SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details about the episode 6 of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.
There are MANY things that happened last week that still have us either scratching our head or just gagged altogether – and I don’t think that is the end of it!
First off, Heidi’s self-elimination was a shocker! Good for her recognizing she had to dip out for mental health reasons, but it is still an unexpected turn of events.
Alexis’s ambiguous answer to Heidi’s interrogation as well as Kandy’s alleged strategy to eliminated Jimbo has left a lot of things in the air.
Take this as a lesson queens: alliances are dangerous. Remember how Michelle Visage stressed the danger in having cliques in the competition during the RoLaskaTox season?
On top of all that, it was a double shantay last week so the pressure is on as a double sashay away can also happen. RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars loves to keep you guessing.
When it’s time to count the lip stick vote of who would have went home, Kahanna tallies five votes for her and one for Jessica, which was obviously Kahanna’s lip stick. Jimbo also ended up picking Kahanna’s lip stick. All of this tracks – and Kahanna ain’t mad about it.
Jimbo is getting very in her head about not being able to win any of the three lip syncs. She is frustrated and in tears because she “chokes” every time she takes the stage. Let’s be honest, Jimbo is not the strongest lip sync performer of the bunch but she’s determined to win at least one.
It cannot be denied that Jimbo is clearly the frontrunner of the Snatch Game of Love challenge. Some queens have put a target on Jimbo’s back while the others seem like they are just minding their own business.
“The real competition has started!” Kandy says dramatically as she fears for her own safety in the competition.
The juiciness of it all!
The queens enter the Werk Room the next day and it decked out in Joan Crawford posters. We have reached the Rusical challenge and it is, as the Werk Room hinted a musical about the iconic Hollywood legend.
Ru walks in to let the queens know that the queens will embody Crawford in various stages of her career in JOAN: The Unauthorized Rusical with Hairspray director and choreographer Adam Shankman.
Of course, Alexis is confident with this challenge. It’s her cup of tea. I’m also expecting Jaymes, Jimbo, and Lala to excel. Jessica and Kahanna are in that gray area and Kandy points out that she was “sent home” (because she really didn’t go home) during the Rusical challenge of her season. That said, Kandy admits she is triggered.
After attempting to go through picking their roles with minimal drama, it comes down to an “audition” for the wire hanger number between Jessica and Kandy. Kandy wins.
Kahanna puts it best about Kandy’s win: “Even though the Cookie Monster voice is strong: it’s hitting the notes!”
Now Kandy admits she has more pressure on her to flawlessly execute the role because of how hard she fought for it.
Leland (who is serving Fred from Scooby Doo energy) records tracks for the Rusical with the queens and Kandy remarks how Jaymes is one to watch out for in this challenge. Hm. Kandy has something brewing.
I said that Lala was one to look out for in this challenge, but she ain’t hitting those notes. However, her commitment to performance is what will get her through this challenge.
After Jessica vocally struggles with the word “axe”, Alexis lets her inner Rachel Barry shine like an inferno and expectedly shines in her recording.
During the choreography, we see that Kahanna, Jaymes, Kandy and Jimbo are struggling and Lala, Jessica, and, of course, Alexis (who was in Oklahoma!) are doing well. My predictions were totally wrong.
On performance day, Alexis is feeling herself and it feels like it’s her win to lose.
The mood feels confident in the room – mostly with Jaymes and Alexis. Kandy is worried – her PTSD is bubbling up.
The group is getting smaller and the competition is getting tougher. Kandy admits that she’s about to throw some marbles on the stage.
Lala asks how everyone is going to vote and there is non-conversation about how everyone is going to vote. At this point in the game, they can talk voting strategy all they want but it’s clear that it’s every queen for themselves – and Kandy will be the first to elbow her way to the front.
Right before it cuts to the mainstage, the queens give their best Mommie Dearest impressions while Lala chimes in with an impression of Mo’Nique’s character in Precious – which is probably one of the most hilarious moments of the season.
RuPaul, looking like a snatched Greek goddess gladiator in a statuesque gown, she introduces us to judges Michelle Visage, Ts Madison as well as special guest judge and JOAN choreographer, Adam Shankman.
The Rusical starts and everyone feels like they’re doing the thing. However, we’ll separate the tops from the bottoms in the solo performances – but even all of those are pretty strong. And surprisingly, it feels like Kandy is giving Alexis a run for her money with her wire hanger performance.
The category for this week’s runway “Night of a Thousand Grace Joneses”. Here’s how the queens slayed (or didn’t slay):
- Kahanna: A gorgeous lewk for Kahanna. It has her signature Vegas showgirl style, but needs more Grace Jones.
- Jaymes: She replicates Grace’s foxtail fur lewk that is wildly fashionable but has some execution problems.
- Kandy: Loved this geometric Mondrian-esque fantasy.
- Jessica: A simple and elegant drag take on Grace’s famous hooded Alaia lewk.
- Lala: It’s severe and fierce – enough to keep her safe.
- Alexis: I love this McQueen-ish, borderline Asian appropriation couture gown.
- Jimbo:The caged gown is not her strongest lewk, but it is a different lewk for the clown queen – complete with a hat of hair.
Ru has announced Jimbo and Alexis as safe (that must be killing her inside).
Before the critques, the judges gush about how “unbelievable” the Rusical was – and it was. As Michelle says, everyone was great and it’s now about separating the A’s from the A+’s.
Kahanna gets mixed critiques – mostly for her performance while Jaymes gets kudos for her performance but the judges commented that she needed work on her choreography. Her foxtail lewk wasn’t popular with the judges, either.
The judges are praising Kandy for her performance and her lewk. The judges are eating her up so much that they are all getting toothaches.
The judges clearly disagree with me because they put Jaymes in the bottom and Jessica in the top – and I get it. Between the two, Jaymes was the weaker perfomer tonight. However, the judges agree with my take on Lala’s performance this week. They loved her in the Rusical but wanted more from her Grace Jones lewk – because she’s the one most built like her and she didn’t go balls to the wall.
Ru announces her decisions. Kandy is the winner! (Again, this is probably eating Alexis from the inside out.) Jessica and Lala are safe while Kahanna and Jaymes are in the bottom.
This is Kahanna’s third time in the bottom. If we do the math and if the queens stick with their voting style, Kahanna should be the one to be sent home. As Jaymes points out, the queens all voted for her to go home last week.
After voting, Angeria Paris VanMicheals is ru-vealed as this week’s lip sync assassin. The two perform to Grace Jones’s “I’m Not Perfect But I’m Perfect For You”. As much as I love Angeria, it feels like Kandy had this win from the jump. I just saw it in her eyes.
As expected, Ru announces Kandy as the winner of the lip sync and the $30,000 that rolled over from the last three lip syncs that Jimbo lost.
When it’s time to find out who Kandy picked to go home, we expect her to pull out Kahanna’s lip stick, right? WRONG. She has chosen Jaymes to go home.
Jaymes, like us, is shocked.
All Stars has reached the next level of drama on the road to a utopia of Drag Race drama and it is only going to get better.