By Chris Feil
How was Rupaul's Drag Race All Stars going to follow the all-timer quality of last week's premiere? By diving right into the show's biggest fan favorite challenge and ramping up all sorts of drama, of course!
Yes, this week is already Snatch Game, the show's most legendary challenge that has been seeing increasingly diminishing returns in past seasons (dare we say that we've considered the show should just eliminate it entirely *gasp*). But the actual challenge was more than just hype this time around with even the weaker performing queens producing more memorable celebrity impersonations than some of season seven and eight's strongest. I guess that's why this bunch are truly All Stars.
But the main challenge and runway drama weren't the biggest showdown this week...
This week was heavy on the drama for Adore Delano after the fallout of the harsh critiques she received on the mainstage. Adore took the judges' criticism deeply to heart, resulting in a behind the scenes heart-to-heart between her and mother hen Michelle Visage. The off-script moment was a bit too inside baseball for maybe the more casual fans of the show unaware of the post-season dynamics between stars of the series.
And with that, Adore walked away from the competition. Perhaps this is as it should be - after unprecedented success with music sales and touring, what did Adore really have to prove by showing up to All Stars in the first place? While her place could've been taken by another hungry, deserving queen from the offset, if she's in over her head, better to get out now. Also, you can never blame anyone for prioritizing their mental health.
However, this massive sledgehammer of drama felt very much out of a different series entirely and pulled the episode down with it. Sure it's quite the bombshell, but the return to a quality Snatch Game became quite the buried lede. The prep into the challenge wasn't without its juicy build up with Phi Phi O'Hara showing that she may still have a conniving streak, convincing Roxxxy Andrews to change from Sofia Vergara to Alaska herself to expectedly poor results.
Most Needed New Rule - I'm begging for an official memorandum on queens playing other queens in Snatch Game - it never ends well (even for Violet Chachki's overpraised season seven turn as Alyssa Edwards) and the show is already self-referential enough as it is.
Miss Alaska did quite well herself as a hilariously thirsty Mae West, making the character recognizable to the actress's fans and easily understandable to those unawares. Notice to all future queens whose reference points are limited to reality TV personalities: reading may be fundamental, but homework is essential.
Katya fulfilled my personal, long wished for hope to see Björk on the Snatch Game (seriously, she's such low hanging fruit, how did it take this long) and she did not disappoint. Her interpretation was all silly chaos, borrowing a little from Kristin Wiig's SNL interpretation and Katya's own absurd tangents. Between her and Alaska, it was classic domination, but I'd rank the Snatch Game performances like so:
- Alaska as Mae West
- Katya as Björk
- Ginger Minj as Tammy Faye Baker
- Tatianna as Ariana Grande
- Alyssa Edwards as Joan Crawford (truly the crunchiest but that Alyssa sure is great TV)
- Detox as Nancy Grace
- Phi Phi O'Hara as Long Island Medium Theresa Caputo
- Roxxxy Andrews as Alaska Thunderfuck 5000
Consider my mind opposed to the judges this week, with Tatianna in the bottom when she was at worst passable and provided a few laughs, while Phi Phi was in the top three thanks to consistent characterization and basically no jokes. Tati was in the bottom with Roxxxy, a real bummer after their triumphant work last week won them a slew of new fans and high marks, proving again that you have to show up every week to survive Ru's race.
Best Runway - Detox. She may have been in the bottom three, but this look is ferocious.
Katya and Alaska were the lipsyncers, delivering the fabulous and hilarity you would expect from both of them. Perhaps the season is showing its cards far too soon, but it does seem they are already quite torn between these two on who will be the eventual winner, and this lipsync was a bit of a hint for that. Alaska won in a close call, sending Tatianna home.
Frustratingly, we don't have any more details yet on what this incoming Revenge return surprise will be, but with queens already beginning to underwhelm our money is all on Tati to be the one coming back to slay.
Episode MVP: Katya. Alaska's challenge performance and lipsync win make her a close second but with so much drama weighing down the episode, Katya's above-the-fray kookiness is more refreshing than ever. Even if she is showing her slightly devilish side.
Current Ranking:
- Katya
- Alaska
- Detox
- Tatianna OUT
- Roxxxy Andrews
- Ginger Minj
- Alyssa Edwards
- Coco Montrese OUT
- Phi Phi O'Hara
- Adore Delano QUIT
Gif as Episode Grade:
What did you think of this episode? What celebrities would you like to see performed on Snatch Game?