It did not take RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 long at all to realize what it's good at and start delivering on that potential. This season? This season is about the Shade — and you know it's serious because it's capitalized. These girls are not joking, bitch, and it's making for some of the realest Drag Race we've seen in the United States since ... Season 10?
As I went into last week, part of this is because the new Untucked format, which encourages the cast to break off into smaller groups and practice their reads before repeating them in front of the entire class, with perfect diction. I think that energy is carrying over into the main series, because there are a lot of emotions flying around the Werk Room. It doesn't help that this week is a high-stress design challenge themed after Monopoly, the board game that everyone owns and nobody enjoys playing. This is where the queens either sink or swim — and you know some of them are hoarding life preservers.
Instead of going through the episode beat-by-beat, I thought I'd go through it conflict-by-conflict. The girls are fighting!
Joella vs. Congeniality
Our girl Joella is probably out of the running for Miss Congeniality, but she did win the title of Pop Heist's Drag Race Gem of the Week for her sparkling performance in this episode. Read her Gem of the Week entry for the full tea, but I can sum it up: when it comes to stirring the pot and giving us exactly what we need, no other queen can touch Joella.
Everyone vs. Hormona Lisa
Whatever potential storyarc we're gonna get with Hormona, where the girls come around, the arc ain't arc'ing this week. The storyline is still straight as an arrow, an arrow through the heart. The queens are not happy Hormona is still around, which results in Hormona catching ... well, not strays, because these comments are targeted.
- Hormona: "It's like I'm getting a second chance." Arrietty: "I don't know if there's gonna be a third, though."
- Lexi Love: "So are you excited for Vegas?" Hormona: "Yes I am! I can't wait!" Acacia Forgot: "And her bags are already packed, so she's already ready to go."
The queens are going to come around to Hormona ... right? ... Right?
Lydia Butthole Kollins vs. the Pageant Queens
This rivalry is simmering at the moment, but you could hear the heat click on when the results from Rate-a-Queen were read aloud. Crystal put Lydia in the bottom for her puppet performance. Her response was a courteous, "Well, frankly, I don't give a fuck what y'all think." And the tables turned when it was revealed that Lydia put the other pageant queen, Sam Star, in the bottom. Suddenly Lydia was a little sheepish, when confronted by Sam Star, the pointiest queen of Season 17. This is a rivalry to watch out for ...
Lexi Love vs. Hormona Lisa
The first of this episode's many "-gates," Hormona is lucky that Rhinestone-gate didn't undo what the Badonka Dunk did. Also... what is that sentence? Anyway — this was an incredibly rare instance of something that was not caught on-camera affecting the storyline. We're told that Lexi called out Hormona for embellishing her fish princess gown with her own stones. That led to some sort of off-screen argument (?), which resulted in Hormona having to remove all the stones one by one. Now, Project Runway obsessives will recognize this as a major no no, from Kara Saun having to replace all her shoes in Season 1 to last-twin-standing Claire being straight-up disqualified for using measuring tape outside of the workroom in Season 16. Fortunately for Hormona, she just had to walk down the runway with a bunch of dried glue spots on her gown (which, she later said, made it look more scaley).
Jewels Sparkles vs. Onya Nurve
Oh, trim-gate. Things were already a little tense between these two thanks to those Rate-a-Queen results. Jewels rated Onya last, and Onya clapped back by calling out Jewels' ill-fitting crotch on last week's runway look. It seemed like these two were working well in close proximity to each other, as members of Team Green. Jewels was ruching, Onya was working her machine, all was peaceful — and then Onya took the trim.
Look: this is why clear communication is important. Jewels said she needed the trim, and then spent a full day ruching a dress. Onya also needed the trim, so she took the trim. She figured that they were sharing the velvet, so they're sharing the trim, too. Onya did ask about the trim at one point, and Jewels did say she was using it. But when Jewels went for the trim only to find it missing, she didn't say shit. Instead, she griped about it with Arrietty — I would say "behind Onya's back," but they were clearly seated, like, within six feet of her. Being catty and gossipy is fun, I know, but you can't prioritize that over actually saying what you mean/need.
Who's right and who's wrong? I give the pageant answer and say "both." This is a competition and Onya saw something she needed, that wasn't bolted to Jewels' work station, so she took it. However, Jewels seems to have made it very clear to Onya that she needed the trim. But then again, Jewels didn't cry out when she saw that her trim had been snatched. But then again again, Onya — trim in hand — should have asked Jewels if they could share it. People: just talk to each other!
Lucky Starzzz vs. Fabric
And then there's the greatest rivalry of them all. I did not see this one coming. I fully saw Lucky going all the way to the finale, based on her Meet the Queens. The self-proclaimed Home Depot queen got trapped in a Joann fabric store and couldn't find her way to the checkout. This really seems like an instance of an inner saboteur wreaking outer chaos. If Lucky had figured out a way to look at fabric as an unconventional material, to approach this challenge the same way she approaches all of the spectacular looks she brought, she could have made it. Look at Lexi Love, who saw a bolt roll — trash — and immediately thought, "runway moment." Lucky, that's your gig! Think like that! But who was supposed to guide her towards success? RuPaul? On a walk-through? LOL
Instead, Lucky chose a challenge that was already making her uncomfortable and decided to go all in on the discomfort, changing up literally everything about her drag. It was not good. At all. And this was so unfortunate, because in a design runway with no jaw-dropping standouts (I'm talking Utica's sleeping bag look, or Nymphia's avant-garde necktie moment, or Q's goth eleganza), I think Lucky easily could have covered her face in an exaggerated, cartoonish orange beauty mug and come up with some kooky hot glue couture that would have at least gotten her through to next week. Oh well!
The real question now is where does all of this tension go next? Lucky Starzzz was not an agitator, and her shockingly early out will probably rattle the queens. Kori and Joella are still around to cause conflama, and Hormona did nothing this week to improve her standing with the cast. Oh — and there's still, uh, drag to do. Like, challenges and stuff. I can't wait to see how this turns out.
