Drag Race is now a global franchise, airing multiple episodes every week. There are dozens of queens werking it out for not just their country's respective crown, but for our attention. Every queen is captivating — but only one of them is a true gem. Pop Heist's Drag Race Gem of the Week singles out one special queen from all of that week's competitors and presents her with a gem — metaphorically, although ... ? I dunno, how much does it cost to get a prop gem engraved ... ?
The Week: Jan. 5 to Jan. 11
The Episodes: Canada's Drag Race 5x08, "What Just Happened?!"; RuPaul's Drag Race 17x02, "Drag Queens Got Talent"
The Gem: Lexi Love
Okay, I'm not planning on making a habit out of inducting the most recent Maxi Challenge winner into the Hall of Gems. The purpose of this feature is to reward the queens who stood out for other reasons, or maybe didn't win, who maybe even went home. But such is the power of Lexi Love that I truly cannot, in good faith, hand this gem over to anyone else. This was absolutely Lexi Love's week. Hell, it's Lexi Love's world as far as I'm concerned, and we're all just paying rent.
Lexi — the first queen from Play Louisville to compete — earned a lot of goodwill with her debut last week. She was first in the Werk Room, which 99% of the time means that production thinks you are one of the season's stars (the other 1% being first-out Irene "The Alien" DuBois). And then she gave us that MTV Moon Man inspired look, wearing a puffy spacesuit that somehow still gave us a cinched waist and body. But this week, with Lexi taking the stage in the talent show? This was her time to shine.
And baby, Lexi Love went full supernova.
Lexi Love is everything fans love about Drag Race. At its core, I believe that the appeal of Drag Race is the way it tells underdog stories over and over and over again, never feeling stale, always feeling earned. That's because queer people are underdogs, period, and that status quo is far from over. It's only getting worse! And Drag Race is here to say that it doesn't matter if you come from a small town, it doesn't matter if you don't have money, or a prestigious family name. It doesn't matter if people think you're too old. Everyone can count you out, but that doesn't mean a thing if you can count on yourself. That's Lexi Love's story, and call her LeVar Burton because she read the entire rainbow this week. I don't think that metaphor tracks, but I know Lexi Love will get it, Millennial to Millennial.
Lexi showed up to Drag Race this week with a technicolor, ass-less bodysuit, a homemade TV headpiece, a pair of roller skates, and a truckload of attitude. She managed to not only stunt in the talent show, where she flipped and split while wearing roller skates — you know you're doing well if you make RuPaul make this face.
Lexi killed the talent show, but even more impressive was her lip sync to Doechii's "Alter Ego." That number proved that Lexi does not need help when it comes to skating past the competition. She ate that lip sync up, blitzing the stage with nerve. Forget coffee (sorry Kori King) — this lip sync is what you need to give you the jolt you need in the morning.
Welcome to the Hall of Gems, Lexi Love. Long may you reign — and by "long" I mean until next Monday!
