‘Canada’s Drag Race’ Recap: Everyone Say… Hate?

Watching Canada’s Drag Race, it can be a little disorientating to see the judges and guest hosts play RuPaul, but this episode, Jeffrey made it be known he’s his own man: where Ru says “everybody say love!”, Jeffrey prefers “everybody say hate!”.

While the judging has been ultra-harsh all season, this week’s overstepped a line: Jeffrey and Brooke’s comments about Ilona’s ass needing some foundation were demeaning and cruel. Drag Race‘s judging always straddles the line when the critiques are less about a queen’s look than their body (take Michelle’s comments about Adore’s ‘hog body’ or Violet ‘reading boy’), but this was just outright unnecessary.

Previously, I’ve defended the judging — it takes time for a panel to find its formula, and given that it was filmed long-ago, it’s not like they can rein it in in reaction to the criticism. But Jeffrey, in particular, really stands out: where Brooke can be harsh too, she’s also a drag queen. Jeffrey doesn’t even have the (loose) attachment to fashion and comedy that Carson or, to a lesser extent, Ross have.

As an actor, he’s got some credibility, but too often his critiques read more like the bitchy comments you find online — it’s like the show’s cast a Drag Race fan as judge, and, as of yet, he hasn’t proven that he has the knowledge/background to properly critique these queens. At least Carson can cite runways from ’98 and Ross can chuck out some old-school sitcom references.

I like Jeffrey, and don’t think he’s as bad as the internet thinks, but it’s a shame that this is the role he’s in for this season: it’s a damper on an otherwise light-hearted, low-stakes season. At least we have Stacey, who is a shining light with a perfect accent.

Sissy Spacek Should Sue For Misuse Of Her Name

This week, Crystal from Drag Race UK pops by for the mini-challenge, where the queens play call-line psychics answering her queries. Despite neglecting to show any pit on the weekend of national hairy pit day (according to Bruce LaBruce’s Instagram, at least), it’s still lovely to see her.

Even with just 30 mins to get ready, all the queens come out in full face and with distinct characters: they’re a talented bunch. Ilona, in particular, looks amazing — given the queens are sent a list of looks they need to prep with no indication of what it’s for, it’s clear that she was runway ready.

Jimbo, meanwhile, gives us a little Pan’s Labyrinth moment; Lemon continues to prove she’s got a natural comedic ability; and BOA breaks out those terrible too-close titties again.

Lemon is given the win, and picks the teams for this week’s challenge, creating a late-night law firm commercial. Scarlett is paired with her good sissy Ilona, and is absolutely pissed off, which, as time goes on, seems to be her natural state.

Later in the episode, Scarlett takes aim at Lemon, and comes off poorer for it: she says it was ‘vindictive’ to pair her with Ilona, essentially digging her own grave. Without a win, it’s clear she’s not crushing the competition like she planned, and she’s lashing out a little in response. Previously it’s been BOA in her crosshairs, but Ilona takes the brunt this week, continually shutting her down as they work on their script.

She later ends up in the top, which was astounding: their ad about sissy suing was easily the worst, absolutely non-sensical and grating. The show seemingly wants us to root for her, but she’s not making it easy.

It was if the judges were watching completely different sketches — by my count, Lemon and Priyanka’s was the best. Both are so effortlessly funny this episode, and work really well together.

After a shaky first week, Lemon’s fast become one of my favourites. She’s sharp-witted, and has nailed down this very specific ‘Elijah from Girls‘ or ‘Elliott from Search Party‘ self-absorbed twink character to parody/poke fun at in her drag. And that can be a little alienating at first, since it’s seemingly close to her boy self.

As Ilona says during Untucked-lite, Lemon is ‘everything’ gay men idolise — young, white, handsome, skinny, a dancer — and it’s easy to resent her and cast her aside as just another New York twink, a reaction all wrapped up in internal homophobia. While the show hasn’t dived deep into it (and there are far bigger ‘issues’ within the way the queer community relates to one another), it’s a really fascinating undercurrent to the season.

The final group, Rita, BOA and Jimbo, pull off their somewhat convoluted sketch idea about lawyers who remove disrespectful bachelorette parties from drag shows. There’s a lot going on, but at least it’s something, unlike Scarlett and Ilona’s one-note sketch (the note was also a screech). BOA does fall behind a little against the two powerhouses in her group, but she’s far from as bad as the judges make her sound.

Their ad prompts a teachable moment about etiquette at drag shows, pointing out that cis-women on bachelorette parties can take up a little too much space, if not be genuinely horrible to performers by popping on-stage or trying to rip off their clothes. It’s true, but thank God Ilona is there to say what’s often missing from these conversations: she’s had more queer men harass her or overstep a line than cis women.

The conversation around straight cis-women at gay clubs is complicated — it’s a fragile allyship, to say the least — and while some women can ruin a safe space, a lot of these points are just wrapped up in classic misogyny (not to suggest any of the queens here were misogynistic themselves).

The sketch works because it’s a complete over-exaggeration, but it’s also linked to the casually cruel way queer men can treat women in gay clubs. The show including Ilona’s small comment went a long-way to recentring the conversation — Canada‘s nuances really run laps around the US show.

BOA also shares a pretty horrific story about being assaulted by someone she took home from the club. Drag might be mainstream, but that, unfortunately, doesn’t mean they don’t face violence and homophobia. It’s a shocking story, but felt just a little awkwardly added in and wasn’t really given enough breathing space, which is always a tell-tale sign that it’s the queen’s last week on the show.

Derrick Barry Is So Angry Nobody Did A Britney Denim Dress Look This Week

This week’s runway is Canadian tux-she-do, and let’s just get this out of the way straight away: Tom Green is the only straight man who should feature on Drag Race.

While normally I’m not a fan (see Joel McHale or Tony Hale’s guest spots), Tom is such a genuine eccentric that it works. Plus, any straight man whose most famous work is about a guy getting fingered deserves their ally card.

Meanwhile, the judging continues to make little sense, even putting aside the borderline bullying. For starters, they loved Rita Baga’s look, which to me felt incredibly pedestrian.

Their comments over Rita and Lemon’s taste levels should be swapped, from where I’m sitting (sorry, but if your most immediate fashion reference is P!nk…). The show was harsh on Lemon’s look this week, with it alone landing her in the bottom and prompting half the queens to nominate her to go home when asked by the judges.

Sure, it was a little unpolished (that bikini needed a re-do), but I thought it was a fun nod to Korean street fashion. Compared to most of the other looks, it was among the most editorial and bold, and her swinging runway walk really showed off the garment at its best.

(I realise I sound like I just have a hard-on for Lemon, but I just think she’s being slept on — that doesn’t mean I want to sleep with her! But the recapper doth protest too much, I guess.)

We can all agree that Jimbo’s club-kid denim look was stunning, at least.

As was her performance, which prompted Jeffrey to say “welcome to the competition” to the queen who won last week’s challenge and has been among the top three almost every single week. Make it make sense!

THE ABSOLUTE CLOWNERY pic.twitter.com/xv3AamE8BO

— nemesis 💋 (@nemesislacroix) August 7, 2020

Despite the heap of praise for Jimbo, Rita Baga is given her third win of the competition: it’s not exactly undeserved, but it feels odd that they wouldn’t level the playing field a little.

Lemon, BOA and Ilona end up in the bottom, with the latter two lip-syncing to Alessia Cara’s song about loving the skin you’re in which Jeffrey, who has just insulted Ilona’s ass, mouths along to.

It’s clearly not BOA’s kind of song, and she more or less gives up. It’s a pretty low-energy performance, but watching it back, Ilona does a good job of making a boring track interesting.

With BOA gone, it’s just Scarlett and Ilona of the top six who don’t have a win under their belts, which means these sissys will probably be extra stressed next week as they compete in a pageant, which somehow the show has never done before. The implications that that has…

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Canada’s Drag Race streams on Stan, with episodes available each Friday at 12pm AEST.

Jared Richards is Junkee’s Night Editor and Drag Race recapper. He’s on Twitter.