‘Ru Paul’s Drag Race All-Stars 6×08’ Review
In last weeks episode of Ru Paul’s Drag Race All-Stars, the queens had to write and perform an original verse to “Show Up Queen” which contained a heavy focus on activism and standing up for what you believe in. Trinity was declared the rightful winner after choreographing her whole team, creating moving lyrics regarding her HIV status and walking the runway in an incredibly over-the-top carnival outfit which was stunning! After her lip-sync with the mystery opponent (Alexis Mateo) it was revealed that the rest of the queens had voted and it was a tie regarding who should go home. This meant that the sole decision goes back to Trinity which was the least dramatic option that could have happened and also made the lip-sync somewhat redundant. It was revealed that Trinity decided to send Jan home instead of Pandora which I do not agree with but the queens are entitled to vote however they please. I have been more impressed by Jan’s fashion and performance on this season (she also has a win whereas Pandora does not!) but at the end of the day, it falls to Trinity’s shoulders to send home whoever they like! Like I said last week was a musical episode (with the song now available on Spotify) but it may have taken a whole week but I have come up with the lyrics I would use if I were to ever create a verse to this song and it would go like this:
Intro –
(You might not be a tequila Stan
But I don’t care cuz I am what I am)
Verse –
It’s tequila here and she’s a theatre queen
And just fantine yeah she dreamed a dream
And she’s here, but before she starts
I want to remind everybody to start up the arts
To any officials, I say this with every fibre
Like **** are we going to all retrain in cyber
So listen carefully to this song
And remember the show must go on!
This week’s episode was a Drag Race staple that many people look forward to every season. The queens have to perform their best celebrity impressions in the snatch game of love, which is a combination of The Match Game and Surprise Surprise. I have to admit I did think, going into this challenge, that Pandora and Ginger have an advantage (and some added stress) as this is the third time they have competed in this challenge. Before we could actually get to the main challenge Ru chatted to all the queens to see who they would be impersonating. Yet again Ru stays at the table and calls the queens over to chat which I have made very clear in the past that I don’t enjoy as it takes time away from the queens preparing but feels like a very forced environment. It was revealed that Eureka would be taking on the role of the grotesque drag star Divine, who is most famous for their work with the filmmaker John Walters. This was a perfect choice for Eureka as they are both over-the-top and loud but also Eureka has constantly discussed how Divine inspired her drag character, especially during The Exorcist advert a few episodes ago. The make-up and comedy were on point for this portrayal and I think that Eureka did excellently this week! I was yet again impressed by Ra’jah who did a brilliant impression of La Toya Jackson, where she had nailed the voice/mannerism and had managed to make the character hilarious which, to be honest, I did not expect! Kylie Sonique Love was also great this week where she chooses to take on the role of Dolly Parton which at first seemed like a great choice due to the closeness of the accents but quickly turned unsure due to how loud Dolly is known to be. However, Kylie managed to perform the character very well and worked very well with her other contestants. Ginger was in a group with Kylie and took on the role of Phyllis Diller, who I don’t know much about in all honesty. However, Ginger was very funny during this challenge and showed off her quick wit and intelligence throughout. Ginger and Kylie worked very well together as they bounced jokes back and forth with one another which was great to see!
The runway this week was simply titled “pop art” with many of the queens choosing to do the same idea with multiple portraits overplayed with different colours. I liked Ginger’s outfit, which was wonderfully bright with cartoon hair and mismatch shoes, which looked fun and energetic. I thought that this week was the best that Pandora has looked all season, with an almost neon outfit that contained classic pop art font and a box purse to bring in a bit of branding. Trinity walked the runway was with a very powerful yellow and black almost bee-style outfit that was covered in important messages about black and trans lives. On the other end of the competition, I was quite disappointed with Ra’jah’s runway outfit as it just had one pop art-ish font that said “I’m not gagging” which is a callback to her original season during a fight with eventual winner Yvie Oddly. It needed more elements to make it clear it was a part of the pop art theme!
Ginger is declared the winner of this weeks challenge and so goes into a battle with the lip-sync assassin who is revealed as none other than Heidi N Closet. These are two very different performers as Heidi is a dancer who regularly performed splits and tricks, whereas Ginger is much more of an entertainer where she spent a lot of the lip-sync comedically trying to imitate Heidi’s tricks. Ginger wins the lip-sync are walks away with another $20,000 which means she has won over $50,000 in this season alone! Ginger had decided to send Pandora home which I thought was completely expected and the choice was between her and Trinity, with the latter being a front runner in the competition. I have to say I’m starting to get very frustrated with this remainder of the game within a game as we have yet to hear any more information which is very annoying.
Overall, this was an adequate snatch game with some very funny performances but very few that were as good as Trinity the Tucks performance as Caitlin Jenner. The runway was pretty fun but many of the looks contained the same classic pop art image which did become somewhat repetitive.
