RECAP: RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 18, Episode 6 (Talent Show 2)
To quote “Manchild” by Sabrina Carpenter, “Oh, boy.”
Last week, the first half of the Season 18 Talent Show gave us mostly good to very good talents and some concerning strategizing over the Rate-a-Queen peer voting mechanic. This week it was a downgrade all around, as we got mostly disappointing talents and some deeply messed-up results from Rate-a-Queen — and people are not happy. I think this is going to be an episode that defines this season, some members of this cast, and could potentially hurt the reputation of the series itself.
That might sound like hyperbole, but I think it’s true. The Rate-a-Queen shenanigans in Episode 6 put into focus the dual nature of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Is it a talent competition, or is it a reality TV show? At its best, it is both. This episode was not its best. Because viewers expecting a talent show were forced to deal with results that were blatantly nonsensical. In Episode 5, the two top placements made perfect sense, and the one bottom spot — determined not by the judges, but by the queens not performing that week — did not feel correct, but was at least understandable. In Episode 6, one of the top spots was determined solely by politics, and the bottom spot had no relation to what happened on that stage.
That disconnect is leaving a sour taste in many viewers’ mouths, and I can’t blame them. It’s a game, and the queens played the game with the tools available to them. But it feels especially unfair in a season that is supposed to be about shedding light and positivity in dark times.
Check out the first 10 minutes of the episode here:
Read on for my take on Part 2 of the Rate-a-Queen Talent Show, the Shake Shake runway, and predictions for the fallout for thee dubious decisions all around.
SPOILERS, SWEETIE!
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Here are my takes on the Group 2 Talent Show performances, ranked from my personal favorite to my least favorite. Let’s just call it now: If Nini Coco had stuck to her gut and performed in Group 2, she not only would have been Top 2 this episode, but probably would have gotten her second season win. This was a much weaker group.
Jane Don’t
One of our obvious frontrunners, Jane came out and gave us a Better Midler-inspired, vulgar vaudeville bit. It was a riot. I love that queens like Jane are keeping some of our mid-20th Century stars in the public conversation — I fear Midler is known primarily at this point for Hocus Pocus, and that’s great, but she has such a rich, layered history in queer and stage culture. We laughed out loud at several of the jokes in this number. I was less enamored with her movement-based runway. Loved the hat, disliked the color, really disliked the bits of fabric just stuck all over the place. As the weeks go on, I am realizing that I like Jane’s runway concepts more than I like the actual garments. But without question, Jane was the best talent show of the week.
Myki Meeks
Significant gap between Jane and Myki’s numbers, but I liked Myki’s number, especially the creativity of it. This was a burlesque numbers — we have seen so many of those — but with an off-kilter twist, as Myki gave us a Bride of Frankenstein-esque corpse pin-up, whose clothing reveals also led to ghoulish body-part removal illusions. My main issue with this number is that it started too subtly. These queens have 60 seconds for their talent shows, and I thought Myki blew through 1/3 of her allotted time doing relatively little. But the back half was great fun, and was performed well. The Koosh ball-inspired runway was a similar case of fun idea, subdued execution. I think it would be far more successful if everything involved with it was bigger and draggier.
Athena Dion
A massive gap between Myki’s and Athena’s talents for me. Let’s start with the praise: I think Athena performed this as well as it could be performed. She looked good (the Donald Duck read later in the episode was accurate, but she looked good). She executed all the moves and the gimmicks flawlessly. I like that she shared her Greek culture — we have had very few Greek queens on “Drag Race,” and it’s a fairly conservative culture when it comes to LGBTQ expression. Now for the negative: this was corny and painfully uncool. Between this and her girl-group verse, it is clear that Athena has no idea how to writer or deliver lyrics that feel relevant or, dare I say it, cunty. It’s like dad jokes covered in sequins. This was the definition of safe to me, and I would put it below average because Athena talks such a big game, and is such a seasoned queen. I expected more from her, but increasingly I am realizing that I need to lower my expectations here. That said, I thought her eye runway look was fun and met the category in an unexpected way.
Discord Addams
Another huge drop in quality between Athena and Discord’s talents, in my opinion. Discord at least tried to give us something impressive — playing multiple instruments, live — and cheeky — another “Drag Race” song that criticizes previous “Drag Race” songs. Sadly, the execution was weak. I don’t know if Discord was actually playing those drums, the keyboard, the guitar. I assume she was? But honestly, I don’t know. The song chorus was a little catchy, but she had the misfortune of doing this just a few months after Elle Vosque’s much more successful approach to the same topic on “Drag Race UK” Season 7. (And if I’m saying you’re being outclassed by something from “UK7,” that is not good.) But the big issue for me was the lack of commitment that I saw in Discord in this number. The whole time she looked like she was desperate for the judges to signal that they enjoyed it, or possibly crapping her pants. I’ve seen this with Discord a few times — a neediness in the eyes that does not become a star. I did not care for her runway look at all. Discord has a real issue with editing. I get that she’s going for a punk aesthetic — I welcome it, actually. Her last two runways haven’t read “punk” at all. They’ve read “things on things on things on things, with an asymmetrical orientation.” The idea of making a commentary on the weight of capitalism was good, but this was ungainly.
Kenya Pleaser
I struggled between where to put Discord and Kenya. Runway first: Kenya did look beautiful, but having butterflies attached to a black corset is not nearly enough for a runway on Season 18 of this show. Really underwhelming. As for that talent, the color guard part of it was great. I wish she had just done that. Instead she also tried to do a bitch track lipsync, and the lipsync and dancing was embarrassing. This was the episode where the subtext of Kenya Pleaser became text. She is a magnetic, charismatic queen. Unfortunately, she is also a weak performer. We have seen it too many times now to doubt it, from that messy lipsync against Briar Blush to this. Even RuPaul said it in the judges’ ultimately pointless critique session. In some ways, Kenya feels like a holdover from Season 17: a queen that talks a big game, but when it comes time to actual perform, cannot execute. A shame.
After that underwhelming talent showcase, we then got to the infuriating: the Rate-a-Queen voting. The machinations blessedly took less time than last episode, but the results were undoubtedly worse. I don’t recall which Group 1 queen voted Kenya first place — it may have been Vita VonTesse Starr, who ironically ALSO delivered the worst performance in her group and was spared the bottom due to strategic voting — but I actually yelled at my TV screen. There were so many bullshit rankings from the Group 1 queens, and the ultimate outcome was Jane Don’t and Athena Dion as the Top 2 (Jane deserved it, Athena most certainly did not), and Myki Meeks as the worst of the week. Disgraceful.
I think this voting is going to backfire on some of these queens in a very big way. Athena is going to get savaged by the viewers for her undeserved Top 2 spot, and Kenya is going to be annihilated. This is the part where I remind anyone reading: Please do not send any hate to any queen. They are actual people, with real feelings. Also, none of this is their fault. They played the game as it was presented to them, and this season in particular — with three members of the same drag family all still competing — was ripe for this mechanic being twisted into a popularity contest or a strategic political vote. It’s gross, but it is not their fault.
And I think things got worse for Athena when she ended up not only Top 2 for the episode, but the winner of the challenge after that lipsync against Jane Don’t. I do think Athena won that battle to “Jerkin’” by Amyl and the Sniffers. It was a subpart lipsync overall, but Jane just walked back and forth on one side of the stage. Athena at least gave us something. So congratulations, I guess, to Athena. You somehow managed to win the Talent Show despite delivering a below-average talent and an underwhelming lipsync. I think this win is going to haunt her the way Jorgeous was haunted by her cookie-cutter design win in Season 14.
Then we had the Bottom 2 lipsync, featuring last week’s lowest-voted queen, Ciara Myst (in a just world it would have been Vita) and this week’s lowest-voted queen, Myki Meeks (in a just world it would have been either Discord or Kenya). They performed to “Toxic” by Britney Spears, and it was…OK. I don’t know what Ciara thought she was doing with this number, but the approach did not seem connected to the song at all. It felt showgirl to me. Myki was helped by her Talent Show costume, which gave her almost a Magenta from Rocky Horror vibe. She gave us a few moments, but honestly, I need to see more from her than what she gave us here. I get feeling defeated and confused by her bottom placement, but I did not see fire from her in this lipsync. I want to see fire.
Ultimately, we’ll see if Myki can start burning, because it was Ciara who went home. I feel for Ciara. I think her talent was personal and well executed, even if it wasn’t a great fit for this moment. She’s a likable queen and I’m sorry to see her go. But despite all my bitching, I like all of the queens left this season. I really do! I think these last two episode could lead to frustration with them on the part of the fandom, and I hope they and this season can move past that. I also think the producers need to think carefully about bringing Rate-a-Queen back again in the future. It certainly gave us drama! But none of this episode felt fair or satisfying. They risk curdling their fandom with stunts like this.
NEXT: Some kind of commercial or branding challenge, and the Rate-a-Queen receipts are revealed. I really hope some of these queens are grilled for their bullshit placements...
What do you think of Season 18 so far? Which queens are you rooting for? Let us know in the comments.
