SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details about the episode 5 of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.
Based on that recap from last week, there is some tension building within Heidi. She says she has “tea that will burn the competition down”. That energy makes me anxious.
Jimbo is becoming too big too fail… and I am not just talking about her boobies. She’s racked up a second win as Darienne has sashayed away and given Jaymes more closet space.
After a game of pin the tail on Heidi, they count the lip stick vote and find that everyone voted for Darienne – except for Darienne. She voted for Jaymes. Jimbo chose Darienne as well. So I guess it really was Darienne’s time.
The next day in the Werk Room, Lala and Alexis continue their “will they won’t they – but you know they will” relationship and Ru tells the queens that they will be competing in “The Snatch Game of Love”, a pivotal moment in the All-Stars competition. It separates the drag queens from the drag superstars.
We start to learn who the queens will be impersonating. For her very first “Snatch Game, Lala has chosen Love & Hip Hop star and “plastic surgery advocate” Sukihana. Jaymes, who is also participating in her first “Snatch Game” decides on Jennifer Coolidge and it feels like it’s going to work in her favor.
Jessica chooses to step into the shoes of the “Dolly Parton of Puerto Rico” Iris Chacón, while Alexis, who won her season’s “Snatch Game” is taking on the difficult task of impersonating the Golden Girl icon herself, Bea Arthur.
Kahanna tells Ru that she will beat her face with cheese puff powder and pay homage to her drag mother Coco Montrese. I have mixed feelings about queens impersonating other queens. It hasn’t worked for everyone. We also learn that Heidi is going to don a peg leg and be Black Beard the pirate… that’s a choice and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Jimbo won “Snatch Game” in Drag Race Canada with a killer impression of Joan Rivers. However, she has not participated in the game with RuPaul because she left Drag Race vs. Canada before she had the chance. For this “Snatch” Jimbo reveals that she will be Shirley Temple. This is going to make Ru laugh, for sure.
It’s time for the first round of “Snatch Game of Love” with the first snatchelor, actor and Las Culturistas co-host Matt Rogers. He has the choice of Black Beard (Heidi), Iris Chacón (Jessica), Coco Montrese (Kahanna), and Jennifer Coolidge (Jaymes) – who is the clear winner of this bunch.
Jaymes effortlessly navigates the “Snatch Game of Love” with clever jokes, comebacks, and energy. The worst is Kahanna, unfortunately – and she knows it. Heidi knows it to and she pretty much kicks her while she’s down during the game. Kahanna mentions this in her confessional and I feel like this is going to come up again.
As for Jessica, she’s there and she does a fine job… but it doesn’t really go anywhere.
Matt ends up chooses Jennifer Cooldige – and it’s the right choice.
Round two of “Snatch Game of Love” welcomes Saturday Night Live actor and Las Culturistas co-host Bowen Yang as the snatchelor. He has a the choice of a nice lineup of beauties including Bea Arthur (Alexis), Renee Graziano of Mob Wives (Kandy), Sukihana (Lala), and Shirley Temple (Jimbo).
All four queens are performing fairly well and Bowen and Ru are both having a good time, but as expected, when it’s Jimbo’s turn, she devours the stage with this bizarrely frightening and entertainingly psychotic impression of Shirley Temple. Kandy and Lala perform well and Alexis comes in a far second place from Jimbo. Everyone is great but when Jimbo starts frenetically tap dancing on stage, it was over for the others.
Bowen ends up choosing Shirley Temple and it is a match made in heaven.
But before either Matt or Bowen go on their dates, Ru demands that they must lip sync for their love. They do and everyone lives happily ever after… until the next day’s runway when someone will be sent home.
Before the runway, Kandy does the funniest tap dancing performance in Jimbo’s Shirley Temple wig in the Werk Room that deserves an Emmy. Things take a turn when whispers of shady behavior start to make their way through the room.
Kahanna admits to Kandy that she did not like how Heidi treated her during “Snatch Game of Love”. “I’m already under the bus, I don’t need you to roll on top of me…that’s not what sisters do,” said Kahanna.
Then Kandy says she heard that Heidi was talking sh*t. Apparently Heidi went to Jimbo and told her that Kandy wanted to eliminate her from the competition and that Jimbo needed to watch out for her. Kandy denies these allegations.
Wait, aren’t the three of them supposed to be in an alliance? And remember Heidi’s “tea” that was supposed to burn this competition down? Kandy claims the tea is not true.
Eventually, Kahanna lays it out on the table and tells Heidi that she was pushing her buttons while she was struggling. Heidi didn’t see it that way and felt that Kahanna might be able to volley back jokes to which Kahanna responds: “I wasn’t even hitting jokes Ru was hitting me!”
Heidi is apologetic but as Jaymes points out in her confessional, “Heidi was playing ‘Snatch Game’ just as God intended.”
Things seem to be simmering down but then Kandy decides to confront Heidi about the Jimbo situation.
“Why did you tell Jimbo I was coming for?” asks Kandy point blank.
“Because you did,” answers Heidi, motioning across the room. “Alexis?”
Now Alexis is involved?! This is getting juicy.
All parties not involved in this spat are metaphorically eating popcorn and soaking this drama in with excitedly raised eyebrows and dropped jaws.
Alexis is silent and has an “oh sh*t! what do I do now?!” look on her face.
Heidi says Alexis was present when Kandy said this. “Tell the truth, shame the devil,” Heidi declares.
Alexis admits that she does not want to be involved but it is way too late for that – but she is nodding. Jimbo asks again, “Did Kandy say that to you?”
“I am nodding because Kandy said that to me,” Alexis says uncomfortably.
“I said I’m gunning for her?” Kandy chimes in.
Alexis pauses, thinks for a moment and responds, “No.”
Now it is a she said, she said story and somebody is lying.
With one eyebrow, Kandy is trying to gather the moment to make things clear, but it feels like nothing is going to be clear.
The energy in the room has shifted and not for the better. It is silent.
“You can hear a rat piss on cotton,” says Heidi. “I feel very alone and it’s not sitting right with me.”
Heidi reiterates to Jimbo about what she heard from Kandy. She then says, “Let’s have a good time tonight and when it comes to voting, vote Heidi.”
In an unprecedented moment, Heidi is clearly struggling to find words or a grasp of hope and says that she is going to leave because she doesn’t like what the competition has become.
Heidi leaves the Werk Room and normally we would think, “They do this all the time!” But this time, it seems real – because it is. The queens – including Kandy – try to talk her out of it, but Heidi has made her choice.
“At the end of the day, she’s my sister – and I don’t want my sister to go!” says Kandy.
“I have done what I came here to do,” says Heidi in her confessional. “I came here to have fun, show my growth and have a kiki, honey… and I have done all that.”
It is official: Heidi has left the competition.
Alexis has tearful moment that makes no sense but is more about her than the actual moment. Jimbo is left wondering who she could trust.
Ru walks on to the main stage in a patriotic-lite number that shows off her spectacular gams. She welcomes judges Michelle Visage, Ross Mathews as well as special guest judges, our “snatchelors”, Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers.
This week’s runway category is: “Ruveal Yourself!” – and we all love a good ruveal! Ru also mentions to the judges that Heidi has decided to remove herself from the competition and this was Michelle’s reaction:
Here’s how the queens fared on the runway:
- Jessica: A fabulous homage to her season when she dressed as a chicken.
- Kahanna: Loving this showgirl lewk, but her reveals could be a little bit more imaginative. Love the burlesque energy, though.
- Jaymes: She puts on an on-brand muppet burlesque runway that ends with exposed boobies.
- Kandy: Loved the first two lewks and the story it was telling, but the third looks like the budget ran out.
- Lala: A gorgeous bodysuit lewk, but the reveal leaves much to be desired.
- Jimbo: Her Adam & Eve lewk is wildly terrifying but very funny. It’s a shoot for me.
- Alexis: The Into The Woods transformation from grotesque witch to beautiful witch is stunning.
Ru has made some decisions and Kandy and Lala are safe.
That sounds about right.
The judges’ critiques start with Jessica. Michelle isn’t wild about her “Snatch Game” as Iris Chacón and Ru didn’t get her point of view.The judges love her lewk but it feels that she is in the bottom. It’s the same story with Kahanna, they love her “alluring” runway lewk, but the her impersonation of Coco in “Snatch Game” was not giving. She is more than likely in the bottom as well.
Jaymes gets praised for her performance as Jennifer Coolidge, but Michelle calls her out on the fit of her runway lewk.
“I lost weight! I didn’t expect that to happen!” Jaymes admits.
Michelle also wants her to switch it up with silhouettes, while Ross and Bowen praise Jaymes’s “yassification of Jim Henson”.
Alexis scores high points with her “Snatch Game” performance as Bea Arthur. Ru really loved it and her runway lewk gets good marks as well.
“I ask with the kindness in my heart: ‘What the f*ck is wrong with you?’” asks Michelle when it’s Jimbo’s turn.
“It was just wrong in all the best ways,” praises Michelle.
“I feel like with you, Jimbo, the concept matches the quality matches the comedy – you bring those together so well,” says Bowen.
“I actually would go far as to say that you are the best physical comedian that Drag Race has ever seen,” admits Matt.
…and we haven’t even gotten to her Adam & Eve lewk yet!
“It’s next level,” says Michelle. It’s so next level that Jimbo gets her third win. This leaves Jaymes and Alexis as safe and Jessica and Kahanna are in the bottom.
After some dramatic voting moments in “The Ladies Room”, Jimbo awaits which lip sync assassin is behind the curtain…it’s Jasmine Kennedie from season 14 (and she is looking unbelievably illuminating!).
The queens lip sync to Dua Lipa’s “Hallucinate” and Jimbo is doing a good job, but Jasmine is a fantastic performer – and she wins which means the $20K rolls over to next week!
Jessica and Kahanna walk on to the stage. The music then gets dramatic and Ru announces: “With great power comes great responsibility. That is why I have made this difficult decision…”
Everyone in the room waits for what’s next with bated breath.
Ru declares confidently: “I will continue to be blonde!” To which the room is met with laughs, reliefs and looks of “can you just let me know if I am eliminated from the competition?!” worry from Jessica and Kahanna.
“No one is going home tonight!” Ru shouts from the judges’ panel.
Honestly, the queens should be thanking Heidi for this double shantay.