‘RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars’ S7E10 Recap: They Yassified Vivid Sydney

We may have an All Winners cast, but none of these queens hold a candle to my Mount Rushmore of Drag Race roasters: Farrah Moan, Alexis Michelle, Utica and Blair St Clair. (Of course I’ll put my lighters up for Laganja too, but technically she did a stand-up routine, even if she mostly roasted that poor woman’s dry vagina.)

While I’m of the mindset that the only thing better than a killer roast is a terrible one, this cast is simply too funny to fuck up. Everyone is pretty exceptional this week, even Jaida. Sure, she stumbles over her words and says her punchlines backwards, but she charms her way through it all the same — plus, she can probably rest easy knowing she’s making it to the top four, right? Right???

With just one more chance to win Legendary Legend Stars (Ru really emphasised that plural at the end), it’s still anyone’s game. Well, maybe: this Reddit post calculates that Shea has a 2% chance of making it to the finale, as it’d require her to win a star and none of the four queens with two stars winning, resulting in a five-way tie for the fourth spot (to be resolved by lipsync?).

SHEA AT 2% IM GONNA BE SICK pic.twitter.com/TMdLvjww34

— jxsé #FLIP_THAT (@dotjjpg) July 16, 2022

That’s a little too logical for this show though, and by editing alone, I refuse to discount Shea at a 2% chance of making it to the finale, as they just keep hammering home that she may be down, but she’s not out. The only queen who has a sure spot in the top four is Jinkx, who this week nabbed her fourth star (and fifth win, AKA half of the challenges).

Trinity and Jaida follow on three, with everyone else on two — I have my money on Monet joining them, but I also smell shenanigans taking Shea up into the final spot. Thankfully, it doesn’t really matter, though I have a feeling the final lipsync episode might be, like pretty much every Drag Race finale, a bit anti-climactic. (Surely we won’t have to sit through a tic-tac lunch…)

But, as the worst person at a hostel will tell you, life is about the journey, not the destination. Prepare for some annoying last-minute upset, but be thankful for the ride — and this week’s roast was one of the most polished we’ve ever seen, with a heap of (genuine!!) laugh-out-loud one-liners.

Ronan Farrow Break Up With Your Husband I’m Bored

Before we jump into the main challenge, Raja walks into the werkroom as the last queen to be blocked, revealing that the ‘plunger’s true powers’ was just something Shea made up way back in week three. I don’t believe Raja actually thought there was a secret, but the elaborate gag is the kind of fun, inconsequential self-production that speaks to the strength of this season.

These queens know how to make excellent TV. The same can’t always be said for whoever comes up with these mini-challenges — to decide the order of the roast, the queens get to pop balloons by thrusting into the pit crew’s asses. It’s funny, but we’ve also seen this quite a few times now: maybe I’m just greedy, but I’d prefer they’ve cut this segment so we got more than 30 seconds with the Viv and Yvie’s roasts. Whatever!

No one kicks up a fuss about their positioning for the Kennedy Davenport Centre Honours ceremony, which, for fellow non-Americans, is a play off the Kennedy Centre Honours. I’m always happy to see Kennedy — grainy laptop camera quality and all — but I doubt I was the only international watcher who didn’t follow the reference.

The queens get to workshop their jokes with Ross and comedian/writer Solomon Georgio, and then off we go. Trinity and Jinkx are the top two this week — Jinkx is indisputable, but I’d probably chuck a few queens ahead of the Tuck, whose humour tends to be a little too broad for my tastes. She has some solid lines, like saying Monet comes from a family of comedians as her mother gave birth to a joke, but there are plenty of old-hat jokes we’ve heard 1000x in there too.

She sells them, for sure, but other queens really made some singular moments. Yvie imitating Jinkx; Jinkx’s “let’s just be cousins” line; Monet realising she had narcolepsy at Jinkx’s one-woman show; Raja’s acidity. All around, just an incredibly strong night. And a cameo from Wintergreen, Peppermint’s S9 drag daughter! (Trivia: Peppermint is the only S9 finalist without a crown, which feels wrong.)

The only downside, probably inevitable, is the uneven editing. Viv and Yvie didn’t get much screen-time (both are clearly a little annoyed by it), and while I get the time constraints and need to make harsh cuts, it’s a shame the show never releases extended cuts online. I guess they’re opening themselves up to more criticism if they do, as people see what was cut and theorise why.

Put Your Lighters Up It’s Ganja In The House

This week’s runway is all about saying fuck you to Ginger Minj’s lit-up AS2 look. These queens get a darkened stage to show off their light-show-cum-outfits, and while it’s nice to see a completely new category, I can’t say this is my favourite runway ever. Like Vivid, it’s a bit tacky to me, though the queens do look beautiful. But seeing the looks during the judging, they tended to look better without the light show.

My favourite of the group was probably The Viv’s angel wings, if not for how they moved so gracefully. The lights weren’t overdone, either, as weren’t Jinkx’s, whose relatively demure ‘burning at the stake’ costume was, despite the odds, actually somewhat moving.

Other highlights were Jaida’s mermaid dress, if not for the illusion alone, and Shea’s sunflower fit: she just looks so beautiful. Her face keeps getting better and better.

Sisters trip together: like Willow, Yvie pays tribute to mushrooms with her glowing fungi dress, which is probably the best example of an outfit that improves in regular lighting. I know I already included an up-close of Yvie, but she’s so, so beautiful this episode. The biggest glow up of the group.

The winners come out with the looks I care for the least: Trinity’s carnival neons (seen at the top of the article) remind me of her Florida runway in S9 (sometimes her taste levels reflect her homestate), and Monet’s ruffled galaxy dress is pretty, but isn’t terribly memorable.

Before we get to the lipsync, this week’s Untucked was actually really fun! It’s best when the queens are given a prompt, and this week’s game of two truths and one lie sees Monet tell the queens that she’s slept with one of her AS7 castmates before. I’m calling bull, since none of them come clean, but the way they freak out is very, very funny. Guest judge Ronan Farrow also pops backstage — call it pretty privilege, but I really enjoyed him this episode, clearly having a blast engaging in something a little less taxing than Catch and Kill.

Trinity and Jinkx are deemed this week’s winners, and we’re subjected to a lipsync to Ava Max. When Frank Sinatra’s son is sitting right there??? Ru gives the win to Jinkx for unknown reasons, and she wins $10,000 but doesn’t get to wield the platinum plunger. Next week, a talent show, which is a nice shake up from it being the first week challenge. Who will make it to the end?

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RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars S7 is available to stream in Australia in Stan, with new episodes dropping AEST 6pm each Friday.

Jared Richards is Junkee‘s Drag Race recapper, and a freelancer who writes for NME, The Big Issue, The Guardian and more. He’s across the internet as @jrdjms