Ron Does Stuff

First off, no I will not be recapping Drag Race Philippines Untucked. I will be referencing it when needed, but I feel like actually making posts for it is going to make this feel like work and so far I have been happy just doing all this to decompress after a work day.

Anyway, it’s the second episode! We got to know the first batch of queens in the first episode and said goodbye to one of them. We’ll meet a new batch this second episode; let’s see if they’re any better!

After sending Nicole Pardaux home, the first batch of queens joke that it’s already the top five of the competition since there’s just five of them there, but that quickly deteriorates because the girls begin teasing Katkat about not winning and Katkat immediately goes in on Arizona’s win and tries to make it look like Arizona didn’t deserve it. She really is going to be the villain of the season, especially considering her online reputation.

Now I know that the production got a bigger budget that they invested in a bigger set, but couldn’t they have invested some of that into a better sound guy for the voiceovers as well as a better catalog of background music? Because those aspects have been underwhelming so far.

BUT ANYWAY. The first queen entering the Werk Room this episode is DeeDee Marie Holliday, who I know from her social media. The entrance look and the line is fun, but it’s immediately overshadowed by Astrid Mercury’s outfit that she clearly put either money or a lot of work into. And it appears that the two of them have history together, with DeeDee acting as sort of a mentor to Astrid.

Hana Beshie has a genius name and a really fun look although I didn’t quite get the humor behind her opening line. Maybe the humor’s just not for me! She is immediately followed by Veruschka Levels and I won’t talk about it here but she is being dragged online for a lot of things that include alleged theft.

Up next is Bernie whose performances at O Bar I have seen and enjoyed a few times. And the queens recognize her as well, since she really has been doing drag for quite some time. I think the first time I saw her was back in 2015? I think maybe even earlier, I’m not really sure since I am already old and decrepit.

Finally, ØV CÜNT makes her entrance and that entrance look is spectacular. It’s not up on her Instagram account just yet but it was the look I remembered the most! Having said that I think I heard Veruschka call her “not a big fish” off camera and I can’t wait for the drama. And they even have DeeDee say in the confessionals that the show has to “cater to all types of drag” like they’re really making her out to be the villain right now!

Just like the first episode, the girls have a face your fears photoshoot but rather than a tarantula, it’s a snake that gets to terrorize the girls. ØV CÜNT is surprisngly the most visibly rattled by it but she’s hilarious about it so that’s okay I guess! In the end, Veruschka wins the mini-challenge and gets to decide the order of verses.

The main challenge is also the girl group challenge and if I’m being honest, the episode so far is…off? I can’t articulate why though. Maybe it’s the editing? There’s just something off-kilter about it that I can’t explain.

During the consultations, Bernie tugs at my heart as she talks about how she’s slowly going blind in both her eyes. This isn’t something I knew about her, and having seen some of her more acrobatic performances back in the day I gotta say she’s been spectacular all things considered.

The production continues to set up Veruschka and DeeDee as this group’s villains as they have thoughts on each of the girl’s performances. Veruschka, in particular, may be in trouble later on because she didn’t exactly wow during the recording process.

And it really does look like the editing is working on me because Veruschka was so irritating during the dance rehearsal, saying it was so selfish of the other girls to not think of her since she’s not a dancer. You’re the only one not pulling your weight.

I liked this performance better than the first group, mainly because I think the dancing was slightly better? But once again this is coming from someone with two left feet. Besides, neither of these two performances were as good as the Flexbomb Girls anyway.

On the runway, it’s Bernie that really shines because that outfit? She really said FRINGE. Again, the look isn’t on her Instagram just yet but it definitely demands attention! ØV CÜNT’s outfit also looked great, and I commend Hana Beshie on her idea for her outfit but it really could have been executed better.

Bernie gets a lot of praise (dseserved!) while Veruschka, like I said earlier, gets dragged because she was off in the lip sync, off in the choreo, and apparently wore an outfit somebody else wore before. I guess we have one of the queens who’ll be lip syncing!

All of the queens also choose Veruschka as the queen they think should leave and the production really is setting up her villain arc so clearly. And ØV CÜNT goes in on Veruschka’s performance and her outfit. She even said not to be a bitch but to be a bitch and I was cackling!

And good golly Miss Molly the production really needs a villain because Ms. Levels is safe. It’s Astrid Mercury and Hana Beshie in the bottom and all credit to the girls because that lip sync was so much better to most of Drag Race Mexico‘s lip syncs let’s be honest. Astrid gets sent home and it is heartbreaking. That poor kid cried so much and I wanted to hug her so bad.

The girls go backstage and as they’re de-dragging the first batch of girls come in and this could have been a nice RuPaul’s Drag Race season 6 callback but what the hell is wrong with the scoring? It fell flat tuloy!