RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Season 10, Episode 9
"The Golden Bitchelor"
Director: Nick Murray
Cast: Acid Betty, Alyssa Hunter, Cynthia Lee Fontaine, Daya Betty, Denali, Ginger Minj
We don't have to make this a long one. Like last week's episode, this challenge was a done deal the instant we all saw what it was going to be: an improv challenge. "The Golden Bitchelor," to be exact — a follow-up to All Stars 3's iconic improv masterclass/trainwreck. Except this time, they're all dogs. Because ... bitches.
Everything in the episode played out exactly like you would expect. Ginger Minj crushed it (her casually dunking a meatball in a cosmopolitan was perfect), Denali did a great job, and Daya did well, too. The winners were Ginger and Daya, because every bracket had to have multiple repeat winners. But hey— Daya actually won the lip sync. Or they let Daya win the lip sync. I dunno — Acid said during the lip sync that Ginger was "commanding the stage" and I thought the fix was in again! And finally, moving on to next week's semi-finals are Ginger Minj, Daya Betty, and — Cynthia Lee Fontaine?! Okay, there was precisely one surprise in this entire bracket, and that's it.
To unravel how we got to this moment, we have to rewind to the beginning of the episode wherein Acid Betty's efforts of unionizing the queens paid off — even if the person who got the ball rolling was in metaphorical management and not part of the discussions. It all started with the Messy Points.
Daya awarded her point to Cynthia, which makes total sense as they were in the girl group together — and, as Daya revealed online, Daya spent the night before the challenge reworking one of Cynthia's outfits so she'd look cohesive in their group. Cynthia sent a PA to Daya's hotel room with snacks to make sure her blood sugar wasn't getting to low. That's a queen, right there. And Cynthia returns the favor, giving her point to Daya.
Then Acid Betty and Alyssa Hunter both give their points to Cynthia. Acid's plan of rallying around one queen, lifting them up so they could compete with the frontrunners (Daya and Ginger) happens — but it happens because of Daya. And clearly, Alyssa and Acid are fans of Cynthia, and Cynthia did well in the challenge (something Alyssa is going to spend the rest of the episode explaining). This catapults Cynthia from being tied for last place to second place — ahead of Daya Betty and Denali.
Hilariously, this sends Daya into a tailspin — and never once does she stop to think, "Hmm ... one of Cynthia's points did come from me ..." Because Alyssa said that she was going to award a point based on track record, Daya instead zeroes in on that one comment and then can't understand how Alyssa's opinion is her own. Daya keeps pointing out that she won Week 1, but that doesn't mean anything to Alyssa. After all, Alyssa points out prophetically, the judges pick the winner — and you don't have to agree with the judges. Girl, preach.
The other hot topic, at least in the first half of the episode, is itself a coda to the conversation that the entire Drag Race fandom has been having all week: Ginger Minj winning the lip sync against Denali. Alyssa, bless her, point blank says that she thought Denali won. To Denali's eternal credit, and she's said this over the past week, she actually does seem to have processed, accepted, and moved on from that call almost immediately. When Denali apologizes on behalf of the group for Ginger feeling that her win was overshadowed by everyone's shock, Ginger quickly points out that Denali didn't make her feel that way. All of this drama over one point. What difference can one point make?
It turns out, a lot.
I should gripe about the judging, shouldn't I? I already said Ginger and Daya won, even though Denali got a better edit than Daya. Daya got a shade rattle when she accidentally called the hot guy's [insert name here] hand a hand instead of a paw. That's the kinda thing that's funny in an improv show, but on Drag Race it's the kinda thing that Michelle Visage could choose to be a stickler about. That one slip-up could have cost Daya the whole challenge if they'd wanted it to. Instead, they chose to say that Denali played her emotional support dog who needs emotional support as nervous at first, and that was confusing. Oh, that was confusing? You know what's actually confusing? The way y'all call these "improv challenges" and then give the queens entire characters that they have to stick to like a damn script.
That is not improv.
Also, dear god, "improv" is a noun, "improvise" is a verb.
But I knew they were going to get Denali the instant she opened up her folder full of paperwork (you know, for the improv challenge). That is the exact character type that they got Aja with in All Stars 3, and they did it again — even though Denali was actually funny and set the bar for success even higher by making her dog British. That could have gone spectacularly terrible. Instead, she and Daya actually found a rhythm and played off each other better than any other pair. Honestly, sorry Ginger, maybe Daya and Denali should've won this week.
That was never going to happen.
To be ... not fair ... but charitable to this episode, there actually was a little bit of suspense during the final awarding of the Messy Points. Nothing as shocking as what Mistress did to Kerri, but still, some drama. Cynthia goes first, giving her point to Alyssa. Denali goes next, giving hers to Acid. That's to be expected, as neither of them (Cynthia and Denali) were going to give a point to each other. They're each a point away from advancing. It was always going to come down to Alyssa and Acid, and that's where things get interesting.
Alyssa Hunter, proving that she actually is a woman of her word, gives her point to Denali and not Cynthia because, while Cynthia did well in the challenge (I wish, lord I wish that someone would go on this show and actually explain what "Yes, and" really means), Cynthia really bombed the runway. But Acid, the heart of this bracket, was always going to give her point to Cynthia — and I am fine with that. Acid's genuine love for Cynthia, as well as the love that Cynthia inspires just by being herself, is deserving of a reward. And if Acid makes good on her promise to design Cynthia's looks for the semi-finals? Baby, I can't wait to see how that turns out.
So it all came down to a point. If Denali had gotten that one point for the lip sync, everything could've been different. Although, if Cynthia and Denali had ended up tied and Ru had to make the call, I'm actually not convinced she'd pick Denali. There's still the wild card pick, because how the hell are we going to have a lip sync tournament without Denali in it?
Next week is the clash of the newly trim titans as Mistress Isabelle Brooks and Ginger Minj clash. Finally, this season is gonna get good again. Not fair. Probably not coherent. But at least entertaining.
One last thing: JUSTICE FOR GINGER MINJ.
Not because she was robbed, not because she was overlooked, not because she was done dirty (well, actually ... ) , but because she deserved to win this bracket fair and square. Now, there's no way to shut up the Drag Race fandom. Even if the producers had released the unedited footage along with audio recordings of their productions meetings, fans would still claim they were sending secret hand signals to rig X in favor of Y. But. The vitriol being leveled at Ginger by Drag Race viewers (not fans, because fans don't send hate) would definitely be lessened had these queens been left to compete to the best of their capabilities, and those stories been produced in a way that reflected reality.
And I know reality TV doesn't reflect reality. But I want to point out, when applied to drag queens, reality is still ridiculous. Drag queens produce themselves. They don't need to be produced. This is a competition between professional performers who find the light and cheat to camera naturally. They do not need story producers telling them what to do, because drag queens — just by existing in a space together — automatically create stories that are realer, richer, and just plain better than what we get on reality TV.
For example: Does anyone really think that a reality TV producer could have, on the fly, come up with and executed the point-stealing switcheroo that Mistress Isabelle Brooks pulled off in Bracket 2? Let these queens cook. It's their show.
So, justice for Ginger Minj, one of the best drag queens to ever perform on RuPaul's Drag Race. She doesn't need help. It's a disservice to her incredible talents that we only got to see her do fairy tale, country, and comedy drag this bracket. I want to see Ginger push herself. Ginger probably wants to push herself, too! That would be good television. Instead, if Ginger does indeed win it all, she's going to have to forever deal with people saying she didn't deserve it, that it was handed to her. That's garbage, mama.
