‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 9’ Episode 7 Recap

Does anyone else feel like they’re in limbo this season? I have a vague idea of ​​who is in the lead and who is not in the star counter, but the precise numbers regularly elude me. Who is technically in the lead? No idea. I have no idea what the current state of the competition is. Of course, all of this can be solved (and regularly is) with a quick Wikipedia search. My point is not that I can’t do research, it’s that I regularly forget facts soon after learning them. The whole season is soft – moments don’t stand out and the lack of eliminations results in a lack of texture. This is taking my mind off things a bit. On All the winners that wasn’t a problem because moments of pure, unflinching talent gave texture to the season. There was Jinkx’s Snatch Game (and his roast and his graduation speech, etc.), Monet’s opera, lip syncing, Raja’s latest look and Jaida’s personality augmentation, etc., etc., etc. Has anyone completely killed a challenge this season? Roxxxy, Angeria, and Plastique became the de facto favorites, but, aside from Plastique’s ball, I wouldn’t say any of their performances were legendarily good. And, in the context of this season, these kinds of performances are necessary. What else makes me watch?

Certainly not the drama, because, after a good moment of Roxxxy’s opera (how many episodes there are, I couldn’t tell you), everything else was just simmering tensions. The episode opens with a bunch of passive aggression from Roxxxy after being cut off by Angeria and a sad Nina. Plastique pretends not to know how good she is, which is cute. This is all pretty cool, except most of this stuff doesn’t seem “important.”

During the “The Next Day in the Workroom” segment, Jorgeous says, “We’re more than halfway through the competition. ” Oh! All right!

Plastic then begins the strategic discussion of the week. If there’s a highlight in this episode, it’s the thread of Plastique coming up with an objectively correct strategy (if you’re trying to make the top three, you should block out girls with a similar number of badges to yours, rather than the favorite), most of the girls ignore him, then Angeria finally executes him. It’s awesome.

The girls do a mini-challenge where they have to run with things between their legs. Nina wins and she gains immunity from the block. Cute!

This week’s challenge is an acting challenge in which the girls play roles specially written for them, loosely inspired by the films (but not really) and very close to their real characters. That is to say: it is not a challenge to act. They are not obliged to act. They have to memorize lines, but otherwise the girls play roles that, in a very literal sense, are just themselves. Ultimately, no one does poorly, largely because they aren’t allowed to.

The biggest obstacle of the week is them acting opposite Ru. Between this and the photo shoot challenge from the end of last season, it’s nice to see Ru getting more involved with the girls on a seemingly regular basis. She’s a good director and she understands what drag acting should look like. With girls regularly being recruited to star in commercials, TV shows and theater outside of Drag racing Nowadays, acting challenges remain a necessity to see who has the goods. At the same time, they are extremely painful to watch. So it’s good to have the added component of Ru to at least give some stakes to the proceedings.

A note about the fact that their individual scenes are supposed to be inspired by movies: no, they’re not. The scenes are practically identical. Also, the idea that these girls are supposed to have seen The cracked mirror It’s a bit silly. No, they haven’t.

One interesting thing is that, because wins are the only real results of the judges’ comments, several girls have incomplete arcs in this episode that are… supposed to feel good, I think? Jorgeous has had a really hard time not being funny this season, but I think we’re supposed to think that’s complete based on the roast and his work this week. But since she hasn’t won a comic challenge yet, I’m not sure I’ll buy this arc to finish. We’re also, I believe, supposed to think that Gottmik’s big arc in this episode (the not feeling good and also feeling feminine to show) is over. But, again, she didn’t win this week, so it doesn’t feel like she overcame anything. In normal seasons, getting good reviews can be notable enough to advance someone’s story (see Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige’s Snatch Game review in Season 16). Here it is the default.

On the track. The category is “Widow, cry for me”. Nina pulls out her best look yet this season with a very Disney take on an undead widow. The reveal is unnecessary and the second look is much worse than the first. Roxxxy looks seriously stunning in a wedding dress with bedazzled blood splatters and an axe. I’ve had some issues with his painting this season, but not here. Here she looks Perfect. Angeria makes a black widow spider look. She looks good! This is her best sculpted wig of the season so far. Plastic bears a superb áo dài. It’s breathtaking. Nothing more to say about that. Shannel makes a reveal, but the first look is mostly just a black tarpaulin. The second is nice, but it will have to have a little higher concept if it wants to stand out. Jorgeous’s is hopelessly basic. It’s difficult to be Jorgeous in this lineup. Gottmik’s latex bride is absolutely fantastic. Next level! Vanjie has another one of my favorites this week – there’s a New Orleans vibe to her umbrella and lingerie number, and this version of “Gothic” is a little more fun than the Disney stuff.

On the acting challenge: In my opinion, four queens actually do it GOOD, as in “it seems like they’re delivering lines in a human but also heightened way.” They are: Nina, Roxxxy, Angeria and Gottmik. Angeria is my favorite of the successful group, Nina is the most professional but the least memorable, Gottmik isn’t as big as the others and falls back into a Valley Girl thing, and Roxxxy has a few wrong notes in there. Yet they are all castable, which is what the series wants. Besides: Shannel’s scene is the strangest, but she comes out intact. Jorgeous gives him everything. Vanjie is legitimately funny, although the question of how much control she actually has over this performance still torments me. And Plastique is just awful. Every line she delivers is poorly delivered. From her video performance, it seems like she was fine when she wrote the lines, but no one should ever ask her to proofread a script again.

In the end, Vanjie and Nina win. Sure, I guess, although it gets a little weird to me that as the series progresses, Gottmik tends to fall out of the top three. They lip sync to Teena Marie’s “Lovergirl.” Great track. Nina gives by far the best lip sync she’s ever given on this show, but a wide berth. I would have given him the victory, but Ru chose Angeria. All right! In the best moment of the episode, Angeria takes Plastique’s advice and cuts Mik. Mik is angry, but the strategy is airtight. Amusing!