RuPaul's Drag Race Season 18, Episode 9
"Fannie: The Hard Knock Ball Rusical"
Host: RuPaul
Cast: Athena Dion, Darlene Mitchell, Discord Addams, Jane Don't, Juicy Love Dion, Kenya Pleaser, Myki Meeks, Nini Coco
There was so much potential in the season premiere upon meeting these queens and seeing not only their talent, but also their age. These were queens who had lived lives, lives spent honing talent, sure, but also lives spent living. These are queens who have fallen in and out of love with drag, taken diversions, dealt with demons. These are some millennial-ass bitches (and yes, everyone in the cast is technically a millennial aside from Kenya, Juicy, and Briar!). And every week, I think we're seeing the potential teased in Episode 1 realized more and more and more. Last week, we had one of the best Snatch Games of the 50-ish that have happened in the past five years. This week, the Rusical winning streak continues with "Fannie: The Hard Knock Ball Rusical." This was an exciting episode.
Let's start by unpacking all the non-challenge stuff, because, damn, these girls are good at making television. Okay — I'm sure there are segments of the fandom who have already labeled this as a "kumbaya season" [derogatory], but who cares? Mia Starr could only pop off in defense of Mandy Mango so many times. Maybe a side effect of casting queens who've had to live through a half dozen once-in-a-lifetime financial crashes is that you get a cast of girls who know how to suck it up and just move on (with an eye roll) instead of fighting.
What these girls are good at doing, though, is making great TV in every other way that matters. This is a cast that really wears their hearts on their sleeve, from the aw shucks charm of Darlene to the underdog energy of Myki to the oh-my-god-did-I-take-my-meds panic of Nini — to Athena Dion, a fussy mess whose outward projection of perfection is so artificial that even Athena is in on the joke. Look at the shady Grindr, I Hardly Know Her! Mini-Challenge, where the queens had to blindly answer probing questions with the queen most likely to [insert sexy prompt]. The way Athena immediately knew she was getting clocked for having sex in drag and lying about her age — self-awareness can exist alongside delusion.
Picking roles is a classic pot-stirrer in this franchise, and this one almost went down without drama. Almost everyone found a role they wanted (Darlene saying, "Okay, there's a dog, perfect" took me out), except Nini and Myki both eyed the lead role of Fannie. This is where strategy came into play yet again! This is truly the season of chess vs. checkers. After the cast votes to give Myki the role, Nini refuses to fold, asking if she has to accept the vote, fully prepared to stage a one-woman Jan. 6 for the role of Fannie. So, Myki — wisely — hands the role over to Nini, reasoning that there's no way with all these nerves that Nini's going to do well with the lead role. Myki, who is confident enough to want the lead role, knows that that confidence can carry her through any role she gets. So, let Nini self-sabotage!
But the panic ain't over yet. In a repeat of Nini's indecisiveness, re: talent show lineups, Nini waffles back and forth over whether or not to actually take Myki's offer. Nini went from having no choice in the matter and hating it, to having the only choice in the matter ... and also hating it. Nini then does the smart thing and lets Myki keep the lead role — which, honestly, was probably what Myki knew was going to happen all along. This was pretty brilliant maneuvering on Myki's part; she gets the narrative of fighting hard for a role with an added altruism bonus.
And we are immediately shown just how correct Myki was when the queens step behind the mic to record their tracks.
Sidenote: We lost Gabe Lopez — the producer and songwriter who played a major part in this winning streak of Rusicals — to lymphoma just a month ago. It's a shock, and I was happy to see this episode give him ever so slightly more screentime. It's truly a loss for Drag Race and the queer community, but at least the streak remains unblemished. Another pitch perfect Rusical is part of his legacy.
Myki's voice is, immediately, spectacular, which brings me back to that talent and potential thing I was rambling about. There is something to Myki's storyline and her relationship with her own talent that really punched me in the face this week. The way that Myki stopped doing musical theater, something she studied and loved, because she felt that she wasn't good enough — shit.
I know Myki, you're Gen Z cusp, but that is some of the most millennial shit ever. We are not the generation of "participation trophies." We are the generation who were given participation trophies by boomers — and we knew your participation trophies were not it! We were told to strive for excellence, to go for our dreams, to work hard — but if you aren't perfect, if you're only getting participation trophies, then you ain't shit. How many of us have quit hobbies, activities, passions, because we feel we aren't the best at it? Or because we know it can't make us money? The way Myki felt when she got validation from Leland, and later from guest judge, superstar music producer Benny Blanco — listen, it made me tear up. Okay? I'm not ashamed to admit it! Maybe that's why I'm writing too much about this moment!!!
And then Jane Don't used the Discord Walk as inspiration for her drunk house mother character. We cry and we cackle while watching Drag Race.
On to the Rusical itself! That was a winner. While it was structurally a by-the-numbers Rusical (a very, very loose plot used as an excuse for a few spotlight numbers, all tied up with group choreo), I did live for how much it tried to be respectful of Ballroom ... while still being Drag Race.
A one-sided tension exists between Ballroom and Drag Race that is frequently very Don Draper in vibe. As an artform pioneered, practiced, and perfected by the Black and Latinx queer community over the course of literal hundreds of years, Ballroom culture has been routinely exploited by outsiders, usually white outsiders, like Madonna. So when a show like Drag Race comes along and, I don't know, has a "voguing" Mini-Challenge in Season 1 where the art form is treated as a novelty, there's ... its not the best way to engender trust with a subculture. Over the following 17 seasons, Drag Race has routinely appropriated or stolen from Ballroom culture — although, I'm not a historian and I legitimately don't know where the line exists between drag culture, pageant culture, and Ballroom culture. I just know that the term "death drop" is highly offensive? Because it's a DIP.
But Drag Race is Drag Race, and RuPaul is one of the most self-serious unserious people in the public eye. She's one of those "we make fun of everybody!" kind of people, y'know? So even as Drag Race went from a literal parody of America's Next Top Model to the most serious annual cultural event in the queer community, the show still treated Ballroom as just another pop culture thing to borrow from, as if it were just another musical, or Diana Ross song, or the concept of having tig ol' biddies. And that frequently has not sat right within the Ballroom community (rightly so).
So — is "Fannie" an olive branch to the Ballroom community? It is as much of one as Drag Race is ever going to extend — meaning it pays respect while also being very shady. First, there's the way RuPaul introduced the challenge by saying that the queens will be "voguing or noguing" their way through a Rusical. "Noguing" is a whole thing, and it's a loaded term; basically, drag queens who vogue without being a part of Ballroom are said to be appropriating the culture and "noguing," not voguing. This is, uh, also referenced via Kenya Pleaser, whose character intros the fictional Ballroom event as coming "live from the FDR Center of Cultural Appropriation." So ... yikes? Get ready for a lot of YouTube videos about this.
But on the plus side! I mean, they brought in Carlos Basquiat for choreo, and they actually name-checked Legendary — which is more than HBO has done in years. If any good can come of this, I would love for this to lead to a surge in interest in and knowledge of Legendary, HBO's Ballroom reality-competition series, and maybe we can put the pressure on literally any streaming service to pull it from the black hole that HBO tossed it into as part of a fucking tax write-off scam in 2022.
Anyway — the Rusical! Overall, great. Myki and Jane absolutely turned it, the two best of the week. No stunts or shenanigans could be pulled by production, because these two — who we knew were going to slay — slayed. Myki was able to fully embody a wide-eyed orphan, and convey her journey into being a big booty HBIC. And Jane — you have to marvel at how thoroughly developed her character was, all the little twists that her physicality put on a pre-written song. She's a master. And both of their runway lewks served, Myki's futuristic SHE-E-O leather momma and Jane's Mae West Xtreme moment.
Also, kudos to whichever gay came up with BEIGE AGAINST THE MACHINE.
Then Kenya actually came through this week and made me glad that she's still around (R.I.P. to Mia, a real one). It's like she finally found the challenge to harness all of the charisma that she brings to her confessionals. I don't think she's much longer for the competition, but I am really, really happy that she scored a major moment like this.
Nini, Discord, and Darlene were all the definition of safe to me. That's not to say they were bad; like Kenya, Darlene finally found a challenge wherein her knack for breaking character to laugh actually worked in her favor. And Nini and Discord were fine together, very in sync (which maybe isn't the best compliment, considering). But I think Discord landed in the top (?) because ... I don't know, the poor girl needed to hear some feedback. She's spent most of the season hanging out in the Untucked Lounge eating popcorn. Nini's look was a standout, if only because she revealed she made it from boring-ass khakis. Bitch.
And that leaves us with the week's bottoms, Athena and Juicy. These two knew this was coming. They had to, from week one. And I felt it coming, especially as the show unpacked just how close Athena and Juicy are — how Athena helped Juicy through a drug problem! And then to have to watch them battle each other? Cruelty (but solid drama). I don't disagree that they were in the bottom, though. Athena did vacillate between being at a 10 and a 4, and of all the queens Juicy — the youngest in the cast — is not yet able to sell herself the way other, more experienced queens are. It's an unknowable, bizarre ask of Juicy, one that pops up on this show frequently, but still one without an apparent solution.
The lip sync is a gut-wrencher, and a direct descendant of Jujubee and Raven's devastating "Dancing On My Own" All Stars 1 lip sync. Watching Athena cradle Juicy at the end of the lip sync, watching the girls watch Athena cradle Juicy — painful! And ... Juicy wins. I agree, but I do feel that was the messier choice. After weeks of hearing that the judges don't know who she is, now she has to perform without her entire support system. Can Juicy do it?
All I know is that Myki is coming for Discord next week, and I can't wait to see how that turns out.
If you haven't already, consider supporting worker-owned media by subscribing to Pop Heist. We are ad-free and operating outside the algorithm, so all dollars go directly to paying the staff members and writers who make articles like this one possible.
