‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ S6E10 Recap: Props To You, Mama

When Silky said she was “motherfucking ready” to lip-sync back in S11, she was looking into the future. After being teased for two months, AS6‘s ‘game within a game’ was worth the wait, thanks to the reverend, doctor, and registered Republican.

Bringing back any queen to the competition is a little iffy, as it never really feels fair — and they usually leave soon after. But this lip-sync extravaganza, like AS4‘s, was mostly just a chance for rudemption: I don’t think Silky will be returning after that last lip-sync, but it doesn’t matter as she’s already won. What more could she achieve by re-entering the competition, given there’s no way she’d win?

But this: wining six lip-syncs in a row? Watching her settle into herself week-by-week, regaining the natural charm that was beaten out of her after the hate she received on S11? The meek, scared Silky we saw in the S11 finale — the one who barely tried to win her lip-sync lest she gets more hate — is gone. I wish all the queens could get a glow-up like this, but between her and Ra’Jah, AS6 sends a clear message that a queen’s showing on a season doesn’t represent her worth as an artist or person.

Call it over-produced (sure, two of those wins were questionable), but All Stars 6 is almost standing neck-and-neck with AS2 for quality. Silky’s performances may have not always been super polished, but they were amazing drag: the kind of numbers that would have a whole club screaming. It’s nice to see Drag Race celebrate drag that isn’t designer looks and perfectly precise reveals, which is a long way to say, it’s nice to see Drag Race celebrate real life drag.

I sure wasn't expecting THAT. 😱#AllStars6 pic.twitter.com/zvxGhc5Aio

— El Fre (@ofishermosillo) August 19, 2021

“Now She’s Just Putting On Shit”

The top four weren’t given much time to celebrate the milestone this week, as Carson Kressley interrupted their de-briefing to announce the game-within-a-game. Back in E1, Ru did tell the queens of a game-within-a-game was coming, but understandably, it’s fallen off their radar, as they’re pretty shocked. They don’t even have time to de-drag from their drag tots looks, meaning Trinity spends the episode as the world’s saddest furry. She takes the news of a returning queen the worst, exclusively giving the camera what Alaska and Willam would call ‘nooch’.

Up first in the battles are Serena ChaCha and Jiggly Caliente, who lip-sync to En Vogue’s ‘Free Your Mind’, and despite Serena’s inventive movements, Jiggly nabs it. Her high is short-lived, as Silky has come prepared, pulling out ice, a tumbler, booze and a mixer from her titties: this is a girl who wants to have fun, which is suited to their song, ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’.

Here on out, Drag Race transforms into the Silky show, as she out-performs every eliminated queen. She’s come prepared with more stunts than Sasha Velour, treating each and every performance like it was for an end-of-season tournament. Sometimes, it doesn’t really add much — by my count, Scarlett’s more straightforward lip-sync to Cher beat out Silky’s flag-waving — but it’s always a fun gag.

There’s a lot of speculation online about whether Silky was given more preparation time than the other queens, but each eliminated queen is lip-syncing to the judging panel the episode after they were eliminated (around 4-5 days later). You can clock it by the guest judge, who is always from the week after they went — bar Eureka, who goes immediately, hence Charli XCX (or Charlie XCX, as the episode credits read) appearing twice.

After again receiving hate online, Silky’s tweeted that she wasn’t given any extra help for costuming or her many props, and sourced everything herself. Again, you can tell: it’s not intended to be a read, but some of these costumes and props are pretty rough around the edges. It’s truly amazing she pulled everything together so quickly, conceptualising and then realising looks and props while still in her sequestered hotel room. She literally made a guitar from a pizza and shoe box! A flag from an umbrella!

The flag was made from an umbrella, scrap fabric, spray paint, and most of my glitter for my @ABHcosmetics! Please send more glitter😂😂😂 #AllStars6

— Silky Nutmeg Ganache (@SilkyGanache) August 21, 2021

The guitar was made from a blaze pizza box, shoe box, duct tape, spray paint, glitter, and jewels. #AllStars6

— Silky Nutmeg Ganache (@SilkyGanache) August 21, 2021

While Silky steals the limelight in almost every performance, it’s really nice to see the queens return, and everyone puts on a hell of a show — even Pandora, an excellent performer who makes do with an Ariana Grande track completely out of her wheelhouse. The All Stars format is great television, but it’s a shame a lot of competitors go without having the chance to lip-sync.

A’Keria is the sole queen who turns down the opportunity to return, which makes sense. As much as I love her, she couldn’t quite shake out of a funk this season, and didn’t want to keep airing that out. Besides, she would’ve had to stand to the sidelines of Silky’s spectacularly dumb performance of ‘Barbie Girl’. Absolutely legendary stuff.

Bitch I would have just stopped and laughed at her lol 😂 https://t.co/nQUh7qXtCr

— Akeria “Whitley Gilbert” Davenport (@A_doubleC_D) August 20, 2021

Up next is Silky vs. Jan, who almost had her until Silky broke out a fake guitar for ‘Heartbreaker”s long-solo. Again, lots of discussion online how the guitar is clearly visible on-stage before the lip-sync, with people suggesting producers planted it there for Silky to aid her. I’m all for dissecting how over-produced this show can be, but it’s a classic case of Occam’s Razor (surely that’s a drag name): she put it there just before the performance, hiding it in her giant coat beforehand.

Pandora’s next to lose to Silky, in a lip-sync to Ari’s ‘Focus’. Silky even has an Ariana outfit ready to go, which made me Google if she’s performed at the SuperBowl (she has not). And finally, there’s Eureka, who Silky battles with to my #3 go-to karaoke song ‘Since U Been Gone’ (#1 is ‘All The Things She Said’, #2 is ‘Gucci Gucci’, thank you so much for asking!).

It’s not the best performance from either of them: Silky arrives in a blow-up bodysuit eating chips, to give a performance about her mother losing 80 pounds, which is about as disconnected as it sounds. Eureka does a fine job, but it’s far from the moment of the night.

I wonder whether the two were a little rushed — as we can tell from the double Charli appearances, Silky would have just performed against Pandora, and now had to battle again. Eureka, meanwhile, is coming off a maxi-challenge. It’s pretty damn draining for the both of them.

The episode ends before we find out who’s staying, but money’s on Eureka due to Silky’s costume malfunction. Even while tripping over an oversized garbage bag, I’d see Silky perform in a heartbeat. What a fun episode: high stakes, high drama, excellent songs, trash-talk, redemptions and gags we’ve never seen on the show before.

Next week, the queens will give a little monologue, a slight twist on the usual comedy challenge. This could be Trinity’s moment to redeem her talent show struggle, or repeat it. In the meantime, go send Silky some love to counter-act the hate she’s unfairly receiving.

Production didn't get me anything. I had all my drag in my room with me and I wanted to show many talents. Both people got the lip sync at the same time. So please stop trying to discredit this Black artist. My creativity was my only advantage. #AllStars6 #lipsyncguru #talent

— Silky Nutmeg Ganache (@SilkyGanache) August 21, 2021

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RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6 streams on Stan, with episodes arriving each Thursday 7 pm AEST. 

Jared Richards is Junkee’s Drag Race recapper, and a freelance writer for The Guardian, NME, The Big Issue and more. Follow him on Twitter @jrdjms.