It’s a new day in the workroom and there’s a shift in the universe that is season 13 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Tamisha Iman is gone and her departure has actually affected Kandy Muse, who not only has taken the criticism dealt to her by the judges, but also by Tamisha, whose proclamation that Kandy is arrogant has become a remixed song. Kandy made a big turnaround this week in the challenge and in Untucked, but where Kandy is rising, some other queens are sinking or just treading water.
At the very beginning of the episode, where everyone’s de-dragging out of last week’s runway looks, the queens congratulate Olivia Lux on her first win and when she says that it feels good to no longer be safe, the cameras cut to a dejected Denali, and then the focus sets on Elliott With 2 Ts. Elliott has been doing fairly well in the competition but she still feels like the black sheep of the group and she says she gets that she’s awkward but that it still gets her down. Knowing about some of the questionable and racist things that Elliott has posted outside of Drag Race, while simultaneously seeing her get an edit that makes it look like everyone exclude her for no reason is quite transparent – and after this week’s elimination, it makes me cringe to see just where this edit is going.
Reading Is Fundamental!
RuPaul enters the workroom in the most fabulous all-black outfit and this week’s mini-challenge is the Reading Challenge! A highlight of almost every season, each queen gets a chance to read, or insult, the other queens in the competition. This part of RuPaul’s Drag Race is taken directly from Paris Is Burning, where it’s explained how “reading is the real art form of insults” which was developed by BIPOC members of the ballroom and vogue scenes of New York. As the queens go down the line, some of the reads are really, really great and funny, while a few sadly, fall flat. Here are a few of the highlights:
- Denali to Gottmik, “You’re so L.A. that even your farts have a vocal fry.”
- Gottmik to Tina Burner, “If this whole drag thing doesn’t work out for you, you and them shoulders have a gorgeous career in the NFL,” to which Tina says, “thank you. Tight end,” which Gottmik responds with,” not what I heard.”
- Tina to Rosé, “Scottish Rosé, you are like a wine – everything a basic white girl would want. Every time I’m around you I get a headache and every time I look at your face I just see sour grapes.”
And unfortunately, the only really bad, awkward ones were from Elliott, further highlighting just how outside of the group she is, since none of her reads are funny. They really, really want us to feel bad for Elliott. And when Elliott is teamed up with Tina for the maxi-challenge, we get to learn a bit more about the actual dynamic between miss 2 Ts and the rest of the queens.
But first, the maxi-challenge. Set on the fictional daytime talk show “Bossy Rossy” with host Ross Mathews, the queens must put their improv skills to the test. Rosé, LaLa, and Denali are will be in the segment “I’m Pregnant With My Imaginary Boyfriend’s Baby”; Gottmik, Olivia, and Utica will be in “Breaking My Silence: Escape from the Cult of Mime-ology”; Kandy and Symone will be in “Former Teen Queens: Where Are They Now?”; and finally, Elliott and Tina will finish things off with “My Best Friend’s 600lb Ass Is Killing Our Friendship.” Meant as a parody of trashy, tabloid talk shows like Jerry Springer or Maury, the queens are given character prompts and a scenario but all of the actual content must be improvisational, with no script. Improv acting challenges have become more and more popular as the seasons have gone on because it’s easy to manipulate the outcome with some careful editing that makes someone look like they did worse than they actually did, especially in this episode as some of the best queens of the night are relegated to being safe.
As the queens prepare, there’s a lot of focus on Kandy needing to do something more than just her own bombastic self, LaLa needing to do way better than she did in the acting challenge back in episode 4. There’s also an emphasis on Denali wanting to Ru-deem herself from that same episode where she was in the bottom two and sent Kahmora Hall home, as well as how much Utica does improv acting back home. There are tiny little threads being attached to each of these queens as they sit in a pile and attempt to outdo each other; as of right now, it’s difficult to suss out just who will fail and get their thread cut. Since there’s no rehearsal, all of the foreshadowings come from these small scenes that, in reality, are showing us just what some of the queens think of each other. Tina points out that Olivia is a (polite) diva and, she makes a comment about how she’s not looking forward to working with Elliott.
Now that Tamisha is gone, Tina has kind of become the narrator for this episode and there’s a lot of onus on her to tell us the viewers what exactly is going on. What’s interesting about this angle from Tina is that it has been established that she may have an elitist streak since episode 1 suggested that she has a big problem with Rosé, the fact that she’s in the “Mean Girls” clique, and the fact that every word she says about another queen is barbed. So, having her as the narrator means that Tina’s words must be weighed against the narrative that’s being woven throughout this season.
Bossy Rossy After Dark
In the improv challenge, each group does a fantastic job at bringing the laughs, with very few weak links. In the “I’m Pregnant With My Imaginary Boyfriend’s Baby” segment, Rosé and Denali completely kill it as a mother and daughter who are sleeping with the same imaginary man and are both carrying his imaginary baby, but LaLa doesn’t do as well as their therapist who – shocker! – has also been sleeping with the imaginary boyfriend and is also pregnant. In the next segment, Olivia and Gottmik do so well as a therapist hocking her book on how mime-ology is a cult and a mime that gets her breakthrough in a “viral moment.” Utica does an okay job as Olivia’s motormouth mother who is the root of Olivia’s character choosing to join the “mime cult” and not speak for 20 years; there are some funny moments, but her characterization isn’t focused enough.
When it gets to Kandy and Symone’s “Former Teen Queens: Where Are They Now?” segment, Kandy is playing a Paris Hilton-type who used to star on “The Complicated Life” with her former best friend Symone, who’s a Nicole Richie-type using her reality star fame to sell candles. Kandy is very soft-spoken and plays off of Symone so well that the slow burn from their performance builds and builds and gets funnier and funnier, ending in a duet of a nursery rhyme (copyright-free, honey). Tina and Elliott playing two friends (who are secretly in love?) who worked at NASA together – until Tina quit after getting enormous butt implants. Tina is so hilarious in the scene, and when it’s revealed that Elliott has enormous breast implants, the two fight, tickle and then make out.
Their storyline trails off as soon as Elliott appears, making Elliott’s part seem like the downer of the bit, but it is really funny seeing the two of them use their enormous body parts to pile up on each other. The rest of the queens get to watch the others on a screen in the workroom, and just about everyone agrees that Elliott didn’t match Tina’s energy, which Elliot later takes note of later on. Before the queens go out on the mainstage in this week’s runway category “Bead It”, we see Symone being worried about her performance in the challenge (which she shouldn’t be) and she reveals that she’s a people-pleaser. She opens up about how her older brother went to prison and how it was devastating to Symone’s mother and because of that, Symone always wanted to do things perfectly so as not to upset her.
It’s a nice moment of vulnerability for Symone that we needed to see because she truly has been absolutely perfect so far this season. This is contrasted with Elliott opening up to Tina about how much getting a cold reception she’s been receiving from the others is bumming her out. If you had told me before that Elliott would be opening up to Tina and Tina would actually be helping Elliott, I would have never believed you. And yet, here we are; not only are we seeing another side of Tina, but we are getting as close as we most likely ever will get to what it is about Elliott that rubs the other queens the wrong way. Tina tells Elliott that she doesn’t come off as just being herself but is instead being her drag character which is sometimes too much for everyone. Elliott then talks about how she has severe clinical depression and how it makes her try too hard to fit in (something that Kandy had said in their small confrontation two weeks ago) which we caught a glimpse of during the Reading Challenge but little elsewhere. As we learn about Elliott’s struggle, we also learn that Tina knows firsthand what clinical depression is like, as Tina’s mother suffered from it when Tina was growing up. In the confessional, Tina holds back tears when talking about how hard depression is and how ashamed she feels for judging Elliott so harshly. The two hug, and while the whole exchange completely humanizes Tina, it still kind of leaves a question mark over what to make of Elliott. As mentioned before, Elliott outside of the show has shown herself to be problematic and there have been suggestions that Elliott may have acted a bit like that during filming, but there’s still no footage we’re seeing of this in the seven weeks that the season has been airing. It’s peculiar, and hopefully, there’s some actual clarity sometime soon – maybe in the Reunion episode?
“That’s a lot of emotion for safe”
It’s time for the runway and joining RuPaul, Michelle Visage, and Bossy Rossy host Ross Mathews on the judging panel is LGBT activist TS Madison. Just about every single runway look is gorgeous, especially Denali’s chandelier lamp-inspired look, Symone’s unparalleled “Zulu African Warrior” look, and Tina Burner’s super fun, super campy Mardi Gras bead outfit, complete with a surprise breastplate. Despite how excellent Denali and Tina’s looks are, they along with Gottmik and Rosé, are declared safe. Considering just how good Rosé, Denali, and Tina did in this week’s challenge, it really doesn’t feel right for the three of them to be safe. And as we see in Untucked, Denali feels the same way because she gets really mad about being in the safe zone AGAIN and not getting to showcase her absolutely unbelievable beaded garment. Things get really emotional for her and some of the other queens and, while it’s completely warranted, it’s still like, hey at least you get to stay and prove your talent. As Trixie Mattel said in All Stars 3, “That’s a lot of emotion for safe.”
Meanwhile, the judges are making their critiques and when looking at the six queens up there, it is obvious who the tops and bottoms are. Symone and Kandy worked well together so it makes sense for them to be in the top, but considering just how fun and animated Olivia was as a mime (on top of her cute runway look) basically guaranteed her the win for the week. If it wasn’t going to be one of the safe girls, it was going to be Olivia who’s now the first queen this season to win two weeks in a row, making her and Symone the undisputed frontrunners of the competition.
This means that LaLa, Utica, and Elliott are at the bottom and it’s announced that the two who will be lip-syncing are LaLa and Elliott. This is now LaLa’s second time having to lip-sync, and Elliott’s first. The song is “Whole Lotta Woman” by Kelly Clarkson and, considering these have proven themselves to be fantastic performers, it is certainly a fight. Both queens turn it out but RuPaul decides to spare Elliott and tells LaLa to sashay away. It’s sad to see LaLa Ri go as she is a queen of talent, beauty, and a great presence in the confessionals but it looks like there’s still a lot more storyline that Ru and the production team want to squeeze out of Elliott With 2 Ts so ultimately, she’s the one to stay another week.
Conclusion
With Elliott landing in the bottom, everything within this week’s episode was building up to her being the one to stay: from her heart-to-heart with Tina Burner to the fact that Kandy Muse came to her side in Untucked to make her feel better and to build her up, there’s a lot of focus on this awkward queen with middle-of-the-road fashion and a problematic social media presence. It’s a weird thing to wrestle with as a fan of the show because there’s no way Elliott is winning this season (statistics still show that it will be Symone, Olivia, Gottmik, or Denali) and this focus on her seems to be leading nowhere. It’s akin to Vanessa Vanjie Mateo’s storyline in season 11 where she was a fan favorite that everyone loved, but she never won anything which made her presence on the show seem like it was simply just to keep her (Vanjie was also a part of some show romance that production had been begging for for years). There’s nothing wrong with Elliott’s characterization on this season of Drag Race but there’s really just not a lot there. She was used as melancholy cannon fodder as the queen who was voted off at the beginning of the season, and now she’s being portrayed as a black sheep amongst the cast – what gives? Where is this going? I suppose we’ll have to wait another week to find out.
What did you think of this week’s episode? Do you think that Denali and Rosé are being overlooked? Do you think the right queen was chosen to stay another week? Let us know in the comments below!
A new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 can be seen every Friday at 8/7c on VH1.
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