Ron Does Stuff

Another week, another episode of Drag Race Philippines! I am actually on time for this one so let’s jump into it!

The episode starts out pretty somber, with a trigger warning since apparently this week’s episode involves material that contains rape and sexual assault. Oooofff. Gotta steel myself for this.

Nobody went home in the previous episode, and as the queens do a post-mortem of what just happened, Angel shares that she’s been having a hard time keeping her place in some of the country’s drag bars like O Bar and Rapture and that losing this early in the competition would have been too much for her. Which is a valid emotion to feel.

Myx Chanel, on the other hand, is a little bit more pragmatic now that the double shantay has been used in just the second episode. This may mean that starting on episode three, we’ll see the queens go home one by one. I say may because we don’t know how many episodes were contracted so maybe another double shantay may happen down the line!

The season’s current frontrunners — Khianna and Myx Chanel — are feeling their oats, but Yudipota is feeling bitter that she didn’t win. And to her credit she tells this right to Myx Chanel’s face and not in a confessional. J Quinn is also a little bummed she didn’t win but come on. We saw what happened with that shoe.

In the confessionals, Myx says that she doesn’t necessarily believe Angel was worth a double shantay and Myx, you in danger girl. Either Maxie or the internet may just come for you for that opinion.

We’ll have to see whether that opinion is going to come back and haunt her in a later episode because Mama Pao is in the Werk Room and tells them that this week’s mini challenge is Sack Race Philippines, but of course it’s not just going to be any sack race but a sack race where the queens are in “Big Boobies” quick drag. Versex refuses to put on the boobies because supermodels don’t have them and Yudipota delivers a scathing “comprehension skills” read from the confessionals.

The challenge is made up of four rounds, with Zymba, Yudipota, and Khianna battling it out in the fourth and final round. Khianna gets another mini challenge win and P20,000! And if you wanna see a performance from her, check out her performance during Eva Le Queen’s viewing party for RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars, which I was lucky enough to attend!

Aside from the mini challenge money, Khianna also gets to choose the members of her girl group, since this week’s Maxi Challenge is the girl group challenge. Now I don’t presume to tell the queens who to pick, but it seems obvious to me that the first pick will have to be Maxie. She was on Queen of the Universe! She almost won if she didn’t get sick!

Maxie isn’t exactly the first pick but the second one, but it’s understandably that Khianna first picked Popstar Bench since she needs a choreographer as well. She then rounds it off with Angel, Verex, and Zymba.

The de facto second group is made up of Tita Baby, Myx Chanel, J Quinn, John Fedellaga, and Yudipota and I honestly don’t know what to think. With Drag Race, they sometimes edit it so who you thought was a group of winners actually end up not working well together and eventually landing in the bottom. So let’s see!

So far, Khianna’s group really does look like it’s the winning group because Maxie’s Queen of the Universe experience, her musical theater experience, and just her voice and songwriting is just polishing whatever else the other members of the group come up with. And there’s no Maxie equivalent in the other group. It’s not an Adore-Courtney situation from RuPaul’s Drag Race season 6.

They start recording their verses with Angeline Quinto and Moophs of Tarsier Records and it looks like Khianna’s group has a good chance of winning — if Versex can get her shit together.

The next group also seems to be doing okay, with J Quinn being the only weak link. Their recording does seem to set up Myx Chanel as someone who will potentially get into a fight in further episodes? Let’s wait! This also sets up J Quinn as this episode’s bottom placement I can just feel it.

During choreography practice, Khianna’s group did well other than Versex, while the other team…well. They did something on stage, let’s just say that.

The next day, we get a reveal that off-camera drama happened when they were rehearsing for the combined dance choreography. Myx is being accused of trying to “dominate the space” during the rehearsal while Myx thinks it was Khianna’s group doing the dominating. J Quinn is crying in the confessionals because Angel is being “squatter” and oh boy you in danger girl. You’ve been in danger since the first episode.

After that “miscommunication” is “resolved”, we head on over to the learning part of the episode and it’s Khianna, who comes from a broken family and has eight (or nine?) siblings and her goal in life is to get all of her siblings together. That is a tall order, especially in this economy. Sorry if I sound like boomer.

But I do start to freak out a little because I thought the rape and sexual abuse content would be with Khianna but it’s not so is somebody going to use it as their sob story so they don’t get eliminated? Please god no.

The performances start and it’s definitely an improvement from “Boogsh” from Drag Race Philippines season 2. Burakpack did great, I think! And Maxie’s Queen of the Universe experience really shone through. J Quinn’s group…had whack choreography, let’s be honest. Just because you’re a K-pop fan doesn’t mean you’re going to master that “knife-like choreography”. It definitely wasn’t Le Sserafim at the 2022 MMA dance break!

Perya is the runway theme this week and we finally find out that that viral outfit from the teaser trailer is Khianna’s! The rest of the outfits are…well. John Fedellaga’s was kind okay, I guess! Myx Chanel’s seemed like a great idea but I don’t think it looks as good on TV as it possibly did on the stage? Anywas, I was generally whelmed.

We get to the critiques and not surprisingly, Khianna and Maxie get the good critiques. I start worrying about which bottom queen is going to use a story of assault as a way to save their ass and I am surprised that the story is actually John’s, and it wasn’t because she was in danger of being the bottom but because telling her story to Khianna helped ease a burden and resulted in her performing better, which the judges noticed.

Maxie, unsurprisingly, wins this week’s Maxi Challenge. Meanwhile, Versex, Myx Chanel, and J Quinn are in the bottom and I think it’s going to be between Myx Chanel and J Quinn, with J Quinn going home. I just think they’ve mind all they can from J Quinn, while Myx and Versex can still provide friction in upcoming episodes.

AND THEN J QUINN IS SAFE? WHAT? Versex and Myx are going to lip sync and I am flummoxed with this decision. I don’t think Versex deserved to be in the bottom! And I didn’t even like Versex during the first episode!

The lip sync starts and…welll. Clothes were taken off, titty tassels on display, and Versex bringing poses but not really the lip sync. I understand why she had to sashay away, but at the same time, I think it should have been J Quinn in the bottom. Sue me.