Hey squirrel friends!

Episode seven means we are halfway to the finish line, and at this stage it feels a little like a marathon. This week’s episode was by-the-numbers RPDR fare that ticked all the boxes, but didn’t blow any of them apart. This week also revealed a little more about the queens’ backstories, and culminated in a predictable and almost pre-determined lip sync.

Let’s take a closer look at what went down.

The Setup

Can we talk about Valentina’s to-cameras? Her reading of Alexis Michelle at the top of the episode was insightful, funny, and charming. That kicky beret and black turtleneck combo, her polished, considered commentary ending with a little smile or a twinkle in her eye… Valentina is so adorable, I feel as though he was manufactured in a factory purely to be an entertaining RPDR contestant.

In a way, she was. The Children of Drag Race are the next generation of queens who have grown up watching the show over the last nine years, and started doing drag at some point in the show’s culture-shifting history. To “succeed” in drag is to succeed on the show, and to do that you need to be adept at “performing“ the perfect RPDR contestant.

Valentina is affable yet polished, human yet alien. There are others in the season who are more seasoned than her but are also showing us how good they are at not just doing drag, but also doing Drag Race. And they are all hurtling towards a top three spot. Shea Coulee and Trinity Taylor, I’m looking at you.

The Challenge

My legendary children, last week you may recall I taught some of you about Liza Minnelli. Well, this week you get to learn all about the ORIGINAL Beverly Hills 90210, which took place in a magical time known as the ’90s. Aaron Spelling-produced television peaked with the gang at West Beverly High, and he never again replicated its success (but he sure did spin off it).

This week, the queens had to perform in a good old RPDR full-cast acting challenge, spoofing 90210 in the same way last season took on Empire, and previous seasons have tackled genres as diverse as telenovelas, sci-fi films, and Shakespeare (spoiler: that one was bad). This week’s special guest directors and judges were none other than 90210 alumni Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling, who were kind of fabulous.

With the rarely-seen mini challenges cast aside (until the library is re-opened, I assume), there was no pathway to picking the “team captain”, so as a reward for surviving last week’s lip sync, Peppermint got the job of casting the queens.

After Nina’s shutdown in the casting of the Kardashian musical challenge, you would think the queens would know to suck it up and roll with whatever part they were given, but the Brooklyn Banjee (Aja) went right in and caused a stink. As soon as Aja threw a tantrum, I checked Uber for surge prices… because I was ready to send her home.

At this point in the season, we have gotten to know all the queens and we’re either waiting to pick off our least-favourites, or waiting for someone to fuck up so you feel justified in being okay with them being eliminated, even if you weren’t sure you were ready for them to leave.

Trinity Taylor may be the pageant queen crossover this show has been waiting for. While we’ve had pageant queens extend themselves beyond runway eleganza in the past, few have been self-aware enough to play the game. Alyssa Edwards is the show’s ultimate pageant-queen-turned-rounded-entertainer, but Alyssa is brilliant in spite of Alyssa, a sort of drag savant. This week, Trinity confirmed she has the talent, insight, and strategic thinking to go all the way by stealing the spotlight in the acting challenge, and was crowned the rightful winner.

Nina Bo’Nina Brown, on the other hand, has moved beyond her self-saboteur narrative but we’ve not really seen it fall away completely. In previous seasons, we’ve seen the narrative of an African-American queen breaking through systemic and personal setbacks (also dear to Ru’s heart) go a number of ways, but after last week’s turning point on Snatch Game, Nina’s may have played out. Aja and Nina both ended up in the bottom two.

The Runway

Big hair was the theme for episode seven’s runway, which was ironic because this season, Ru’s hair has been smaller that ever thanks to Mathu Anderson being M.I.A. Here are this week’s runway memorable looks:

The Lip Sync

If you’re going to lip sync to CeCe Peniston’s ‘Finally’, you had better bring it. The song has a special place in drag herstory thanks to Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and perhaps all that expectation was too heavy a burden for Aja and Nina. Their lip sync was good… but not mind-blowing.

It was a treat to finally see Nina lip sync, because onstage all those insecurities disappear and a nuanced, detailed performer emerges. Meanwhile, the realisation that she might be going home was all over Aja’s face, and she was right. Ru sent her packing, and the right queen went home.

I don’t think Nina has much longer in the competition. If Farrah Moan outlives her it will be a miscarriage of justice, but neither of them have much further to go unless they really show us something new.

This Week’s Real Winner Is…

Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth! They got so much screen-time in the acting challenge thanks to them reading one another and having genuine fun. Also, do they hate Tiffani-Amber Thiessen? Did I hear that correctly? How is it possible that they have no time for her but mentioned nothing of Shannen Doherty?

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RuPaul’s Drag Race is fast-tracked from the US each Saturday on Stan. Read more Drag Race recaps here.

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Nic Holas has written for The Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, Archer Magazine, and Hello Mr. You can find him on Twitter @nicheholas, or in his role as co-founder of HIV movement The Institute of Many.