by Chris Feil
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars has brought one of its most embattled seasons to an appropriately controversial conclusion. This season has been rife with drama onscreen and off that has made championing the show come with several asterisks and addendums. The show has dug itself into a hole of too many twists, an overestimation of its need for drama to excite us, and a mounting disinterest in the art of drag itself. And yet it remains one of the biggest platforms to showcase the glorious breadth of the queer experience, blessed with an audience that demands it approaches its own shortcomings.
And this week’s finale brought a twist that may have broken the fandom’s resolve in how much they can accept: the final four would be whittled down to 2 by a deciding vote of a jury of the eliminated queens. Once again, subjectivity became the season’s foremost battleground and unsurprisingly this makes for frustrating television when a competition is involved. How would a consensus shake out when every queen has already shown a different perspective on what makes a competitor worthy of the crown?
Luckily, we were blessed with an all-timer of a challenge, a joyful pinnacle of the season that finally delivered the kind of delight we come to Drag Race for. The queens were tasked with a single-take, heavily choreographed music video and original rap to RuPaul’s “Kitty Girl.” It was like “Read U, Wrote U” on steroids and a case of Red Bull, and a bigger budget. And most importantly, it was the first time this season delivered on the queer empowerment that has become one of its touchstone elements. Even if this All Stars has felt like Drag Race has been stuck in its petulant teenage years, this moment felt like the show was all grown up. Reader, I cried.
On the runway the finale tradition of Best Drag returned to strong results, minus Bebe’s solid but Clearly Not Best animal look (though we love the RuAnimale by Coco cosplay). Shangie brought streamlined glamour that was a nice alternative to her cheekier looks from the season. Trixie Mattel served Limited Edition Christmas Barbie poodle and made us desperate for her to return to more doll-inspired aesthetics.
But it was Kennedy Davenport that continued to pull the heartstrings. Her rainbow acid queen look was a riff on her previous season seven Best Drag look but dialed up to eleven, a nod to her emotional journey all season long: she’s still the same old loveable-grouch-sweetheart she has always been, but packing more punch to steal our hearts. She had already slayed the music video and was quickly running away with the episode, not to mention sprinting ahead to the finish line.
And that love was felt deeply by the eliminated queens waiting to decide her fate. A lot of credit was given to Kennedy’s pageant experience with this kind of situation, but her appeal to win was far more personal than that. It helps when you’re coming off your biggest success in the competition, but what set Kennedy aside was her clear communication of her past, present, and future journey and what it all meant to her. Something for everyone to connect with somewhere, and a warm honesty missing elsewhere in the season.
Shangela was equally emotional, but the immediate impression was that the queens weren’t as convinced despite being the strongest overall competitor of the final four. What registered most from Trixie’s presentation was the evident impression left by her success off the show and her ability to learn from her mistakes and quickly. Meanwhile Bebe frankly never stood a chance in this format, with the queens unwilling to afford her another crown and her reserved nature not helping her to make her case. The episode also knew as much by barely featuring her. What was about to come was pretty evident in the water in hindsight...
A jury sounds like a logical next step when the show has repeatedly been so eager to brew drama and anticipation by bringing queens back, but maybe one return was enough this season. The queens ultimately chose Kennedy and Trixie, decisions led by heart and admiration rather than statistics. And sadly, it wasn’t even close:
The episode failed to show the voting breakdown, but it quickly became available online. And just like an Oscar preferential ballot this voting structure favored passion and goodwill, sending home the queen that received milder responses to rallying queens around her journey. I don’t think anyone expected the voting to be quite so shockingly decisive, and the jawdroppingly low turnout for Shangela reinforces the notion of unfairness in the show’s ever-changing criteria. In fairness, I suspect more queens would have pulled for her had they decided as a group rather than voting through their individual emotion-led tallies.
The show is no longer solely subjective based on viewer taste for differing drag styles but also what qualifies as a worthy winner or a satisfying season. I’d argue it’s not just Shangela’s track record that made her the worthy winner of many, but also what she represents: an indefatiguable drive to get back up time and time again, to be able to laugh at and even brand yourself through your mistakes, to be a true fighter. Sure, even her manipulative game-playing tactics have their admirers. This was another crushing blow to a queen forever underestimated - but the outpouring of love for her in recent days is her biggest win yet.
Kennedy, like Peppermint last season, was able to pull through poor stats partly by a change in format, but mostly by performing well when it mattered most. I’m starting to embrace the mindset that Kennedy put forth a few weeks ago: Drag Race isn’t a math problem, it’s a marathon. Sometimes that means a steady performance takes you to the crown, but a strong finish after some stumbles can get you there as well. It can be about how and when you cross the finish line, not just how you leave the starting gate. There’s something satisfyingly representative of queer folks in this idea, how no matter the setbacks we face we will end victorious.
None of this is to disregard Shangela’s performance or worthiness of the title, for I was rooting for her as well. Don’t forget the heartbreak of a deserving queen losing to tough competition is one of the heartbreaking staples of this show. Shangela finds herself in the adored company of Screwed Over Queens such as Katya and Raven, not to mention regular season losers like Manila Luzon, Nina Flowers, Shea Coulée, and Kim Chi. I suspect Shangie will do just fine and milk it for all its worth, and we’ll just keep on loving her even if they bring her back for All Stars 4.
Our eventual winner was Trixie Mattel, the one many expected would skate to a predicted win that actually became something of an underdog. While I think the jury vote shows that Trixie would have had to taken some harder knocks to ever truly become an underdog, I do think history will be kinder to her overall performance than the show wanted us to perceive it to be. As much as Kennedy showed it’s about how you cross the finish line, Trixie proved it just as well. Welcome to the Drag Race Hall of Fame, Tracy Martel!
Gif as Episode Grade:
Gif as Call For Peace as Fans Kill Eachother:
