‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ S14E7 Recap: LGBTQ + IBS

If you didn’t watch Untucked, you’re missing the chance for a cathartic cry. DeJa asks the others if anyone’s thought about transitioning — Bosco (who came out as a trans woman two weeks ago) said she has considered it a lot and wants to “move over the lever” as a non-binary person who mostly gets he/him’d, and then Jasmine shakily begins to speak.

The whole Untucked is wonderful (everyone’s feeling pretty good since there are no bottoms this week, plus should-be permanent judge T.S. Madison heads back-stage for a pep-talk), but watching Jasmine admit she’s trans while choking up through tears is very special: the snippet is just below. There’s so much love in this room, with Jasmine grasping onto Bosco and Kerri’s hands for dear life, before crediting Kerri for inspiring her to be as confident and radiant as she is.

“You owe it to yourself to be happy, and to live your life as the human being that you want to be.” 🏳️‍⚧️

So proud of @JasmineKennedie for finding the courage to share her journey, and major props to @KerriColby, @hereisbosco, & @kornbreadTMFS for inspiring us all season long! 💘 pic.twitter.com/jPjWWteTuP

— RuPaul's Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace) February 19, 2022

14 seasons in, it’s very easy to be cynical about Drag Race (uh, it’s kinda my job, too), but sometimes, there’s a moment like this that shows its true value as “representation”, and how much that can mean to someone watching.

Compare it to the main show’s werkroom conversation about Folsom Street Fair. I was glad to her Bosco say that kink and “grit” needs to remain part of Pride and queer culture after recent misplaced ‘kink at Pride’ discourse, but ultimately it was clearly a moment that was producer-led (“can you ask about X?”) and audience-focused. It was about educating the masses who watch, ironically the same broad mainstream audience that sees queer culture as never teetering to a sexual point beyond the show’s innuendos.

And that’s not a bad thing! It’s easily a net good, even if Drag Race itself has helped remove that same “grit” from queer culture, where queens are expected to be flawless models (and often not the sexually active queers they are, too). But it’s always funny to watch the machine chug along; on one level, it’s wild that something like this week’s Untucked happens on the same show that didn’t help Willow with opening boxes last week. On another, it makes perfect sense: Kerri’s existence and confidence created this moment (the eggs she’s cracking across the globe…). The show was just a vessel, which is when Drag Race is at its best, getting out of the way so we can see who these people really are. (We also now have four trans queens on this season, which is a huge progression from Ru’s comments about having trans women compete being ‘unfair’ a few years back. Trains rights!)

The whole episode this week did just that, as the queens were given a soap opera acting challenge that really let them all shine, farts and all. If Gia Gunn threw the first brick for trans rights, Rock M. Sakura sacrificed himself in S12 to let The Daytona Winds blow forth (and for the Folsom conversation to happen, too. IYKYK.)

If I ever do All Stars I'm gonna literally fucking shit on the stage and I BETTER GET PRAISE FOR IT 😠

— Rock M. Sakura (@RockMSakura) February 19, 2022

The Winds Of Change

After being in her feelings last week, Daya half-apologises to Jorgeous for not celebrating her win: luckily for her, Jorgeous doesn’t hold a grudge, as she’s picking the roles for this week’s soap opera challenge.

Almost everyone gets the roles they want save for DeJa, who wants the role Jorgeous gets, and Lady Camden, who reads slowly and so just ends up with the last remaining role.

Assumedly Ross Matthews was busy providing acting notes on-set of House Of Gucci (“What if you tried a bigger accent, Jared? More is more: that’s what I always say on Grindr!”), as RuPaul herself steps up in the director’s chair this week. I love when Ru interacts with the queens, and here she’s able to get each and every queen to deliver their character to what she wants — long pauses and all.

The grand reveal on-stage — that each pause and steely gaze was matched with a fart noise, and almost all the lines were a double-entendre about passing gas — kind of needed a hard-line director, plus you know Ru would have LOVED playing this trick.

A couple of queens fumble their lines, but no one does badly: later, we get a safe for DeJa, Angeria and Kerri, the first two definitely the worst of the week. They easily could’ve been in the bottom, but perhaps the show didn’t want to risk Angeria going home the first week she fell from the top? I’m not quite sure, as it does feel like DeJa’s days are numbered: she’s just not quite popping on the show, which is clear on this week’s chaps runway.

Where most of the queens elevate chaps — usually pretty ugly, even if a drag staple — DeJa goes for a pretty simplistic (but pretty!) look. It’s just not 100% there yet.

Compare it to Willow’s atomic wedgie, Kerri’s next-level gorgeousness or Lady Camden’s reveal — immediately up there with Brooke Lynn’s S11 wig reveal as an all-timer, in my books. All the other queens did an elevation of sorts, even if I didn’t necessarily love them (technically, Jorgeous was more of a descent to low-risers, but even still, it’s a twist).

It’s hard to pick this week’s winners, but the judges land on Lady Camden and Daya, preferring her to her twin partner Willow because of the latter’s very loose character similarities to Moira Rose on Schitt’s Creek (which Willow says she’s never seen, and judging by the way she misspelled the show’s name on Twitter, she’s not lying). It’s splitting hairs: even the ‘safes’ were good this week, even if they struggled during shooting.

So we get a top-two lip-sync to Blondie’s ‘One Way Or Another’, and while Daya embodies a bit of Debbie Harry’s energy, it’s Lady Camden-as-Freddie Mercury who crushes it. High-kicks, comedy, every little beat: I forgot she was a ballet dancer, too. She’s this week’s winner, but Daya gets her moment of praise too — both queens are fighting hard for that final 4 spot (I think Jorgeous, Willow and Angeria are sure things).

Next week, the queens record an olden timey single, which might mean no single verse that includes a rap about taking the crown. Could that even be possible?

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RuPaul’s Drag Race S14 is available to stream in Australia on Stan, with episodes dropped each Saturday 3pm AEDT. 

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