‘Ru Paul’s Drag Race 14×05’ Review
There has been a lot of discussion on the internet regarding last weeks episode of Ru Paul’s Drag Race for two main reasons. Firstly, people can’t seem to get over the fact that Keri Colbi decided to wear Jennifer Lopez’s actual Versace outfit on the runway (you know that green one that broke the internet!) for the JLO inspired category. As Keri ended up the bottom two of the episode and then preceded to lip-sync in the flowy outfit which, If it was me, I would be so worried about ruining the genuine dress. The second reason everyone is still talking about last weeks episode is regarding the queen who battled against Keri in this lip-sync. After under-performing in the acting challenge Alyssa Hunter was placed in the bottom and eventually eliminated from the competition. I personally thought that Alyssa was going to go so much further in the race and to be honest I expected her to reach at-least top four. Everyone online (myself included) were very surprised to see Alyssa go home so early! On the other end of the competition, we saw Angeria Paris VanMicheals claim her second win after delivering many iconic and hilarious quotes in the teaser video challenge with willow getting high praise from the judges for her performance throughout the episode.
We start this weeks episode with some very upsetting news. Unfortunately during last week challenge Kornbread “The Snack” Jete rolled her ankle which meant that she has to go home to rest and can no longer compete in this season. As all the queens entered the werk room ready to find out what this weeks episode would have in store from them, they began to notice that one queens was missing. Ru Paul then introduced a short video from Kornbread where she explained why she would no longer be competing in the race. I have to admit that this queen was one of my favourites on this season and many people online thought that she would also be going straight to the final but unfortunately, she has to go home and rest! I really hope that once she is healthy again that she will be appearing in the next season as she was not only hilarious but also delivered some amazing looks! During her video to the other queens, Kornbread gave a very touching and emotional message to her close friend Willow Pill, which was so sweet. After the queens managed to get over the fact that such a big personality would no longer be in the race, the were informed that the mini-challenge this week would decide what team they would be in for the main challenge. The pit crew entered the werk-room and had balloons tied to their buttocks and the queens had to take it in turns to go up and pop the balloons using their own bodies. Inside the balloons were coloured confetti (think almost like a gender reveal!) and the matching colours would be put on a team together. I do think that the main purpose of this challenge was to highlight the uncomfortableness of Maddy Morphosis (who is famously the first-ever cis-gendered heterosexual on the show) as he had to thrust his body towards another nearly naked, muscly guy. The other key point in this challenge was how much Joregous struggled to thrust and pop the balloons, letting out a shrill every time it didn’t work – which was hilarious at first but did become very tiresome after a while.
After the three teams had been formed, the queens on this season were re-introduced to Tempest Dejour, Jaymes Mansfield (who has been creating some incredible wig transformation videos on YouTube which if you haven’t already you should check out!) and Kamora Hall who are all queens that were eliminated from their original seasons. Each team was allocated a returning queen to create a PSA, charity/parody videos all about first eliminated queens. On top of this not only did they have to write and perform a short advert but it also had to be written in rhyming couplets. As the weeks go by, Maddy seems to be showing us more and more personality and showing how clever she is. Both last and this week, Maddy was shown to be creating new and interesting ideas for her team and becoming more talkative/animated in confessionals! One of her highlights was when she was making fun of talkative Jasmine Kennedy which was absolutely hilarious. I am beginning to like Maddie more and more every week and hope she continues to show us more of her personality. I also really enjoyed the fact that Ru Paul managed to slip in a casual Meatloaf (who sadly lost his life on the 20th Jan) reference during her werk room walk through where she said “I would do anything for drag but I won’t do that!” Which was a reference to THAT 1993 song by Meatloaf.
The runway theme for this weeks episode was “Spring has sprung” which essentially asked the queens had to showcase a spring-inspired look. The three returning queens were given a chance to walk the runway which was very nice! I really liked the bottom half of Angeria’s yellow, Cardi B inspired look which was crammed full of flowers. However, the top half (as the judges correctly noted) was not the most flattering and did not fitted as correctly as it should have, which is a shame as every one of Angeria’s look so far have been flawless! Deja Skye had bigged-up herself while informing everyone that she is the self-dubbed “pastel queen” so I expected great things from her but I was left very disappointed. Her Easter bunny inspired look was fairly basic and this idea was actually done very better by one of her fellow racers. Orion Story decided to do a much more sexy Easter bunny look which was essentially just lingerie with floppy ears which showcased her natural body which was amazing! I thought that Maddy’s runway look this week was one of my favourite outfits I have seen this entire season! She had a massive rain cloud headpiece with her shimmery fringe dress looking like the raindrops that would fall from such a cloud. This campy and clever outfit looked incredible but also made her stand out amongst every other competitor on this season! I really hope she has some more of this style of look to showcase the rest of this season, as it was totally not what I expected from her but was phenomenal! Lady Camden decided to wear an afternoon tea inspired outfit with the structure of her dress making the shape of a table to hold some of the treats. She also wore a teacup headpiece that spilt to reveal shimmery foil ‘tea’ which added a bit of whimsy and campy theatrics to this look, which I really enjoyed! This look not only fitted the character but also played on her British upbringing which I thought was very clever!
In her main challenge performance, Bosco was one of the only queens to put on a performance during her spoken word lines. She gave her lines so much energy with a range of cadences and attitudes which was hilarious to watch! Due to this performance, Bosco was declared as the winner of this weeks episode which I agree with as it was between her or Maddy for the win so I am glad Bosco gets her first win this season! On the other end of this competition, we were informed that Jorgeous and Orion are in the bottom and I have to admit going into the lip-sync I wasn’t expecting a lot but I could not have been more wrong! Jorgeous, who I had developed much of a fondness for until this performance, is an absolutely incredible performer who was able to own every inch of the stage. She danced circles around Orion, at one point performing a cartwheel into a death drop which was flawless but also incredible to see! If these stunts were not enough, I know that Orion would be the loser of this battle as soon as she threw off her shoes during the number. It was obvious that Jorgeous would not be going home this week but there was a chance that Orion could stay if she has the golden chocolate bar. Unfortunately, she did not so she was sent home for a second time this season!
Overall, this was a very entertaining episode of Ru Paul’s Drag Race that shone a light on eliminated queens from previous seasons. This allowed everyone to see how much these queens have developed, which can only have a positive effect on these queens careers! I really enjoyed the PSA challenge and thought many of the queens did very well performing their short poems about the returning queens.