‘RuPaul’s Drag Race UK’ S3E6 Recap: Make Me Wanna Shout

To quote Gemma Collins, “is time even real? who made the clock? who actually invented the clock? was it Big Ben?”. After Snatch Game, we’re already down to our final five, but it feels like the season hasn’t really started yet.

Let’s just be honest: this isn’t the greatest Drag Race season we’ve seen, though it has the impossible task of being compared to the bottled magic of UK2, which to me is up there with the show’s all-time best seasons (S5/6/8/12, AS2). That’s not to say it’s bad or that the queens aren’t charming, or that I’m not enjoying it, but it is missing a certain… je ne sais know her.

A huge part of that was (like Down Under) some huge early outs. I think the show really suffered not having Veronica or Victoria around for long, and has ended up pushing Krystal as the obvious winner as a result. Ru’s overwrought speech calling her the future of drag was doing a lot of heavy lifting (not to mention praising her for ‘stepping outside her comfort zone’ by doing a perfectly fine impersonation, ignoring that she’s played variations of that character many times this season).

Bob & Monet have been skirting around their issue with the season a little on their Sibling Rivalry podcast, trying to say in the most delicate way that this isn’t the wittiest cast. I’m not sure that’s true, but it’s definitely not the wittiest season. Blame it on production’s condensed filming schedule, as performances and jokes tend to have 70 per cent of the idea there — there’s no time to refine. Gemma Collins was right: Big Ben needs to slow down the clocks.

Add to that the usual issues of arbitrary judging, some odd eliminations and Ru not understanding UK references, and you’ve got a stalling season. This week’s double-elimination was frustrating, as the show got rid of two of the season’s most loveable queens in a (to me) undeserved swoop. Whinging aside, this was actually a fun Snatch Game thanks to stellar performances from Ella and Kitty, who I think might round out the top three with Krystal.

I’m Sorry That Scarlett Is The Feature Image Of Three Rucaps In A Row, But You Can’t Deny She Gives Good Screenshot

As written in the ancient scrolls, Snatch Game is preceded by a reading challenge. Scarlett, still nonplussed by last week, leans a little too mean in her ‘reads’: maybe it’s her twinkiness, but there’s something in her delivery that reminds me of a bullied kid fumbling lines as he tries to yell back insults. A jumble of anger, anxiety and excitement.

River has a great bit about Scarlett speaking over her; Choriza makes a joke out of Krystal’s ‘perfection’ and wins the mini, while Krystal puts on her best Alyssa Edwards ‘loud catty drag queen’ impersonation, though credit where it’s due, ‘Kitty’s Got Pores’ is a really solid pun.

Last week I wrote I was warming up to Krystal, but this week I’ve swung back to ambivalence due to the immense praise by the judges — plus, her runway this week revealed that her design back in E2 was just a copy of something someone had made for her, which made it much less impressive in retrospect. I do really like her and she’s clearly very talented, but she needs a few years to find her ‘true’ voice.

Still, I accept her as our soon-to-be crowned queen, and think like some of the younger winners (Violet, Aquaria), she’ll grow further off the show and be an absolute star. With the wisdom of age (I am 27, lol), I just feel no 19-year-olds should be on reality TV ever. (Also, maybe this says more about who I was around 19 than Krystal.)

Onto Snatch Game — in the werkroom, Ru encourages almost everyone to go with another celebrity than their main plan, to the point that he’s acting as their outer saboteur. On the more sensical side, Ru pushes Ella away from a ‘Mystic Meg’ (another psychic character would be very boring) to do Nigella, and Ru tells Kitty to do the GC instead of singer Cilla Black, despite her drag sister Cheryl literally borrowing Kitty’s GC wig for Snatch Game back in S1.

More confounding is telling Choriza to do Cher, advice she thankfully doesn’t follow, and Scarlett to do Macaulay Culkin instead of Danny Dyer — whose Eastenders‘ character was referenced in UK2, via a manikin called MICKEYYYYY.

There’s potentially something to do with Macaulay given he’s quite a weird dude, but Ru is purely suggesting it because Scarlett vaguely resembles him. Scarlett has no real reference point beyond Home Alone, and just keeps doing a scream face during Snatch Game: it’s so one-note that it kinda wraps around to being really funny. If it was Scarlett’s own idea, it’s absolutely a bottom two performance, but given Ru’s prodding, it makes sense she’s safe.

Nigella is such an obvious SG winner, and the judges are right in that Ella plays her well, never going completely OTT with the puns. Kitty’s Gemma is very enjoyable if not particularly interesting, just because it’s hard to squeeze much new out of it.

In other Snatch Games, River and Krystal would have been safe for their characters, which just repeat other people’s catchphrases and jokes. Vanity goes the same route with a sketch character — again, fine, but not really showing much imagination. I liked Choriza’s take on Cuban singer Margarita Pracatan, as it had a bit of meat to it, even if jokes didn’t always land.

I’m a little surprised that it’s River and Choriza in the bottom this week: by my count, it was probably Vanity in place of Choriza, especially when taking in the fruity runway.

The judges seem determined to promote Vanity’s ‘growth’ in the competition, but like Krystal, I don’t necessarily see a developed voice yet: I hate to use a Michelle-ism, but I feel like I don’t really know who she is.

Ella deservedly takes the win this week, with Kitty again just missing out on a badge. Unfortunately for me, River’s runway is a little lacklustre, reminiscent of Tia Kofi’s ‘ice-cream cone’: almost right, but just a little underdeveloped.

Choriza and River duke it out to ‘Shout’ by guest judge Lulu. It’s not great: River is a little awkward, and Choriza makes a mistake by replacing her headdress with a wig that keeps slipping all performance.

It’s a brutal (but unfortunately not undeserved) double-elim, especially as Ru says she loves both of them after saying they both underwhelmed him: anyone else get the sense that Ru’s a bit over filming this season? Don’t worry Ru, just four more weeks, AKA four/five/six days of filming left.

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RuPaul’s Drag Race UK S3 is available on Stan, with episodes arriving each Friday 6am AEST.

Jared Richards is Junkee’s Drag Race recapper, and a freelance critic who has written for The Guardian, The Monthly, NME and more. He’s on Twitter @jrdjms