SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details about the episode 5 of RuPaul’s Drag Race
The queens are somewhat somber as they walk into the Werk Room and see Robin’s lipstick message which tells Loosey to “slay these hoes” and informs that she will be blocking Jax, who was the queen that sent her home.
As the queens decompress from the results from the mainstage, we revisit the “Heavy Metal Feud of 2023”. Malaysia is feeling some kind of way about Mistress and Luxx’s mean girl behavior when it came to the debate for the heavy metal song. She felt disrespected and bullied from every angle (her opinions really came out in Untucked).
Mistress calmly approaches the situation and asks if Malaysia cares to comment. Malaysia throws out the first “I said what I said” of the season. Then Sasha comes in to defend her and explain to Mistress why Malaysia is offended which prompts Mistress to say in her confessional: “I don’t appreciate Sasha trying to utilize every moment to be a ‘teaching’ moment for us as if she is f*cking Dumbledore or something.”
The unpacking of feelings begin as Mistress, Sasha and Luxx hash it out. All ends up being resolved with the exception of Malaysia. She is not happy and the heat between her and Mistress begins to turn up and they definitely are not playing RuPaull’s Best Friends Race. It looks like the two of them took their playful shady banter a little too far and now someone’s feelings are genuinely hurt.
The next day in the Werk Room, tensions are a little high and the other queens are walking on egg shells around Mistress and Malaysia – who still are not cool with each other.
RuPaul walks in to tell the queens that they will be playing feuding Drag Race dynasties in a sitcom version of The Daytona Winds, a continuation of last season’s soap acting extravaganza – but this time, with a laugh track.
Since Aura won last week, she gets to assign the queens the characters they will be playing in The Daytona Winds southern fried sitcom which is about Big Daddy’s funeral and all the honkey tonk mistresses and ladies of the night. There is one role that everyone wants: Fancy Michaels – the town’s classiest prostitute. It calls for a big personality and it’s clearly this week’s “I want metal” as Anetra points out.
Aura is set on being Fancy, or as she called the character, “Fantasy” while Malaysia is excited to play the Reverend and Jax is thrilled to land the part of a massive stoner. Meanwhile, Mistress volunteers to be the Widow while all the other queens eventually agree on the other roles.
Everyone is happy with their characters and then the gag is revealed: Malaysia and Mistress share a lot of scenes. That said, the other queens admit they’re excited to see Malisstress (thanks for the portmanteau, Marcia!) implode.
At the table read, Aura struggles with the role of Fancy. The most extra moment of the episode was when Aura said that she was “not connecting” to the term “rigar morris”. Mistress swoops in and helps… but then convinces Aura to hand over the role of Fancy to her. Everyone – especially Malaysia – see the scam Mistress is pulling.
Nonetheless, when Ru starts directing them, it’s clear that Malaysia and Mistress’s feud is helping fuel their performance because they are delivering the goods while Jax, Spice, and Aura struggle. They struggle A LOT – specifically Aura.
Then, out of nowhere, the doorbell on set rings and a mystery guest walks in and the queens are gagged at who it is… which will be revealed when they premiere The Daytona Winds on the mainstage.
As the queens get ready for runway day, it’s time for Melistress to squash this ridiculous argument – and they do it quite quickly because we don’t have time for dwelling on nonsense with these one-hour episodes (BTW: episodes are back to 90 minutes on March 10. Everyone’s belly-aching worked!)
On the mainstage, Ru welcomes Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley, and special guest judge What We Do In The Shadows actor Harvey Guillén. The category for this week’s runway is: “Puffer Please” and this is how they fared:
- Loosey: A cute and clever Stay Puft Marshmallow woman lewk.
- Spice: Her lewk is giving Sundance Film Festival basicness.
- Sasha: A yellow and black queen bee lewk that is destined to keep her ahead in the race.
- Luxx: Loved it. It’s Barbarella meets Judy Jetson meets Lisa Frank.
- Malaysia: She looked like a gorgeously refreshing pitcher of lemonade.
- Aura: Gorgeous. If she was on season 8 for the Madonna “Kimonogate” episode, she definitely would have won.
- Jax: I appreciate the look, but it consumes and squishes her.
- Mistress: Her ‘90s hip-hop FUBU skin-baring puffer look was everything.
- Anetra: Feels like her brand is hoe and it doesn’t feel like she is giving us anything other than that.
- Marcia: Cute, but her Marcia aesthetic needs to evolve faster.
- Salina: Listen, any lewk that includes Flamin’ Hot Cheetos underwear gets a thumbs up from me.
As they play The Daytona Winds, it is clear that this is supposed to be weird and awkward – but also funny. It is all explained when Ru said it was an homage to Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Which is known for its surreal and off-off-off-center humor. And remember that surprise guest? It was Danny Trejo!
Those who struggled in rehearsal also struggled on screen while, as expected, Malistress brought all the hilarity to The Daytona Winds, exceeding expectations.
Ru makes some decisions: Loosey, Luxx, Sasha, and Salina are safe. This leaves Spice, Aura, and Jax on the bottom while Malaysia, Mistress, Anetra, and Marcia are on top.
Of the critiques, Mistress is getting tons of praise for her performance on The Daytona Winds in the sought-after role of Fancy as well as her sickening runway lewk. Malaysia is not far behind with the words of praise while it feels like Anetra and Marcia were paired for some odd reason.
Spice is called out for her boring, purse holding, cutesy tip-toe runway walk and her basic runway look. She also didn’t do that well the main challenge. Jax is told that her performance in The Daytona Winds had no point of view while Michelle gives her some makeup tips – but surprisingly, no critiques on her runway lewk. Aura is praised for her runway lewk and is dragged for her performance.
After all is said and done, Mistress gets her first win while Jax is, once again in the bottom with first-timer Aura.
Part of me is excited that Jax is in the bottom two because she can put on a incredible LSFYL performance. This week, she delivered the goods and then some as she ate up the stage and did her thing to “Sweetest Pie” by Dua Lipa and Megan Thee Stallion.
Aura didn’t stand a chance as Jax effortlessly sends her packing.