Ron Does Stuff

For a while there I had a pretty decent streak of blog post updates but work has been kicking my ass for the past few days which is why updates have been sparse. This is coming to you almost a week after the episode aired! The new episode is airing in a couple of days!

But what can you do at this stage of late capitalism but work so you can eke out a small measure of happiness doing stuff that doesn’t pay you anything!

The previous episode was not a particularly good one for DeeDee, who found herself eliminated and also endangering her friendship with Hana Beshie — and it’s mostly her fault too. I don’t know if the queens are sad about DeeDee’s departure because the editing has M1ss Jade So speaking her alien gibberish and I am cackling. Arizona’s asides in the confessional are also hilarious.

The next day, Captivating KatKat is obviously the focus of everyone’s attention since she’s the first one of the queens to win two challenges. ØV Cünt, understandably, is frustrated that she still doesn’t have a badge this far into the competition, especially when she’s consistently placed in the top.

But we’ll have to come back to that frustration some other day because Paolo enters and we have a doozy of a mini challenge where the queens have to share one tiny mirror and paint their faces in five minutes and then have a photoshoot.

It’s not as chaotic as I thought it would be, mainly because Bernie and M1ss Jade don’t even try to fight for mirror time. I don’t know if it’s because Bernie is just so used to her face now and can paint by the numbers or if it’s because of her going blind. Which is sad and frankly I don’t wanna dwell on it.

Anyway the five minutes are up and once they start the photoshoot Arizona says ØV looks like a maligno per usual and I cackle. But to be fair, the photo BJ Pascual took isn’t that bad! Now whether that’s because of ØV’s make-up skills or BJ’s photography skills is something I’m not knowledgable enough to determine.

Arizona’s face is a lot, while Bernie looks like an actual painted face! It looked like a day look (I think that’s what it’s called!) and while it won’t be winning any awards for creativity or anything it’s actually something I think an average woman could wear! With the caveat that I am not a make-up gay and may be actually saying something stupid!

Hana Beshie is yet another queen whose face was a lot while KatKat tried to go conceptual. M1ss Jade also looked okay but it really didn’t look any different from her pre-mini challenge look? She did make me laugh when she said she was giving “Ariana Grindr”!

Bernie, I think deservedly, wins the mini challenge and aside from the cash tip gets to pick which one of the Golden Gays the queens gets to partner with because, yes, this is the makeover challenge! And for those who don’t know who they are, you can check out the short documentary below. There’s actually a lot of videos of them on YouTube if you want to explore even further!

I don’t know the specifics of it since I wasn’t there but it doesn’t seem like Bernie tried to sabotage any of the queens with her assignments. She even says so in the confessionals that she gave the queens the Golden Gays that they wanted.

Now I now it’s supposed to be funny when the Golden Gays fall asleep on the makeup chair and act childlike from time to time and I can see where it would be funny! Don’t misunderstand! But since I am getting to that Golden Gays age as well all I had going in my mind was “Oh my goodness is this going to be me soon?”

I also got to say that I really loved how considerate the queens where when it came to the Golden Gays’ health conditions because some of them are almost a century old and an injury — whether because of the heels or the drag — is going to be devastating for them, especially since healthcare in the Philippines isn’t exactly top notch.

Bernie wondering if she’s even going to reach the age of the Golden Gays was also a shot to the heart. And then ØV revealing that her grandfather died just before she started filming for Drag Race Philippines just made me even more melancholic. I dunno, maybe because I’m getting older now, I can feel the aches in my bones and this fate just seems closer to me now. I couldn’t even fully laugh at Arizona’s confessionals. I’m just really feeling my mortality, okay?

We finally get to the main stage and I had to roll my eyes a little at Paolo saying Gloria Diaz “loves us” because girl that is a transphobe AND a Marcos supporter let’s not be stupid.

Again, this episode has me kind of emotionally compromised so I couldn’t really focus on the outfits. I did think Bernie and her partner stood out for all the right reasons as well as ØV’s. Looks like we have our top two!

I was still in my feelings during the critiques although I did scream when Hana Beshie’s partner, Mistu Beshie, said she was prettier than Celia Rodriguez when she was compared to her. The sass. Celia Rodriguez just happens to be one of my favorite onscreen villains and I just loved Mitsu Beshie being equally bitchy!

Like this isn’t Celia Rodriguez’s best work but it’s all I could find.

Thankfully, the judges decide that this is going to be a non-elimination challenge because it really would break the queens’ hearts to have someone go home after taking such good care of the Golden Gays. Bernie and ØV lipsync for the win and quite frankly Bernie won that easily.

Hopefully I get to watch the next episode on time but I’m not making any promises!