The library has reopened! Itās time for the most painful challenge of the season: the roast. Who will make us laugh? Who will make us cringe? Who will make us laugh and cringe? You truly never know!
But first we begin with Tinaās elimination. Utica says sheās heartbroken, because Tina was such a great sister. She starts to cry and says she thinks Tina deserved to stay. Never! Say! This! Once a queen says something like this itās proof that theyāre ready to go. This competition is too hard to be in it unless you want it with every part of you. But in the confessional Utica is bragging up about sending home a legend?? Utica isnāt just kooky ā sheās baffling.
Itās a new day in the work room and Symone is excited to have her fourth win ā while Kandy is desperate for her first. The mini challenge is a live make up tutorial selling the new palette from Anastasia Beverly Hills. (Product placement!) They split into pairs ā one of them is the face and one is the hands. This leads to more comedy than the actual roast as the queens poke and prod at each otherās faces. Kandy makes a mess of RosĆ©. Symone sells Oliviaās paint job. And Gottmik is a usual make up tutorial pro but with Uticaās wildly long arms. RosĆ© and Kandy win!
The roast this season is the Nice Girls Roast. Three Miss Congeniality winners from past seasons ā Heidi N Closet, Nina West, and Valentina ā are the main subjects. And since RosĆ© and Kandy won the mini challenge they get to pick the order. For some reason they both want to open?? My only roasting experience is a roast my friends and I foolishly put on in high school that led to A LOT OF DRAMA, but I have watched about 20 seasons of Drag Race and never have the queens been fighting over first and last. Kandy ends up with first and RosĆ© ends up with last and cheers to their confidence I guess!
The energy in the work room is a delight as the queens get into the roasting spirit. Roasting is my personal love language and itās such a joy to see these weeks of sisterhood manifest in a barrage of funny insults.
Michelle and Loni Love help the queens in rehearsal. They advise Kandy to think of jokes that wonāt require bleeping. (RIP Aāwhora.) They encourage Gottmik to tell her very funny jokes with confidence. They call out Symone for being an overthinker. And they tell Utica to just… stop? Everything she is doing? Sheās being so mean!! Olivia isnāt very good and RosĆ© is great. Often the rehearsal isnāt indicative of the show⦠but this time it was!
The Miss Congeniality queens are introduced first. Nina West walks out in a pride flag because she thinks a collar saying ālove is love” is activism ā the āpolitical queen” bar is on the fucking floor when youāre white. Sheās joined by fan favorite Valentina who looks perfect, beautiful, and like Linda EvangelistaĀ and Heidi N Closet who is GORGEOUS! Itās so fun seeing queens who had fewer resources fucking shine after their season and Heidi is shining.
Also looking hot? Kandy Muse who opens the show as a blonde. She jokes about Valentinaās appearance in Rent: Live saying her Angel needed an angel. Overall, she absolutely kills. Unfortunately sheās followed by Symone who bombs and Utica who bombs even harder. Neither Symone nor Utica took any of Loni and Michelleās notes! Jokes about appearance are expected in a Drag Race roast, but they have to be funny and Uticaās are not funny ā theyāre just fatphobic.
Uticaās performance reminded me of Farrah Moanās in All Stars 3. Some queens who donāt skew naturally towards mean just cannot figure out the difference between a joke and an attack. And Utica has been struggling with this all season ā like when she pulled out a notebook full of reads to share while the queens were on a meal break. Uticaās trying so hard to fit into catty drag queen culture so she can make friends and do well in the competition, but it just does not work for her.
Thankfully, Gottmik follows with a stellar set. She makes a joke about UTIs which just goes to show the variety of material trans queens can bring to the show! The best joke in her set is probably one directed at Ru: āIām such a big fan of you and your work and all of your hit song.” Ru loves a joke that starts with praise.
Olivia follows and tries to play on her sweet energy as a bit but it just falls flat. And RosĆ© closes the show ā without cards ā and kills it. She was better in rehearsal, but at least it wasnāt a case of crushing it in rehearsal and bombing on stage. She gives the impression that even her worst comedy show would be better than most because she is A Pro. She jokes about Heidi trying to fuck her in New York saying, āThe only thing thirstier than Heidi N Closet are her make up brushes.ā
But even RosĆ© jokes about Nina Westās size and while again jokes about appearance are to be expected ā and can work when theyāre actually clever ā it still felt lazy to me. Why make fun of Ninaās shoulders when she looks like the spawn of a DNC drag brunch and Old Navyās Pride Collection? I can think of few queens more deserving of some proper digs than Nina and she got none. This is why Iām disappointed Symone didnāt do better. Instead of tripping her up with overthinking, Symoneās intelligence couldāve led to deeper jokes than the other queens.
The judges mostly say whatās expected but frankly are nicer to the queens who bombed than they deserve. They point out that Symone still looks incredible even if her comedy sucked which is correct and true. Loni praises RosĆ© while acknowledging that she did better in rehearsal. Michelle agrees but still compares her to Bianca del Rio.
RosĆ© is safe. Gottmik is safe. And Kandy finally gets that win!! I love Kandy and I love being right. Iāve loved her from the beginning and itās been a joy to watch her grow as a person and a queen. Based on Twitter discourse, people still seem to really hate her, but who cares because those are random people on Twitter and she is a top five RPDR queen! Never doubt someone with lesbian moms!
Olivia is safe. Symone and Utica lip sync to āNo Tears Left to Cry.” Thank God Symone kills it because I really do have no tears left to cry ā I have a follow up eye doctor appointment about it next week. Utica is sent away and we have our top five.
While Iād swap Denali in for Olivia ā yeah Iām still not over it! ā I think this is possibly the best top five since season three. Weāre coming to the end and I feel air welling up in my empty tear ducts.
Teleport Us to Mars!! Here Are Some Random Thoughts:
+ Who was the top five of season three? Carmen Carrera, Yara Sofia, Alexis Mateo, Manila Luzon, and Raja. Throw in Shangela at six and you get why it is and will probably always be my favorite season of the show.
+ Have you seen Heidi N Closetās WAP parody, GAP, featuring Widow Von Du??
+ Speaking of Heidi, I love that Ru spent her whole season saying that her name sucked and she should change it and she⦠just⦠didnāt. Obsessed.
+ If you think Iām being harsh on Nina, Iād like to remind you of the time she appeared on The View to call Meghan McCain an honorary Ru girl. This would bother me from any queen, but I find it especially unconscionable given Nina markets herself as an activist. Itās really disappointing that Monet X Change did the segment as well but I think it angers me less with her because she never made āLGBT Rights” her whole thing. Or maybe Iām just making excuses because I like Monet? The fact is it was really disappointing from both of them and Nina continues to annoy me. She has the political intelligence of a Prop 8-era GSA president.
+ If you want a queen who is actually political look to Bob, look to Peppermint, look to The Vixen who deserved so much better from this show and its fans.
+ Kandyās bleeped joke was calling Valentina Miss Cuntgeniality.
+ After being told to shantay, Symone said, āNot again. Not again.” And I believe her.
+ During Untucked, Utica continues to baffle, but admits that there are things she shouldāve worked out for herself personally before coming on the show. Iām not sure what sheās talking about and Iāll respect her by not speculating, but I truly wish her the best as she navigates her newfound fame. Valentina tells the queens that the hardest part of the experience isnāt filming, but figuring out your career in its aftermath. I feel like Utica could really struggle or really come into herself and I hope itās the latter!
+ Before leaving, Utica admits that she asked Olivia out on a date and Olivia said yes! I would like more details about whether this date has happened! Did they meet in the park with masks on and have a picnic six feet apart??? Did they get tested and fuck in a hotel room??? The options are endless.
+ Queen Iām rooting for: 1st: Symone, 2nd: Gottmik, 3rd: Kandy, 4th: RosĆ©
+ Queen I have the biggest crush on: All of the ones who are left??
+ Queen I have weird sexual feelings for that I need to unpack: I donāt know RuPaul looked really fucking good this episode
I think Utica has a hard time reading people so doesn’t understand the difference between mean mean and funny mean.
I stopped watching the episode when Symone started bombing. I just couldn’t. I love her too much to watch her fail.
I hope part of Utica’s career path after this season is someone sitting her down, taking her hand, and gently telling her she is not a comedy queen.
Because I don’t know how the hell she thought that was her brand. Maybe because she’s weird and kooky she automatically interpreted that as comedy but in true honesty she’s a more avant garde look queen since she hasn’t missed on the runway and she’s decent lipsyncer to boot.
well, I wish her the best in trying to find herself in the drag world. And as a side note, though I do miss Denali her youtube channel has been feeding me with her absence.
I will never recover from how good Symone looked in this episode. Marilyn Monroe high drag goddess perfection. And the LIPSYNC. I hated to see her in the bottom but she showed why she deserved to stay – every beat was emotional, funny, intense, real, with no gimmicks just heart. Ugh. I LOVE her.
I’m glad you clarified that choosing the first and last spots was weird. We’d wondered if it was a culture thing where Americans are really into fighting for the shittest spots in a lineup.
RuPaul’s double middle fingers to Utica though š
I didn’t like Utica in this episode. Why would she care about being offensive with racial issues, and then say all those offensive jokes in the roast? Someone who actually cared would not have said those things. It makes me question the Bob Ross moment. I don’t think she’s genuine.
Drew, I really appreciate your respectful restraint re: speculating about the work Utica needs to do for herself. Lonnie’s response to Utica’s fatphobic jokes was the best part of the show (after Kandy’s “She died!” joke), and it seems like Utica genuinely cannot read a room. Who knows.
I’m just glad that Kandy got a win! And it was so sweet seeing how happy all the other queens were for her!
Saw the headline and had to comment: Iāve definitely raised some folks with lesbian moms, and Iām not sure you should never doubt them. But none have hit 25 yet and I have high hopes for once the frontal lobes are all developed.
I’m in a relationship with one who is 29! QUEERS RAISED BY QUEERS ARE AMAZINGGGG.
wait thereās drag recaps now on autlstrade ? where am i new now next in 2011? anyways welcome to2020-pr is it 2021?
i love drag race but i miss apolitical lesbian gayness
you hover def race but not the dozens of popular lesbian. influencers and youtubeās like rose and rosie, Cammiescott and Shannon Beverage? What about Stevie Boibie? Itās always politics radical trans why be a lame zine when thereās so many fun sexy things happening
These recaps are funny and sexy and smart! I’m stoked to put my time (and money) into them <3
Seriously though, Drew. Keep it up. These are one of the main highlights of my week. Thank you for bringing Drag Race to Autostraddle!
I loved this episode because honestly a good roast is like a warm hug. “Mama Ru, you’re so old you signed the Declaration of Independence as Parent/Guardian!” I CACKLED Olivia is so sweet