Canada's Drag Race Season 6, Episode 2
"Yachty Girls"
Showrunner: Trevor Boris
Director: Shelagh O'Brien
Host: Brooke Lynn Hytes
Cast: Dulce, Eboni La'Belle, Hazel, Karamilk, Mya Foxx, Paolo Perfección, PM, Saltina Shaker, Sami Landri, Star Doll, Van Goth, Velma Jones
Comedy, coffee, and health care — you can add drag competition shows to the list of things that Canada just knows how to do better. We're just two episodes into Canada's Drag Race Season 6 and I am already de-vah-stah-ted that someone has to go home. I love all of these queens, but you can't have Drag Race without a little bit of heartbreak. Fortunately, this episode balances that heartbreak with heart warmth and hearty laughs.
This week, the queens were tasked with creating ads for a thematic cruise lines. The queens got to choose their own groups, while newly anointed recurring judge Carson Kressley assigned the themes. PM, Hazel, Paolo Perfección, and Eboni La'Belle were given the singles cruise; Van Goth, Saltina Shaker, Velma Jones, and Sami Landri were given the self-care cruise; and Dulce, Karamilk, Mya Foxx, and Star Doll were given the seniors cruise. These groups followed three very familiar Drag Race commercial challenge trajectories. Let's break them down!
The singles cruise was comprised of the season's two bestie pairs: PM and Hazel, who are friends back home; and then Paolo and Eboni, who clicked the moment they saw each other in the Werk Room (and maybe Eboni has a not-so-secret crush on Paolo). There was no friction in this group, but that was kind of the problem. There was a lot of yes-and-ing, and no one pulling on the reins. I mean, Paolo brought some reins from home and only the Pit Crew boys tugged on them, wink wink. This resulted in a singles cruise designed for sluts hoping to have their holes annihilated on the high seas. Seriously — PM played a goonologist who voraciously bit the end off a banana, making Carson Kressley blush. The only queen who clocked that they were going too far was Hazel, but like in Speed 2: Cruise Control, this ship was not stopping for no one.
The self-care cruise was comprised of the season's immediate frontrunners — and Sami Landri. No shade, this is how Sami described it ("three tops and one bottom!"). Their commercial ended up being a little better than the singles cruise, likely due to the friction between Velma and Van. Yeah, it made things tense during the writing process ... and the filming ... and in the Werk Room afterwards. But you need someone saying "no," firmly, so that you don't end up with a commercial for Caligula's Love Boat.
But let's dig a little deeper into this drama, because oh baby, it was giving. This was classic Drag Race: the fight over credit. Very "did you get the 'T' in 'koont'" realness. Just like "who should go home tonight and why," "who came up with the concept" is a messy-ass question that you know is going to be asked. The problem here is that Sami and Van rushed to answer Carson, boiling down Velma's contribution to being a note-taker. Carson literally says to them, "Velma had a pen." Velma corrects the record, but overshoots by saying the concept was hers and everyone filled in their roles. Velma moves on from this. Van does not. I'd even go so far as to say that Velma's the one with the right to hold a grudge here!
The self-care commercial itself turns out fine. The secretly-a-cult game comes across clear thanks to Saltina's spaced-out introduction (a mouthful of a line, too), but it gets a little muddled after that. If we're Goldilocks-ing this, this one wasn't enough.
The Seniors On Sea team, though, was just right — from the moment they stepped on set. Y'all — is Mya Foxx secretly the drama? The way she said, "We're going to try to not get mad at each other and stuff," with pep in her voice? The shade was knee deep, and everyone felt it. This was the classic Drag Race storyline of the leftovers (all four of them were safe last week) coming together to get the job done and surprise everyone. This was a solid Drag Race commercial challenge entry: a clear game, confident performances, every joke seen through to conclusion.
Three archetypes: the team that goes way too hard, the team that doesn't do enough, and the underdogs that nail it.
As for Werk Room chats this week, this is where Canada's Drag Race comes alive. It's the storytelling, for me. Hearing Dulce's story, of emancipating herself from her abusive parents at 16! And her and her parents pretending to not know each other when passing each other on the street! Like, that's heart wrenching stuff, and it makes Dulce's well-earned praise later on taste all the sweeter.
On the runway, category was: In the Shadows. My personal standouts were PM's all-frills Slender Man paralysis demon eleganza; Velma Johnny Jones' hunky and hairy werewolf stud; and Sami Landri's who ... just ... "When I heard 'what lurks in the shadow,' I immediately thought of when you hit a deer on the highway." This mind. This beautiful mind. Protect it. Nurture it.
There were a lot of gags on the runway this week, and I mean that in every way possible. PM and Johnny were gags [excellence], while Dulce, Paolo, and Van all relied on gags [gimmicks]. Dulce crying black liquid was a nice concept, even if the judges didn't like the rest of her look. Paolo's all legs trash bag look topped off with a Princess Di wig was wild. And Van gave us two demonic teddy bears stitched together; a similar look that got Viola read down by Michelle Visage over on UK. And then the real gag [oop!]: Star Doll's bat creature compared to Karamilk's, giving a real "the human/bat monster that we have at home" storyline.
Thankfully, the Van/Velma drama earlier didn't come up in Johnny's positive critiques. I am so stoked to finally see more Drag King Excellence on the Main Stage. Saltina earned the win, which — yeah, as Brooke Lynn Hytes said, they did take the challenge and runway into account. Saltina's look was beautiful and personal, the rhinestone blood stains representing where a car accident left her body scarred, and she absolutely carried her team. Dulce was really the only competition here, but the runway looks sealed it for Saltina.
Faced with who to give the Golden Beaver to, Saltina has to choose between her TikTok sister and teammate Sami, the soft-spoken maniac that is Paolo, and Hazel — who fucking wants to stay. Hazel's the only one who really fights for this; while Hazel's giving a speech, Paolo starts softly crying, with Eboni standing above her, mouthing pleas to Saltina. Saltina ultimately saves Hazel, which ... feels like the obvious choice, the one that can be seen as "fair," and it won't rock the boat for Saltina.
ALSO — for the first time in the entire franchise's herstory, I think, the queens on a regular — not All Stars — season get to change into lip sync looks. Another way that Canada's Drag Race sets queens up to succeed, not fail.
This means we have to say goodbye to either Sami or Paolo, two absolute lunatics whose polar opposite crazy needs to be seen on this show. Fortunately, we get one final lip sync, to the glam rock song "Raise a Little Hell" by Canadian band Trooper — and it's so crunchy. It's so intentionally crunchy, and campy, and painstakingly slapdash, and weird.
Sami looks like one of the original Pussycat Dolls — I'm talking a '90s OG, but today, if she put the fishnets back on after dropping her grandkids off at her son's. You think, "Paolo is phoning this in," but then she does a skirt reveal showing off "KEEP ME!" written on her ass. It's wild.
And, heartsmashingly, Paolo sashays away. I get it. Sami ate the lip sync like it was a bag of Doritos she found on the floorboard of her Manic GT. I hate seeing Paolo Perfección go first, because she gave good TV in these two episodes. But that's the sign of a great season to come, when the Juice Boxx Queen so clearly has an all star trajectory.
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