This is a recap of RuPaul’s Drag Race episode 1505. Spoilers below.
Luxx! Noir! London! Week one I declared my favorites as Jax, Anetra, and Sasha, but now a fourth addition is necessary. Luxx is amazing and I love that she knows it.
We begin in the wake of Sugar’s elimination. As RuPaul says, if you’re not watching Untucked, you’re only getting half the story and last week that was true. We learned more about the twins and their family trauma. Too bad less people were watching, because of MTV’s groundbreaking LGBTQ+ reality TV series — excuse me, their GGGGG+ reality TV series. (The plus stands for another G.)
Last week, Spice suggested that she couldn’t keep doing the show if Sugar went home, so, of course, that’s what the producers have done. But with Sugar’s encouragement and the support of the other queens, Spice is going to give a solo act a shot.
This season the top queens seem very concerned with who was second and who was third, which, to me, is very silly, because fighting whether you’re silver or bronze just reminds us you weren’t gold. Luckily, the queens have a chance to get out their cattiness! It’s a new week and we’re starting with the reading challenge.
Based on the quick edit, I thought Sasha did the best. But my favorite joke was Luxx telling Marcia Marcia Marcia that her wardrobe looks like it’s from Marshalls Marshalls Marshalls. Unfortunately, neither of these queens win and instead it goes to Loosey who I’ve decided is my new enemy now that the twins have been halved and humanized.
The maxi challenge this week is turning home decor into runway looks. That’s right! It’s a design challenge! The queens are split into three fashion houses: The House of Kressley (Anetra, EsTitties, Jax, and Robin), The House of Matthews (Loosey, Marcia, Malaysia, and Sasha), and The House of Visage (Luxx, Amethyst, Spice, Mistress, Aura). Each queen is making an individual look, but the teams need to coordinate.
With the shortened runtime, I missed Ru’s walkthroughs before Snatch Game. Luckily, they’re back this week. It’s always nice seeing the queens mentor each other, but I also like when Ru gives her little platitudes of questionable wisdom!
This season has a lot of very sewing-competent queens. Which makes sense since it’s season 15! The exceptions seem to be Malaysia and Amethyst — the latter getting a lot of help from Luxx and Aura but still floundering.
Elimination day! As the queens get ready, Jax talks about being adopted by white parents. She says that her parents didn’t acknowledge the specificities of raising a Black child nor of being a Black child in an almost entirely white part of Connecticut. Thankfully, she moved to New York after high school. Spice then talks about how she and Sugar secretly kept dolls up through middle school and would dress and make them up as a precursor to their drag.
The judges this week are Michelle, Ross, and the one, the only, Janelle Monáe. The way Marcia reacted to Ariana Grande is how I would react to Janelle Monáe.
The runway starts with The House of Visage. Given New Jersey couture, they’d initially planned to do a royal look but switched to animal print after talking to Ru. Mistress is great, Aura is good, Spice is fine, Amethyst is bad, and Luxx is incredible. She made zebra print pants and has a matching purple head wrap and flowy top and it’s by far and away the best look of the night. And overall it’s a solid night!
The House of Kressley was working with gay ranch chic and have turned it into schoolgirl looks. I thought this was the strongest house overall! Robin and Anetra had really great, clean looks, and while Jax and EsTitties were a bit messier I felt like they still showed a lot of creativity. Jax especially, with her Heathers-inspired croquet look, was a lot of dykey fun.
And, finally there was The House of Matthews, with their Palm Springs summer wear. Sasha is a pro and a babe. Marcia has a fun look. And Malaysia actually put together an impressive outfit! I thought Loosey’s pantsuit was ugly but I’ll own up to the possibility that I’m just a hater.
The tops are Luxx, Robin, Sasha, and Malaysia. The bottoms are Amethyst, EsTitties, and… Jax?? Everyone else is safe. Personally, I think Spice or Loosey or even Aura should’ve been in the bottom before Jax. I did appreciate Malaysia making it to the top and learning that she took a sewing class before coming on the show. I mean, just one class so clearly she has a knack for it, but I still appreciated that effort paying off!
Luxx wins! Jax is safe. (Thank God.) Which means EsTitties is lip syncing for the first time and Amethyst for the third. Their song is “Q.U.E.E.N.” and, personally, I think there should be a Janelle Monáe song every season, even when she’s not a guest judge.
EsTitties wins the lip sync easily, but I thought this was Amethyst’s strongest performance. We all knew she wouldn’t survive a third time in the bottom so maybe she was able to just have fun with it.
Goodbye to Amethyst, the first Connecticut queen — for about five seconds before the other four arrived.
Teleport Us to Mars!! Here Are Some Random Thoughts:
+ Remember when Shea, Jujubee, and Miz Cracker lip synced to “Make Me Feel”??
+ I appreciated EsTitties talking about how she’s used to creating outfits due to not having a lot of money. She has a real maximalist style and I get if it doesn’t work for you, but I appreciate her creativity.
+ I watched Untucked live this week, because how could I miss Janelle.
+ Okay, we learn Marcia is also a twin?? She has a twin sister.
+ Anetra talks about not having a relationship with her family and I really appreciated that she didn’t immediately give in to the “chosen family makes it better” talking points. Like yes, chosen family is great! But having fraught or completely absent relationships with biological family is still really painful.
+ Queen I’m rooting for: Anetra, Jax, Sasha, Luxx
+ Queen I’m horniest for: Jax dressed as Heathers
+ Queen I want to sashay: Loosey
I thought this was one of the best design challenges. Loved the house of cressley overall, although I thought anetra should’ve been in the top.
EsTitties is one of my fav performers, but her volume out of drag seems to be at one high level. I thought the blanket Backpack was clever!
Overall, sort of sad to see amethyst go — I do believe she had potential — and I am so amazed that janelle was there. It’s kind of hilarious seeing her at the same judging table as Ross Matthews.
Also, not sure what works this would exist in, but I want a WNBA player to be a guest judge! Diamond DeShields? Didi Richards? Destanni Henderson? Nneka? Dearica? The possibilities are endless.
Anetra talks about not having a relationship with her family and I really appreciated that she didn’t immediately give in to the “chosen family makes it better” talking points. Like yes, chosen family is great! But having fraught or completely absent relationships with biological family is still really painful.
Long time, first time. I love your recaps. But this is something so many of us don’t think about. Thanks!!
I was both sad to see Selena in the bottom and also very excited to watch her absolutely pound her extremely hot self on the runway and I was Not disappointed!!!