"See You Next Wednesday" Neo-Goth Design Challenge - Power Ranking RuPaul's Drag Race S16E09

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16, Episode 9 was a third design challenge – a “See You Next Wednesday” Neo-Goth look inspired heavily by Netflix’s Wednesday series.

This has never once come up in over 23 years of blogging, but I was once a teenage goth! I wasn’t living the full-time goth lifestyle, but when I was at the start of my glam rock phase I wanted to be in all black, all the time with a pale white lip. I was all about looking svelte in black vinyl, pleather, or satin pants with diaphanous black shirts.

That meant my version of glam was always teetering on the edge of Goth – and, in Philly teen counter-culture at the time there was a strong Goth + Glam + Punk alliance. Or, at least, that’s what a typical night on South Street looked like, And, as luck would have it, the one Philly club that had an underage night had a room spinning all goth music!

I think a lot of queens mistook the “Neo-Goth” brief to mean “all black” and it hurt their presentations. Goth looks aren’t about being black all the time – they are about starkness. You can get away with white, red, brown, purple – even pops of brighter colors! However, Goth looks aren’t about being loud – and that’s true even when they are all black. For me, Goth is about selling a certain amount of austerity and drawing the viewer in. Neo-Goth is just a more casual, ready-to-wear version of that – a slightly preppier, ready-for-daylight version of classic Goth fashion.

What 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 lose a front-runner, but one queen lost a bit of momentum and another one started to get her groove back. However, the real story is that we’re now into the top half of the placements! That means every queen is under scrutiny with little room to be safe. For queens who aren’t a lock for the finale, surviving each week is a careful dance of game theory in hoping the right combination of other queens fail while you succeed.

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 9 – “See You Next Wednesday” Neo-Goth design challenge Power Rankings

Before we get to our Power Rankings, let’s take a moment to drink in Mother Ru’s pair of looks this week.

I own a very similar blue suit to this one, but I don’t have a wild green leopard print dress shirt to go with it! Of course, now I am shopping for one! I have absolutely loved Ru’s garish print shirts this season. I would buy every damn one of them.

On the runway, Ru was serving classic glamour. It’s hard to find fault in the rainbow shimmer of this beautifully draped dress. It’s the perfect silhouette for Ru, and she’s always going to beautifully walk a high glam look like this one.

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

Sapphira Cristál might not have won the week, but she designed not one but two of the outfits on the runway… plus, Ru cannot help but laugh the entire time Sapphira is on stage.

I loved Sapphira Cristal’s “See You Next Wednesday” dress, even if the detailing wasn’t as impeccable as some of the other safe queens this week.

First, I think Sapphira was wise to choose this black-and-white spiderwebbed fabric. She’s a queen who designs for her curves, and curves are hard to read in all-black. Second, I absolutely love the explosion of black coming from the slit in the dress. I think the execution could be a little cleaner, but I am always asking for this sort of thing! I want a skirt to have so much voluminous lining that the lining is pouring out of the slit.

I was also obsessed with the long slit sleeves. This was the fantasy I was trying to give as a high school goth who always left my shirt cuffs unbuttoned. I should have taken a scissors to them!

If there’s one weak spot of this look, for me it could be from the neck up. With all this black on her outfit, I think Sapphira could’ve gone for a deep red lip like Nymphia did. Also, while I appreciate the thought behind this rough shag haircut, I think a severe up-do that lifted off of Sapphira’s neck would have given her lovely lines here.

I can’t fault Sapphira for going with kooky instead of spooky ooky, since it merited a Ru laugh on the runway. But, I expected her to take this to a more luxe place because that has seemed like her brand from the start – especially with looks like her Talent Show opera outfit and her giant pumpkin!

Even if Sapphira didn’t come away with a win tonight, she dominated the narrative by designing Mhi’ya’s dress and dominated Ru’s attention during her runway presentation. When there’s one queen whom Ru cannot stop looking at, laughing at, and volleying with… that’s a winner, baby.

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

Plane Jane squeaked through this third design challenge without using her immunity potion. If Ru was feeling vicious, she absolutely could have sent Plane to face off with Plasma rather than Mhi’ya

Two things strike me about Plane Jane’s “See You Next Wednesday” Neo-Goth look.

First, this look is not Neo-Goth for me. It doesn’t mean you are Goth just because you are wearing black or chains. This is a straight-up rocker look. There is nothing severe about it. It doesn’t draw you in – it’s in your face! It looks like something P!nk would wear at a concert.

Second, this is nearly the same pattern Plane used for her doll design challenge look. She accented the hell out of it with all of that chain and ribbon detail! But, it’s an incredibly similar shape and garment.

For me, Plane Jane missed this prompt as hard as Plasma did. I think sending her to the bottom tonight could have finally rattled her indomitable confidence and yielded an interesting Immunity Potion situation next week.

In the absence of a tougher critique, it feels like Plane is still sailing through this competition. Especially with tonight’s shocking elimination, there’s really no one left in the cast with the story or the Charisma to give Sapphira and Nymphia a solid challenge in the finale if Plane Jane doesn’t go all the way.

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

Nymphia Wind reclaimed her momentum with a fussily over-designed dress. She may have had to take a one-week break from yellow, but don’t worry – there’s a banana dress in the preview for next week’s episode.

Nymphia Wind was feeling her full Morticia Adams fantasy in this “See You Next Wednesday” dress.

No matter how many angles the show gave on this dress and how often I paused my video at 4k resolution, I could not describe to you what is happening on the body other than “black lace.” It is fundamentally unseeable in the runway lighting. You can get a much better look at it on Nymphia’s Instagram. Once you see that photo, it’s easier to spot the details of this garment on the runway. Even if she has done some post-show styling and editing on the garment, the craft and shape of it are the same.

For me, that’s a winning garment. Except, this photo leaves out the problem with it, which was entirely from the eyeballs up.

Yes, I’m talking about Nymphia’s fuzzy black fascinator. It wasn’t just Michelle’s critique of it falling onto her face. It was that it was massive and shapeless on top of a look that already had trouble communicating its shape because of the lack of contrast. We really needed to see Nymphia’s face and neck to help communicate what this dress even was. For me, the headpiece was a styling fail that dragged the whole look down.

Nymphia finally has some momentum back after two weak weeks of the competition. Yet, next week is another singing challenge. Nymphia did well in the last one because Megami wrote her lyrics for her. This time Nymphia will be going it alone. Will her pop music background save the day again? Another high placement would make it feel like she is fully back in the game… but, it’s also the time of the season when the “vulnerability” edits start to kick in.

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

Q snagged a second design challenge win for another over-the-top garment that gave “Miss Havisham as a Pierrot clown.” There’s no denying she is among the best seamstresses to ever set foot in the Drag Race workroom. Yet, does this queen have any storyline other than “sews well”?

Q destroyed this Neo-Goth runway prompt, and not just because she designed the most-voluminous garment on the runway.

I think Q won this because she was obviously Goth. The starkness. The shabby-chic of the fabric and the black roses. The “look at me” quality where the entire outfit pulled you towards the center. All of that is identifiably Goth to me even if you strip away the obvious white makeup.

Maybe this isn’t “Neo-Goth” – which has a more pared-down, ready-to-wear quality to it. But, no one on the runway nailed that part of the prompt. Failing that, Q delivered the best look – especially thanks to the stunning skirt lining and the spectacular bow on the back of her dress.

(Did this need the ripped fishnet top? I’d argue it did. That element of shabbiness added to the full story of the look for me. I love that there was one element that wasn’t perfectly clean. It changed my perspective on how I viewed the rest of the garment.”

I’d have most queens vaulting to the top of the ranks after a second win. Why is Q stuck at the same ranking as she had last week?

Two-words: singing challenge. In the preview for next episode, we saw that the queens must write verses for a track called “Power” with a stage show that was giving me “funk” and which had some serious stage performance looks. Plus, with Jamal Sims as a judge, there’s almost certainly going to be some choreo to learn.

If there is one queen in this cast not prepared to give “funk” it’s Q! And, we have officially run out of queens whom Q has any chance of defeating in a lip sync. I don’t feel like I downgraded Plasma enough in last week’s rankings approaching her weakest challenge, so now Q has to pay for it.

Yet, there’s more to this ranking than just the theme of the next challenge. I feel like Q is one of two queens remaining in this cast with zero storyline. Her entire narrative this season is “designer who can’t dance.” We’ve seen her snag two design wins now, and she had a “can’t dance” redemption already in the Rusical. I think if she was a more serious contender, the story editing would be giving her more depth in the edit.

I could be proven wrong! Q could kill next week’s song challenge, which would definitely give her further redemption and major momentum. At that point, I’d finally be willing to say she has as much of a chance to win as Sapphira.

#5 – Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige, 1 win, 3 lip syncs (was #13, 13, 10, 6, 6, 9, 5)

(Website | Instagram | Merch | TikTok | Twitter)

Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige is like a cat on its eighth life after winning a third Lip Sync against Plasma. There is no denying her lip sync skills, but one more trip to the Bottom Two will probably mean the end of her run. Except… I doubt that will happen in a songwriting challenge.

Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige’s “See You Next Wednesday” dress was good. Really good. That full lace back? GO OFF, queen. Sure, this got sent to the bottom due to some significant portion of it being Sapphira’s handiwork. Yet, for me, there was another problem: STYLING.

First, who wears a dress with a full lace back and then wears hair down to their butts! There’s no one good shot of the back of this dress in the entire episode because Mhi’ya’s hair is in the way!

Second, what is going on with the accessories here? We’ve got a hand skull, a shoulder raven, a chunky neck piece… it is a lot of clutter for such a slinky dress.

Finally, the makeup. This isn’t eye make-up – it’s a pair of blacked-out sockets! There’s literally no detail in the eyes. Zoom all the way in, y’all! There’s no cut crease. There’s no brow. It’s not even a very saturated black.

This might sound like a minor quibble, but I think an eye look with a strong brow and some bold white underlining could have totally changed the presentation of this runway. Right now it looks like Mhi’ya’s neck, eyes, and hair are swallowing her face.

Mhi’ya’s lip sync win against Plasma leaves her in an interesting spot. Winning a fourth lip sync isn’t likely, especially against this field of strong contenders. Even if Morphine seems to be in a weak position, she still has the chops to hold her own against Mhi’ya. Yet, that’s only a detraction for Mhi’ya if she’s forced to lip sync. If next week was a political challenge or improv comedy, I’d be worried for her. It’s not. It’s another songwriting challenge, which was her high point in this season.

I would be shocked to see Mhi’ya in the bottom next week. Heck, she might even win! Whatever happens, I think it will let us know if she’s here just to be a lip sync assassin, or if she really has a black horse (wonk wonk) finalist story in the works.

#6 – Dawn (was #5, 4, 7, 8, 5, 6, 7)

Dawn struck gold with the order of the challenges, which has never left her vulnerable for two weeks in a row. This week gave her another fantastical design challenge that is fully in her wheelhouse she she could stay far away from the Bottom Two. In fact, I think she very nearly won the week.

Dawn’s “See You Next Wednesday” Neo-Goth look has a very similar concept and shape to Nymphia’s. Instead of festooning her head with a shapeless mass, Dawn chose to hang it from her hips.

As hard as it is to read the actual details of this chandelier skirt (and believe me, I’ve tried), it has many successful elements. Even if you can’t make out the details of the skirt, it gives an obvious silhouette. It has delightfully rounded edges and the trailing wisps help orient your eye to where it cuts off. Also, because Dawn used draping rather than solid panels of fabric, you could see some daylight between the curves and folds of the skirt in a way that you couldn’t on Nymphia’s look.

Plus, there’s the sheer engineering of it. We’ve seen garments hanging from invisible fishing line on the Drag Race runway before, but I’m not sure anyone has managed it in a design challenge before. I loved that Ru was fascinated by the construction and I loved Dawn’s humblebrag about her engineering degree!

Also, despite bringing back her elf ears, I think Dawn’s makeup look here is unique from what we’ve seen so far. She didn’t use as much white around her eyes, and it feels like there’s just more open real estate on her face – which somehow helps make her seem even more petite (maybe because her features look so much smaller than usual). And, I love the head feathers! They’re giving fascinator without dominating Dawn’s entire face, they are super-sequined, they give geometry, and they extend her silhouette.

This was a very strong, very smart week for Dawn. Not only that, but her fellow NYC weirdo Plasma is now out of the competition! Despite Dawn’s distaste for musical theatre, I think she and Plasma were in a similar lane as the “kooky theatrical kid” alongside Q. Now, Dawn only has one similar competitor to worry about… and, there’s a strong chance that Dawn might be as good or better than Q in all of the remaining challenges.

I’m very curious to see how Dawn handles next week’s funky songwriting challenge. She’s going to have to break free of her elven box to deliver something a little more substantial to stay clear of the bottom two. There’s nowhere left to hide.

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

Morphine Love Dion made it to the top half, baby! Even though I never once predicted she could possibly last this long. Luckily, the math was mathing in Morphine’s favor. The mug of Season 16 ain’t the best, but she certainly ain’t the worst.

I really love the concept of Morphine’s “See You Next Wednesday” gown and she styled it impeccably.

People are going to nitpick her spikes and diagonal panels. I think it’s obvious the construction was more wobbly than Morphine had hoped. Obviously, she could have given the panels a firmer structure – we’ve seen Nymphia do it with wiring in her first design look this season. Yet, when you’re not zoomed in close on this look, those panels accomplish what needs to be done – giving visual interest and texture to Morphine’s silhouette. I think she was so smart to use the grey quilted fabric on them for exactly that reason.

Also, I am obsessed with the snatched eye makeup and the bold red lip on a page face. The styling of this look is on point.

Is this Neo-Goth? Nah. This is much closer to classic Morticia Adams goth. But, check out this impeccably constructed skirt! The layers and folds on this are as good as anything we’ve seen from Nymphia this season, and it all hits in the perfect spot – from where it starts on the knees, to where it hits the floor, to the subtle train.

Last week I said, “Morphine has to hope she can outdo Mhi’ya and at least one other queen so she doesn’t have to lip sync again.” And, lo and behold, my prediction came true!

Now, things get very interesting for Morphine. Next week is another singer/songwriter challenge, which was by far her best challenge of the entire season thus far. But, are there two queens in the cast who will do bad enough that Ru won’t have any way to push Morphine into the bottom? I think the Bottom Two would have to be Q and either Dawn or Nymphia for that to work.

If Morphine does survive next week, I think it’s very likely there is a political challenge still to come (there always is during a US Election year). If that’s the case, Morphine could easily serve Chief Executive realness and squeeze by Mhi’ya in a sudden upset.

I don’t think all of that is likely, but we’re at a point in the season where I am rooting for every queen to find a way to make it to the finale. Now that we’re going to see every queen get critiqued each week, I’d really hate to see Morphine quickly cut down before she can get her flowers for her growth throughout this competition.

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

(Cameo | Instagram | Merch | TikTok | Twitter)

If Mirage’s cut early this season was the most emotional elimination we’ve seen on the main franchise in a long time, I think Plasma’s is the most shocking.

Even if it seemed clear Ru never planned to make Plasma America’s Next Drag Superstar, I never would have guessed she would miss making it to the top half of the placements! Even taking away her wins and her momentum, this is a shock just based on her relative strengths as a contestant.

In Plasma, Drag Race had a true all-around performer who could nimbly adapt to any challenge on the stage. However, as one of the youngest queens of the season, I don’t think Plasma’s sense of style (or her makeup) was as evolved as her fierce performance skills. There is no question that she grew and improved as the season wore on, but she was up against a killer’s row of designers and stylists.

I’ve seen a bit of Plasma off the show, not only in her music videos for “Don’t Rain On My Parade” and “Bloody Mary” but also in her appearance at Roscoe’s and her “Whatcha Packin’” with Michelle. Plasma is utterly magnetic across all of them. She doesn’t just have stage presence – she has camera awareness and boundless charisma.

Even if Plasma will now have her pick of live performance opportunities, I truly hope she keeps creating personality-driven online content – not only for my personal delight, but because I really think she could blow up with fans in a way that none of the queens from Season 15 did. I think Plasma has the wit and personality to become a sleeper hit in the fandom the same way Maddie Morphosis has been over the past few years.

I can’t wait to see what she does next.

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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Work the World "Power" - Power Ranking RuPaul's Drag Race S16E10 – Crushing Krisis says:

March 11, 2024 at 8:07 pm

[…] to control their own fate on this show when it comes to challenges that hinge on pure talent. In last week’s Neo-Goth design challenge Power Rankings I had Morphine Love Dion locked in for elimination because the judges weren’t giving her many […]