‘Canada’s Drag Race’ Recap: The Sweetest Episode And A Sour Finish

This is how you do a makeover episode. Sorry to get sappy, but this was an incredibly potent, all-time episode of Drag Race, one that cracked my cynicism apart and had me tear up multiple times.

Partnering with Rainbow Railroad, an organisation that helps LGBTIQ+ refugees seeking asylum in Canada, this episode saw the top five make-over gay refugees from Indonesia, Uganda, Syria and Jamacia.

As this week reminded us, being LGBTIQ+ is illegal in more than 70 countries across the globe, and punishable by death in at least six — though purges are common in many more countries and regions, such as Chechnya in Russia.

There’s an inherent awkwardness to the makeovers, probably best summed up by Lemon crying over how ‘real’ and ‘sad’ it is that this happens while applying makeup to Rebal, a queer Syrian refugee, who politely nods along, but that’s why this episode, for me, worked so well.

It exemplified how cis-gender queers in the ‘western world’ deal with LGBTIQ+ persecution abroad (or that of trans and GNC people at home), a mix of disbelief and gratitude for our own surrounds. Lemon’s reaction wasn’t inherently bad or cancellable; it was just privilege revealed. I (and a lot of people watching, I’d bet) probably would do the same.

It’s another moment Canada’s Drag Race just lets it sit, rather than digging in deep. This season’s been a mess editing/judging wise, but it’s also been such a deeper and more nuanced display of LGBTIQ+ culture and peoples as a result.

All these tiny moments (a few revolving around Lemon, incidentally) are kept in even if they don’t exactly serve a larger plot: it’s one of the richest seasons of the show we’ve seen in a while, though many have been completely turned off by the judging.

This week was no exception, of course, with Jimbo once again side-lined by arbitrary critiques while others were let off easy. And, while I must admit she deserved it for that make-over, we said a shock goodbye to Lemon, previously a sure-thing for top three.

It doesn’t really matter, given Jimbo and Lemon have both effectively won the show — regardless of who takes the crown, they’ll be the biggest stars from the season in the post-Drag Race sprint, and will both make excellent editions on All Stars 7.

Makeover, Makeover, Makeover: The Makeover Episode

Before we get to the makeover, Canada’s Drag Race tries its hand at another Drag Race mainstay: the puppet mini-challenge. We already know from the reading challenge that these queens can properly throw shade, and the queens do a solid job even if no jokes really stand out.

Save for Jimbo’s read of Scarlett — pulling out the puppet’s fluff and stuffing it back in as a quick filler touch-up is truly inspired. But its Scarlett who wins, her first of the show, and just minutes after we hear Rita say she doesn’t consider her a threat. Storyline!

We then meet the five kings ready to be made-over, with Scarlett assigning who goes with who. She picks Dennis, from Uganda; Priyanka has Elton, from Jamacia; Lemon gets Rebal, from Syria; and Jimbo gets Eka, who is from Indonesia and married to Rainer, who’s paired with Rita.

They are all so excited to be there, but Dennis takes the cake for the cutest — his smile is infectious, and watching him clomp in heels is my new happy place.

Each of the queens takes the time to get to know their new drag sister. As Jimbo says via confessional, there’s a vibe that the competition is being put aside for a second as the queens try and make this a fulfilling experience for their guests.

It’s really lovely to watch, as the connections and ‘revisiting trauma’ chats land so much more naturally when, say, we come to learn about how Dennis’ friends back home have been killed for being gay.

She and Eka, aka Bimbo, decide to release their inner sluts, which is important queer representation — unfortunately, the judges don’t seem to get it later on and she ends up in the bottom three, despite how divine they look.

Generally speaking, the judges don’t seem to “get” Jimbo: they have an image of her as a quirky theatre-kid and keep judging her against that expectation, but really she’s just a Cock Destroyer with a clown nose. Two weeks in a row now, they’ve taken offense at her for being too sexual, which is a ridiculous critique — her sexuality is so lewd and hyper-performed that it’s hard to take it for anything other than porn parody.

There’s something to be said for gay men’s relationship to turning female bodies and sexuality into a joke, but that’s not where the judges go with it: they just think it’s a bit gross, which is oddly puritanical for Drag Race. In Jimbo’s drag universe, sisters do touch titties, and love is love. <3

Rita Baga, meanwhile, is seemingly resentful of giving birth to her seventh drag daughter, and takes it out with the makeup.

Sisters Are Doing ‘It’ (Aka ‘Sleeping With Each Other’) For Themselves

It was sad to see Ilona go last week, but it did save us from hearing the word “sissy” 1000 times during the makeover challenge. Then again, her look probably would have made up for it — barring Jimbo, none of these makeovers are anything to Instagram, with either iffy make-up or so-so costumes letting them down. It’s absolutely wild that Jimbo didn’t win: look how gorgeous Bimbo looks.

Priyanka wins this week, and while Elton looks great as Elektra, the outfit itself is a bit pedestrian. If Michelle Visage was here this instead of next week, she’d tear her apart for relying on a body suit with alternate colours — it works, but it just feels a little safe.

That’s the issue with makeover episodes — now the queens bring looks from home for it, they tend to go for something a little generic to suit whoever they’re with. For the most part, their fates are already determined when they pack the looks, though a rough paint job doesn’t help.

Lemon’s strong-suit really is ‘everything but aesthetics’, which is pretty much the opposite of how I pegged her at first glance. Never judge a twink by its cover.

Scarlett, meanwhile, used to be a make-up artist, and you can tell. Dennis’ mug as Violet Bobo looks fantastic, but the outfits less so. Both her and Rita have a lot of talent but bring out questionable looks this week — the bottom two of Rita and Lemon is deserved, but it’s astonishing that Scarlett comes second this week.

Rita and Lemon are left to lip-sync to Alanis Morissette’s ‘You Outta Know’, and it’s so good that the show’s editors break convention and use a split-screen to capture both performances. It’s a potential double-shantée, but Lemon is asked to leave. She was incredible, but Rita really performed the emotion of the song, and ultimately, you want pure angst and feeling from an Alanis lip-sync.

Next week, the queens compete in a Snow Ball, with only two episodes left in the season.

Rita seemingly has the crown in the baga, and it’s fitting for Canada’s first season that a Qubecois queen wins as a point of difference from the US. Scarlett and Jimbo are, regrettably, more or less out of the race at this point, but maybe Priyanka could ride this week’s win and come out on top?

Before I go, I wanted to show some love to Chi Chi DeVayne of S8 and All Stars 3, who passed away on Thursday at age 34. She was such a star on and off the show: her live performances were stunning, and by all accounts, she was as sweet and kind as she came across on the show.

Her performance of ‘And I Am Telling You’ from S8 is one of the all-time best Drag Race lip-syncs, a perfect distillation of drag’s magnitude as an art form. Vale.

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

Jared Richards is a staff writer at Junkee and Drag Race recapper. He’s on Twitter.