‘RuPaul’s Drag Race UK’ S2E2 Recap: Memories? I Hardly Even Know Her
This week's Ruscial did the impossible: it (almost) redeeemed 'Cats'.
Drag Race UK just did the unthinkable: it redeemed Cats. This week’s ‘Rusical’ challenge saw the queens sing live while dancing through Rats, an on-point parody which was 1000x more watchable than a film where James Corden being cast isn’t even the lowest of its lows.
But this, according to my editor, isn’t ‘Jared’s personal blog where he talks about 2019 films he hates’. This is now, in a completely unforeseeable turn of events, a joint Bimini and Veronica Green stan recap, where I will launch an official petition for an ‘odd couple’ BBC sitcom starring the two.
Do you think they have ever had a conversation one-on-one? I have truly never seen two people so opposed.
We’ve never quite had a personality like Veronica on Drag Race before, a somewhat shy, understated geek with sharp acting, comedy and singing talents.
She wasn’t exactly on my radar after the premiere, but really won me over this episode — and not merely her winning performance. I loved the campiness of her Stepford Wives runway (so simple, but so smart and fun, and performed to perfection) and found her under-spoken confidence in rehearsals, where Michelle had to directly ask her to show off her voice, incredibly endearing.
In Untucked-ish, she said she spent most of her life being ‘overlooked’ by people due to being more reserved and quiet. It’s easy to feel as a queer person you’re failing your queerness if you’re not loud and proud, but Veronica seems doggedly determined to show off her skill without changing who she is.
‘Are you wearing the-‘ ‘The Veronica Green slim pins? Yes, I am.’
Sure, that means she’s pretty terrible at being a reality TV figure, in that she just politely nods to Ru’s comments and stumbles upon her own entry lines in confessionals, but it’s part of her charm. I hope she sticks around: there’s a lot more to her. Am I stanning? Does the pop shit in the woods?
And all these queens! Two weeks in, and we’ve eliminated two competitors I thought were going much further: Joe and now Cherry Valentine, who probably shouldn’t have even been in the bottom. But as the English say, C’est la vie, luv.
Please Welcome To The Stage, Inner Saboteurs!
Before the Rusical, the queens go to the polls to vote on who of the cast they consider the shadiest (A’Whora), the trade (Tayce), the cockiest (Lawrence) and the most basic (Tia).
It mostly means nothing, except Tia gets to pick the roles — and she’s pretty fair, though no role is going to suit Lawrence, who, as Tia says, ‘looks like he’s going to shit his pants’.
Last week, Lawrence talked about her insecurities out of drag, and it all comes up again as she ends up crying during dance rehearsals after completely freezing. She may be the ‘cockiest’ queen but this is classic inner saboteur stuff, and again, quite sad to watch: she’s such a star but clearly has a lot to work through, and might not be up to the pressure of the show.
Lawrence is given a pretty small role, within a trio of extras with Cherry and Sister, the latter of who expresses frustration with her during Untucked-ish, saying it was really hard to rehearse while Lawrence was barely present.
Sister Sister has a key hook attached to her outfit, despite being sequestered in a hotel, proving once and for all that every Dickeys-wearing fuckboi hangs their keys on their pants purely for the aesthetic, regardless of what they may say. (And, regrettably, I am into it.)
The edit seems to side with Lawrence, who is indignant that her own insecurities inconvenienced Sister Sister, but Sissy has a point. Sister was supportive in the moment, but the group clearly suffered as a result of Lawrence struggling in rehearsals, and (at least to the edit) it ate into their time with the choreographers.
Still, Lawrence avoided the bottom this week because of her natural charisma, and it’s probably frustrating, in the same way it was for the AS2 queens competing against Alyssa, that she’s held to a different standard. Sister probably sees the writing on the wall: Lawrence will go far, while she hasn’t really connected with the judges yet.
The other main takeaway from rehearsals is Tayce’s ‘Resident Evil mercenary’ outfit.
As Franz Ferdinand sang, ‘take me out!’. And as they also sang in a less cited but definitely real song, ‘Literally stab my chest Tayce!’.
The writing’s also on the wall for Cherry in the werkroom, when we get to learn about the complexities of being a queer man of Travller descent. It’s sad to hear her say she still struggles to proudly identity and say she’s a gay man, but a reminder that self-acceptance isn’t straight and narrow path.
You’d imagine bold, interesting queens like Lawrence and Cherry would be truly assured of themselves and their queerness, but it’s just not that simple.
Sister Sister cutting herself while shaving is also important representation for the stupid bitch community. <3 <3 <3
Wie Vivele Exfreunde Hast Du Schonmal Gehabt, Bitch? Rats (The Rusical)-Ta-Ta-Ta TAAAAAAA
The Ruscial is excellent: it’s hard to believe that we got this the same week as S13’s abysmal ‘RuPaulmark’ acting challenges.
There’s really no question that Veronica is this week’s winner. Still, Tia’s a close second and kills her ‘Memories’ parody as a labrat with an ear on her back (this fucking show!) and Bimini absolutely nails being a shouty techno rat (as does A’Whora, despite her reservations at getting masc). No one’s bad, really, and it’s much harder to pick a bottom three.
Me, deprived of any nightlife, really getting into Bimini’s best Prodigy impersonation.
If we’re, ahem, cherry picking, Miss Valentine, Sister and Lawrence aren’t amazing, but Tayce and Ellie also relatively lack stage presence and flub their lines in their ‘hoodrat’ segment.
This is clearly a week where the runway matters, as a few queens save themselves with their reveal looks: Ellie even lands in the top.
The judges were really impressed by her perfectly fine performance and Wizard Of Oz tearaways. While it’s no fault of her own, I suppose the reference just falls flat for me, given we’ve seen both A’Whora and S13 queen Tina Burner serve their own takes in recent weeks.
Maybe my heart’s just rusty.
Sister’s paint is, uh, pretty rough here, but the tattooed skin reveal is really fun. It’s a clever take on an old-hat idea.
Cherry’s runway lands her in the bottom, a ‘first thought’ take on a ‘gender reveal’ that sees her literally write the word ‘gender’ on her dress.
Bimini’s look goes down the same path, fixing paint-filled balloons across a white corset, but the paint dries out and fails to make an impact. It’s a shame, as Bimini had filled them with blue and pink paint, in a nod to her non-binary identity.
The re-do on Instagram still isn’t my favourite, but it’s much more considered than Cherry’s, and the meaning behind it would’ve made for a nice moment on the runway.
Literally writing the word ‘gender’ here is very ‘”gay rights!” – Jennifer Lawrence’.
The other missed opportunity was Tia’s reveal. She started off so strong with her faux abs leather daddy look, but the reveal into the flamenco dancer emoji made no sense — and wasn’t pretty enough to ignore how little sense it made.
My disappointment that she didn’t reveal giant testicles can be summed up by the utter look of resentment and exhaustion on Tia’s face mid-Macarena.
In terms of the top looks, A’Whora really surprised me this week: her groom-into-bride runway was really well done, and she pulled through the Rats rusical to match Bimini’s chav energy.
She’s probably not your favourite as she’s really leaning into the villain role, but she’s playing it well. Where Veronica struggles to play along with Drag Race as a reality show, A’Whora knows what to do, which is why her and Tayce, who are roommates, are playing up a faux romance for the cameras.
If you can’t love yourself etc etc
My favourite looks were Veronica’s, Asttina’s ‘can’t say Mortal Kombat because of liscencing issues’ femme fatale, Ginny Lemon’s ‘same dress under my dress also here’s my ass’ reveal, and then, finally, Tayce. Sure, her reveal misses the mark, but oh my God who cares she is so, so pretty.
Unkept butt hair representation!
“My inspiration was ‘video game vixen'”
Bicentennial Man 2: This Time, The Robot’s Gay
… no words…
Tayce has to lip-sync against Cherry to the song ‘Memories’ from School Of Rock, and it’s all over pretty much immediately. Cherry does a good job, but Tayce is magnetic: call it pretty privilege, but I’d watch her lip-sync to any Cats song.
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK is available on Stan, with episodes dropping each Friday 8AM AEDT.
Jared Richards is a staff writer at Junkee, and freelancer who has written for The Guardian, The Big Issue and more. He’s on Twitter.