‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Recap: Pitbull Said “Gay Rights, Except For Sherry!”

Despite everything — COVID-19, Sherry Pie, Rock M. Sakura going home second — RuPaul’s Drag Race S12 has been such a delight.

Wholesome, too. While it might not make for the most entertaining Untuckeds, these queens have (Brita and Aiden aside) been wholly supportive of each other throughout the competition.

In S6, Bianca Del Rio didn’t have an issue with helping a queen because, well, she was leagues above everyone: here, the queens have, for the most part, felt so distinct from one another that that competitive edge hasn’t really come out.  It really has been RuPaul’s Best Friends Race.

We couldn’t blame you for giving up on Untucked, but this week’s is worth a watch: the lovefest is a testament to the cast’s self-assuredness. While a feud makes for good TV, there’s something to be said for how incredibly supportive the S12 queens have been of one other (for the most part). Competing with yourself makes a lot of sense — as RuPaul says this episode, “know yourself and bring it to every challenge” is really Drag Race‘s mantra, alongside “you’re born naked…”, “frack city frack city” and “no trans girls!”

With [redacted’s] disqualification, the top three — Gigi, Jaida, Crystal — have all brought themselves to the show, though despite Gigi’s four challenge wins, it almost feels like it’s down to Jaida or Crystal.

After coming out of the gates strong, Gigi has struggled in the latter half of S12 — maybe more in the public eye than the show, as viewers seemed to sour on her. We get it: to throw out a RuPaul neologism, she hasn’t really had that vulnerable moment to endear her to the audience.

Back at S12’s first episode, I wrote that Gigi was almost a “little too clean”, and as weeks have gone on, it’s clear that Sasha Belle passed over that code she cracked. Gigi’s been very prepared for Drag Race, down to her (quite funny, at first) robotic characters and even facial expressions on the runway: it’s excellence, for the most part, but not much of it has felt very spontaneous.

In the second half, we’ve seen that falter, as she repeated ideas or characters that previously worked — but hey, she was literally 21 when they filmed this, an age where most people (me) repeat the same two anecdotes again and again in hopes people like them.

Gigi is an amazing queen, and this week’s challenge win puts her “track record” (each season seems to use a different expression for challenge wins) on par with Shea Coulée and Sharon Needles, the only other queens who have won four maxis in a regular season. The fact she can feel a little ‘inauthentic’ (kind of a ridiculous term for a drag queen, but RuPaul’s bullshit pop-psychology has fracked through my skull) is a sign of her skill to come — and if she won, she’d only flourish off the show into a favourite, like other young winners Aquaria and Violet.

But it just wouldn’t be that exciting, would it? Crystal would be: after S11 was essentially 14 episodes of Yvie Oddly saying “in case you haven’t noticed, I’m weird“, Crystal doesn’t overplay her oddness. She just delivers it — in terms of the show, at least, there’s a freshness to what she does, which is impressive for a S12 queen.

Week by week, it’s impossible to know what she’s going to plate up: and, since the Madonna Rusical, it’s been a delight to watch.

Then there’s Jaida, who is just as polished as Gigi, but has a distinct presence. We haven’t really had many  ‘pageant’ queens win the show (Bebe? Chad? Trinity?), but Jaida is the real deal.

For some reason, the show hasn’t highlighted this, but Jaida’s made every single outfit she’s worn (bar the tulle runway). The excellence and poise hasn’t gained her the same rabid fanbase as Gigi, but it should have.

She’s been silly, sexy, dumb, absurd and completely glamorous week in, week out — once again, we have a talented POC ‘pageant’ girl enter the end of the competition a little overlooked. A’Keria and Asia before her were also all of the above, but are relatively forgotten in the fan base’s memory in favour of white fashion queens.

Take the mirror conversation from this week, where Jackie says she thought Gigi was a “campy costume” queen on first impressions. Gigi acts jokingly indignant but later describes herself as “pure camp” on the runway. And she’s not wrong. Her looks are a pastiche of pop culture — Heathers, Scooby-Doo and this week, Never Been Kissed — presented with a high fashion air, but they’re pretty cartoony.

The costume critique never lands her way, though, because of her body type and persona — we trust her with these looks and references where we wouldn’t a POC queen, or someone less svelte. It doesn’t take away from Gigi to point it out: it’s more that the whole idea of a ‘costumey’ look is vague and besides the point (they’re drag queens…), and has become something of a cover-all to complain against ‘something’ we don’t like about a queen.

We’re pretty far into this recap, and I haven’t even mentioned the episode. There’s a reason: it was, as the final challenges often are, pretty boring.

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This week’s challenge is based around RuPaul’s Drag Race Live, which launched January in Las Vegas, and features the likes of Yvie, Vanjie, Shannel, Aquaria, Coco Montrese and Asia O’Hara. This isn’t merely a product placement or a song remix: this is full-scale product cross-integration, even down to the showgirls mini-challenge.

It also kind of sucks. On their Race Chaser podcast, Willam has said the show’s ‘storyline’ songs are a real drag — and that’s what we get this episode. There’s something to be said about transforming the genuine growth and traumas of the queens into some generic musical about The Power Of Drag. It’s all very clinical.

Still, the queens did it really well. Really, really well: if the writing wasn’t on the wall for Jackie, it would’ve been hard to tell who was heading home. They each recorded a rap, sung, and learnt choreo from Jamal Sims, and there’s not a single queen who doesn’t stress out at some point.

Jackie and Crystal end up in the bottom this week for no real reason: Crystal does seem a little low energy in the challenge, but the judges don’t bring it up. Before they perform, the queens enjoy a cocktail from Mickey’s Hollywood, and exemplify the strange, chaotic energy of drinking with friends over Zoom.

Then Mr. 305/Mr. Worldwide said gay rights on the floor, and Crystal and Jackie didn’t disobey. While Pitbull’s music triggers memories of being 18 and going to the Sydney’s worst clubs and pretending it’s fun, I’ve been so nostalgic for any night out that I’ve found myself singing ‘On The Floor’ ever since.

Crystal stays, if not mostly because it was Jackie’s third time lipsyncing. She definitely held her own, but Jackie’s proven to be a surprising lip-sync assassin. To be fair, there is something very nerdy about memorising all the words to a Pitbull song — it’s exactly what someone would do to prove they’re cool.

And then, the most glorious moment of all-time: RuPaul saying congratulations to the top four, then asking if we were Team Crystal, Team Gigi or Team Jaida. I gasped.

We finally have confirmation that the next two episodes will be filmed online. The reunion could be fun, though it seems unlikely they’ll address Sherry in any substantial way, which is a shame — it’d be nice, almost, to hear these queens be candid about their disappointment and frustration.

But the lip-sync finale? Given what queens have been offering up from their homes, it could be amazing. Hopefully no-one tries to jump off a car like Laganja, or we might witness the one and only time ‘death drop’ is actually the right term.

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RuPaul’s Drag Race is streaming on Stan, with new episodes dropping each Saturday 1pm. All Stars 5 and Canada will also be on Stan as they air, starting June 5 and July 3, respectively.

Jared Richards is Junkee’s Night Editor, and a freelance writer. He’s on Twitter.