RuPaul's Drag Race Season 18, Episode 8
"Snatch Game of Love: Island Edition"
Host: RuPaul
Cast: Athena Dion, Darlene Mitchell, Discord Addams, Jane Don't, Juicy Love Dion, Kenya Pleaser, Mia Starr, Myki Meeks, Nini Coco
First, an apology for missing last week's episode. Full tea: my work at Pop Heist is 75% behind-the-scenes, and some weeks it becomes 90%. I would love to lower the percentage BTS, but we need paying subscribers. Maybe, but if I can't do it before a Drag Race recap, when can I? To paraphrase Yara Sofia, "give the website a fucking dollar." And I'll add, "Please!"
I think last week and this week's episodes combine to form an overarching theme of the season: talent. These girls are, collectively, one of the most talented casts we've ever seen. They're so talented that I think they're actually messing with production a bit. Look at last week's tops: Darlene Mitchell, Discord Addams, and Myki Meeks — three underdogs. I mean, this week, RuPaul says to two different girls (Nini Coco and Myki) that she had no idea they'd make it this far or be doing this well. Even a queen with a (I mean no disrespect) clear expiration date like Kenya Pleaser has managed to stick around longer than expected, in part due to figuring out how to properly play Rate-a-Queen in her favor.
That leads us into the most critical challenge of every season: Snatch Game. Or, rather, Snatch Game of Love: Island Edition, which — I'm not mad at. I think the Drag Race intelligentsia have so soured on the challenge that actually being pro-Snatch feels like a hot take. But, I am pro-Snatch (well, this kind of snatch lol I'm gay), and this episode proves my point: Drag Race needs Snatch Game precisely because it remains the challenge that queens fear the most.
The fact that Snatch Game can fail spectacularly — and quite often tends to — is not a bug. It's a feature. We need whole seasons of flops just to remind everyone how hard this challenge is. This is a challenge that is a challenge — and I think it's the show at its most raw, most unpredictable because it's also a challenge for production.
The obsessive in me who loves ritual and tradition likes Snatch Game: Classique. But even I, a maniac, can admit that the format got stale after so much repetition. Now we're watching the franchise try to figure out how to spice things up with regular game-changing tweaks — like a Family Feud version, a Rusical version, and — just a week or so ago on RuPaul's Drag Race UK vs. the World Season 3 — a pageant version. The idea of mapping Snatch Game onto Love Island of all shows is so wrong that I am stunned by how right it ended up being.
Snatch Game of Love: Island worked for me. It worked even better than Snatch Game of Love, which has been All Stars' go-to version of the challenge for a while now. Really, all you need for Snatch Game is three things: character work, interactions with Ru, and room for interactions with the other queens. This version gave us all that, and plenty of it. The addition of a Love Island style get-to-know-me glamour package added a new dimension to the game, giving the queens a chance to be in-character direct to camera, without the pressure of Ru. I kinda loved it, and these queens rose to the occasion.
Now, for my own Snatch Game rankings!
9. Mia Starr as Bloody Mary
If you're going to bomb, bomb like Lexi Love and not like Mia Starr. Mia just froze, completely, whiffing at the soft balls Ru tossed at her, confusing Louboutin with Louis Vuitton, and leaving so much dead air that you could find a mirror and summon the real Bloody Mary in the time it took her to just say anything. If the new format helped anyone, it was Mia. She actually had some personality in her to-camera intro and confessional moments, but on set, in front of RuPaul? It was a bloodbath.
8. Kenya Pleaser as Lizzo
If Kenya wasn't already considering ditching her Lizzo illusion before — ! This was a classic example of a queen picking a pop star that they idolize and just not bringing anything else to it. Kenya bombed for almost the opposite reason Mia did: she talked too much. Just say the lewd sex joke and stop talking, Lizzo! In Snatch Game, the only thing worse than a bad response is a long bad response.
7. Juicy Love Dion as JoJo Siwa
Note to future queens: Snatch Game is not a dance challenge, no matter how hard you try to make it one. This was another classic Snatch Game flop story, of a queen picking someone they don't really know a lot about (I feel like someone had to have told Juicy that JoJo was now straight between the walk around and Snatch Game) and just praying for the best. This is also where you could see runway looks factoring into placements, as Juicy — with the best look of the night — edged out Kenya — who easily had the worst.
6. Darlene Mitchell as Mrs. Claus
Now we're firmly in safe territory. I don't think this was bad, and I also don't think it was nothing either. Yeah, Darlene could not keep a straight face, but she actually had a point of view and zingers as this ornery, horny Mrs. Claus. I think she suffered more from being in such a strong group and being overshadowed. If she'd been in Group 2, maybe she would've had more time to shine.
5. Discord Addams as The Pope™
I think it shows how strong this Snatch Game was that this didn't even make it into the top. But everything about this worked, on paper and in execution, except for one tiny thing: Discord. I don't know, there's just something weird about Discord's energy when she's in action. I would call it a nervousness, but I don't even think it's that. I guess it's that stiffness that plagues her runway walk is always present. But Discord was clearly prepared but was also ready to volley. I was actually surprised by this, in a good way.
4. Nini Coco as David Attenborough
Our winner! Except ... I mean, I'm mixed on this. I keep swapping Nini with Athena in my placement, and it all comes down to personal preference. Nini gave a textbook example of a winning Snatch Game performance: She truly disappeared into the role of a nearly 100-year-old British nature documentary narrator, had just enough animal puns to make it specific, and gave this characterization a unique point of view — that POV being "Austin Powers, but old." I don't think it was an all-timer performance, especially in a Snatch Game this stacked. But I do commend Nini's confidence, and I get the story we're trying to tell here.
3. Athena Dion as Greta Onassis
To me, Athena places in the top simply because of the degree of difficulty and how superbly she pulled it off. Athena got the damn Eye of Sauron on her during the walk through when Ru firmly shot down her (admittedly bad) "Gay Charlie Chaplin" character. And Ru being Ru, she suggested, "Do something Greek." We're 18 years in and Ru is just excited to find a culture whose stereotypes she hasn't seen a million times! I did not buy Athena's dilemma, of not having anything Greek prepared, when every single challenge, runway, and Werk Room look, incorporates her heritage. But — creating a character, whole cloth, and then doing it on the fly, volleying as well as she did? She was able to go toe-to-toe with this week's real winner, when she called Truman Capote "Eleanor Roosevelt."
2. Myki Meeks as Drew Barrymore
Now this was acting, mama. On paper, there are really no jokes in this performance. It's all in the delivery, the way Myki clocked all of Drew's mannerisms and heightened them to the level of drag. Just the look she gave the boys when they were asking her questions was enough to make Ru cackle, rightfully so. And I also died over her response to Lizzo asking if she had love in real life: "[exasperated eye roll, beat] ... Yes, Lizzo." A great night, and potentially a win if it weren't for those damn purple shoes.
1. Jane Don't as Truman Capote
And we now have a new contender for Best Snatch Game Performance That Didn't Win. Jane is out here dog-walking the girls every week, and she's not snatching wins because that would make for a boring season. Or maybe it wouldn't! Whatever — all of this worked. "In Warm Cum," "It's seminal, just like my ass," "Lainie Kazan!," "You ... are not there" — everything hit. And Kate Pierson on the runway? Bitch, I'm president of the Jane Don't fan club at this point.
So, Nini Coco wins, which I understand for storytelling reasons. They don't want to give Myki two wins in a row, they want to spread the wins around, and Nini's waited one week longer than Jane for a second win. Also, they aren't giving Athena any flowers because she is the season's Jan. They want Athena to break — although I think Discord may be cracking up from all the strays she's catching. The bottoms are, correctly, Kenya and Mia ... and this is where shenanigans happen.
The Go-Go's "Head Over Heels." A great song. An interesting lip sync song, and an interesting choice for these two dancing divas. Mia did a cleaner job, and I commend her for not shoehorning in all of her moves into a song where that would not have worked. But Kenya did something that Mia didn't, something that guarantees a win: literally just one stupid thing that makes Ru laugh. Kenya coordinating that backwards leg kick to that whipcrack sound during the chorus was enough to save her from elimination. Seriously. Watch any lip sync. If a queen gets the cutaway to Ru laughing at something stupid, they're staying. Maybe there's a narrative here of Kenya finally knowing the words? Maybe it's to shake the other girls up, because Mia was a competitor and the clear choice for Miss Congeniality. I just think we had a lot more TV left in Mia, and it sucks to see her go this early.
Now we enter the second half of this season with lots of wins spread around, but also a few winners who've sashayed away. We have Myki and Nini on the rise, while Jane and Discord both grapple with the "constantly overlooked" narrative in different ways. I can't wait to see how this turns out, etc.
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