Corporate Queens - Power Ranking RuPaul's Drag Race S16E11

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16, Episode 11 was called “Corporate Queens,” which required the queens to balance a buttoned-up drag seminar with stand-up comedy. On the runway, the theme was “Flashback: DragCon 1980” – offering a dragged up look that would fit a Drag Convention in the early 80s.

This is the point in a 14+ queen season where things can start to… well, drag. Even though there’s tiny bit of tension here about who will make the cut to Top 4, the fact that we have two queens with no decisive solo wins in the Top 6 makes it feel like we ought to hurry through the next two eliminations rather than savouring the drama.

What wasn’t a drag to me was this absurd “Corporate Queens” drag seminar challenge concept. Many people might have preferred a traditional roast for a comedy challenge over this. For me, it was a lot more reflective of the sort of weird branded gigs these queens are going to have the opportunity to book in the real world.

The success of queens like Trixie, Monét, Courtney Act, and even Tia Kofi has shown that you have to be able to bring the power of your drag out of the nightclub and into corporate settings if you want to score the kind of bookings that expose you to the broader audience of the non-queer mainstream.

That said… I do think “Drag in the Workplace” is a pretty tough nut to crack, from a comedy perspective. It certainly wasn’t an easy challenge!

The result was that we have an even-more solidified front-runner than we had last week in the Werq the World “Power” performance power rankings, but the rest of the queens are still jockeying for the other three spots in the finale.

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 11 – Corporate Queens drag seminars & Flashback: DragCon 1980s Power Rankings

Before we get to our Power Rankings, let’s appreciate an all-green episode of wardrobe from Mama Ru. Did she choose these garments just to antagonize Michelle? Did they know this episode would show on St. Patrick’s Day weekend? We’ll never know!

I can’t say I’m a tremendous fan of either garment. We’ve established I never like Ru in a plain white shirt in the workroom, and I don’t really understand the silvery shoes without a belt to tie them in to the rest of the garment. And, on the runway, while the volume of this look is an absolute “YES” I have problems with how the train on the side just dangles shapelessly above the floor. It needed more length and/or structure.

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

Sapphira Cristál continues to dominate the competition purely through the power of her presence.

That goes a long way to explaining Sapphira’s Corporate Queens Drag Seminar win this week. She was succinct and mildly funny, but that’s not enough for a challenge win.

Instead, the win is down to Sapphira’s baseline level of memorability whenever she is on the stage. She won less for the perfection of her presentation and more for being a queen who always makes you feel safe and comfortable when you watch her. There were jokes in there, but for me they were more situational chuckles than laugh out loud moments.

Unfortunately, that came at the cost of making things spicy by awarding either (or both) Plane Jane and Q with a win for a much funnier seminar presentation.

Sapphira Cristál had a similar result on the runway. Her DragCon 1980 outfit wasn’t the most over-the-top or inspired look of the evening. However, it was attractive and it screamed early-80s with big, bold, cartoonish detailing.

Per usual, a huge selling point of the look was how she moved in it. Seeing it stand still on the runway, it actually comes across a bit dowdy due to how low the waist sits and how bulky the skirt looks. Yet, it was lovely to see it in motion during Sapphira’s runway walk. She worked it perfectly.

Personally, I would have loved it if the buttons and hair were even bigger… but, I appreciate that Sapphira was trying to keep things fashionable without turning entirely into satire.

Now that we’re into the final run to the Top 4 it will be interesting to see if the show delivers any vulnerability for Sapphira or manages to make any other queen seem like solid competition for her. Right now, she’s really feeling like a Bianca del Rio or Sasha Colby level of inevitable winner.

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

Plane Jane showed once again how incredibly prepared she is to tackle anything this show can throw her way with a proficient and hilarious Drag Seminar presentation. Plane is here to play a strong Drag Race game, and she’s back to being flawless after her wobble in “Power” last week.

There’s hardly a thing to critique about Plane Jane’s Corporate Queens drag presentation with Q. Plane was funny, quick-witted, had a defined character, and performed a perfect duet with Q. For a topic like “Drag Herstory” there was a chance to really flop with just making the jokes focused on Drag Race, but the routine didn’t feel like an insular celebration of the show. That was impressive to me, given that these queens are locked in their hotel rooms without internet access.

I thought Plane Jane’s DragCon 1980 runway was a wild success. Delivering a 1980s look meant that Plane could deviate from bodysuits and pageant gowns to show a little bit of diversity on the runway.

Granted, we’ve seen her do the power suit thing for her first design challenge, but not one this bold, big, and ridiculous. It’s hard to tell in still photos, but this look actually had molded, structured elements all over it to help accentuate Plane’s shape. I think the slacks of black on the legs helped with that as well. Solid print would have been harder to look at. Giving some brief breaks in the print helped it to read better and showed off Plane’s padded silhouette.

Even if this sort of problem-print strikes me as more mid-80s than early-80s, I think she fulfilled the brief.

It feels like Plane Jane has now fully made her transition from “Season Villain” to “Strong Runner-Up” in the proud tradition of Roxxxy Andrews or Mistress Isabelle Brooks. She has very few weak spots, but she has a more obvious winner standing between her and the crown in Sapphira. If Plane isn’t crowned, I’d argue she will go down as giving one of the strongest performances of any non-winner in the show’s history! This is a queen who truly “Cracked the Code” of Drag Race.

#3 – Q, 2 wins, 1 lsft-win, 1 lip sync (was #3, 3, 4, 7, 4, 3, 4, 4, 4)

Q got her biggest episode of story since the show edged her with top placements for the first few weeks in a row. That brought back a familiar “always the bridesmaid” edit for her. It would seem repetitive that it wasn’t for the fact that Q leans into it so hard by being such a sore loser.

“Bridesmaid” edit aside, I think there’s a case to be made that Q experienced one of the most-significant Drag Race robberies in this episode. Her Corporate Queens Drag Seminar presentation was polished and full of punchlines. She was good at building up to silly moments like her “ready to do so” diatribe, but also worked as a “straight man” to Plane Jane so Plane could also go off in a flight of fancy.

And, she kept up the rhythm. Watch her careful she is to look at her cards only when the act needs a moment of punctuation and breath. It was very deliberate.

Q delivered inane comedy to snag her “Lip Sync for the Win” in the Talent Show, so we all started off thinking she was a comedy queen. Since then, there’s been some question about her comedy chops, with her Snatch Game Amelia Earhart coming off similar to her Stonewall Brick in RDR Live. Yet, with her blithely sinister performance in “Sound of Rusic” and this nerdy send-up of a Drag PhD, I think Q has solidified her reputation as an amusing queen if not a comedian.

Q should have sealed a win this episode with a truly beautiful Keith Haring inspired runway that pays homage to lives lost to the HIV/AIDS epidemic while also highlighting her own HIV diagnosis and celebrating her undetectable status. It’s one of Q’s most-beautiful garments of the season, but it’s also detailed impeccably with little touches like polka-dot stockings and matching gloves, the red pump., the dangly earrings, and the blue eyeshadow. Combined with the demure business cut of the dress, the entire presentation really zeroed in on the period.

If we’re splitting hairs, Haring was still mostly an unknown in 1980, when he just began his exhibitions and was mostly known as a graffiti artist. Similarly, the AIDs red ribbon didn’t emerge as a tribute until a decade later! Yet, there’s every indication that the queens received a general “totally rad 80s” runway prompt and that “DragCon 1980” was just the specific way that it was phrased by RuPaul on the shoot day.

Q occupies a truly peculiar place in the edit. If we were going solely by her placements, she’d seem like a dominant front-runner with a real chance at the crown! Yet, her “Bridesmaid” edit as a sore loser paired with her lack of lip syncing power has always made her feel like a finalist rather than a potential winner. Next week is another funny challenge – and, truly our first real improv challenge of the season.

If Q can show off her comedy chops for a second week in a row and score a win, I think she will have truly cemented herself ahead of Nymphia heading into the finale… but I don’t think she will have made a better case for challenging Sapphira than Plane has. She has to avoid winding up in the bottom lest she be slayed in a lip sync by any of these highly-capable competitors now that we’ve already had a non-elimination week.

#4 – Nymphia Wind, 2 wins (was #1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 5, 6, 3, 5)

Nymphia Wind had her first true week of bouncing back into the spotlight on the strength of performance rather than fashion design. That comes at the perfect point to put the brakes on her slide into the middle of the pack, but is it enough to make her seem like true competition for the crown?

The judges were nervous about Nymphia’s Corporate Queens Drag Seminar delivery, not sure if they were laughing with or laughing at Nymphia’s exaggerated “kooky Asian mum” accent. For me, I think a lot of her daffiness came less from the accent and more from broadly-played “lost in translation” style of comedy.

It wasn’t a big winner for me, but it was a good example of Nymphia finding a way to win a comedy challenge on her own terms while staying on-brand.

Nymphia Win was a huge winner on the DragCon 1980 runway tonight with a tribute to Grace Jones in the 1986 flick Vamp. This was bold and identifiable without being a direct copy. Backing this look with purple rather than black and having a bare chest (and crotch!) gave this look its own identity, and also made it seems a little more 80s to me than it would have come off in start black and white.

I wish the hair has more of a specific shape to it, but I loved that the red shoes matched the wig.

There was a point in the season where Nymphia seemed more than a finalist to me – she seemed like a potential winner with equal weight in the edit to Sapphira. Yet, I think she has really lacked for standout moments outside of design challenges, and Q’s near-win tonight puts her slightly ahead in that regard. Next week is a chance to get truly stupid with an freeform improv+design challenge about bathrooms. That feels like a chance for Nymphia to bring her workroom entrance zaniness back to the forefront.

I think if Nymphia can make Ru laugh uncontrollably next week, she’ll be firmly back on track to her initial narrative. But, I just don’t know if 2-3 more competitive episodes is enough to make her seem like a credible threat to Sapphira.

#5 – Dawn (was #5, 4, 7, 8, 5, 6, 7, 6, 6, 2)

Dawn survived another week, which is a good thing, but she also missed a win on a challenge firmly in her wheelhouse, which is a bad thing.

Dawn was the queen in the best position to take advantage of this oddball Corporate Queens presentation challenge. She has spent time in the corporate world, she has solid stage presence, and she’s capable of deadpan delivery. It felt to me like the producers put a deliberate whammy on her by pairing her with Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige. If Dawn had snagged someone who could “Yes, and…” like Sapphira or Plane Jane, this might have been a slam-dunk win for her.

Usually I don’t like to pin a queen’s loss on product or another queen, but that was certainly the case for Dawn in this episode. She was capable of a lot more than we saw from her. Purely from a look perspective, I think she absolutely nailed, “slightly oddball corporate guest speaker.” I wish we could have seen what she would have presented on her own or paired with someone else.

Dawn wisely pushed her odd, hodgepodge fashion aesthetic to a punky place for the DragCon 1980 runway. Ru loves a good punk reference if it’s bold and cartoonish, and Dawn’s massive pink afro and facekini fit the bill perfectly. To me, this take really did fulfill the early-80s brief. It felt like a neon-colored comic book villain from a period where punk rock was mainstream enough to be recognizable, but still a little scary and spiky.

Ultimately, many aspects of this look are repeated from other Dawn runways – including the concept of pants suspended from another piece of the garment and her wicked pleaser-style boots. But, I don’t think there’s a problem with reusing elements if the total presentation comes off as unique, and this one done.

I’ve turned into a major Dawn supporter over these past few episodes, but I have to be realistic about her chances to reach the finals as the queen with no wins. It could be that Dawn finally snags a win next week only to be dismissed the following week in the famous “Ms. Cracker Edit” of Season 10.

I think Dawn can only make it into the finale if multiple other queens make a fatal error two weeks in a row. If it comes down to a lip sync it’s like Q is the only remaining queen she can score a solid win against. (That’s not to say Dawn would give a bad lip sync, just that Ru would be able to find a reason to credit everyone else with a win.)

#6 – Morphine Love Dion, 1 lsft-win, 2 lip syncs (was #9, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 8, 7, 7)

Morphine Love Dion came off of a masterful performance in last week’s episode to a week where she was back to being neither the best nor the worst in the challenge… and, the obvious worst on the runway. Unfortunately, in a field of just seven queens, being “not the worst” in half the episode is not enough to save you from the Bottom Two.

Morphine Love Dion was totally fine in the Corporate Queens Drag Seminar. She got in a few jokes and she is clearly not shy about public speaking. I didn’t think her “drag queen flopping” comment was a kiss of death quite like the judges panel did. I think that sort of self-deprecating jibe in response to a stumble can be very endearing.

I also think Morphine hasn’t really learned how to make it endearing. There’s an increasing sense that she has a real magnetic power in her confessionals that she can’t quite figure out how to communicate outside of a lip sync – which is why she was so commanding in “Power” last week. That’s a unique power that some of these queens don’t possess, and if Morphine can figure it out she will be unstoppable.

Morphine’s “not the best” week in the Drag Seminar was paired with a “definitely the worst” in the DragCon 1980 runway. There was a hint of Dolly Parton in this look, but there was really nothing about it that screamed 1980 in specific the 1980s in general. The ass-out presentation felt like an afterthought that didn’t match the look or the category.

Ironically, certain elements of this are probably much more on the mark for 1980 itself than things that other queens wore! However, as a completed look it just didn’t create much of an impact that screamed “80s!”

Next week is a second joke-filled challenge in a row and everyone else left in this cast is pretty funny! I don’t have the highest of hopes for Morphine to escape the lip sync, but there’s a very real chance she could assassinate Dawn or Q to stay in the game until Top 5.

Eliminated: 7th Place – Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige, 1 win, 4 lip syncs (was #13, 13, 10, 6, 6, 9, 5, 5, 6)

(Website | Instagram | Merch | TikTok | Twitter)

Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige made a tremendous showing for herself this season that was a lot more than being “Queen of Flips.” I don’t know if you can have a better non-finalist, mid-out Drag Race run than she did – with a shared win, several high placements, and lip syncing very well four times.

Mhi’ya made great strides to bring the temerity of her performance skills to the timidity of her personality over the course of the season. We saw her confidence blossom as the season wore on. It helps when you have RuPaul rooting for you the entire time! Without Ru firmly in her corner, Mhi’ya could’ve departed much, much earlier on in the season.

Some viewers might say it’s that timid personality that finally felled Mhi’ya in this Drag Seminar challenge. I’d disagree. I think it was her other weakest point of the season, which is a struggle with rehearsed material. Every time we’ve seen Mhi’ya’s spark shine through, it has been a time when she has been allowed to be as off-the-cuff as possible – whether that’s dancing in lip syncs, letting loose in Snatch Game, or even giving a one-take performance in RDR Live. She has struggled when it comes to reproducing a well-rehearsed performance – as in the Rusical, the “Power” performance, and in this Drag Seminar.

I think often the secret of Drag Race success is the secret of success in any other part of life: finding the thing that is uniquely powerful about you and bringing that power with you into every challenge. Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige has had a taste of what it feels like to be powerful all the time by bringing her livewire energy to new and different challenges. If she continues in that confidence, she’ll be known for a lot more than being the Queen of Flips.

8th Place – Plasma, 2 wins, 1 lip sync (was #7, 6, 3, 4, 7, 2, 3)

(Cameo | Instagram | Merch | TikTok | Twitter)

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

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)

(Instagram | Links | Merch | TikTok | Twitter)

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

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Bathroom Hunties - Power Ranking RuPaul's Drag Race S16E12 – Crushing Krisis says:

March 29, 2024 at 3:33 am

[…] their process revealed some interesting things about them both. While they retained their spots compared to last week’s “Corporate Queens” drag seminars challenge power rankings, the rest of the semi-finalists shuffled their standings as they vie for the chance to be […]