Ahoy there, Racers! We’re at the pointy end of the competition, which means it’s getting harder and harder to say goodbye to any of the queens we have all gotten to know* and love**.

*Except Kameron.

**Except Eureka.

After last week’s HBOh-she-better-don’t Breastworld parody, this week was a return to late-state RuPaul’s Drag Race. And by that, I mean it was profoundly upsetting. JK Miss Thing (or…am I?)

But before we get into why I think we got the wrong end of the sashay away stick, let’s take a look at this week’s super fun challenges.

The Masc-y Challenge

I haven’t written up many of the mini challenges this season as my word count has been eaten up with Eureka-related outrage and my performative wokeness re: RPDR’s most racially-charged season to date (Drag Queen Name: But I’m an Ally! Sheedy).  But in a season that has for the most part gone back to basics and rehashed a number of key RPDR challenges/moments, the regular return of the mini challenge has been a joy to behold. Especially last week’s beefcake buffet.

This weeks’ mini challenge took us all the way back to the All Stars 1 ‘Queens With Guy Phones’ challenge, where the dolls (remember when Ru called the contestants dolls?) had to butch it up and take a manly selfie. This time, Ru had the queens get into masc drag to promote the Lynx-esque body spray ‘Trade’. Watching the queens perform masculinity is hilarious, plus you just know that Sasha “What What in the Butler, Judith” Velour was at home cranking one out to the queer theory of it all.

Eureka romped it in with this mini-challenge. Say what you will about her (and I have, and will) but the gal knows how to improv a character. Muscle queen Kameron continues to struggle with comedy challenges, but those muscles and denim cut offs played right to the show’s thirsty, thirsty fanbase. For what it’s worth, I’d buy Asia’s rough trade calendar.

The Maxi Challenge

Full disclosure: I was ready to hate this season’s makeover challenge ep. As drag/artist icon Taylor Mac tells us, comparison is violence , but it’s hard to not analyse this makeover challenge, as it stands in the shadow of season nine’s RPDR crew makeover challenge, arguably the best makeover challenge in the show’s long history. Beyond the notion that ANYTHING would struggle to stack up against that heartwarming, hilarious ep, this season RPDR decided to makeover what elderly people such as me treat with extreme suspicion: social media stars.

Being an old person, I had heard of Tyler Oakley and Kinglsey before, but I had never watched their videos or other types of content on the information superhighway. As for the rest of them, I had no idea. I didn’t even know what a Frankie Grande is, but it turns out that he is Ariana Grande’s brother.

Now, sometimes one sibling’s fame results in the other sibling developing a career platform that is just and true. See: Dannii Minogue, Solange Knowles, et al. Frankie Grande is not that type of sibling. He reminds me of Mercedes Corby: gripping at the edge of someone else’s fame, the whiteness of his knuckles only obscured by excessive layers of fake tan.

There is using what you’ve got to game the system, build a platform, and make some money, and there is being a golem of personality deficiencies masquerading as a ‘brand’. Social media stars seem to be either/or, so I was a little apprehensive about this week’s challenge. Thankfully, most of the guests seemed painfully aware of the optics of appearing on an episode of what has become Gay Twitters chum bucket of critique (*waves), and played more than nice. They played their parts perfectly.

Let’s take a look at some of the Drag Mother/Daughter (I hardly know her) lewks!

Loose Lips Sync Ships

Ugh. I don’t want to say this was the most outrageous result of a lip sync this season, as I am still fuming over last week’s double shantay, BUT C’MON! Scanning the internet, it seems many weren’t ready for Monet X Change to go home. But also, many of you are what RuPaul’s Drag Race royalty Jinkx Monsoon would describe as cock hungry dick pigs, because you are all blinded by your Kameron thirst.  

Make no mistake, Kameron is a tight little performer. Girlfriend knows how to pull off some stunt queen hairography, do the splits, and connect with a lyric or two. Conversely, what Monet lacks in skill (on the runway and in a lip sync), she more than makes up for with charisma. Kameron, on the other hand, is a charisma vacuum.

Look, Monet was never going to take home the crown. She never won a challenge, she had spent more time in the bottom than any of the remaining queens, and she stumbled more than she soared. Kameron has been far more consistent, but in the way that your electric toothbrush is consistent. This is not RuPaul’s Best AI Race. Neither of them are finale material, but if I had to pick between Kameron’s by the numbers lip sync and Monet’s herstory making use of a walk-off, I know who I’d choose to brighten up the workroom one last time before we settle on Eureka, Aquaria, Asia, and Miz Cracker (who this week finally got a win) as a top four.

Who Is Going To Get To Come Imfurst?

By this stage, its pretty obvious that Eureka is going all the way to the finale. Should she take the crown, which is highly likely, it will be a win for bodily diversity on a show that repeatedly enforces traditional standards of beauty and size, whilst simultaneously subverting masculine/feminine tropes (but also enforcing them, because TV).

There have been a number of crowned queens who have demonstrated bad behaviour during their season and still went on to win: Tyra Sanchez managed to combine paranoia, pettiness, and delusion; Violet Chachki was at best immature; Alaska’s spoilt outburst in All Stars 2 permanently altered her ‘character’ in the eyes of the RPDR fandom.

Eureka’s divisive and grating personality can be measured against her own personal struggles: an abusive upbringing, gender dysphoria, and her journey towards accepting her body image. We make all sorts of allowances for queens struggling to overcome other forms of oppression or disadvantage (race, poverty, addiction). I think where I struggle with Eureka is that through that struggle, she has learned the basics of acknowledging that struggle. In naming it, she allows herself a wide berth without making any form of meaningful progress. Its like that person who moves from friendship group to friendship group, or career to career, repeating an endless cycle of self-destructive behaviour.

I see no growth in Eureka, which is what makes her multi-season “journey” to the finale so frustrating. If she wins, good on her, I guess? Better that she takes the crown then getting to come back and be an All Star…

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RuPaul’s Drag Race is fast-tracked from the US 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.