‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ S14 Finale Recap: How’s Your Heads?
We don't have any complaints (well, almost).
And may the widdlest queen win! Willow Pill is our newest queen of queens, beating out Lady Camden in a top-two lip-sync to Cher’s cover of ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’. All feels right, all is just.
While Willow winning didn’t make for the most thrilling finale (when they saved her top five performance till last, it ticket my 98% certainty she’d win to 100%), S14 lands a lot smoother than its predecessor.
S14’s long season might have dragged on a little, sure. But if we’re doing these 16-ep seasons from now on (gotta sell that ad space!), this worked a lot better than last year’s, where a decision to split the queens into winners and losers at the start gave a Standford Prison theme to the competition. (S13 was also actually SEVENTEEN episodes if you count the doco ep about shooting during the early days of COVID).
Half of S14’s episodes may have been non-elimination, but at least we didn’t instantly get told who the show did and didn’t care about. S14’s top five also wasn’t pickable from the start, and it feels like we got to watch a lot of queens really grow into themselves across the competition.
It wasn’t perfect (that honour goes to S8, AS2 and UK2), but I really enjoyed this season, which shifted Drag Race in small, smart ways. (And small, fart ways. Moments like Daytona Winds added so much lightness to the show!) The season balanced the ‘everybody say love’/’please stop sending death threats’ message with some old-fashioned drama thanks to Daya, the queens pretty much excelled as a group week-to-week (we don’t talk about Snatch Game), and continually surprised in terms of what they served on and off the runway. And Willow won! Praise to Kornbread’s oncle go cleek.
‘The Queens Will Each Give An Original Performance’ …Well Yeah, I Sure Hope So…
This year, we’re throwing out the lip-sync tournament for a hybrid based off S7 + 8’s mini-performances by each finalist, where they lip-sync to a song that’s written for them and loosely references funny things they’ve said or done. Then the top two lip-sync for the crown.
I don’t mind the idea of this, but it’s hard to say how much control they have over the track and the performance: there are the lyrics, production, staging, choreography, effects and costumes for them and the dancers at play. You have to assume they had some hand in it all, but given that some songs are simply better and more fun than others (it was immediately obvious that Bosco and Angeria weren’t top two), it’s hard for it to not feel a little rigga morris.
It’s why I loved S12’s Zoom finale so much, where the queens got to make their own music video at home: something like that, where they get to produce a lip sync to the song of their choosing, would be a little more satisfying than these Kidz Bops rejects.
The top five didn’t have to do a mini-ball this finale like last year, but each came with at least four looks: their red carpet/entrance, the performance, the pre-package video and the final lipsync. It’s a lot, and rather than go through them all, I have these two images of Angeria and one of Willow as a ’70s PI.
:)
At this moment I said out loud to no one, “I hope Angeria wins” despite famously wanting Willow or Daya to win.
If you look like this, call me.
As far as finales go, this padding wasn’t too suspicious: I probably could’ve done without the video package and a post-performance debrief with RuPaul. I do wish the actual performances were longer: Angeria’s felt like the most substantial track, while Bosco went by so fast, maybe because she barely moved during hers before it was over (an odd choice). I thought it was funny that Angeria’s song was based around her track record, considering Lady and Bosco best her for wins.
I know the stars spelled out her name on the back, but five stars for two wins is a bit awkward.
This was visually really beautiful and well done, but fell a little flat in the context.
Daya’s performance was similar to Bosco’s: both were Billie Eilish rip-offs, for one, but Daya also went a more ‘conceptual’ route with a spider-web ensnarement. But there were reveals, robotic Dr. Oz arms, and energy! I know I’m biased, but she was just behind the top two.
Justice 4 my queen…
Camden kills her number, naturally, which is a glam rock take on Chumbawamba’s ‘Tubthumping’ — the play on her Freddie Mercury runway works here, but the later staged fall during the final lip-sync suffers as a result. Lady and Willow get the best tracks of the bunch, so it’s no surprise they make the end.
You cannot deny the talent.
Willow’s track is a Julie Andrews-esque twee track about how she hates people, complete with three head reveals. I don’t really get it (I feel like I’m missing an obvious connection? Is the joke that she killed them?), but I love it.
It’s also a nice mirroring of drag sister Yvie Oddly’s final lip-sync look in S11: the first of many mirrorings of the night. Just like S11, we have a Denver oddity with one win who bombed Snatch Game go up against a non-US ballerina with three wins. Those Drag Race statistic accounts that pop up on my feed are going to have a field day with that one.
Before the top two battle it out, Symone comes out with last year’s Miss Congeniality La La Ri to pass on the ‘fan favourite’ award. Both look amazing: I’ve seen Symone cop some flack for coming out in jeans, but that’s such a fundamental misunderstanding of who she is and what her drag represents in terms of turning everyday Black femininity into a runway-ready look (besides, she wore this on the red carpet, so grow up!).
LaLaRi all stars when
The stones! The waistband at the bottom!
The two hand over $10,000 to Kornbread, who despite being very kind to Willow is absolutely not the first queen I’d think of when it comes to congeniality. A little surprised Kerri or DeJa didn’t take it, but I’m also happy for Kornbread to be a winner since she’s not returning to Drag Race anytime soon by her own decision.
And then the lip-sync! Oh, wait, no: let’s get the Vegas Revue girls to lip-sync to ‘Losing Is The New Winning’. But hey, any excuse to see Naomi and Jaida.
Kahanna Montrese second-chance/Derrick Barry third chance when…
Alright, and finally, the lip-sync. Willow comes out in a suit that even David Byrne would say is too big, while Lady Camden is ready to dance and twirl. She does — and she redoes her fall for another reveal, though her crown gets a little in the way — but it’s Willow who draws attention long before she reveals the BIG PANTS underneath or the final dance costume.
The attention to those little movements we saw in her Luther Vandross lip-sync returns: it’s delightful, even if the camera doesn’t quite linger long enough. There are also some lovely moments where the two bounce off each other — it feels much more like a love-in than previous years, which speaks to these two queens considering there’s a $100k difference between first and second place.
When you wander into your parents’ bedroom at 3am to tell them you threw up
Like the season itself, Willow’s performance balances what 2022 Drag Race demands (ridiculous reveals and stunts) with the heart of what drag, in my opinion, should be (clever, playful). She’s a dream winner, and absolutely deserves it. Also, check out her widdle butt!
You could say I’m Willow Pill’d.
And that’s it! See you for All Stars 7 in late May: the trailer dropped during the finale, because the train never ends. Watch it below.
8 queens. All winners. This is the biggest season in HERSTORY! Here's your first official look at @RuPaulsDragRace #AllStars7, streaming only on #ParamountPlus May 20th! pic.twitter.com/DGPzW92dEL
— Paramount+ (@paramountplus) April 23, 2022
RuPaul’s Drag Race S14 is available to stream in Australia on Stan.
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