‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Recap: Mirror Mirror On The Wall, Sorry Ra’Jah, But An Ugly Girl Won It All
Season 11 has unfairly copped flack for being the show's worst yet, arriving at the peak of our mass 'Drag Race' fatigue. Where can the show go from here?
You might not know it, but there were three crowns up for grabs at the Drag Race finale. Sure, we expected a fight for the winner of S11, and Miss Congeniality was still technically up in the air (even if it was obviously Nina), but who knew the real blood, sweat and broken nails would come from the audience, vying to see who would win best reaction shot?
Without Stacy Layne Matthews or Victoria Porkchop Parker ready and waiting in the crowd, S11’s cameras settled on a few new faces.
On one side, we had sex chair brand ambassadors Cara Delevigne and Ashley Benson; on the other, Ariel Versace and Plastique Tiara competed for best reaction shots. These queens know that being a meme isn’t quite the same as $100,000, but it’s certainly winning.
When they ask you about your Wig tweets.
Speaking of winning, thankfully, the audience isn’t leaving as traumatised as we were after All Stars 4‘s tomfoolery filled finale. Yvie Oddly, despite her …un-even moments throughout S11, absolutely blitzed the lip sync tournament. Seeing her crowned just feels right. That final lip sync! As Alexis Mateo might say, “Wow. This is Broadway!”.
Still, I’m not sure the audience really won, since this finale was particularly bloated (and flat-out boring at times). While that’s always the case with these big tournament episodes, those earlier segments dragged on even more than they normally do, and the episode landed like a bit of a ‘synecdoche, Drag Race’; perhaps a little too big for its boots, but at its core, still the same show us queers still lose our shit over.
While I’ll continually defend S11 from calls that it’s been the Worst Season Ever (we say that about whatever season is currently airing, plus, that honour goes to the double-trouble of All Stars 1), it’s clear that the show’s in need of some kind of shake-up.
But what show wouldn’t after 140 contestants and 15 seasons?
‘Gay Rights!’ – Jennifer Lawrence
A subtle allusion to Tatiana and Alyssa Edwards’ ‘Shut Up And Drive’ lip sync.
Ignoring, for a second, the meat of the finale, I wanted to mention the finale’s most egregious moment.
Occurring about halfway through the episode, the show paid lip service to queer history, beginning with Stonewall and ending with same-sex marriage and Drag Race being on TV.
While neither of those two recent landmarks are worth diminishing — Drag Race’s mainstream success is genuinely monumental for LGBTIQ history, and would have been completely unforeseeable a decade ago when S1 began — they feel a little hollow given that we still have so far to ensure queer people are safe across the world.
When you want queer liberation but you don’t even nail queer equality.
Sure, the show doesn’t have to dive deep into how homosexuality is punished and purged in Chechnya and several countries throughout North Africa, or that trans people face outright discrimination in the US due to ‘bathroom laws’ (let alone the amount of trans women and POC subject to violence). But if the show is going to take the time to pause and focus on queer rights to reach its mainstream (aka straight) audience, it should centre an ongoing struggle, not itself.
Then again, as Derrick Barry showed us, a lot of queer people don’t know our own history, and still need a primer.
Vote 1 Vanjie To Repeal The Current State Of Mandatory Wig Reveals
If you can’t love yourself…
Before the lip syncs, we had a whole lot of fluff to get through, but there was some fun stuff too.
The vale to Michelle Visage’s breasts and Vanjie’s whole Billy On The Street-esque segment were both excellent, and made me momentarily forget about the lip syncs to come. Just give her her own show, already.
Any time the queens of Drag Race past walk the runway is a delight — it was a real eclectic bunch this year, and some, like Serena Cha Cha, were almost unrecognisable. But the one constant in this world is Nicole Paige Brooks From Atlanta, Georgia.
Sorry Mercedes, but Nicole earns everything.
Those little interview segments with the top four stretched on forever — Jughead-in-Riverdale “I’m a weirdo” vibes aside, only Yvie’s was funny, which made me wonder whether they had been written by the queens or someone else.
If the former, it’s further proof that she’s an absolute star and has reined in her personality into something that works for her; if the latter, it shows the show was absolutely gunning for her to win.
Either way, it was damn clear that the top 2 was going to be Yvie and Brooke, since both A’Keria and Silky seemed a little muted during their interviews. Silky, in particular, seemed outright scared from start to finish.
Compare the pair.
Even the way she chose Brooke without words was telling. You could see her weighing up her options in her head: ‘do I go with A’Keria, my friend? Yvie, my ‘enemy’ who will win? Or Brooke, who will also beat me?’ She seemed to pick the least painful option, and after a few ill-timed reveals, she sashayed away.
When she hugged Brooke, she looked happy to be leaving — with the fanbase openly hating her, this season didn’t work out the way she or the producers intended. She’s a talented queen and an amazing personality, and perhaps with a bit of space, she’ll even out her edges.
“Finally, it’s over.”
Ultimately, Brooke and Yvie went through because they subverted expectations. Where Silky and A’Keria gave solid performances, the top 2 played with our ideas of reveals and what makes a lip sync.
One look at Silky, and you knew several wigs were underneath that afro, but Brooke’s shoe removal was un-clockable, as the chains just suited the outfit. In fact, it was only when she was en pointe that the audience realised exactly what she’d done.
Meanwhile, Yvie went out looking like the Oddity she’s promised all season. From her interview look and lines about ‘shedding her exterior’ to her incredibly bizarre but beautiful ‘SOS’ outfit, Yvie towered above the rest as a presence. You just want to see what she’ll do next.
Coincidence????
Yvie’s since posted to Instagram that her ‘SOS’ look was born as fan-art by artist Matthew Vega — when she saw it, she knew she had to make it. It’s a sweet story, which underpins it (and Yvie’s) scary-but-soft presence. Sure, the Free Britney reveal wasn’t quite the moment it was supposed to be, but it also didn’t really matter: Yvie had won the second she came out.
When you are an everyday woman running errands, but then you remember an awkward social encounter you had when you were 15, and are tormented by the memory all night. It only grows stronger as it lingers, eventually becoming a monster that eats away at your confidence.
Before the final lip sync, Nina wins Miss Congeniality. Where the show may have its issues with queer activism, Nina’s a perfect example of someone doing things right. In both Drag Race confessionals and her charity work, she’s shown that she’s overcome her own (horrific) hurdles through kindness, but, as a white gay cis male, used those experiences as a source of empathy and action to help others, rather than harden and view one’s own success as the end of the road.
Earlier in the show, A’Keria referenced a phoenix rising; I guess she meant Aquaria.
“After a long night of hooking, trade didn’t like the session so he had gutted me and set me on fire. But you know I didn’t die. I had crystallised. And now I’m a glamazon, bitch, ready for the runway.”
With Yvie Oddly, A Star Is Born (…And Stream Born This Way On Google Play)
‘The Edge Of Glory’ isn’t really a song for high kicks and big reveals; in Lady Gaga’s music video, she drops the green screen and all-out numbers and dances on a New York-styled film lot. In her lip sync, Yvie connects to the song in a way Brooke doesn’t.
She looks the part, for one. The mirrors are so smart and ornate; it’s theatrical, but not a gimmick in the way Brooke’s reveal, while, meta, is. Godly, too; Yvie resembles some kind of Drag Brahma, and the bleeding eyes suggest a power that’s almost out of her control. It’s almost like, ahem, she’s on ‘The Edge Of Glory’.
Then, she turns — and flips. In that gown. With that much glass on her head.
Ornacia’s evil twin, Orinoco Flow.
It’s. Just. So. Good.
It’s a reveal, but not as we know or expect — and, pardon the pun, but it’s also a different side of Yvie. She’s showing us what she can do with the platform the show’s given her so far. I needed her to get the crown, to see what else she’ll do. Like many of the show’s younger winners (Aquaria, Violet), I’m confident Yvie will cement her place as a queen of queens after the show.
Elsewhere, the cement won’t dry. We’re getting the debut of Drag Race UK this year, and will have All Stars 5 and Season 12 in 2020, too, let alone a second season of UK (and then there’s Thailand, too). As much as I love this show (and have loved writing about this season), we need a break — both to breathe, and to the formula itself.
My solution? Less queens, for one — 15 this season was overwhelming — and less of a focus on celebrity stars. We don’t watch the show for 10 minutes of Miley Cyrus; we watch for the queens.
Perhaps that looks like not eliminating anyone for half the season, and canonising the scorecard system the fans use into the show, tallying it up before adopting eliminations. But that would mean casting a dozen or so queens who could actually all win, rather than for storylines.
Where-ever we’re heading, hopefully it’s towards a Drag Race that lets the queens shine. Yvie Oddly’s win is an excellent start.
RuPaul’s Drag Race is available to stream on Stan. Revisit our Season 11 recaps here.
Jared Richards is a staff writer at Junkee, and co-host of Sleepless In Sydney on FBi Radio. Thank you for reading these, and please follow him on Twitter for more Vox Lux references than you’ll ever need.