‘Ru Paul’s Drag Race 14×06’ Review
We began last weeks episode by learning that the iconic Kornbread ‘the snack’ Jete would no longer be competing on the season. From her social media, it’s clear that she has recovered and so I hope that – like the queens from other seasons who have injured themselves – she has been offered an open invitation for next season. She was a very clear fan favourite who had showcased some great looks, so I hope we will see her back on our screens very soon! The challenge last week was to create a charity style PSA (Public Service Announcement) advert to help awareness of raising the issues that first eliminated queens face. To join the competing queen we saw three fan favourite queens from previous seasons (namely Kamora Hall, Tempest DeJour and Jaymes Mansfield) to be the focal point of these acting performances. On the top end of the race, we saw Bosco claim her win after performing a very punk rock spoken word performance, which was very entertaining! On the other end of the race, we saw Jorgeous absolutely annihilate Orion Story in the lip-sync which meant that the latter had to go home after learning she did not have a golden chocolate bar. I have to admit that Jorgeous dance-heavy performance was absolutely incredible and was one of the most energetic lip-syncs I have seen in a very long time!
There was no mini-challenge in this weeks episode, instead the queens had to focus on the main challenge where they had to create a look from unconventional materials. This was the queen’s second design challenge this season and as there have only been six episodes means that a third of the episodes so far have been design-based challenges! Each queen had to root through random boxes to find materials to create a brand new look from scratch. This led to a lot of chaos in the werk room with the queens running around and throwing boxes wildly. Throughout the episode, we saw Willow really struggle with the condition she suffers with really flaring up, which affected her hand and motor skills. The last time this happened we saw the amazing Kornbread give Willow a hand and getting her hot water etc. Not only did this affect her while constructing her look but also opening the boxes themselves. This time however Willow was totally on her own which did make me worried that she would not be able to create a look due to her physical limitations! What I did enjoy about this episode however was that fact that Carson joined Ru Paul in the werk room to give out advice to the queens about their looks. Carson is obviously a fashion expert and so his advice was constructive and helpful but it still had the queens leave their stations and join Ru and Carson at a separate table. If you have read many of my reviews you will know that I get really annoyed by the fact that the queens are literally taken away from their work to talk to the judges! What I personally did not enjoy about this was the attitude of Daya Betty who was put into a mood since she received numerous comparisons to her sister Crystal Methyd from season twelve. Since that point, she was seen to be really negative and rude to the other contestants which is uncomfortable to watch and experience!
There was no category to this weeks runway but instead it was up to the contestants to see what the queens could create. Lady Camden walked the runway in a wonderful trans coloured (blue and pink) angel outfit which was made from a children’s pool which was genius! The fringe hanging from the outfit had the movement that we have come to expect from these dancing queens! I have to say that I really enjoyed the colour scheme of Jasmin Kennedy’s resort wear look. I thought that the structure of the look worked really well with her incredible body. This was only exaggerated by the fact that Jasmin decided to wear very large breasts that were only highlighted by the draping outfits. At first, I did not agree with the judges when they said that this outfit was way too much and I thought that the only thing I would change was the large dream catcher earrings. However, later in the episode, I was forced to eat my words but more on that later! Daya had been seen this episode demanding that no one else does a similar design to her and so I expected her to have something spectacular for the runway. She wore a very child-friendly pink and yellow striped outfit complete with an adorable pigtail head and a matching puppet! In the past few episodes, we have been seeing more and more of Maddy Morphosis’ personality and talent with last weeks spring cloud outfit being one of my favourite looks on drag race herstory! This week, however, I did not like her rainbow patchwork outfit due to how plain and basic it looked. She decided to dress up an inflatable man to join on the runway with very little cohesion between the challenge itself. I was very disappointed by this week’s look and the judges didn’t totally understand the underlying story Maddy was trying to portray. After her issues earlier in the episode, I was so relieved that Willow was able to create a look that was teddy-inspired with massive, over the top sleeves. My favourite look this episode however would have to be Bosco who did an incredible neon blue outfit with orange accents complete with trousers made from painting tarp and an orange cone necklace!
In the werk room, it was discussed how the queens are helping Jorgeous with the look this week as many of them are scared to be in a lip-sync against her. I know this is going to spark a massive debate online around how important challenge performance is against the lip-sync itself. This queen walked the runway in a very simple summer-inspired look which despite how basic it was still looked amazing in her petite body! I was shocked to learn that Jorgeous was declared as the winner of this weeks episode which I totally do not agree with! At the other end of the competition were Maddie and Jasmin who were both at the bottom this week. These two had had a little bit of drama during the untucked section of the episode and so this lip-sync was a lot more intense than it usually is! I said earlier about how at first I didn’t think that Jasmin’s look was too much but as soon as Jasmin started taking a section of the outfit off I realised what the judges had been saying. As soon as the skirt was revealed the look instantly looked so much better which worked so well with her sexy performance in the lip-sync. I thought that this performance was wonderfully sensual (although a little erratic) which really overshadowed Maddy’s angry mum character during the performance. At the end of the number, it was revealed that Jasmin is safe of the look and so we have to see Maddy has the magic chocolate to stay in the race. Unfortunately, she had a plain old chocolate bar and so will be leaving us, which is a real shame as she seemed to be growing and growing week by week! Maddy had made history just by being in the show and I loved many of her looks so I will be keeping an eye on her via social media as I’m sure she is going to be doing some great things in the very near future!
Overall this was an exciting design challenge episode of Ru Paul’s Drag Race, one that could have used a bit more structure so that it is easier for the viewers to compare the queens and their looks. There were many fantastic looks this week with added twists on the lip-sync with drama turning up the intensity of this last-ditch performance.
