‘Ru Paul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race 2×05’ Review
Last week’s episode of Ru Paul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race saw the mystery contestants being paired with some of the most iconic queens to ever appear on Drag Race. Sadly after being paired with the incredibly talented Gottmik, we saw Millie Von Sunshine being told to sashay away but before she could exit the building she had to reveal who was behind all the make-up. It turned out that it was none other than the amazing Jenna Ushkowitz who is probably best known for playing Tina in the hit musical series Glee! I do have to say it was quite sad to see Jenna leave the completion as her iconic lip-sync to “Dancing On My Own” will forever be one of the most memorable performances to come from this season but I do think the correct person was eliminated! On the other end of the competition, however, was the powerhouse team of Chic-Fi-Lay and the winner of Drag Race season seven Violet Chachki that were crowned the winners of the episode after their brilliant performance of “When You Believe” originally performed by Whitney Huston and Mariah Carey. This marks the second week in the row that Chic has been the best performer of the week and for me, I believe that it is between her and Poppy Love for the top of this competition!
This week’s episode was a homage to the music of the 90s! I was born at the very end of the 90s period (1999 to be exact) and so I missed a lot of the music when they came out but it says a lot that there are still hundreds of songs from this period that are still as popular almost twenty-five years later! If by some miracle I was drafted in to appear in this episode then I think I would have to choose the song Waterfalls by TLC, as it is one of my favourite songs ever written and I know every word including the rap section (thanks to the movie We’re the Millers). This week’s show was opened by none other than front-runner Poppy Love who delivered a rather unique performance of “That Boy is Mine” alongside Morgan McMicheals where they birthed the backing dancers live on stage! This week however Poppy decided to pay homepage to the Spice Girls, who are arguably one of the most iconic girl groups to ever exist. What was special about this performance of “Wannabe” however was the fact that the performance was crafted in a way that Poppy would represent each of the unique characters from the original group. This involved an intricate series of costume reveals to showcase an outfit inspired by each of the signers. While this was very entertaining to watch, I think that each reveal should have had a bigger moment in the spotlight, as the majority took place as Poppy walked behind the dancers to remove items of clothing. It is clear that Carson Kressley (one of the resident judges this season) agrees with the slightly diminished spectacle of the reveals as he commented on this after the performance had finished. However, this was an incredibly fun homage to a key group from the period which I imagine would be brilliant to see live!
Last week Donna Belissima was paired with quite possibly one of the greatest lip-sync assassins to ever grace the drag race franchise, none other than Silky Nutmeg Ganache. Their body confident anthem from last week clearly gave Donna the push that was needed as this week was, in my opinion, the best performance we have seen from her this entire season! It was a risky decision to choose the song “Sin Wagon” as I for one had never heard this song before but the connection Donna had to the lyrics clearly shone through! She owned every inch of the stage with the wonderfully camp and over-the-top rendition of this number and the added layer of emotional story connected to the number truly was the icing on the cake! I say it every week but Chakra Seven has been showing such incredible versatility and last week’s performance as a neon bird alongside Eureka was no exception! This week she did the Lauren Hill song “Doo-Wap” as what can be only described as an alien dinner lady. Chic-li-Fay opted to do a performance of “Genie in a Bottle” by Christina Aguilera which started with them being carried in by a group of shirtless men (which is how I want to enter every room going forward!) Chic yet again showcased how much of a talented performer/dancer they are throughout this wonderfully sensual and sexy performance. The final performance was by my favourite queen on this season Thirsty Von Trap who sadly was in the bottom last week alongside eventual loser Millie Von Sunshine. After her performance alongside the always chaotic Katya, the judges struggled to understand the narrative behind the performance and so going into this week she made sure the story was very clear and easy to understand! In a unique twist on the classic “You Drive Me Crazy” by Brittney Spears, Thirsty decided to tell the story of a kidnapper who is almost taunting their hostage which was nowhere near what anyone expected from this song!
In a shocking twist for this season, it was announced that no one would be going home in this episode but there would be a lip-sync between the top two queens to declare an overall winner of the week. The two elected queens were Donna and Chakra who had to battle over the iconic song “Believe” by Cher which cleverly is another example of a 90s song. I really enjoy when Drag Race ties the lip-syncs into the theme of the episode as it creates a much more cohesive viewing experience for the viewers and I wish it was done more! At the end of this performance, it was announced that Donna would be the overall winner of the episode (after talking about her lack of a win so far this season a lot throughout the episode) but that was not the only twist. At the very end of the episode, Ru Paul announced that there are no more secrets and every celebrity will be forced to reveal themselves but before they could the episode came to an end. Now, I love a dramatic twist as much as the next person but the season is called Secret Celebrity Drag Race and so the surprise of who is behind the performances is a key factor. I hope that it will not be a case of the queens standing in a line on the stage and repeating the phrase “I am …..” because not only would that be boring to watch but also would negate the point of the show!
Overall, this was by far one of the best episodes of the season with each of the remaining queens putting on excellent and extremely entertaining performances! The theme of the episode allowed each queen to deliver unique performances while still having a coherent and easy-to-understand connection between every number. Going forward I am a little concerned about the revealing of the final five but that is an issue for next week’s review!
