‘Ru Paul’s Drag Race All-Stars 7×03’ Review
Despite all of the global COVID restrictions that were in place for the majority of last year, we were still treated to eight new iterations of Ru Pauls’s Drag Race. Which averages a new batch of queens every two months and while the queens may be different and the local inspirations do vary from season to season but there are some familiar inclusions we see in every iteration of the show. While familiar challenges help to create a through-line across seasons and create a sort of Ru Paul style multiverse (which I discussed in my review of All-Stars 7×01) but these commonalities can tie together the seasons they can easily become incredibly repetitive. We have seen over twenty-five versions of the iconic snatch game since its introduction in Drag Race season two and so it makes sense why Ru Paul is constantly looking for ways to spice up the game to make it exciting for the audience again! We have had a family feud version during Drag Race UK vs The World, and a snatch game of love version on All-Stars 4 but I don’t think anything will ever come close to the double snatch game we saw in last week’s All-Stars episode. This challenge had the queens showcase two distinct celebrity impressions and was clearly dominated by Jinkx Monsoon whose Judy Garland impression is debatably one of the greatest performances we have ever seen on Drag Race! After saying all episode how she would block someone who already has a badge, Jinkx did exactly that choosing to block Shea Coulee after being declared the winner of the episode. I really enjoyed seeing someone being so vocal about their strategy and then sticking to it as we get to see a more tactical side to the queens without unnecessary drama!
Episode three however began with a fairly strange warning message which informed the audience that the episode contained references to Russia’s red square and that the episode was filmed prior to their invasion of Ukraine. This out of context message instantly caught my attention as I began thinking about how the episode would use this location within a design challenge but it would all be made clear soon enough! The mini-challenge this week was called “Hung man” which was a version of the classic letter guessing game involving one of the pit crew. The queens took it in turns to try and guess the letters which would reveal the theme of this week’s maxi challenge. It turned out to be ‘Vanna White party’ which specifically mentions the hostess of Wheel of Fortune while also demonstrating a before and after style fusion. I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of the Wheel of Fortune programme and so some of the references did go over my head throughout the episode. The queens were informed that they would be walking the runway in three unique categories that are Vanna White realness (which suggested game show hostess glamour with a tribute to the aforementioned hostess), before and after (which had to be two ideas connected syntactically, think The Incredible Hulk Hogan for example) and finally a look made in the werk room that used the colour scheme of iconic locations around the world. To decide which queen would get which location they had to spin a wheel with a chance of also walking away with some tips if the wheel landed accordingly. Personally, I would have chosen the black sands inspired palette as I thought the shimmery black fabric looked amazing! Raja landed on a gold-infused inspiration which made sense due to her constant nods to her icon status and god-like status from previous design challenges. Eyvie then spun the wheel which landed in a $500 cash tip which is fantastic on its own but she then span again and won another $1000 bonus but her third spin landed on “bankrupt” which meant she lost all her winnings from this challenge and had to wait till all the other queens had been given their inspiration before she knows which colour she would be using. Almost immediately after, The Vivienne had exactly the first two spins (meaning she could win $1500) but her third spin landed in the great blue hole which marks the first time Viv has won money from Drag Race which was amazing to witness! Both the bankrupt queens (namely Eyvie and Trinity) then span the wheel again to discover what their theme would be.
One of the funniest things I have ever seen in Drag Race happened after this challenge where Trinity the Tuck and Monet discussed their secret partnership. From this conversation, these two queens decided that they should try and campaign to get more people to secretly join their alliance and so decided to chat to fan favourite Jinkx. I mean it was an unusual choice to go with Jinkx as the first recruitment drive, as she famously opposed alliances since the trip of RoLaskaTox which Jinkx overcame during her original season. When the duo was rejected by Jinkx they then went to target Ms Shea Coulee who also had a storied history with alliances. If you remember during her run on All-Stars 4, the biggest drama from the season occurred when supposed Alexis Mateo and Mayhem Miller had campaigned to India Ferrah to vote Shea to go home. The duo was then rejected and referred to Jaida Essence Hall and so of the eight contestants on this season, five of them knew about this ‘secret’ alliance. What I didn’t notice during this campaign however was that the co-founder Monet X-Change was one of the few queens to not have been blocked yet so setting up this protection scheme at this point in the competition would really benefit her greater than it would everyone else. It took me an embarrassing amount of time to notice this and so was clearly a very clever move on Monet’s part!
The first runway category that the queens had to walk in was ‘Vanna White realness’ which had the actual hostess sitting on the side of the stage. Each queen turned the corner of the runway to spot the hostess which was also met with a state of surprise as they all showcase an interpretation of some of Vanna’s most iconic outfits. I thought that Shea Coulee looked absolutely gorgeous in a very pretty, subtle pink dress with incredible make-up that complimented the outfit perfectly! I did not expect to see Monet showcasing an extremely glamorous look on the runway, with a dress that contained a dramatically high slit which showcased her amazing legs! Her choice of wig with this outfit was beautiful and really showed off a much more classically glamorous look than I usually expect from Monet, which is fantastic to see! Talking about glamour, Monet’s secret alliance partner Trinity decided to remind everyone that she is a pageant queen before anything else, where she wore an incredible sequinned gowns which was just pure beauty of her – with amazing hair and make-up to match! My favourite look from this category however would have to be Raja who wore a wonderfully purple, asymmetric outfit with insanely dramatic hair. From the reference photo that was shared, Raja’s look this week was the most accurate recreation on the runway which I thought was a key part of this theme!
The next theme the queens had to walk in was ‘Before and After’ which had the queens showcasing two ideas in one that were connected from shared letters (like Shania Twayne Rooney for example.) First up was Jinkx who did a hilarious depiction of ‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane Fonda.’ This was wonderfully cartoon-esque and fun with very unique pale make-up. I have to admit that I didn’t particularly like Shea Coulee’s ‘Gold Tooth Fairy’ look. While I thought the gloves made of golden watches looked amazing and was very innovative, we have seen numerous iterations of wings of the runway and the wings Shea decided to use were more as dramatic and awe-inspiring as some of the others we have seen before. I also did enjoy Raja’s fusion of Grease and John Water’s movies through the guise of ‘Olivia Newton-John Waters’ which in its most basic form was a bad Sandy outfit with a moustache. It just felt more dominated by the before aspect and the after was almost an afterthought. I thought that Monet’s “Bob the Drag Queen’ fusion of the winner of season eight and the monarch who recently celebrated her seventieth year on the throne. Monet wore a neon green drip outfit that touched on both influences very well!
The final category had to be ‘handmade by the queens’ and it was clear that Jinkx did struggle more so than anyone else. Her purple ombré outfit was perfectly okay and would have kept her safe in any normal season but this was an all-winners and so did stand out against the rest of her competitors. Monet’s emerald disco outfits were one of the only looks I would actually wear (not due to everyone else being lower quality but my own personal taste) with a wonderfully fun Afro, which was only added to by the confidence that Monet showed while dancing across the runway. I thought that Jaida looked incredible dramatic in her all-black outfit complete with intensely black chains and dramatic shoulder flames. There was an air of evilness to this look and almost touched on a theatrical villain that really stood out against everyone else! My favourite look from this category however would have to be Raja, who looked absolutely insane in a wonderfully puffy gold outfit that contained all the drama you could possibly want from a drag performer. Raja has been bigging up her design skills all throughout the season so to see her actually put her money where her mouth is was amazing and helped to remind the younger viewers of how much of a drag icon she is! I also thought that Trinity the Tuck looked amazing in a sensual red latex outfit with one of the largest wigs I have ever seen. She was completely red from head to toe which drew obvious connections to her devil performance from the week before! The Vivienne decided to showcase a much more classical view of glamour for this theme where she wore a classy baby blue outfit which showcased her body perfectly!
It was announced by Ru Paul that the two winners of this week’s episode were Trinity and Jaida who both are awarded one of the legend badges (what is it with Drag Race and giving out badges whenever a UK queen is involved!) The two queens lip-synced to Green Light by Beyonce, where Trinity opened with a prop and delivered some funny gags throughout but Jaida looked amazing in an energetic fringe outfit with a massive braid that she used during the number. This was a very close battle with Jaida just pipping Trinity to the post (in my opinion) who then announced that Jinkx would be blocked from winning a badge in next week’s episode. Overall, this episode kept up with the standard as laid out from the first two episodes of this all winners season with all the queens doing very well. I did miss out on some of the references throughout the episode but was still able to appreciate the intelligence and beauty of many of the looks.