Seasons past haunt the Drag Race All Stars, but it’s the lip-sync that’ll truly leave them spooked
The queens call on earned wisdom or welcome in their inner saboteurs en route to a lip-sync for the ages
TV Reviews Drag
Success on RuPaul’s Drag Race has always been as much, if not more, about being good at Drag Race than it is about being great at drag. In “Side Hustles,” Michelle gives Ginger some feedback on her beat, a piece of advice she gives about once a season, or whenever a queen is struggling to adjust her typical paint job to this unique environment. But Drag Race asks more of the queens than that they learn to paint for the cameras, rather than the stage (or, you know, Insta).
“Side Hustles” reminds the the All Stars (and us) that drag is just a part of the larger game. For some of the queens, that’s to their benefit; for others, quite the opposite. And because this is a psychological episode first and foremost, it winds up commenting, intentionally or otherwise*, on what Drag Race is, how it works, and what it costs (not financially, though there’s that aspect, too.) If you’re great at drag, well, that’s great. But if you’re not great at Drag Race and the many things that entails, it’s not going to be enough.
Beyond talent, intelligence, skill, money, charisma, more money, and even the ability to using a sewing machine, the things most likely to determine your Drag Race fate are emotional fortitude and self-awareness. Oh, and being great TV. But some of the people who make for the best TV are incredibly poorly equipped to deal with the fallout, and for precisely the same reasons. So it’s fitting that this episode, which sees nearly all of the queens either reflect on or act on lessons learned from Drag Race seasons of yore, ends with the triumphant return of Laganja Estranga, who’s pained and panicked “I feel very attacked!” greeted Untucked viewers in the opening titles for years.
I’ll be honest, Untucked isn’t always for me. I watched it religiously for years, but for every sweet video and funny conversation there are four or five scenes where people are in real pain with nowhere to hide (and a girl has anxiety, so no thanks). Sometimes the result is great drama with little-to-no permanent damage (“you’re perfect, you’re beautiful, you look like Linda Evangelista”), but not always. This week, it’s essential. Here’s Laganja in her brief entrance video:
I’ll be honest, I’m nervous, because this is my first time back since being on season six. But luckily for me, today we’re just doing what I do, which is dance […] Today what I really want to do is have fun. I want to walk away from today being like, ‘Okay, that’s what it’s supposed to feel like. It was so good to be back.’”
Emphasis mine.
The queens who are asked (and choose) to come back for All Stars know what they’re getting into, and know the risks. If you were a fan favorite the first time around, maybe you win, but maybe you chip away at the goodwill that got you the invitation in the first place, and the benefits (in bookings and publicity) might not be worth the mental cost. (We’ll get back to Pandora in a minute.) If you weren’t, it’s a different equation, but it’s still a risk—and one that’s almost certainly more daunting. Who’s going to be more anxious about going back on Drag Race: the Gottmiks and Jujubees of the franchise, or someone like Silky or Roxxxy? I can only imagine what it’s like to be in either position, but I know which I’d rather be. That anxiety comes through loud and clear here.
It’s not all bad. You wouldn’t know it from the editing**, but Pandora Boxx is doing really, really well this season, and the reason is straightforward: she’s putting into action what she’s learned from her time on the show. She got an always-the-bridesmaid edit her first time around, but one that seemed to be coming from her corner (after that season I, for one, didn’t need any additional reasons to think Santino is hot garbahgggge, though heaven knows we certainly got some). Not the case with that first All Stars! That was not a great time to be Pandora Boxx!
But here she is now, keeping it buttoned when things don’t go her way and striking like a motherfucking cobra when there’s a moment custom-made for her to demonstrate strength or growth. The library: “Say something funny.” The Blue Ball: looks that were funny and glamorous, over and over again. This episode: having learned a lot from group performance challenges of days gone by, she immediately takes charge without ever proclaiming herself to be the leader, simply reinforcing over and over again that it needs to be clear, fast, and yes, funny.
So her team triumphs, because they’ve all got their heads in the game. Pandora and Yara are on their third go-round; they know how this works. Ra’Jah and Trinity have their own ru-demption storylines they’re working through, and both are clearly keeping in mind the lessons of previous seasons without being bogged down by them. Every pitfall gets twirled away. The beef is squashed. No one struggles for control. No one complains they’re being upstaged. No one’s openly envious of Trinity’s well-deserved win, but nor does Trinity fail to credit Pandora for the team’s success. It’s the perfect victory edit, because the right team won and they handled the road to and aftermath of that win expertly.
The Eureka/Kylie/Scarlet team also does well. Like Trinity, both Scarlet and Kylie aren’t confident in the acting challenges, but they do well, and Eureka is Eureka in the best way possible. They’ve learned how to play this sort of challenge, and it’s enough to make sure they’re Jan safe. But the biggest connection to the past here actually occurs in Untucked when Scarlet and Ra’Jah have a sincerely moving conversation about how their relationship has changed since season 11, and the universe should bring them only good things and they should be friends forever!
It’s team Rent-A-Queen that allows the past to trip them up, either because they’re mired in it or because they’ve forgotten some things. And this, friends, is why my beloved Ginger Minj deserved to be in the bottom with her teammates: If you haven’t learned to keep these challenges simple, fast and funny by your third time around, what is even going on with you***?
Did Ginger know her team was struggling—and to be clear, no one was disastrous, which is as it should be with All Stars—and choose to focus on her own performance, a decision which would probably have been fine had they been judged individually? (Although I’m with Michelle re: curtain pants.) Or did she think it was all going swimmingly? Either way, she helped steer that ship into choppy waters. Once it was there, though, it was the others who started to sink.
Silky knows it’s not going well, and she says nothing, because she doesn’t want to get season-elevened again. A’keria’s nerves get the better of her. Jan, despite her protestations, is definitely in the bottom with them, because she, too, wants to push back against her previous edit. Together the three of them try to produce themselves right out of contention.
The runway is pretty wonderful; even the weakest of the looks are still good. They’re all All Stars, and it shows. It’s the mental game that counts. And that’s a game that Trinity, Ra’Jah, Pandora, and Yara are all winning, as are Scarlet, Kylie, and Eureka. At least for now. That makes them formidable.
And speaking of formidable:
What!
A!
Lip!
Sync!
You can quibble with the declared winner here (and I do, though mostly I wish Ru hadn’t declared a tie last week because this one deserves) but really, they both win, because this is a stone-cold classic. Like the near-unbeatable Tati/Alyssa “Shut Up And Drive,” this is the result two great queens approaching a thrilling pop song in two very different ways. They’re excellent individually and unforgettable together. I hope Laganja left thinking “okay, this is what it’s supposed to feel like.” I hope Trinity felt like the victor that she was. And I hope they both like Dua Lipa, because people are going to be clamoring for that song for the rest of their careers.
And I hope the other queens see Trinity K. Bonet as the force that she is and act accordingly. They underestimate her—and any of these queensm really—at their peril.
* — My guess is it’s a little of both, though they couldn’t have predicted how things would play out when they booked Laganja.
** — It’s not a bad edit, it’s a barely-there edit, and that’s either only marginally better or much worse, depending on your perspective.
*** — It is, as always, totally possible that they crushed it and we saw the worst bits.
Stray observations
- Okay, “Fix It Bitch” single when? We got 917 singles last week and this is literally the only one I want, where issss itttt?
- Kate’s corner: There’s no Kate’s corner this week, sorry. She was a little busy:
- Good god Eureka’s body in that jumpsuit, holy crap. She always looks good, but goddamn.
- Whatever the game-within-a-game is, expect Silky to come out swinging. That edit was clear foreshadowing. (Again I say, Last Chance Kitchen?) And again, watch the Untucked, if only for an A’keria/Silky conversation that will get you right in the feelings.
- Side hustles as a theme for the week: depressing, or the depressingest?
- My gif-t to you for the week:
42 Comments
Tkb was pretty good in the lip sync but laganja demolished her, truly a performance for the ages lol, even tkb knew she was beat by a mile at the end when she goes “don’t bring her back” Also love the ginj but how was this future of drag loom WORSE than the as2 one lolol
It really is inexcusable how the fandom treated Silky. When S11 was airing, it was borderline obsessive: every YouTube video or Instagram post about Drag Race was flooded with hundreds of comments hating Silky in deeply nasty, deeply personal ways. “I loved this look, way better than what that stupid bitch Silky wore!” “This lip sync was so good, I know that fat bitch Silky was shook!” “Yvie makes Drag Race interesting again, too bad that ugly ass Silky’s there!” And that’s just the stuff that was public.And for what? The crime of being somewhat overbearing on a reality TV show? Give me a fucking break.
I sometimes think that people talk about queens that way because they think that’s how other queens talk about each other, and it’s just like no, don’t. It’s horrible.I’ll admit that Silky frustrated me on Season 11, but the way people talked about her was ridiculous.
Well that’s just the thing, isn’t it? These queens all know each other, and even if they don’t get along there’s a mutual understanding of them as drag queens. Some white twink with a Regina George complex barging in and going “LOLOLOL BUS STOP” isn’t on their level. They don’t get to act like they know them.
I’m in 100% agreement with you. Just saying that I think that’s what some of the fans think they’re doing – not condoning it or agreeing with it.
I was starting to feel really badly for Silky, but she’s actually had a great run on this show. She’s not only been able to project herself as a likable, sympathetic, and fully-rounded queen, but has likely garnered a large amount of fan support which she’ll be able to use to legitimize her placement when she inevitably returns to the season. She’s got to be the top contender so far for the “Game Within a Game” winner. Yes, this is very produced, but it’s so slickly done that I’m not mad at it.
Here is my hot take that I’ve had for years but have never said:
Of all the fandoms that I’m involved with, RuPaul’s Drag Race is, pound for pound, the most toxic. That includes Star Wars and Comics and Computer Games and everything else that I can think of.
I guess it’s more toxic because the girls are actually accessible people compared to fictional characters. But at the same time I find the fandom easier to ignore than other ones.
Except it is not more toxic, that was just an asinine take.
Yeah, you probably should have continued to leave that one in the chamber, because it’s ridiculous. I mean…ComicsGate? Star Wars executives being inundated w/threats over trivial nonsense? Drag Race isnt even in the same stratosphere of toxicity, let alone worse..
Silky was annoying and over the top but the fans took it way over the top. And somehow they forget that Yvie Oddly was instigating a lot of crap with her unwanted critiques of other queens.
And somehow they forget that Yvie Oddly was instigating a lot of crap with her unwanted critiques of other queens.They also seem to forget that all of this isn’t some high-stakes political intrigue with real-life international repercussions. This is a FUN DIVERSION. Yeesh!
Silky annoyed me at times in S11 but the amount and severity of the hate she got was absolutely unjustifiable.
I’ll be honest in saying I never would think I’d be hoping Laganja would do an All Stars, but here we are. Jay Jackson made the rounds out of drag of some dance competitions and I suspect with Beyond Belief competing on AGT, I won’t be surprised to see him there as well.Silky is not my fave and I love Ginger so I wasn’t sad about who ended up going home, but I do think Silky’s biggest missteps were fading into the background and wearing an outfit that was a little too removed from the challenge.I actually thought Kylie was going to be in more trouble because I was less impressed with that group in general, but I guess keeping it simple probably helped.
Laganja did more for herself here in three minutes than she probably did in the entirety of the six(?) episodes in which she originally appeared! She was so incredible that I had to watch that lipsync twice, and TKB was no slouch, either. That was amazing.
Can I also say that in retrospect I like Bianca less and less as she bullied her way through the season stepping over every queen that had any semblance of a crisis, and then the nerve of making her appear as a mother figure because randomly she decided to support Adore? Fuck Bianca, really.
I guess that I can see that, but Bianca’s edit was as complex as these things are allowed to get, and I never saw her myself as a simplistic villain or bully. She got a huge amount of airtime — and really, along with Adore, was the heart of the season — and was one of the few queens on this show who have ever been allowed to explain their points of view each and every time they’re on air. I mean, Bianca was just as harsh with TKB as she was with Laganja, but was allowed to portray her comments as professional development, and not personal bitchery. That’s something that we just haven’t seen elsewhere on this show.In any case, I’m glad that Trinity stood up for herself and demanded some positive attention from the other queens for her win. Go, Trinity! I loved her commercial.
This was the best episode of All Stars for ages, and possibly since season 3. It continues to amaze me that the show is letting the queens self-produce — and get to frame their own narratives this season. Let’s note that no one is getting the Villain Edit or the Delusional edit at this point; Yara is getting the Yara edit, but there’s not much to say about that.I thought Ginger had one of the strongest ads, but that runway. My god — WHERE DID SHE FIND THAT?! I kept thinking of The Robot from the original Lost in Space TV series, and what it would have looked like if it was a drag queen. It really was worse than the original.
I found Laganja pretty insufferable in her season, so I was not expecting to enjoy her so much, but what a transformation. She was funny, engaging, looked great, and sweet merciful Glob, was that a lip synch for the ages. Trinity was doing great, but she was just blown out of the water. The entrance alone was amazing, and then that turned out to be the least of it.
I’m already seeing a lot of revisionists online but I rewatched Season 6 recently and Laganja was completely insufferable but I really don’t think it’s all her fault. I think she was coached by Alyssa (who had watched the reaction to her season and, more importantly, her Youtube videos) to go as big as possible. Be loud! Have catchphrases! Get that spotlight!Personally, I think Laganja would have done great on Season 5 but Season 6 had the attention-deflating of Bianca biting quips and Adore’s slacker charm. Laganja visibly freaked and she just double downed. She let it all get to her and just amplified until she was unwatchable. Throw in the fact that producers smell blood in the water and either gave her an even worse edit or refused to give her any redemption in the edit, whatsoever.
I always felt bad for her. I saw interviews soon after the season aired and I just wished her the best. I’m glad she did the lip sync. She was absolutely amazing and I don’t expect to hear anybody shit-talking every again.
I’ve only recently gotten into RPDR, and have been jumping around from season to season as my whims take me. For that reason, I actually saw Adore in season 2 of All Stars (which I chose for more Katya content) before I saw her original season. It was weird because in AS she comes across as whiny and a quitter (noping out in episode 2), but when I saw her actual season she was a top 3 queen and damn well desrved to be. I ended up really respecting her work and her outfits.
I actually saw Adore in season 2 of All Stars (which I chose for more Katya content) before I saw her original season. It was weird because in AS she comes across as whiny and a quitter (noping out in episode 2I think that you need to watch Adore’s run on AS2 in context. Adore later (to some extent at the Reunion, but largely off-show) that she wasn’t in the right headspace for a competition and was floored by some extremely hurtful comments by a certain guest judge. Drag Race certainly wasn’t going to blame itself for immersing contestants in a toxic work environment, so Adore was edited to be a quitter, and not someone in crisis.
She let it all get to her and just amplified until she was unwatchable. Throw in the fact that producers smell blood in the water and either gave her an even worse edit or refused to give her any redemption in the edit, whatsoever.She was very watchable on Season 6, as the show twisted her image into a garish cartoon character in a grotesquely exploitative fashion for comedic purposes. It’s long overdue, but this season seems to be taking small steps in ditching the bullshit edits and presenting the queens as mature adults. It may even be owning up to its faults, as we saw with Silky and Rajah’s discussion about the real damage the toxic edits had on their lives. I’d be stunned if Laganja returned for AS7, but I’d love to see her on the screen again.
She was also about 23 – 24 years old at the time. Most of us were insufferable at that age.
It’s just about a person’s maturity level. Mentally, not physically.
I think you’re probably right. I did *not* enjoy LaGanja on season 6, but yeah, I bet Alyssa (<3) advised her to go big, and Ganj just didn’t know how to control herself when the nerves set in. It was lovely to see her calm and in control. All-Stars 7, anyone?
I felt like Silky was about to start going down a dark road mentally, so maybe this will be a good little space for her to get grounded and try and come back.Trinity’s makeup read so sad clown the whole voting session, and was comedy in itself. I was happy enough with her win though. I actually laughed at Ginger the most though on the losing team!
I give credit where credit is due:
I didn’t like either Silky or Ra’Jah on S11 – however I am impressed with how self-aware each queen has become since that season aired. It’s very unfortunate that toxic fans needlessly took their dislike to the level of trolling and harassment – no one deserves to be treated that way… not even Tyra.That said, I still think the right queen was sent home; Silky can turn a look on occasion, but her drag has mostly been underwhelming to me… and oddly, her paint was not as good as it was on her original season, IMHO.I am proud of both TKB and Pandora; Trinity for getting her first win ever, and Pandora for all her obvious growth as a skillful game player. I don’t actually expect either queen to win this season, but I’m still rooting for them both.Speaking of elevation, (pun intended) I was thoroughly surprised by LaGanja, who was much more enjoyable than I found her on S6. She looked great and performed great, so kudos to her.
Glad that Laganja is getting a lot of love from the fans, she was next level on yhe look and performanceI see a lot of people also saying this is her claim to be in All Stars 7 but i recall reading in Reddit that she is not interested except for guest spots or being a choreographer
i recall reading in Reddit that she is not interested except for guest spots or being a choreographerFor already established queens, that’s probably the smarter move; as coming back as a contestant just puts the queens through the ringer all over again. In any case, I’m glad that Trinity stood up for herself and demanded some positive attention from the other queens for her win.Same here; aside from the lip sync, that was my favorite part of the episode.
I don’t actually expect either queen to win this season, but I’m still rooting for them both.I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU! WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU! I’m still waiting for that Tyra Sanchez vs. Tyra Banks lipsync.Pandora actually has the second-best track record for the season right now. Yes, yes, I know that means nothing, but the queens with the best track record — Ra’Jah, Pandora, Eureka, and Kylie — would make an incredible top 4, although it would pain me to say goodbye to Scarlet before that point. And TKB is getting an incredible amount of airtime for someone that few thought to be a contender, so I wouldn’t count her out at all.
I don’t think there was any reason to dislike Ra’Jah in her season.
It’s fairly well known, at this point, that part (and only part, because obviously there were other contributing factors) of Laganja’s difficulty on Season 6 was that she was not allowed to medicate. Regardless of what exactly weed does for a person, it’s indisputable that Laganja views it as part of her treatment plan for anxiety – given that she had a California medical card (even as I believe she was still living in Texas at the time), it suggests that she put significant forethought into her access and it was denied last minute. It is also the case that other contestants were provided access to marijuana by the producers. This has been discussed multiple times on Race Chaser and reiterated in their coverage of Season 6. I don’t know anything specific about Laganja’s mental health (nor do I wish to know, her privacy is important) – but she gave a very thoughtful interview on Hey Queen! about her portrayal on the show. She’s stated that her time on Drag Race has made her very aware of the machinations of reality TV and is wary of the idea of returning, because she knows they have story beats to fulfill, and her anxiety and relationship with cannabis can be easily manipulated and turned against her for the sake of story.
I was happy for her return in this lip sync, but I hope she either 1) never returns for an All Stars (based on her statements on the matter – not because she would not be a good contestant) or 2) returns only under significantly more positive conditions that she decides on and fulfills for herself. For contestants whose struggles are clearly about mental health and trauma, all I want for them as a viewer and supporter of their work, is for them to define success for themselves and know they’ve already achieved it.
Hey! I’m responding to your question about Columbia from the thread on the Lake of the Ozarks article. Sorry to have to do it here; I can see your comment in my notifications, but not in the thread, itself. Kinja gets really wonky now once a certain number of comments is exceeded. I haven’t seen any incidents of people wearing masks being confronted by COVID truthers or anything like that here in Columbia, but I can also say that most people here seem to flout requests by businesses, etc., to wear masks in the few places that still have signage asking them to do so (I wear them everywhere publicly indoors). I’m guessing that the vaccination rate is much higher here than anywhere else in the state save maybe K.C. and St. Louis, but it’s given folks what to me is a false sense of security. The groupthink here seems to be “If you’re fully vaccinated, you’re invincible!”
Thanks for the reply, no matter where! It’s been a long time since I’ve been back and where I’m currently living it’s really more of a “gentle grumble about how long this masking thing might have to go on” in tone – there’s broad adherence to public masking and high vaccine uptake rate. I’ve wondered how Columbia was by comparison. I know MO hasn’t fared well recently, but Columbia is its own animal in comparison to most of the rest of the state.
They rarely show RuPaul’s reaction on All-Stars to a queen being eliminated – but Ru seemed positively gobsmacked by Silky’s name being ru-vealed. Of course, I have a hard time believing Ru wasn’t privy to whose name was in LaGanga’s lipstick, so it was probably more of a choreographed moment – and as I’m writing this, I’m thinking it could be foreshadowing to Silky’s performance in the “game within a game”…perhaps?
Ru seemed positively gobsmacked by Silky’s name being ru-vealedThe humanist’s interpretation: “Oh, no! She’s worked so hard to improve!” The cynic’s interpreation: “Damn — there goes the betting pool!” The realist’s interpretation: “Shit, we need to film that reveal again. You need to emphasize my reaction on camera!”.
OMG @davidcalgary29 that made me literally LOL – thanks!
Your interpretation was correct. Also, I’m pretty sure the winner also shows the lipstick she chose to the producers, so Ru knows.
I never pay attention to, or read articles such as this. I just usually skim over them, but here, I paid attention. So thorough, so well explained, I found it an enjoyable read, very warm and inviting and well spoken. Kudos Allison, great narrator, had to give you a great thank you for your beautiful work.
That’s very kind of you, thanks.
I enjoyed this episode more than the first two and thought it worked more smoothly, but Trinity is getting a really weird edit. Not necessarily a bad one, it’s just weird.