‘RuPaul’s Drag Race UK’ S2E4 Recap: Gothy’s Revenge
Goth isn't a costume: it's a way of life.
It was sad to see Ginny Lemon go, but few things are as enjoyable to watch as a drag queen who is absolutely over it. With no cares left to give, Ginny left the main-stage during this week’s lip-sync, leaving her bottom sister, Sister Sister, to have possibly the largest amount of solo camera time she’ll get.
You can’t spell stunt without ‘unt’, and the charisma was far from silent, either: Ginny Lemon is an excellent example of a queen who was probably never going to win Drag Race, but is the absolute best at what they do. They’d shown themselves off, won the hearts of everyone, and were tired of the judges’ critiques — why not leave on your own terms, and create a Drag Race first in the process? Legendary behaviour.
Ginny is absolutely savouring what’s about to happen.
From the get-go, Ginny seemed off it this episode, finally cracking down on Lawrence’s showboating (love her, but I’m sure it’d be exhausting at times).
It could’ve been the edit, but all episode Ginny seemed a little distant. They had a clear character for the week’s challenge, knew what to do, did it, and then were annoyed that it wasn’t lapped up.
The frustration makes sense. Ginny’s had a hard go so far from the judges, who keep insisting they love her but want to see them do ‘something else’ or ‘something more’.
And the manic improv as the Australian weather-girl wasn’t amazing by any means, but it easily could’ve been edited to land them safe — or judges would have been more forgiving if it was another queen.
This was funny! Rude!
Later, on the main-stage, Ginny disclosed that they have fibromyalgia, a chronic illness with painful flare-ups. Drag Race is an exhausting show: the queens are in drag for hours to film the main-stage segment, and it’s possible that the rewards were too slight and the potential pains too high to stick around.
Then again, their official line was that they didn’t want to go up against their sister Sister Sister. And just as Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo, Ginny Lemon sisters sister Sister Sister.
Fancy A Slice?
Before all that, this week’s mini-challenge sees the queens try to sell some biscuits to the camera, à la the Great British Bake Off. Most go smutty, which falls flat pretty quickly, where Bimini wins with sharp Brexit puns and references. And she doesn’t even have a TV! Wow, what a quirky East London-living vegan she is.
Tayce is just as unfunny as Ellie here, but sells the moment so, so much more that she removes any audience cringe. It’s improv 101 to commit — and the queens who struggle during this week’s main challenge, a half-improvised live morning show parody, forget it (or they didn’t ace year high school drama like some of us).
By my count, the bottom three were Ellie, who is steamrolled by her partner Lawrence and doesn’t sell her one moment drawing over Lawrence’s face (plus had a very awkward werkroom moment with Ru, which certainly doesn’t help her case); Veronica, who is too in her head to perform; and Sister, who struggles to rise above a shitty partner and a shitty part.
Drag Race loves to pretend that all challenge roles are created equally, but Veronica and Sister were given an uphill battle as the party decorator goths.
It’s also a hard archetype to play with, and it’s absolutely cursed on Drag Race: just look at BenDeLaCreme in AS3, or UK‘s own Gothy Kendoll. I guess being cursed is pretty goth, at least.
With goth, most people think of sullen teens (probably rocking out to MCR and celebrating the New Year, which brings us one year closer to death!), and as someone who was #1 in high school drama from year 8-12, I can definitively say that down-beat characters don’t really work in improv, especially when paired together: the duo should have made one character campy and another monotone. Now that’s comedy! (And for success, they should have worn a suit.)
Veronica is, until it’s confirmed otherwise, the Funko pop collector queen, which actually has some overlap with goth — but still, she can’t quite get The Craft of the character right.
Even still, it was a bad pairing — Veronica was in her head from the moment ‘improv’ was said, and Sister has been struggling to find her voice in the competition. It’s a shame, as, from socials, she seems like a great queen, but outside of werkroom moments with Ginny, where she’s comfortable and reveals a great wit, has mostly just retreated more and more.
Still, Lawrence is right to say she always seems to blame her so-so performances on someone else. Veronica was definitely a difficult partner, but, as Michelle Visage sings, it takes two to flop.
In terms of the other pairings, Tayce and Bimini kill it as the party girl hosts, neither trying to overshadow the other; Lawrence naturally takes over her scene given how quiet Ellie is; and the real surprise is Tia and A’Whora, who are finally working together after weeks of mutual side-stepping.
Bimini is K-hole representation.
A’Whora hasn’t been shy about what she thinks of Tia, and Tia doesn’t think much of her, either, but the two work really, really well together. It’s delightful to watch them overcome the ‘shade’ and hash out their feud, as each discuss how their own insecurities are flared up by the other.
The maturity is somewhat surprising from A’Whora, who has been playing the villain extra hard: the whole episode feels like her breakthrough moment, and Tia’s happy to be the ‘straight man’ to her bodacious Essex girl. It really feels like her week to win: vulnerability and a nip slip? That’s drag excellence.
Well, her name is literally A’Whora.
Boys Becoming Men, Men Becoming Wolves
The runway this week is an ode to the monstrous. Veronica instantly saves herself from the bottom two with a homage to two drag icons: Miss Piggy and S1 legend, character illusionist Shannel.
This really is amazing, and that wig alone must have taken up most of a suitcase.
It’s a shame, on some part, that Veronica didn’t lip-sync, as watching her get heated during Untucked — when she misreads A’Whora’s comments about ‘throwing everything away’ and focusing on performing — was deeply unnerving, thanks to the prosthetics all over her face.
Another queen who struggled to talk backstage was Sister — but this time, it was her prosthetic teeth that got in the way, in her allusion to both the Cookie Monster and ‘Wrapped Up’, as heard on the Vox Lux soundtrack.
As the Cookie Monster says, Vox Lux OST is an always food.
If we’re grading on a curve, Tia Kofi wins this week’s runway: her own Medusa look pales to Veronica’s, but this is easily the best she’s looked so far. We truly love to see it.
Hopefully the COVID break between filming will let source some more looks, as I need Tia on my TV for as long as possible.
Bimini easily could’ve won this week, save for her outfit — as Michelle says, the devil’s in the details, and the face prosthetics just seem a little off. It’s a shame, as the ode to Pamela Anderson is salient, given she just destroyed the evils of social media forever.
This is how Mark Zuckeberg sees everyone who doesn’t has quit Instagram and Facebook.
Lawrence nabs her second win in two weeks, and it’s hard to fault it: her Leatherface-apron is truly disguss-tin’ to behold and the rhinestone blood splatter is the attention to detail that makes a Drag Race winner. She’s been a front-runner since the start, and after all these shock eliminations, she’s truly the one to beat.
Walk into the club face first.
Still, it’s a shame they didn’t love A’Whora’s runway, as it really was her week. The complaint was that it was ‘too beautiful’ and nowhere horrific enough, but Tayce gets away with absolutely no gore or grit.
Any allusion to Elvira is a win for me, even if this leans a little more Cher.
Tayce isn’t reinventing the wheel, but the wheel is really fucking hot.
Then comes the lip-sync, and Ginny takes an out. Perhaps her senses were tingling: in next week’s teaser, the queens return to the werkroom to be told they have to halt production for some reason. Sure it’s nothing.
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK is available on Stan, with episodes dropping each Friday 8AM AEDT.
Jared Richards is Junkee’s Drag Race recapper, and a freelance writer who has written for The Guardian, The Big Issue and more. He’s on Twitter.