Ron Does Stuff

The season is moving steadily along! Let’s get into this new episode!

Joella was sent home in the previous episode and Kori King is grateful for it. Kori doesn’t think she deserved to be in the bottom, but that’s all in the past now since she gets to stay for another day. Sam Star, however, is starting to doubt Kori’s place in the competition.

From there, the conversation goes to who won the previous challenge, and while Onya gets some congratulations on her win, Crystal and her little bit of anger quickly pulls focus. Onya, however, knows how to pull back focus on her and really I just want her to go far in this competition.

While Crystal only has a little bit of anger on display, Arrietty has a lot. And she takes that with her up to the next day/week, when she enters the Werk Room with her hair styled with little devil horns. It’s her villain era, everyone! But there’s very little discussion had today as Ru enters the Werk Room and immediately tells them this week’s Maxi Challenge — RDR Live. Lydia Butthole Kollins is immediately offering herself up to be this week’s bottom queen as she tells the producers in the confessionals that she’s not good at being funny.

Onya picks the host role, which everybody did not want to do, and as Kori King points out, she could very well end up like Mirage. But it could just as easily be a moment of triumph for Onya, you never know! The picking of roles goes smoothly until we get to the blonde bimbo role and Crystal and Lana both want to do it. Sam, however, convinces Crystal to give up the role to Lana. Has Crystal just given up what could have been a win? Let’s see!

Another casting conflict that arises is between Lydia and Hormona, who both want to play the sarcastic old lady in the script. However, Lydia knows Hormona well enough to appeal to her maternal instincts and gets her to give up the role for her. Has Hormona handicapped herself with this choice? Let’s see!

Crystal, Lexi, and Suzie are feeling pretty confident about the roles they picked, which just makes me think that production is going to set them up for a fall. I can’t help it, it’s how they’ve conditioned me over the years! Suzie is especially confident, saying that the sketch comedy world is something she’s a part of, and boy has she just marked herself for a bottom placement.

Sam, Jewels, and Hormona are having a little bit of tension with Lydia and Acacia’s group, though it’s mostly just Hormona, Lydia, and Acacia. Acacia especially wants Hormona sent home, since she did beat her in that lip sync back in episode two. Let’s see if Acacia gets her wish!

Back over at Crystal, Lexi, and Suzie’s corner, Lexi is feeling some kind of way about Suzie constantly shooting down her ideas, and the editing is delicious because it catches the two of them just making faces, which I think maybe isn’t connected to the tension they’re having but they do a good job of making it look like it does! God, I wish I knew how to screencap Wowpresentsplus because there’s this one face Lexi pulls that I just love.

Onya, Kora, Lana, and Arrietty are the opening skit and they are going big, Arrietty especially. In contrast, Sam, Jewels, and Hormona are a little more low energy and Sam, in particular, has taken on an accent that is…dubious, let’s say that. But I did laugh out loud at Hormona realizing why vaginas are called beavers. I can’t believe she’s never heard that before! English isn’t even my first language and I know that!

Over at Acacia and Lydia’s corner, Lydia is slowly realizing that maybe she bit of more than she could chew. Hormona, over at her table, says she hopes that it doesn’t come back to bite Lydia’s pancake ass. There’s that Southern charm!

RDR Live starts and that was an okay opening sketch, certainly better than some of the previous ones Drag Race has had before. Although I don’t think Arrietty has overshadowed anyone yet. Onya also does a good job with the monologue so I think she won’t be seeing the bottom yet in this episode.

We then move on over to Sam, Jewels, and Hormona’s skit and maybe I just have the sense of humor of a 12-year-old but I thought it was funny? And Sam’s accent didn’t sound as bad as it did in the Werk Room. The wooden beavers being taken out was also funny to me. But among the three of them, it was Hormona that really stood out. She might just be in the top this episode!

The musical guest is Ru and…well, she’s the musical guest!

QNN is up next and I think maybe Suzie unintentionally made it so that she would shine the most in the segment because she really ended up being the most memorable one in it.

Meanwhile, I think Acacia may have found her stride because she’s the one dominating this Golden Girls sketch. Maybe Lydia did bite off more than she could chew because she’s just outacted her right from the very beginning. Lydia sounds like she just reading the dialogue straight off manila paper. Yes, not even a teleprompter.

The next day, all the girls are feeling pretty good about their performance but Suziw has contrary opinions about some of them, specifically the Neanderthal girls Lana, Kori, and Arrietty. Hormona also has opinions that don’t necessarily jive with how the queens saw their performance, specifically Lydia Butthole Collins.

Lexi, meanwhile, is reviving the Bitter Old Lady Brigade from season seven and is labeling Acacia, Lydia, Hormona, and Suzie as the members of the kumbaya girls. They think they can’t banter and are hindering the show and that’s funny to hear agreement from Arrietty and Kori when they’ve both been in the bottom and probably have a greater chance of sashaying away than at least Hormona and Suzie.

We also find out that Lexi actually has a very corporate job outside of drag teaching bankers how to detect money laundering in their accounts. We also find out that her coworkers don’t know she’s trans since the training happens online and she hopes that her taking part in Drag Race is what’s going to spur some change in the financial institution she’s working in.

The runway theme this week is “Tickled Pink” and up first is Onya Nurve and as much as I love her, I don’t think this look is it. I am not feeling it. Kori’s look is better, but I don’t know if it’s because it actually is or because I just did not like Onya’s look. And by the time we get to Arrietty it’s pretty clear that that outfit might have just cost Onya.

Lana and Hormona continue the parade of good outfits, and Sam really had everyone looking at her with that showgirl outfit. Jewels’ look is definitely better than the one she had on last week while Crystal’s outfit is I think a step down because last week’s quilted look was so good. That isn’t to say that her outfit this week is bad! It’s just that last week’s was so good and we now expect more.

Lexi’s look is okay, but I really liked Suzie’s literal clown look. It took me a bit to see the penis in Lydia’s look but when I did, I thought it was good! Acacia’s look was…just okay. Not bootable, in my opinion, but a weak toot. Definitely not a shoot.

Kori, Lana, Jewels, Crystal, Lexi, and Acacia are the safe queens this episode I’ve got a feeling that Hormona might just get a win on this one.

Onya gets praise for her skit work and her outfit so I guess the judges could see something that I couldn’t. Also, reminder that I am not really a fashion person so maybe I’m just wrong about my fashion opinions! Arrietty, on the other hand, gets praised for her look but is now criticized for going too big this time around when the last episode saw her get criticized for being overshadowed. Oh she’s going to be mad in Untucked.

Just like Onya, Hormona gets praised for both her skit work and her outfit and Hormona even manages to deliver a little jab at Lydia as she thanks the judges for their praise. Sam is rightfully called out for her accent choice although I truly do believe that it sounded better during the actual skit than when she was in the Werk Room.

The final two getting critiqued are Suzie and Lydia and we all know that Suzie is going to get praised because she did do the best in QNN. I am also snickering at the tension that production is trying to start between Arrietty and Suzie. Do they want Arrietty to have a Jan face crack moment at one point in the show?

From the deliberations, it looks like the win is either going to go to Suzie or Hormona, while Sam and Lydia might be the ones lip syncing. Suzie wins this week, making her the first one to win two challenges and now the target of everybody else in the Werk Room. You in danger, girl!

The surprise — for me! — was with Sam being declared safe. I literally gasped out loud in my room. It’s Arrietty versus Lydia in the lip sync and depending on what song they’ll be playing, we’ll know who’ll be going home. And the song is…”Boogie Wonderland”. THAT’S A SURPRISE.

Honestly, maybe it’s just the way production edited it, but I think Lydia won this one. And Ru agrees, to the shock of Lana and Jewels. You kinda felt it even before the lip sync started because Arrietty was gritting her teeth already. BUT THEN, she manages to pull the right lever and dunk Michelle into the water! She gets to stay for another week!