‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ S6E11 Recap: Shit Happens

All Stars 6 has its finger on the pulse: this season, challenges have been based around hot cultural touchstones like Red Table Talk, American Horror Story, and now The Vagina Monologues.

It’s probably for the best the show is referencing plays from 1996 and not contemporary hits: do we really want to see a Drag Race take on Hamilton, aka ‘He’s Already Had-Her-A-Ton: The Rusical’? Well… yes. Instead, our penultimate maxi challenge, the C.U.N.T. Monologues, is somewhere between stand-up and these weird ‘vulnerability’ testers that keep popping up.

Each performance — a monologue by the top five meant to inspire — was sweet, funny, moderately-to-very moving, but just like with Pink Table Talk, it sits funny that the queens are judged on their ability to transform trauma into content. It’s not bad: it just makes the show’s subtext very visible, where normally that transactional part of reality TV (reward for offering backstory) is put behind a thin smokescreen.

I had fun, I just don’t know how you award one queen over another here: any of them could have won this week, but it went to Eureka, validating her return and ensuring that TKB went home. Unlike a lot of people, I don’t really mind that TKB went home as the race for the crown at this point is between Ra’Jah, Kylie, and Ginger. Besides, Trinity doesn’t need the top four: she’s one of AS6‘s biggest winners. She’s gained thousands of new fans, reestablished herself, and had moments so spectacular that even with four bottom placements, people are mad she’s been eliminated. That’s rudemption.

This week, Ru makes the top five — aka the same queens from two episodes ago — promote denim Levi is struggling to sell because it’s covered with ugly Pride rainbows, and then asks them to tell an entertaining, touching story about their experiences in drag.

Colour Grader? I Hardly Even Know Her!

First things: it wasn’t just you. The episode looked horrendous. The colour-grading was completely off, meaning most of the queens were a big red blob.

But look at the wallpaper, and you can see it’s like overediting an Instagram photo’s exposure. It doesn’t really matter as it’s not, say, a design challenge, but it is a shame when it comes to the runways later on. (Last episode’s werkroom scenes, where the ‘top four’ watched the lip-syncs, had the same problem — hopefully, it’s resolved for the finale.) Ginger should sue.

Before we get to the werkroom, the show reveals that Eureka is coming back, not Silky, who uses every second of screen-time to win over the audience by dancing as she leaves the stage and double-checking with Ru if she’s “sure” she isn’t returning. (Speaking of redemptions, I really recommend listening to the Las Culturistas episode with Jan, which showcases her personality more than the show did, and features scenes of the S12 cast dancing on tabletops at an SNL afterparty).

This week’s mini-challenge is inspired by Bill Cunningham, as Ru rides a cycle around the werkroom and the queens try to create eye-catching looks for the street photographer to snap up.

Kylie wins this challenge, and wins every last strip of rainbow denim that Levi’s has struggled to sell. We move onto the monologues, and the top five have a chance to rehearse with comedians Jermaine Fowler and Alex Moppa. Of the group, Ra’Jah and Trinity have the most work to do, while Ginger has a frustrating issue: she’s too rehearsed.

The critique’s repeated come judging time, summing up Ginger’s run on the show. She’s so polished that it’s hard to root for her on All Stars, as her redemption arc is really just reminding us to forget about AS2, as she was amazing on S7. On paper, she’s one of the top contenders for the crown; narratively, Ra’Jah or Kylie, two queens with something to prove, would be more satisfying.

It’s Dry, Kind Of Like Your Vagina Monologues

Onto the actual performances. Monologuing to an empty room is hard — it’s one of those challenges where a few sound effects really sway your view of how a queen went. Trinity had some real clunker lines in there: not necessarily bad, but just awkward to say and awkward to hear, repetitive of certain words like “challenge” in the same sentence. In this way, it’s really a ‘writing’ challenge, in that it’s the only metric to fairly judge them by.

On the other side, Ginger’s story of playing dress-ups in her mum’s clothing comes off a little too rehearsed because of how tightly she writes: where TKB is more natural on-stage, she doesn’t have Ginger’s sense of the beats and flow of her material.

Ra’Jah flubs a line towards the beginning but it doesn’t really matter, as she performs the shit out of it. The choreographed movements to her story offer that perfect balance in stand-up, where a routine is evidently honed because it hits so hard, but the speaker is so relaxed on-stage you’re happy to believe it’s made up in the moment.

Kylie’s my pick of the night. Her ‘first drag’ story hit all the sweet spots, was honest and emotional with some really lovely one-liners — hearing the line about nerves hitting her all ‘bubbly like champagne on New Year’s Eve’ in her Southern accent was just… mwa!

Eureka’s story about shitting on-stage during a number stands out from the rest. It’s much more boisterous, but it pays off: she also introduces the world to a new drag name, “A-mound-a Brown”. Her end-note about laughing off embarrassing moments speaks to Ru’s beliefs, so it makes sense she wins — if you ignore the fact that Etcetera Etcetera was eliminated on Down Under because of her perfect, literally world-shattering ad for a Vegemite spread called ‘Piss’ was considered being too crass.

eureka was funny as hell tho ngl

— etcetera ɐɹǝʇǝɔʇǝ | STREAM #FLUSH (@glamourbug) August 26, 2021

This week’s runway theme is fashion fails, a prompt so open-ended I hope it repeats.

A quick look at the eliminated queens’ Instagrams shows there’s a lot to work with (and sorry to always single her out, but Scarlet’s upside-down dress is divine). It’s hard to really make out the detail because of the colour-grade issues, but Trinity’s gown, put together with safety pins at the back, is gorgeous.

Eureka’s sweat-stained dress that’s tucked into her underpants does the job, but it doesn’t really hold up to the others. Ra’Jah’s half-on, half-off dress is ingenious design; Kylie’s condiments mishap offers The Fifth Element fashion; and Ginger sells a story of someone who burns themselves on a curling iron at least 5 times.

With Eureka nabbing the win, everyone else is in the bottom. It’s clear TKB’s time is up: Untucked reveals it was unanimous. Before that, the formality, as Eureka, dressed as a clown, lipsyncs to Little Richard against Jaida Essence Hall, who wears harem pants resembling a circus tent. Jaida gets the song more, but Eureka rolls around the floor: it’s a tie. (That’s not a joke or shade, Eureka rolling around on the floor was wonderful.)

Trinity sashays away, and the top four are officially Eureka, Kylie, Ra’Jah and Ginger. Next week, they record verses and perform the premiere of Ru’s new song, “This Is Our Country”. My heart is torn between Ra’Jah and Kylie, but Ginger has a decent shot as well: any of the four would make an excellent addition in the hall of fame. See you next week.

---

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