gabanna to avoid a lip sync and clinch a spot in the finales – and maybe even a second win?
#4 – Gabanna, 2 lip syncs (was #9, 5, 5, 3, 5)
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Gabanna may have given my favorite performance of the episode as the mercurial Dutchess. She certainly got the biggest laugh out of me! I think she could have been a real contender for the win with a different runway. Yet, even without a win, she has a chance to sneak into the finale thanks to the semi-final challenge being a makeover.
Gabanna revealed in the rehearsals for this episode that she spent years in performing arts schools (though those years were in Spanish, not French or Dutch). To me, it really showed in her performance in Le Crime du Drag Express.
Gabanna made the boldest decisions about her character out of everyone. And, these were not typical Drag Race “playing to the back row” choices. As whacky as Gabanna was in the challenge, there was nuance and consistency to her choices. She played whacky but did it with a consistent character and as many small choices as big ones.
Also, I laughed so hard I cried at Gabanna’s repeated struggles with just ONE French word during the shoot, especially because she was feeling her full acting fantasy every time and mispronounced it with vigor. I loved that the English subtitles played along by misspelling it repeatedly.
I was rooting for that to pay off for Gabanna with a win, but her Tenue Saxy runway let her down. I had the same problem with it that the judges did, even if I appreciate the engineering of her saxophone horn train.
I don’t understand why anyone would make an entire dress in a nude illusion color. Like… what about the illusion of having legs?! I think if the same dress only had a nude illusion panel over Gabanna’s chest and then was sheer from her waist to the train it would’ve had a completely different impact.
Also? It’s a pet peeve of mine whenever anyone illustrates sheet music that doesn’t actually read as sheet music. The heads of the notes on Gabanna’s sheet music wrap aren’t cleanly on or off the lines of the stave. That’s an automatic deduction from me.
I’ve really grown to enjoy Gabanna over the course of the season. She has come a long way from Episode 1, where she promised a fierce lip sync but then delivered barely anything at all. I think she is still a growing queen who is learning how to deliver drag that lives up to her big talk, but now I am convinced there is some true talent at the center of all of Gabanna’s bravado.
Gabanna is a strong makeup artist, though I wouldn’t call her mug “distinct.” Does she have what it takes to outpaint both La Veuve and Loulou Velvet next week in a makeover challenge to sneak into the finale? I think this could be the most fiercely-fought challenge of the entire season.
Eliminated: 5th Place – Chloe Clarke, 1 win, 3 lip syncs (was #8, 8, 3, 6, 3)
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When I wrote about Chloe Clark last week I wondered “if the judges will be happy to let her go now that she has had an arc of growth.” That turned out to be exactly the case.
Chloe delivered a fine performance in the Le Crime du Drag Express acting challenge, but it struggled with the same inconsistencies and lack of specificity as Louloue Velvet. I think Chloe got close to the daft, daffy, dotty way that her assistant Henrietta ought to have been performed. Yet, I think that came from her nerves and from struggling for her lines rather than from a carefully-considered portrayal.
Some fans get incensed when Drag Race carries along a weaker competitor in the name of building their confidence. It used to bother me, but now I’ve come to accept it – and even appreciate it. For many queens, their run on the show is their one and only chance to present their drag to the entire world. I think if the judges see a spark there that could yield something greater than another contestant, then I trust them to try to coax it from a queen by giving her extra chances to shine. Maybe some viewers would prefer a more cutthroat version of Drag Race as a reality competition show, but I appreciate that it occasionally leans into bringing a queen out of her shell and into a more full-realized version of herself.
Ultimately, as much as the judges were charmed by Chloe Clarke, there was just no one left to sacrifice in the name of keeping her around. I think she departs the show more in possession of her powers of charm than she was when she arrived. I hope she realizes now just how incredibly watchable she is, even while she maintains the coy, tentative qualities that make her personality unique.
6th Place – Star, 1 lip sync (was #4, 3, 4, 5)
7th Place (Quit) – Morphae (was #5, 6, 6)
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[…] all of that turbulence, our Power Rankings haven’t changed at all since last week’s “Le Crime du Drag Expr…! A late-game surge from one competitor wasn’t enough to unseat our obvious potential-winner, […]