“Mutha. Has. Arrived.”

Those were the three words ringing through my head as I watched this week’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Finally, after an unconventional start, and a few lacklustre main challenges, this week we finally got some A-grade, golden era RPDR, plus a herstory making moment thanks to the surprise ending.

To understand the significance of this week’s dramas, we need to start at the end. Let’s not bury the lede: Eureka was sent home at the end of the episode due to an injury from the second episode’s cheerleading challenge. This is the first time in RPDR history that a contestant was removed from the competition due to injury (Willam infamously got kicked off for breaking the rules in season four, and Adore left of her own accord during All Stars Two).

Eureka’s surprise departure (albeit with an open invitation to join the cast of season ten) was foreshadowed throughout the episode, particularly during the make-up scene in which he literally made up with Sasha Velour (after last week’s altercation over an eating disorder joke).

While the sudden decision to apologise seemed a little contrived (you can almost hear the producer in his ear), it did trigger a wave of important discussions about eating disorders and body dysmorphia in the gay community. Sasha Velour, Valentina, and Shea Couleé all opened up about their previous or ongoing experiences.

It was a pretty ballsy move for a show that hires a feisty judging panel to pick apart the ability of gay men to transform into impossibly proportioned supermodel women. Body image has been a recurring theme of the show, usually through the lens of plus size/fat/“big girl” drag queens pitted against the more dominant model-size or thinner queens.

From processing the Orlando massacre, to AIDS Survivor Syndrome, and now the very real problem of body image in the gay community, the make-up scene prior to the runway is fast becoming the most important segment in the show. Luckily though, this week it wasn’t the most entertaining segment thanks to a killer main challenge.

The Challenge

FINALLY, a main stage challenge you could write home about. This week, the queens had to perform in Kardashian The Musical — one of the show’s epic lip sync extravaganzas. The bar for these is now set very high thanks to season eight’s Bitch Perfect challenge and the Baddest Bitches in Herstory from All Stars Two.

The Kardashian empire is either a hugely effective disruption of the late capitalist patriarchy, or sets gender equality back decades (depending on which wave of feminism and/or NBA player you talk to), but watching drag queens embody the now-iconic, female-led family sure makes for good TV. Bonus points to the RPDR producers for delivering a tongue-in-cheek parody musical about the Kardashians that didn’t go anywhere near Caitlyn Jenner.

The queens were cast by Alexis Michelle, who won the mini-challenge (they’re back!) for her best summer selfie with the hot and horny pit crew (oh hey, body dysmorphia). She cast herself as momager matriarch Kris Jenner, which was wise because she brought all her Broadway skill and killed it in this Kardashian kompetition.

Other frontrunners were Shea as Blac Chyna, Peppermint as Britney Spears, and for the look alone, Valentina as Kendall Jenner. Valentina’s performance could have used a Pepsi though, and while she is delivering A-grade look after A-grade look (that mini challenge swimsuit look, good Lord), the crowd favourite is yet to really outperform anyone in a performance challenge. Other queens who struggled in the challenge were the Kardashian sisters proper, played by Cynthia Lee Fontaine (Kim), Aja (Kourtney) and Nina Bo’Nina Brown (Khloe), and Farrah Moan as little sister brand usurper Kylie Jenner.

That being said, this was the strongest challenge of the season thus far, coming at just the right moment as the perfect lead-in to next week’s Snatch Game, which always separates the wheat from the chaff.

The Runway

The third element that made this week’s episode the best of the season so far was the runway theme, Faux Fur Fabulous. Shea Couleé skinned the competition with her uber-fashionable look — which combined with her performance as Blac Chyna — made her the clear winner of the week. That’s two in a row, which makes me wonder if we’re soon to be drinking the Shea Kool-Aid…

Alexis Michelle could have walked away with the win this week were it not for her runway look, which Michelle Visage read for filth. What was with that head wear? She looked like one of those Russian new money mean girls who are bitches to Red in Orange is the New Black.

Meanwhile, Nina Bo’Nina Brown continues to looking great on the runway, delivering the most creative and artful outfits each episode. Her ongoing narrative of self-sabotage, low self-esteem, boundary riding his own oppression, and vulnerability came to a head this week.

Nina has opened up on Untucked and to camera about her experience with homelessness, and this week voiced her ongoing feelings of being an outsider in the drag scene in Atlanta. When she shutdown on the challenge after Alexis cast Shea as Blac Chyna, Ru called her out for paranoia after she expressed feelings that it was done purely to sabotage her.

Nina is easily one of the most innovative and inventive queens in the cast, and it would be an incredible shame to see her get sent home because she sabotages her own genius. When Ru sent Eureka home because he could not “in good conscience” allow a competitor to continue on against doctor’s orders, I wondered where that line sits in relation to the mental health of cast members. 

The Lip Sync

Nina however did not have to lip sync for her life this week — that dubious honour went to Cynthia Lee Fontaine and Farrah for their sub-pardashian performances in the main challenge.

The queens were forced to lip sync to a Meghan Trainor song, because she was a guest judge. Meanwhile, there has never been a Carly Rae Jepson lip sync and we’re all supposed to be okay with that?

The lip sync ended, and I quickly un-muted the TV (Meghan Trainor? I hardly know her) because for the first time in RPDR herstory, one of the crew WALKED ACROSS THE SET and said something to Ru, which led him to WALK AWAY FROM THE JUDGE’S TABLE.

This has never happened before, and when shit goes down right before Ru eliminates someone you know it’s going to affect the decision. Sure enough, Ru returned after speaking with what I assume is the on-call Botox nurse who doubles as the show’s medical professional and Eureka got sent home for safety reasons (Missed opportunity: “How’s your leg?” “Lots of complaints.”).

That meant that it was a case of “shantay, youse both stay” for Cynthia and Farrah, so I guess this proves God is definitely a homophobe. Eureka made things interesting in a frustrating, loudmouth sort of way, but it was a sad way for any queen to go. One thing is for certain, when she returns next year she’ll certainly have a leg up on the competition.

GONG.

The Week’s Real Winner 

Farrah Moan. She might be serving fish on the runway, but that lip sync and main challenge would have been rejected by John West for sure. Were it not for old Hobble-long Cassidy’s disqualification, Farrah would have been a goner. I guess this is the first time that a Bear saved a Fish, instead of eating it alive….

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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.