‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ UKVTW S1 Finale Recap: Was It All A Dream?

Well! Looks like Blu Hydrangea is our first Queen Of The World (very different to Queen Of The Universe), after six episodes of utter fan-fiction chaos. And you know what? She deserves it: Blu hasn’t had a bad moment all season.

Going into this week’s finale, it was unclear who would win, but I had a sneaking feeling it was Blu.  Ru loves Baga, but a lip sync smackdown was unlikely to work in her favour (and I groaned when they revealed she and Mo were doing a fucking Jes*ie J song). Jujubee has to remain the bridesmaid, and an American winning feels just a bit lackluster anyway, which means Mo probably wouldn’t take home the crown either.

Blu is an understated queen in this cast: like she said on the main stage this week, she felt like a “filler” when she arrived, stacked against such huge personalities. But she’s an excellent, funny performer, is sweet but shady, has a unique vision for her drag, and is easily among the show’s best make-up artists. She was a stand-out on UK1, and on this cast, too — even if Jimbo and Pangina stayed till the end, there’s a good chance she would have been right up there with them.

DRUVTW has gotten a bad rap, but I’ve really loved it: an impossible to predict, ridiculous season with an amazing cast. Will we argue about the eliminations for years to come? Probably, but at the end of the day, a series of non-US/UK queens got to show their talents to the world and gain a huge new audience: Pangina, Jimbo, Lemon and Janey have won a lot more than $0 and a verse on a Ru song.

Speaking of, the very interesting ‘Champion (Ru x Blu)’ was released on Spotify (plus Mo tweeted out her congratulations to Blu before the episode airing), and now Spotify has been down for half the day. Ru must have revisited her Starbooty days and done some hacking.

“I Loathe Hydrangeas” – Madonna, A Pangina Stan

It’s not necessarily padding, but it takes about 40 minutes before the queens actually take part in any kind of challenge this week, which gives them a lot of time to reflect on their time on the show and their lives. I am sure parts of this were very moving, but I tested positive for COVID today and am blaming the fact that I can barely recall any of it on that. Sorry!

One thing I do remember is Jujubee talking about her so-so journey on the show, freely admitting it hasn’t been her best run. It’s refreshing that she’s so honest, and it turns out there was a bit working against her.

As she tells Ru later, not only did she have an incredibly jarring moment where she saw a photo of her estranged mother online shortly before filming, but she told Pop Buzz that several designers dropped out last-minute, meaning she had to switch some costumes around for the show (for eg, her Vegas cat was planned as her Kitty Girl look, which looking back makes sense). It’s a nice reminder that so many queens aren’t able to show their true vision on the show, but they don’t have the same goodwill that Jujubee has behind them. While we’re on the topic of goodwill, it’s a pleasure to see the eliminated queens on the runway repping their countries. God I love this cast.

And then there’s our top four, who walk out in their finest regal looks ahead of being told how wonderful they are by the judges and seeing messages of support from Naomi Campbell and Elton John (that may have been the most insane part of the whole series???). Blu’s is my favourite: everyone else looks good, but don’t really match the grandeur of the moment.

Before the lip syncs, we get a mini ru-union backstage, which is basically a moment for Jimbo, Pangina and Blu to hash it all out. Pangina is clearly still very upset, and Jimbo is mad: we see a bit of that darker, angrier side to him that was on CDR, too.

It’s understandable, but it’s also not very endearing — and as Silky said on Twitter, if she had of called anyone a “stupid bitch” on the show (even as a “joke”), she would have been ripped apart by the fans. Jimbo’s whiteness definitely saves him from the vitriol Black and POC queens get from the fanbase, which Blu echoes in a recent interview, comparing the level of hatred she and Pangina got from their elimination choices. I understand that I write recaps where I critique the queens (hopefully the love comes through), but I do think this or talking about the show with friends is very different from directly messaging contestants mean or abusive messages. It’s a lot of hatred to put out into the world over a reality TV show.

Anyway, ‘Domino’ by Je**ie J, the winner of Chinese singing show Singer, is the first lip-sync song of the night. Ru really must love her: ‘Bang Bang’ was one of S10’s final tracks, too. After a spin of a wheel, Mo gets to pick her competitor, and “strategically” picks Baga. It’s perfectly fine, and features a lot of this facial expression:

Mo is obviously the winner. Then Juju and Blu battle it out to Duran Duran’s ‘The Reflex’, which is pretty even but Blu takes the win — and then arguably does a better job with Kylie’s ‘Supernova’ against Mo, too. We have a new crowned queen! It probably won’t be remembered as one of Drag Race‘s best seasons, but I had a lot of fun. Hope you enjoyed these recaps, and you can continue to follow along with my S14 ones too.

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RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World 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