“RuPaul’s Drag Race” Episode 1415 Recap: Sisterhood of the Traveling Estrogen

This is a recap of RuPaul’s Drag Race episode 1415. Spoilers below.

Welcome to the first clip show since season four! Just kidding, it’s the reunion. But there sure were a lot of clips! Gone is last year’s individual queen performances, back is a good ol’ fashion look back.

We begin with the queens entering one by one. Willow is wearing a look inspired by The Nanny and Kornbread is wearing Willow’s entrance look but instead of “Angle” her shirt says “Ankle.” Kornbread loves Willow and loves reminding us that she’s the best.

After a bit of catch up and discussion about the chocolate gag, they move to Kornbread’s unfortunate exit. She jokes that Snatch Game would’ve been better if she stayed. When asked about her family, she says that she needed the platform to express her feelings in a space where her family could not give a rebuttal. Ru loves contrived family forgiveness as much as I hate it, but I appreciated this reframe from “my family accepted me once I was famous” to “my family accepted me once I had a space to communicate with them uninterrupted.”

Speaking of interruptions, Jasmine cuts off Kornbread once again as Kornbread is discussing their conflict. Kornbread says that she doesn’t talk behind anyone’s back and that’s why she was hard on Jasmine to her face. Jasmine, to her credit, seems to appreciate it.

Less appreciated by Jasmine is her conflict with Daya. Daya says she doesn’t regret saying any of what she said. Jasmine says Daya spent the whole season coming for her. Jorgeous adds that it felt like the vitriol toward them was personal. Alyssa says Daya was the bitch of the season — which she was! — and she starts crying. June makes a joke about only being on the show for 48 hours but wanting to defend Daya. Maddy also defends Daya. Jasmine says Daya hasn’t made an effort to know her after the show. And then Kerri swoops in with a measured response emphasizing that Daya has gotten death threats and no matter what else that’s inexcusable.

Okay! So I think that last part is important because my main feeling here is… the Drag Race fandom sucks?? I do not like Daya. I think she doesn’t have enough uniqueness and has too much nerve. I don’t think she’s exceptional enough to get away with her behavior. She’s just pretty mediocre! And while she’s undoubtedly received hate online, she’s also received a lot of love. No one should face the intensity of the Drag Race fandom, but she’s been treated far better than past “villains” who weren’t white and were more justified — especially personal favorite of mine The Vixen. But having a villain is fun! Daya is fine! The fact that the fandom is so fucking weird and aggressive that I can’t openly hate her, annoys me. Like yes, death threats are bad because DEATH THREATS ARE BAD — but also they result in our villain crying instead of getting to embrace villainy.

Honestly, do you know who has embraced villainy best? Bosco. She’s been just as bitchy as Daya but she’s so much better at doing it with a joke. Maybe the problem with Daya is her talent at being shady is equal to her talent at other aspects of drag — not that great.

From fights to romance. We start with discussion of Alyssa as trade of the season before moving on to the Camgeria romance. Why are we focusing on an early season flirtation instead of the real thing that seems to have developed with Angeria and Willow?? I mean I see no reason the whole top five can’t fuck but if I’m shipping anyone it’s those two. We also learn that Jorgeous and Orion had a showmance but it didn’t last long because Jorgeous ghosted. I love that Kornbread was the only one who caught on during filming.

And I love Kornbread and Willow’s friendship!! Kornbread shows off her Willow tattoo and talks about them being friend soulmates.

Ru introduces Maddy as the first straight queen on the show even though she’s not even the only straight queen in that room. Unless Kerri, Kornbread, Willow, and Bosco want to give me a call. (Sorry, Jasmine, you’re too young for me.) I’d get into the whole Maddy thing again if I didn’t find her too boring to think about. Maddy is so mediocre she makes me want to apologize to Daya Betty.

I did enjoy watching Bosco’s face as Jasmine and Maddy discuss their fight. And I enjoyed Kerri calling them Miss Mouth Almighty and Mister Straight. And I enjoyed Willow saying that fight was when she realized she was on Drag Race.

Shoutout to Jasmine for being the center of this reunion! Next up is her coming out. Jasmine says the day that episode aired she came out to her dad and he said, “Okay. I’ll call you tomorrow.” This is framed as a positive, but I don’t know?? I’m forever asking this show to have higher expectations for straight family. I think Kerri does a great job adjusting the Drag Race narratives to be just a bit more nuanced. And it’s so lovely seeing these five queens on stage together. Kerri says they’re the sisterhood of the traveling estrogen. Ru says, “You are all my teachers.” Too bad he couldn’t have learned these lessons before insulting Peppermint.

Like Daya, Bosco doesn’t apologize for her fight with Camden. She says she was a bitch but drag queens are supposed to be bitches. Then she jokingly yells nice things at Camden. This is what I’m talking about!! She knows how to make fun of herself and own her villainy. I love Bosco.

Next is a toot or boot that ends with Maddy winning the golden boot for her farmer look. I really think Ru likes having Maddy around just to mock her.

Some queens from the Vegas show ask fan questions and we learn that Kornbread did give Daya $1,000 to eat that dragonfly. Orion is then quite cocky about how well she would’ve done in the challenges she missed, to which Bosco asks: What season were you on?

The library is open — as if it wasn’t already — and Alyssa and Orion are so bad. “How can her last name be story when she can’t even read?” Maddy says, the one time I’ve liked her. Kornbread then tells DeJa that she and Jesus have a lot in common — they both have twelve followers.

Finally, Daya has a little apology moment with Jorgeous and Jasmine and then we check in with our top five. Ru asks them all what their highest and lowest moments were. Angeria says her lowest was Snatch Game and her highest was Ru saying he didn’t expect her to get this far. Bosco says her lowest was when everyone said she should go home and her highest was winning by shit talking. Daya says her low and high was being sent home first. Camden says her low was the girl group and her high was winning three challenges. And Willow says her low was when Kornbread left and her high was the spaghetti bath.

That’s the end! Ru gives us a hint of the format next week. It’s going to be five solo performances and then a top two lip sync. But will the solo performances be lip syncs or original songs like seasons seven and eight? I’m rooting for original songs! Imagine how horny Bosco’s original song could be!


Teleport Us to Mars!! Here Are Some Random Thoughts:

+ Kerri, Jorgeous, and Alyssa opened for JLo?? That’s so cool.

+ This whole episode, Bosco and Kornbread were loving the drama so much.

+ Kerri is deemed the narrator of the season.

+Usually Mean Girls plays on VH1 before and after Drag Race, but this week it was Titanic and I was so tempted to save my recap for the morning and just watch it. Titanic is James Cameron’s best movie and that is the hot take I will leave you with because you already know I’m #TeamWillow.

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Drew Burnett Gregory

Drew is a Brooklyn-based writer, filmmaker, and theatremaker. She is a Senior Editor at Autostraddle with a focus in film and television, sex and dating, and politics. Her writing can also be found at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cosmopolitan UK, Refinery29, Into, them, and Knock LA. She was a 2022 Outfest Screenwriting Lab Notable Writer and a 2023 Lambda Literary Screenwriting Fellow. She is currently working on a million film and TV projects mostly about queer trans women. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Drew Burnett has written 609 articles for us.

10 Comments

  1. I feel like you have been unfair throughout your recaps to the queens you don’t like. I like Bosco too, but calling other queens mediocre to make Bosco look good ain’t it. It hasn’t made for a very pleasant reading experience because you project your personal stuff on to the queens – i.e. they didn’t use the same interpretation of ‘dick appointment’ in the Menzeses episode as you personally use. I feel like this is a failing of Autostraddle overall, that every piece / review / recipe is really about the writer.

    • Aren’t all reviews biased or personal at their heart? I enjoy the perspective Drew provides, even when I disagree with the conclusions. And she’s made her obsession with Bosco clear from the start.

      I’d argue that the personal nature of Autostraddle stories is the site’s greatest strength. No one questions whether painters or musicians should put their own life into their work, but writers are supposed to be aloof and unbiased. I hate that bullshit. What’s more intimate than the written word? All writing comes from somewhere, so maybe the “failing” isn’t the personal nature of the articles, but your issue with the lived perspectives they are shaped out of?

      • Agreed! I’m at a place in my own life where I see Drew’s (fanatically written) views and I feel affirmed to have my own, whether or not they are the same.

        Plus, she provides excellent fodder for my RuCap group chat to talk about. Thank you Drew!

  2. I wasnt able to watch this live and for some reason it’s not available on Google Play? Life is pain

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