Ron Does Stuff

Okay, I wasn’t really sure how they were going to release the episodes of this All Stars season. I thought releasing two episodes on the same day was just a WowPresentsPlus special thing or something and they’d release episode three this week, but it looks like that isn’t the case! Let’s dive into this new episode!

I think it’s safe to say Irene completely redeemed her reputation in the previous episode, as she was one of the top girls yet again and now is tied in first place with Bosco. But we’ll have to talk about their feelings later because the first order of business is how are the NVQ points going to be distributed now.

Aja — who is in third place — is expecting Olivia to hand her a point because of their MiMu alliance, and that same alliance is the reason why she gives Olivia her point. Deja honors her melanation alliance with Olivia while Olivia shakes up the competition by giving her point to Deja instead of Aja. Poor Phoenix isn’t handed any points at all even after she gave hers to Deja because she didn’t know alliances were being formed. Olivia tries to explain her actions to Aja and I gotta admit I would have just laughed like Aja did because that didn’t make any sense at all.

In the Werk Room the next day, Aja opens up about feeling betrayed by Olivia but I think if anyone has a right to feel betrayed it’s Phoenix, who was completely left out of the alliance discussion and who everyone will need a point from if they end up not being a winner this episode.

And this episode is going to be difficult because it’s the makeover episode, where the queens will be showing the ~magic of drag~ to female basketball players. The queens have to shoot some hoops to find out who gets to assign the players to each queen and that is definitely going to make a difference during the actual challenge.

Deja is up first and to be fair, she manages to sink four in. I wouldn’t have been able to do that! However, almost everyone else performs better than her. Irene scores eight, Aja scores five, Phoenix does six, and Bosco does seven. The one who does worse is Olivia with three. Irene wins and doesn’t try to be shady when she assigns the players because she wants to win because she’s good, but I also think it would be nice to bring up in case she doesn’t win and needs a point to get through to the next level of the competition. The queens are then told that they also have to prepare a performance with their assigned basketball players and can I just say that the only time I have ever liked this in a Drag Race makeover challenge is during season three.

Deja Skye is confident about this challenge, or at least with her ability to paint other people’s faces. Phoenix is also feeling confident, saying that she’s been putting people in drag for a long time, emphasis hers. Irene, while confident with her skills, has a partner who is apprehensive about being turned into a “fantasy sci-fi clown” and I can’t blame her since she hasn’t seen Irene’s work yet!

Over at Olivia Lux’s table, it’s not her partner that’s the problem but Olivia herself, since she’s feeling a little trepidation about having to go up against her ballroom sister Aja. Aja is sorta having the same problem like Olivia but rather than not having faith in herself, she’s moving too fast and might just be leaving her partner behind. The two of you gotta work in sync!

Bosco and her admittedly gorgeous partner are also having trouble, not with their looks because the two of them are stunning, but with coming up with lyrics for the performance. God doesn’t give with both hands, after all! God is fair.

Irene and her partner aren’t doing any better when it comes to the choreography, because the basketball player really isn’t buying into the clown fantasy of it all. Let’s see if that’s what’s going to bring Irene down in the competition. But even if she doesn’t move on to the next round, I think she’s more than shown that she is a force to be reckoned with. Olivia has a better go at it with her partner, who is actually contributing a lot to their planned performance, or at least the editing makes it look that way.

The next day as the queens start getting ready for the runway, we find out that Phoenix’s plan for the makeover is to recreate the “Prison honey” meme from season three, which I cannot wait to see.

Besides that, Aja and Olivia also sort of patch things up, or at the very least find out where the miscommunication came from. Let’s see which one of them moves on to the next round!

Deja’s partner, meanwhile, should be given a bonus tip or something because she’s willing to get her brows shaved. I dunno why, but I feel like it’s not a big hardship when the queens ask this of guys but asking this from a woman feels like a big ask.

We also get a great and timely discussion of how people express their gender, especially since there are two trans women among the queens and the basketball players are women in a traditionally masculine field. I liked hearing Aja sort of realizing that just like the players, she sometimes hyper-feminizes herself because of outside pressure, or at least that’s how I understood what she said.

The runway starts and I gotta admit, Deja does paint a beautiful face on her partner. However, I am not big on the fashion she’s chosen. I don’t see the resemblance, and the judges usually like that the family resemblance is clonking you over the head.

Despite her partner’s hesitation, Irene’s look actually works! Bosco also delivers yet another stunning look for her and her partner, but that isn’t what they have to worry about if earlier scenes of the show are taken into account. Let’s see if their song is any good!

Phoenix’s look…well. Let’s just say she won’t be lip syncing. I’m sorry, but this is not up to par with her previous looks in the past two episodes. Olivia and Aja’s looks are okay, but I think it’s going to be Irene and Bosco lip syncing again in this episode.

The queens start performing and I did say that I have never liked any iteration of this other than the one they did in season three. So there’s that.

When then judges give their critques, just like I said, it really looks like Irene and Bosco are taking the win again. Although Olivia might just sneak in and knock out either one of them for the lip sync. BUT THAT ISN’T THE CASE AS IT IS BOSCO AND IRENE AGAIN.

Irene and Bosco start the lip sync and it’s okay. Not as good as the lip sync from episode two, but nothing really major to complain about. It does get Irene her first lip sync win though!

Now we get to the real drama, which is the handing out of the MVQ points. Aja gives hers to Deja and I don’t know how that’s going to make Olivia feel. Deja gives her point to Olivia and I don’t know how that’s going to make AJa feel. It’s hurt feelings all around! Although maybe not so much because the press they’ve done so far, it doesn’t seem like there’s hard feelings between them. And that’s probably because Olivia gives her point to Aja so it’s another three-way tie! Phoenix has to make the deciding choice and neither of these three queens have been sidling up to her. But Phoenix gives her point to Aja and now we have the winners of the first bracket!

AND THEN WE GET ANOTHER TWIST. One of the eliminated queens from each bracket will be picked by the regular judges to be entered into the wild card lottery, with one of them randomly selected to compete in the Lip Sync for the Crown. This wasn’t in the trailers!