RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Season 10, Episode 10
"Tournament of All Stars Snatch Game"
Director: Nick Murray
Cast: Aja, Bosco, Cynthia Lee Fontaine, Daya Betty, Ginger Minj, Irene the Alien, Jorgeous, Lydia B Kollins, Mistress Isabelle Brooks
Finally, the gang's all here. The top three queens from each bracket are finally in competition with each other and, for the first time in over a decade, All Stars rules are not in effect. This week, the queens will be put through their paces on Snatch Game, two bottom queens will lip sync for their life — and one will sashay away. Classic Drag Race rules are in effect and there's nowhere for any of these queens to hide. So clock that tea and wake that up, because All Stars 10 is about to do her big one. I'm now 41 years old, so I am absolutely going to start working those ubiquitous phrases into my everyday speech in an attempt to make them horribly uncool so I never have to hear them again. I know, ubiquitous is craaaazyyyyy.
It goes unsaid in the episode, but roughly five months have passed since the queens filmed their brackets. I do wonder how the show would have handled this, had Ginger Minj and Mistress Isabelle Brooks both not undergone extreme transformations. While I wouldn't have put it past Drag Race to just put everyone in their previous confessional looks and act like this new day in the work room was just a few days later, I'm glad they didn't. Irene the Alien has a new boy haircut, going from Budnick to bowlcut. I'm into her exploring '90s bad boy teen hairstyles, as long as she doesn't move on to the buzzed head with bangs look that I'm not convinced existed outside of middle Tennessee middle schools.
But come on, the main event here is Ginger Minj and Mistress Isabelle Brooks — and not just because they have collectively dropped some 300 pounds. From the moment it became clear that these two would be on TV together in the semifinals (so, April 23?), I've been waiting to see what the hell would happen. It was giving immovable object and unstoppable force — and now we know which queen can be stopped: Mistress.
Say what you will about production, and lord knows I've said plenty over the years, but there actually is one area where I don't think Drag Race gets enough praise: painting psychological profiles. Seriously. Whether their depictions of the queens are real, that's beside the point. The point is: very rarely can I tell when they're portraying a queen in a way that is absolutely counter to reality. I feel like I can see through all the judging shenanigans and how they edit challenges and lip syncs. But when it comes to crafting personal storyarcs — I'm talking Nina Bo'nina Brown's self-sabotage, Kerri Colby and the trans awakening of Season 14, BenDeLaCreme sending herself home, Lexi Love's one-sided rivalry with Suzie Toot — the show almost always hits.
I think this was most clear in Bracket 2, with Mistress as the catalyst for a lot of really interesting psychological shit between herself and Kerri, Lydia B Kollins, and especially Tina Burner. Now that storyline continues in the semifinals, but Mistress is — for the first time in her Drag Race career — the one who feels thrown off. The one who once fucked around now finds out.
Mistress cannot bully these girls, partially because there are too many girls to bully and her attempts are so obvious. She makes the mistake of pulling Lydia and Jorgeous aside from the moment they walk into the Werk Room, as if doing so will intimidate the other six. It doesn't. Then she tries to whip up a nontroversy involving Aja and Ginger, who are absolutely not the ones. This goes nowhere.
The next day, Ginger — a two-time Snatch Game winner — becomes the obvious target for Mistress' mind games. My favorite moment of this episode has to be Ginger's reaction to getting called over by Mistress.
If Ginger ultimately wins the crown, I will pinpoint this exact eyeroll as the moment I became okay with it — "it" being production crafting an entire season around giving Ginger a crown when we all know that Ginger does not need any favors. But it's Ginger's response to Mistress that just seals it for me and, as much as an edited reality TV show can be an indication of character, makes me love Ginger Minj even more. Ginger is not bothered by Mistress. Ginger doesn't even seem outwardly confident that she will win Snatch Game. Ginger appears to be the kind of queen who doesn't feel the need to pull focus, brag, and sow seeds of conflama every which way the high-powered AC blows.
Mistress, however, does. And in this setting, one thing became very clear to me: Ginger is 39 and Mistress is 25. Clock that tea. Wake that up.
The difference between Ginger and Mistress is borne out during Snatch Game. Ginger goes with Reba McEntire, a perfect Snatch Game choice made even more perfect by her somehow never being done before. As Ginger says, Reba has a unique voice and look, a very clear POV, and is in RuPaul's frame of reference. It's a mature choice.
Mistress chooses Natalie Nunn from Bad Girls Club, which is about as risky a choice as Reba was perfect. RuPaul doesn't know who Natalie Nunn is, the character's POV seems rooted in arguing ("No, but" not "yes, and"), and the "character" is too close to Mistress's own persona (I assume, since Mistress seemed to just be playing herself with a big chin). Ginger, now a three-time Snatch Game winner, knew what to do and did it. Mistress wanted to "wake it up" and "do her big one," which just looked like being ... angry and mean, while saying "wake it up" some more. This was an immature choice.
To Mistress's defense, I think she knows how to do Snatch Game. She did well as Rosie O'Donnell on Season 15, because she chose someone that adhered to all of the same Snatch Game success rules as Reba. Natalie Nunn feels a bit like Mistress falling back on bad habits rather than pushing herself and, well, doing her big one.
Do I need to talk about the other performances — oh, Dracula. Yes, I do.
To fast forward to judging: thank god the show seems to have quickly learned that the whole "so bad it's good" thing starts and stops with Lexi Love's Gilbert Gottfried. This is a rare instance where I agree with Michelle Visage putting her foot down and stopping some tomfoolery. I love Cynthia Lee Fontaine, and Dracula was such a kooky choice that it really could have worked, but Cynthia kept whiffing the softest of balls (that's the phrase, right?). RuPaul asked her what part of Transylvania was she from — and Cynthia did not respond, "My house." If Cynthia had landed that very clear callback to Ginger Minj's Adele — in front of Ginger Minj — she would've been safe. Alas.
Speaking of "so bad it's good," tear-a-mi-suit is an absolutely unhinged runway category that cycles from bad to good and around again so fast that there's a tornado in my brain just thinking about it. Also confusing: the judging! Jorgeous and Ginger were clearly the tops this week; Jorgeous actually served as Pitbull, and then ate on the runway in that oversized, late '80s power suit moment. Ginger's runway was ... I mean, for Ginger? Solid. I think the Madonna at the VMA's bridal look after the reveal saved the whole look, and the before look — the oversized Thom Browne suit moment could've worked with more finesse.
The bottoms were clear, too: Mistress's whole look was a chop, from the Jersey boardwalk airbrushed bikini suit to the basic, unadorned gown it revealed to. And Cynthia's leaned too much into the tiramisu idea, and the reveal didn't work.
Where I find fault is with Lydia and Aja — and I guess the decision to have four bottoms this week? Even though both Lydia and Aja's runways were good (I'd say Lydia's was great, and that Carson Kressley is wild for thinking that garment was unfinished). Lydia's Pete Burns was pretty much absent from the Snatch Game edit, which to me signals that it wasn't particularly good or bad; she should've been safe, and maybe put Irene in the top for her decent Zsa Zsa Gabor (she volleyed with Ru!) and outstanding runway (even if the gorgeous, glamorous woman into alien transformation is one we've seen her do before).
The bottoms were clearly Cynthia and Mistress, who performed the first All Stars lip sync for your life in years to ... the a cappella mix of Aretha Franklin's "Who's Zoomin' Who." What the everlovin' fuck. Period. No question mark. Whut. Whut the hell. The only explanation I can think of for a choice as sideways as this one is something like, Mistress performs this all the time back home and the producers needed to guarantee her win against Cynthia, who was almost destined to go home first in the semifinals. And that's what happens!
So an off-balance season continues — with Ginger Minj on a four-episode winning streak. And judging by next week's promos, it looks like Mistress is setting her sights on Aja which I can't imagine will end well!
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