RECAP: Drag Race France Season 4, Episode 4 (Snatch Game)
First, je suis desole — I ran out of time to recap Episode 3 of “Drag Race France” Season 4. I was on the West Coast for business last week, and there are only so many hours in a day. It was the Rusical, which was…interesting. I absolutely loved the fine-art runway — Fluffly Bidule’s look is an all-timer for “Drag Race.” And we lost the absolutely lovely Margarette from the competition. Quelle dommage!
Episode 4 gave us the Snatch Game, which I think was largely successful, and that’s coming from someone who does not understand French. I don’t think any of the queens fully flopped it, as we’ve seen on so many other seasons. That 3-in-1 food-related reveal runway, however, was not it. Read on for my take – SPOILERS AHEAD – but please know I am very much an American swine, and I only took one semester of French in college.
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I’ll go over each queen’s individual performance this episode, but first, I wanted to comment on the episode’s discussion on chemsex. I found this fascinating and honest in a way most “Drag Race” franchises rarely achieve. This season is pretty much devoid of interpersonal drama, as all the queens genuinely seem to like each other. That is allowing for them to go deeper than just the typical mirror discussions in the work room (which, in fairness, can also be quite affecting). The frank conversation about hard drugs in the gay community, and how they can impact gay men’s lives, their health, their relationships, and even lead them into very dangerous situations, is something I’m not seeing pretty much anywhere else. We don’t really talk about it, but meth has been ravaging this community for YEARS, and I don’t see its popularity waning in New York City. Well done on this show for actually naming something that is killing bright young men. The only way we deal with this is by being honest about what is happening, and why. So, thank you, show.
Azemylia: This was a good episode for Azemylia, even though she was one of the worst performers in the Snatch Game. She picked Fauve Hatot, who is a professional dancer on the French version of “Dancing with the Stars.” Azemylia played her like, frankly, a crazy person, and was called out by the panelists for taking liberties with the character that made her virtually unrecognizable. But being in the Bottom 2 allowed Azemylia some human moments, especially in her interactions with her friend, Holly White. I found their moments this episode quite moving.
Daisy Superbitch: I’m going to be honest, Daisy has become my favorite queen this season. I think she’s the total package. Her Jacques Chirac was very clearly nervous in the beginning, with a few rambling answers. But it was a great transformation and impersonation, and the performance got stronger as the Snatch Game went on. She gave us one of the few successful 3-in-1 looks of the night, especially the final whipped cream-based garment. She was High for this episode, and I think she could have been justified as the winner.
Fluffy Bidule: Fluffy, meanwhile, had a rough episode. She picked singer and host Marianne James, about whom I know virtually nothing. She was quite low energy throughout the Snatch Game, and if she was going for jokes, none of them landed. Fluffy ended up in the Bottom 3, and was named by nearly half the girls as the queen who should go home that night, given how poorly she did in the Snatch Game.
Holly White: I really felt for Holly this episode. She followed up two straight Bottom 3 appearances with another misfire, as she chose Mariah Carey for Snatch Game. You would think that Mariah would be an ideal Snatch character, and yet I can’t think of an instance in which a queen has nailed it — and many have tried. I found this to be a hard watch, simultaneously super obvious and clumsily delivered. I did not care for the 3-in-1 runway at all. I found Holly’s plea for the Golden Baguette moving. She wants to rep for over-40 queens, and it is driving her crazy to spend week after week barely scraping by the competition after being successful in this craft for decades. I can only imagine how frustrating that is for her. But you cannot deny that Holly has performed among the worst for at least the past three episodes.
La Harpie: La Harpie gave us French singer Lara Fabian for Snatch Game, and honestly I thought it was dreadful. That was a ROUGH Lara Fabian. That was a Lara Fabian who needed an intervention. The only thing that pushed La Harpie to Safe for me was delivering the only truly successful 3-in-1 runway of the night. Really cool concept, great execution, memorable look. She’s a very strong runway queen. She was lucky to be Safe, though.
Lana Cotta: Lana gave us Celine Dion, and I thought this was tremendously ballsy on her part. She did not hold back in her interpretation of Celine as boozing, petty, and money obsessed. The part that made everyone, including myself, gasp was when she pulled out the hand prop from her (honestly bad) E.T. runway from Episode 2 and suggested that it was a part of her late husband/manager, Rene, and she kept it with her for…reasons. That was shocking, and I’m pretty sure we will never see Celine Dion guest star on “Drag Race France” after that. But Lana was funny, and she volleyed with Nicky and the other queens beautifully. On the runway she had a strong concept with her grape > wine runway, but the execution was rickety crickety. She did, however, give us a breast plate that actually dispensed wine from the nipple, and that alone is deserving of praise.
Sublyme: Sublyme had an interesting episode. She was completely imploding prior to Snatch Game, claiming that she’s not funny, she’s not quick, she cannot improvise, and was basically psyching herself out of the whole competition. But in reality, her choice of soccer player Franck Ribery was a huge hit! I know absolutely nothing about that man, and I know even less about soccer — and I don’t care to know. But even I got how funny this was, in a deadpan way. A humanizing episode for Sublyme.
Sublyme, Daisy, and Lana were named the Top 3, with Lana getting the win — that’s four different winners over four episodes, which you love to see. Lana also had the Golden Baguette, after surviving the Bottom 2 last episode. Even after the desperate pleas of Holly White and Azemylia to not pit the two friends against each other, Lana gave the baguette to Fluffy Bidule, saying explicitly that the decision was not based on strategy, it was based on her heart. I appreciated that, though I think it may rub some of the other queens the wrong way.
Azemylia and Holly lipsynced to a dreadful song called “Clic Clic Pan Pan” by YANNS, and I’m sorry, but it’s a boot for me. Terrible lipsync song, it never builds to anything. Yes, there’s a solid beat, but the energy of the whole thing is so detached and masculine coded — it makes no sense on this show, in my opinion. Azemylia pulled out a few tricks, and just as I saw in the talent show, she can move for sure but her landings lack grace. They’re less splits, more like splats. (Not that I should talk, I can barely walk without injuring myself.) It didn’t matter: Azemylia was named the winner, and Holly was eliminated.
The elimination, however, was special. Holly has been a friend of host Nicky Doll for years, as they disclosed early in the series. Nicky told her that she needed to speak to her in two different ways: as the host of the show, and as her friend. You could see how upset Nicky was here, and this is part of what makes “Drag Race France” so special. Other franchise hosts have genuine connections to these queens — Supremme Deluxe on “Espana,” Mama Pao on “Philippines,” Brooke Lynn Hytes on “Canada.” You can see them wrestling with eliminating queens with whom they have a serious affection. But Nicky really lays her soul bare in a way that those others don’t. She’s so real and vulnerable with these queen, and I found this to be a lovely moment for both her and Holly. Holly is a legend, Holly is a star, and as Nicky said, if it weren’t for Holly, there’s a good chance there may never have been a “Drag Race France.” I’m grateful we got to see her on this show, and I hope she is getting the flowers she most assuredly deserves.
What do YOU think of “Drag Race France” Season 4? Which queens are you rooting for? Drop your comments below!
