‘Ru Paul’s Drag Race 14×11’ Review
If you ask any fan of Ru Paul’s Drag Race which is the most iconic challenge the majority of people will say the snatch game. Since its debut on Drag Race season two, viewers eagerly anticipate this challenge every season and cannot wait to see which famous people are impersonated. This challenge is usually a high point of the season where the majority of the queens catchphrases or sound bites that haunt the queens for the rest of the season come from but unfortunately for season fourteen, this was quite possibly the worst episode in drag race her-story. This was a total surprise as everyone online has been talking about how talented all of these queens are and the unpredictability of who will go home next truly adds wonderful amounts of excitement to every episode so to see everyone flop came as a massive shock. Deja was the only queen to do fairly well in the challenge (which in any other season could easily be a safe performance) as the rapper Lil John but everyone else was very lacklustre with very few comedic moments. As she was the best performing queen in the episode, which is not the compliment it usually is, she was granted immunity from next week’s elimination tournament.
It was revealed that this week the queens would compete in a lip-sync smackdown where the loser of the tournament would go home. A queen is chosen at random and is given the opportunity to select an opponent which many queens used as a strategic way of avoiding intimidating battles. In a surprising twist, it was this secondly secured queen who was able to choose the song that the queens would lip-sync to giving them a bigger advantage that the first queen. If it was me I would have much rather been the second queen as a performance is a performance no matter who you are against but it is the song that makes the most difference for me! For each lip-sync, the winner is safe from elimination but the bottom would then face the bottom of another lip-sync until they lose three battles in a row and then have to leave the race. As previously discussed, Deja was not a part of this challenge and would automatically go through to next week’s episode which she took full advantage of. Deja was shown having so much fun, making jokes and storing the pot/creating fictitious drama throughout the episode which I personally really enjoyed! If I was in her position, I know I would have done exactly the same thing! From someone who was having loads of fun to someone who was actually constantly bringing the mood down in this episode, Daya Betty. Yet again Daya was shown to be moaning and rolling her eyes throughout the episode. I was so excited when Jasmin Kennedy finally called her out for being shady to the queens but ending it with “no offence tho” as this was some sort of getting out of jail free card. Just because you say no offence it does not allow you to be mean and nasty to other people and thinks that there will be no consequences to your actions.
It was revealed that Jasmin Kennedy would be the queen starting this whole tournament-style competition and it came as no surprise when she choose to battle against Daya considering their argument earlier in the episode. The song these two queens had to perform was Respect by Aretha Franklin which as one of the queens discussed is not a spectacle number but instead relies heavily on the expression of emotion. Jasmin decided to include a range of splits and a crazy cartwheel into a death drop which really clashed with the soulful sound of Aretha. At the end of the number, Ru announced that Daya would be safe and Jasmin is styled up for eliminations. This means that Daya could now go backstage and join her sister Deja in the lounge to relax and watch the rest of the queens battle for their space in the competition. The next two battling queens was Willow vs Bosco with the former really surprising everyone with how amazing she is at lip-syncing. Willow embodied the song and its vibe perfectly and showed everyone that sometimes less is more (which came at the perfect time as it was straight after Jasmine’s stunt show!) It seems like every week Willow reveals yet another one of her talents that we know nothing about which is very clever as the audience never know what to expect from this unique queen. Ru choose to save Willow with Bosco joining Jasmin in the potentially eliminated queens bracket of the tournament. The three remaining queens Angeria Paris VanMichaels, Lady Camden and Jorgeous were left in a three-way lip-sync. It was announced that Jorgeous is given the opportunity to choose the song and as she has become known for her dance abilities this could have been a very strategic decision leading to a very one-sided battle. However, this three-way lip-sync was in my option the highlight of the night with every one of the queens doing the right amount of stunts that fitted perfectly with the music. It was announced at the end that Jorgeous was the winner of the battle and so the other two now join the other two queens in the semi-final lip-sync.
After a brief re-shuffle, it was announced that Lady Camden would now get to choose her next opponent who she choose to be Bosco. The latter however openly discussed wanting to choose a song that would limit her rival from doing the range of splits and tricks she has become known for. However, this plan backfired! Lady Camden gave an effortlessly sensual and precise performance to the emotional “Don’t give up (on love)” which easily maintained the audience’s attention throughout. Lady Camden was declared the winner which meant that Bosco now faces a fifty-fifty chance of going home against whoever loses the next lip-sync. Angeria and Jasmin then delivered an incredible performance of “my love don’t cost a thing” by Jennifer Lopez. Angeria is naturally extremely charismatic and contains a wonderful stage presence but Jasmin gave a much more sensual and sexual performance that was also equally great. This was an extremely close battle with Angeria only just beating Jasmin to be declared as safe. This meant that in the bottom it was Jasmin Kennedy (who has officially lipsynced five times this season, not including her talent show act) and Bosco to see who would go home. I thought that this was a very interesting lipsync to Diana Ross’s “swept away” with Jasmin going for a much more comedic and campy performance and Bosco showcasing her flexibility and burlesque-inspired moves. Both queens brought out a side of them that we had not seen before which I thought was a great time to do so considering one of them would be going home. I did find myself focussing more on Bosco and in all honesty, Jasmin did not have the best track record in the conception to this point so it came as no surprise when it was declared that Jasmin would be leaving the season.
Overall, I did think that this episode was a good way to redeem the season after the disastrous snatch game last season. I think this week’s challenge was the perfect resolution to some of the storylines going into the episode but also was very entertaining. If you remember the last lip-sync smackdown on Drag Race was during All-Stars six which was dominated by Silky Nutmeg Gnache (who actually co-hosted the pit stop review for this episode on YouTube!) and while I think season fourteen did not provide as many iconic moments, I did think that some of the lip-sync were miles better!
