Chris here. The ninth season of RuPaul's Drag Race came to a close last night with the series's most dramatic conclusion ever. At last week's reunion, Mama Ru teased that a sudden death lipsync battle would crown America's Next Drag Superstar from our beloved top four. This curveball was another shakeup from the show's formula, and feels like how the winner should have been chosen all along. While past seasons' crownings have been dull slogs to awarding an obvious winner, this kept the competition alive until the very second - and gave us two all-time great lipsync performances from the ultimate champion.
Trinity Taylor was the randomly selected first queen and chose Peppermint as her opponent, pitting a potential frontrunner against underdog lipsync assassin. But that meant leaving besties Sasha Velour and Shea Couleé to duke it out...
Trinity chose Peppermint because she wanted to go up against "the best" and Peppermint lived up to that, defeating a somewhat sloppy Trinity with her patient charisma on Britney Spears's "Stronger". Pep was just playing it cool until her big moment, delivering a smooth reveal that brought the house down and sent Trinity packing.
Next, power couple squirrelfriends Sashea delivered on Whitney Houston's "So Emotional". Shea was all precision in a performance that would have been a solid champion on this season's mainstage, but was still no match to Sasha's reveal of sorts. In a flourish of rose petals, Sasha's take was a creative interpretation of the song that was as captivating as anything ever on the show.
Sasha kept the Whitney train rolling in the final battle against Peppermint with "It's Not Right, But It's Okay". Both queens gave a more straightforward performance this time, but Sasha's more vengeful, reptilian presentation really turned the party. See, you can do a great lipsync with a mask!
RuPaul's Drag Race prides itself on delivering the unexpected, but who would have guessed that Sasha would be the one to come in a obliterate not one but two Whitney lipsyncs? Our artistic queen was known for her creativity, but both performances were unlike anything she had delivered in the challenges - maybe some well-earned confidence in presenting her vision helped her really go for it. Here is where never having lipsynced during the competition paid off for her: when your audience doesn't know what to expect, that's when you can really wow them. Where were you when Sasha Velour invented lipsyncing to Whitney Houston?
This finale felt like a no-lose scenario for us as the audience, with four queens each worthy of the crown. Sasha made the most of this final opportunity to show what she can do, becoming winner not just for what she did on this stage but for embodying the Drag Race hallmarks of Charisma Uniqueness Nerve and Talent when thrown the curveball. There is always the inevitable All Stars 3 for these other worthy queens - but after this finale, season nine's crown belongs to the art queen. Condragulations, Sasha Velour!
Tell us your thoughts on the winner and the finale! What queens would you like to see on season 10 or All Stars 3?