Drag Race S9E3: Drag Princesses and Their Sidekicks
Saturday, April 8, 2017 at 7:30PM by Chris Feil
Try to imagine these characters in a Disney princess movie!After lots of celeb gazing and underwhelming rhythms in the first two episodes, Season 3 of RuPaul’s Drag Race has finally found its sweet spot! This week’s episode was a return to form, hilarious and heartfelt while letting us get to know the queens. The queens were charged to create their own princess (sewing challenge!) and a quirky sidekick to tell her story. Get your fairytale life!
The results were delightful enough that we’ll forgive the continued lack of a mini-challenge - and did the Pit Crew get kidnapped this season??
Right out of the gate, Trinity Taylor is gunning for the win, throwing excess dust all over Valentina’s win last week in the process. Trinity has quickly emerged as the season’s bitch, though funnier and more lovable than we have seen from past season villains, in my perspective. How long will we be waiting until that potential rivalry with Eureka O’Hara to rise again, I wonder? Regardless, Trinity’s profile is rising in this lineup.
Speaking of Valentina...
if it weren’t for Cynthia Lee Fontaine’s Cucu-ery, she might be the episode’s reigning goofball. Between going full Norma Desmond over her shaved eyebrows to her outright hilarious and unexpected sidekick, it’s a relief to see a break from her mannered perfection. The fanbase is doing cartwheels over her, but more of this looseness is exactly what I needed to see from her to get on that level of love.
English 101
The episode went hard on painting Kimora Blac as a dolt. There’s always one unlucky dumb queen every season, but Kimora might take the cake for “What’s an adjective?” Mad libs are hard!
"What's a Cucu" 101:
But what’s the more dunderheaded move: a lack of grammar skills or a lack of sewing skills? Not being able to sew was a another mark against Kimora, but it was Farrah Moan that fell harder by taking the worst possible route. Not all queens fail with resorting to a glue gun (see: BenDeLaCreme’s winning Golden Girls look in season 6), just the ones that glue fabric to a bra and make a bikini coverup. I’ve found Farrah to be a lovable doofus is the first two episodes (a nice compliment to her fishy look), but this episode she was more whiny younger sibling.
Most crucially, the episode struck the balance between hilarity and heart by discussing the Pulse massacre. Trinity regularly had performed at the club and Cynthia was originally scheduled to perform on the very night of the shooting, ultimately losing a friend who had come to see her. It was an appropriately sober handling of the tragedy for Drag Race, the queens unflinching love and support of one another a reminder of the statement RuPaul made in the fallout: “Don’t fuck with my family”.
There’s a reason drag and RuPaul’s Drag Race are inching toward the mainstream. RuPaul says drag can never truly be mainstream because it’s always inherently subverting the status quo. However, drag is such a powerful art form to discuss our intersectionalities. People want to discuss that on a larger and expanding scale as our lives depend on it. Even if it’s just for a laugh or a moment of awe we’ve been denied. In Aja's words, 'drag is therapy".
On the runway, the princess looks were the focus but the floating head sidekicks mostly stole the show. You could argue that the funny sidekicks made more of an impression considering some more memorable Princess looks than the top three (Peppermint, Valentina, and Trinity) were only safe. But the bottom three was fully deserving: Farrah, Kimora, and Aja, who only hurt herself by not clearly defining her character on a look the judges outright hated.
Best Princess / Best Sidekick
Shea Couleé / Valentina - Shea is proving to be a runway assassin this season, no question. Valentina’s shady butterfly (I think?) sidekick however was a brilliant complement to her already princessy demeanor. Girl’s got jokes!
Best Pun
The judges were not a fanna your banana
-RuPaul to Kimora Blac
Results
Trinity is given the win for her cute sea princess reveal and redneck starfish, and the lipsync is between Kimora and Aja. You could argue that Farrah is a more deserving lipsyncer, but considering Kimora’s rampant botching of the lyrics, it hardly matters. At least we now know how much Aja does in fact want to compete after that high-kicking performance.
"Untucked"
Behind the scenes.
The List
Now that we’ve spent some real quality time with the queens and the show is finally kicking into gear, here are their updated rankings:
- 🔺 Shea Couleé
- Nina Bo'nina Brown
- Sasha Velour
- Eureka O'Hara
- 🔺 Valentina
- 🔺 Trinity Taylor
- Peppermint
- Alexis Michelle
- Charlie Hides
- Cynthia Lee Fontaine
- 🔻 Farrah Moan
- Aja
- Jaymes Mansfield OUT
- 🔻 Kimora Blac OUT
Gif as Episode Grade:
Reader Comments (15)
Ack! I thought the results of this challenge were a dire warning for this cast. I couldn't have imagined a less inspired runway for such an open-ended, creative challenge.
And I'm definitely clocking that Sasha ranking. When she's pushed out of her safety zone, she reads as super matronly (last week) or overly earnest (this week). Nina, Shea and Valentina are top three material, with Eureka as a potential spoiler.
Sorry, gurls - do better!
My favorite runway this week was Peppermint, I thought she should've won. The best thing about the ep was Ru/Michelle shading Kimora big time. I knew she was a goner then.
Chris - why is Sasha so high in your ranking? I find her unmemorable so far. Otherwise I agree with your spot on ranking.
Kimora was a genuine sweetheart in untucked though - all the feels when she was admitting she never really had girlfriends and that she she hoped their numbers were real.
Loving Valentina, she's a star.
I mostly hated the sidekicks. Especially since in a sewing challenge, they took too much focus away. The only ones I liked where Valentina and Charlie Hides.
I'm think Valentina is in it for the win right now. All the talk of her having only done drag for ten months is making people forget Ru is looking for the next drag superstar. You don't get any more 'next' than that!
Aja's lip sync was incredible. Kimora's was definitely not. What a trainwreck.
Untucked made me dislike most of the safe queens; so many declaring themselves worthy of being in the top three or winning the challenge or insisting Aja was somehow wronged by being in the bottom.
Plus there's shade being thrown at my girl Valentina. Grrr.
Valentina, Peppermint and Nina Bo'nina Brown remain my top three.
Valentina has wiped the floor with her competition. Three weeks in and she's totally been in the top 3 every single time. Gorgeous and unique. She's brilliant. And those girls know it and it's why they've been throwing so much shade at her. Aja's bitter explosion was an ugly, ugly look and just shows how jealous they all are that the newbie is totally kicking their butts.
Not particularly happy with the winner, even if she was of the better ones. Surprised such a fun challenge couldn't give us more memorable looks. I would've given the win to Nina Bonina Brown or Peppermint. And would've had Farrah in the bottom two but happy Aja got stuck there after her nasty moment.
Color me surprised Eureka was a highlight defending the top queens.
Valentina is where it's at girl.
I have to say that Sasha has disappointed me so far. She was my prediction to win before the show but she hasn't gagged me yet. The white runway was frumpy and the princess look this week was a shapeless mess.
Shocked Shea wasn't in the top but the sidekick was a huge factor and hers was just okay.
Murtada - Sasha for me has a very distinct point of view, plus this week I loved how her princess/sidekick had more of a fairytale "story" than the other queens (even if it was a little self-serious). I'm betting she'll be sticking around for awhile
Glenn - I loved Charlie's sidekick too! I wish Charlie was performing at her usual level because I adore her
par - You want your drag queens to be more humble?? They're drag queens! LOL
I really liked this challenge, but was surprised at how non-princessy a lot of the looks were. Cool to go non-traditional, but if I'd just seen photos I would not have been able to guess the challenge. Also: the runway lighting really obscured a lot of the looks for me. It wasn't until Untucked that I really had a chance to see them clearly.
Selfdoubtia? Fucking terrible.
Trinity reminds me a lot of competitive pageant queens I know in real life. Episode 1 seemed to be setting her up for a villain edit, but she's growing on me.
I watched this at a bar and when Michelle made fun of Kimora's attempted sob story, the place was DYING.
I hope Aja goes next tbh.
Is it just me, or does Ru come across like she's completely over it this season.
JB -- hmmm. I haven't seen that. I think Ru feels somewhat reenergized. Or at least she did with All Stars.
JB - not sure I agree either. She's been speaking up way more on the judges panel after taking a back seat and nodding along in recent seasons. But Ru has been pretty open that getting in drag is draining for her