To no surprise, season 15 has finally fallen victim to its first very oddly judged episode. I’ve gone back and forth about how I feel about all the placements so much that I rewatched the entire episode.
The queens re-enter the Werk Room following Sugar’s elimination, and it’s clear it’s weighing heavily on Spice. I really appreciated the sisterhood displayed by the queens following Sugar’s elimination because I can only imagine how much the elimination affected Spice.
They go through the pleasantries of congratulating Loosey LaDuca and bring up a little backstage drama between Mistress Isabelle Brooks and Marcia Marcia Marcia about who was second to Loosey’s first. This whole second or third conversation is just so stupid because whether you were second or third, you did not win the challenge.
The next day, the queens walk in and are met by Ru. We get a mini-challenge for the first time in forever, and it’s the annual and iconic Reading Challenge. The queens pay homage to the legendary queer film Paris is Burning and read — or throw shade (or if you’re not queer, roast) — each other.
This segment fell victim to the one-hour time-slot as each queen only got one read in, minus Sasha Colby, Mistress Isabelle Brooks and Loosey LaDuca. However, the one read per queen did make this one of the strongest reading challenges in awhile. I thought Sasha had the strongest reads, but Ru declared Loosey the winner. In her read to Malaysia, she basically said, “Just like the flight, you need to disappear,” which sent me.
The maxi-challenge is a design challenge. The queens were randomly split into three different fashion houses inspired by three of the main judges on Drag Race: Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley and Ross Mathews. The queens looted rooms inspired by the judges and then created cohesive yet individual looks using the materials.
[The Diamond Drag: Supersized Snatch Game of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’]
The House of Kressley was made up of Anetra, Salina EsTitties, Robin Fierce and Jax. The House of Mathews was made up of Loosey LaDuca, Sasha Colby, Malaysia Babydoll Foxx and Marcia Marcia Marcia. The House of Visage was made up of Luxx Noir London, Aura Mayari, Amethyst, Spice and Mistress.
The queens got their materials and began making their outfits. No matter how many seasons, or even international franchises of Drag Race exist, there will always be some queens who do not know how to sew. At this point, it’s so inevitable that I just roll my eyes and move on.
I don’t know if producers had seen fan backlash and somehow re-edited the episodes to include things fans wanted to see back — such as more story in general — but this episode definitely highlighted more queens. This made it hard to follow because they could only shine light on each queen for a few seconds. The storyline this season made my head spin, and I honestly could not follow it.
But one thing that was brought back was Ru chatting with the queens in the Werk Room. We hear that the House of Kressley all sew and that Ru is ready to send Amethyst home and hates the whole team’s design. Ru basically said to Amethyst: “You don’t sew, you’ve been in the bottom two twice, goodbye.”
The sewing continues, and we hear chats about how this is the first time Malaysia has ever sewn, and Amethyst is struggling to design her look. Spice is asked who she thought should’ve been in the bottom instead of Sugar or herself because she said that at the top of the episode. There’s several other half-fleshed out stories that don’t come to any fruition in the episode — a bunch of blips of nothing.
The queens enter the Werk Room the next day and begin getting ready for the runways. I really enjoyed Jax opening up about growing up being adopted by white parents in the middle of Connecticut.
We hit the runway, and overall, I think House of Visage was the strongest. I think they were able to capture Michelle’s vibe while still making it unique. Luxx had the strongest look from the group while Spice had the weakest look. Amethyst wasn’t great, but I thought the look was fine.
[The Diamond Drag: All Queens Go To Heaven of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’]
Second to the House of Visage I’d put House of Kressley with Jax or Robin being the best and Salina the worst. Finally, I thought House of Matthews was very weak. Marcia had the best look, but Sasha carried herself very well. Malaysia was also OK but literally just OK, and Loosey’s was not cohesive.
The top queens are announced to be Luxx, Sasha, Malaysia and Robin, and the bottoms are Jax, Salina and Amethyst. The only part I agree on is Luxx. Jax had the most dynamic look in her group, and it was nowhere near a bottom look. Malaysia’s was just average, and Sasha had a bathing suit on with a cape. I go back and forth on Salina — I honestly didn’t and still don’t know how to feel.
Luxx Noir London is announced the winner of the challenge, and I agree. Amethyst and Salina are announced as the bottom two and lip-sync for their lives to “Q.U.E.E.N” by Janelle Monáe. I loved this lip sync because I’m such a Janelle Monáe stan, and the song is just so fun. I love, love, love any double split on the same beat moment from the queens, so I was living when that happened.
Salina is announced the winner of the lip-sync, and on her third lip-sync, we see Amethyst sashay away. I felt bad because I think Amethyst was never given a chance to prove herself, but I am excited to see what she does post-show.
All in all, this episode felt very mishmash and hard to follow. It felt like so much happened while also literally nothing at the same time.
