Drag Race RuCap: "50/50's Most Gagworthy Stars"

NATHANIEL R: Hello queens, I'm crashing your party this week for the RuCap because I have opinions too. (Shocker, I know).  In fact, I came in with every intention of stirring the pot and having a completely different take but after this 10th episode "50/50's Most Gagworthy Stars"... perhaps I won't be able too, since my some of my favourites didn't do that well. But... did anyone? This interview challenge with special guests Charo, Frankie Grande, and Love Connie was an excellent one. The challenge offered up multiple interview formats (walk and talk, seated intimate, cooking or other 'action')  and whatever you think of the three interviewees, none of them are lacking in personality (the hardest interviews are with introverts!). In short there was ample opportunity for all remaining queens to blind us with their charisma, but there was seriously little shining... the best we got was a bit of luster. 

Which is not to say that it wasn't an enjoyable episode! Anyway I'm happy to be popping in...

NICK TAYLOR: Welcome aboard Nathaniel! We’re happy to finally have you on, even if the episode itself is less than gush-worthy. You’re like Gia Gunn at DragCon wondering where all the glamour is. This was a very fun, chaotic challenge for the queens to test their mettle, paired with a runway theme that’s been a long time coming. Yet the queens themselves had to really fight for the spotlight against their special guests (to include the looming specter of Beyoncé). It’s not a challenge I expected so many of them to struggle with, and the judging didn’t go in the direction I think it should have in several ways.

It’s an entertaining enough time, with Sasha Colby’s ascension as the frontrunner and Loosey LaDuca’s continued descent into bitter madness taking hold as the main narratives for the last leg of the season. Both of those threads emerges right at the start of the episode, when Loosey interrupts Sasha basking in her second win to remind everyone that she’s won three challenges - two minis and a main, a girl knows how to pad her resume. Maybe drag delusion is the real theme of the episode. How did 50/50 treat you, Cláudio?

CLÁUDIO ALVES: Nathaniel might not say it, but I will – this wasn't an enjoyable episode!

While the challenge was interesting, there was too broad a difficulty differential between the interview subjects, with one being much easier to manage than the other two. Moreover, the editing and judging were all over the place until the last second of that double sashay-worthy lipsync and elimination. Still, as far as shocks go, nothing rattled me more than how these 40 minutes made me actively root against my biggest favorite in the race. I better save that for later, however.

Back to the episode's opening, things start well enough. As you mentioned, Loosey's delusion gives way to madness, with the Drag Race producers leaning hard on the broken Jantasy of it all. On the one hand, I feel bad for her and how hard the edit is burying the bitch. On the other hand, much like Mistress, I couldn't help but laugh at the silliness.

NATHANIEL: Drag delusion isn’t the theme of the episode so much as the  theme of the whole season! I think this has immensely benefited Mistress because she’s more self-aware than the others. So let’s not pick on Loosey the way the edit does. Just as the judges play favourites (and are very obvious about it each and every season) the editing room does too. Queens are elevated or destroyed by it and they have very little control.

NICK: She fits into a variation of a type in the edit, the striver who’s too hungry to win for her own good. Jan’s become a template! You make a fair point about Loosey not having any control over how the show presents her, but the other queens being over her insistence that she’s doing super well in the competition, actually, makes it hit a more convincing note.

In no time at all we’re in the werkroom the next day, where Ru tells the girls that they’ll be divvied up into groups and performing live interviews for the hit news show 50/50. Marcia Marcia Marcia and Sasha Colby will interview Charo, the multi-hyphenate entertainer and flamenco legend known for her eccentric persona and thick accent. Luxx Noir London, Mistress Isabelle Brooks, and Salina EsTitties shall go inside Love Connie, a drag queen and performer who’s appeared previously on Drag Race and is every bit as out there as Charo. Lastly, Anetra, Loosey LaDuca, and Malaysia Babydoll Foxx will probe Frankie Grande, brother of Ariana and a TV personality in his own right. Ru also announces the runway is "Night of a Thousand Beyoncés". The girls are beyond excited for today’s assignment, and I am too.

CLÁUDIO: I am not. The way these runways are judged usually puts perfect recreation above creativity which tends to bore me to tears. Moreover, the need to restrict the references to live performance and red carpet looks limits the queens’ imagination even more. 

Anyway, such things will come into play when we get to that portion of the episode.

For now, the audience gets just a few minutes to meet the queens as they prepare for the main challenge. Salina is confident and hopes to rely on her improvisation skills, while Marcia fears Charo’s thick accent will be tricky to navigate. Team Grande seems like the most prepared, going as far as dividing topics of conversation between them: Loosey will tackle the matter of marriage, Malaysia will bring up the man’s vegan diet while they make sausage pizza. Who doesn’t love a big sausage? 

NATHANIEL: Please note that Mistress claims that Marcia is entering  her bitch/villain era. Mistress is projecting since she is fully owning her own bitch era. She seems to realize the latter but not the former. So many delusions, even in the one queen who keeps calling them out.

We begin with Salina interviewing Love Connie. Salina is great at canned bits that she’s rehearsed like her opening lines, which is curious since she thinks she’s good at improv but can’t remotely “play” with all the prompts Connie is throwing her way. Such a missed opportunity!  She looks terrified.  Luxx is better at rolling with the punches but its’ really more charismatic enthusiasm than skill. Mistress, though, is a straight up disaster. Which is a surprise given how well she’s performed at all kinds of challenges. She can’t even volley with the filthy jokes coming her way… and that’s the bread and butter of drag queens!

NICK: Oh, given many of the performances we see this week, I think Luxx’s charisma and ability to roll with her interview subject’s outsized personality counts as a real skill. The fact that she’s so at ease doing donuts in a parking lot with someone purposely acting crazy behind the wheel is really impressive to me - who else from this crew could do that? Mistress proved that well enough, given how she stumbled through the cooking segment. Also, can we take a second to say how great all of their newsroom chic is? The queens all look incredible this week.

Next is Sasha Colby tossing a salad with Charo. Sasha describes the scene as half adored basking at an idol and half trying to hold herself to the stakes of a challenge. The flop sweat is visible, but she makes it subordinate to her enthusiasm, and she’s clearly having a ball playing second banana to Charo’s antics. At the very least, Sasha is leagues better than Marcia, who looks like she can’t understand a single thing Charo is saying. The wig’s a dream, but she looks even more helpless than Salina at trying to wrangle anything out of her subject.

CLÁUDIO: I think you two are being too harsh on Salina. To me, she read more sloppy than terrified, stumbling along her work without quite falling into the self-effacing clumsiness of some other queens. Luxx also deserves kudos for striking the right balance between being a star and allowing another to be THE star. She’s a fun complement to Love Connie’s chaos rather than a contrasting force or competing presence. 

As for the second group, Sasha suffered from a lot of the same problems that affected Miss EsTitties, but she knew how to work around the mess. The first half of her cooking hour is tinged with panic, dissispated only when the cards go up in the air. Better to have fun than to fail at managing the unmanageable, better to give into the Charo experience. Marcia could have learned a thing or two from her colleague. Serving deer in the headlights realness, Princess BFA fails a performance-based challenge for the first time in the season.

NATHANIEL: And therein lies my one regret of joining y’all this week. I had planned to crash the Marcia-dislike party to sing her praises this week. I love her. She always brings it performance-wise (well, up until now). Generally speaking, I feel resistance to her – especially to her makeup – is a good example of how rigid Drag Race fandom is about how drag queens should look, dress, perform, etcetera. This show (each season) has enough queens who play towards all the “correct” expectations but offer up no particular point-of-view about it. Give me a queen who is a harder fit for this show any day of the week. I knew for example that Trixie and Katya weren’t going to win the show because they were too much of their own thing. But look at them now. They already knew who they were!  Anyway Marcia did indeed blow it this week and I was somewhat surprised that she was deemed “safe”.

And we’re on to the third episode with Frankie Grande. This is the most successful overall since Frankie is not a loose cannon as an interview subject and he would fit right in to any season’s werkroom like he’s one of the queens.  Anetra surprises by way of just keeping up with Grande’s energy, Loosey is easily the most relaxed and professional about this challenge but she’s also not exciting… in short, I wouldn’t tune in to “50/50” again would you?

The less said about Malaysia’s performance the better but how do you flub easy improv set-ups like Frankie offering her those sausages?

NICK: It’s a very rough showing for Malaysia, from her inability to lead the conversation to that poor wig. She’s sweating bullets once her segment ends, right alongside Mistress. Loosey’s rapport with Frankie is ideal in her Barbara Walters sit down realness. She’s a great active listener, and her breezy humor is in such contrast to her energy in the werkroom. Still, I’m curious if she would’ve kept her cool driving with Love Connie in a golf cart. I agree that Anetra’s probably the most impressive for how casual she is. The exercises, the sound bite moment of honoring those who came before, the way Anetra’s chill exterior so easily gives way to goofy banter - it’s really good stuff from a queen who hasn’t had much screen time interacting with others.

After the broadcast we cut to the werkroom the next day. There’s no Tragedy Mirror moment, but there’s a fantastic monologue from Sasha Colby. There’s no proof, but. Sasha’s checked the timelines, and she’s ever-so-slightly convinced that Ms. Knowles got the name for the Sasha Fierce character from herself. It’s a very ridiculous story that has the girls gagged for its total lunacy - Mistress calls it a fairy tale in her confessional - but if this is how Sasha wants to try and get Beyonce to meet her, so be it. Frankly, it’s fun to see her acting so foolish. 

CLÁUDIO: I know it was probably done out of kindness, but Luxx lending Malaysia that horrible synthetic bob was fashion sabotage. I agree that Anetra was the most impressive element of this third group and that, while über professional, Loosey was also kinda boring. That she was the probable runner-up for the win at the end of the episode speaks to how much these queens collectively failed the challenge.

I was texting you, Nick, when watching the episode and I called Sasha’s story a fairytale even before Mistress’ confessional. Me and that big bitch are so in tune - I love her. In other news, this was a fun bit of insanity from a queen that’s been so cool and collected until now. Nice to know drag delusion affects even the frontrunners. Everyone’s at risk. 

As we move to the main stage, we find a reduced jury panel with only three members. There’s Mama Ru, Michelle, and the incomparable and always welcome TS Madison. On to the runway! 

NATHANIEL: “Night of a Thousand Beyoncés”. Cláudio you are indeed correct that the show values recreation over interpretation which is such a pity. And I’ve never understood why they can’t do music video / album cover looks? In short, I was desperate for someone to interpret the “Renaissance” cover. 

I have not much to say about the fashions so I’ll shut up and listen to you two talk for the rest of this until the sashay. But since it’s my turn I’ll just say that Luxx is a fiiiine runway queen and this look was sexy fun though would have been better for a ‘Night of a Thousand Tinas’ … which… when?!?

NICK: Oh, that’s a good pitch Nathaniel. Luxx looks fabulous in the outfit Beyoncé wore for Tina Turner’s 2006 Kennedy Center Honors. I love her wig, and I love that the tassels make this as kinetic as anything else she’s worn so far. But Cláudio, you know a lot more about the history of this costume and why it’s such a smart choice to wear it for a drag competition, so I’ll pass the baton to you.

CLÁUDIO: Here’s the thing - the strict recreation as the only correct approach to these runways is something that the judges have been perpetuating over the past few seasons. It leaves the queens fairly limited, often incapable of elevating a celebrity’s archive look to proper drag.

Luxx, though, found a way by appealing to a moment in Beyoncé career where she was wearing a costume steeped in fabulous diva history, queer legacy and drag sensibilities. Originally designed by Bob Mackie, this fiery fantasy has adorned such names as Tina Turner, Cher, Mama Ru herself, and Beyoncé of course. It’s a perfect recreation that doesn’t make Luxx look like a celebrity impersonator so much as someone staking their claim, affirming they belong in this list of queer icons. It also moves beautifully, continuing Miss London’s tradition of wearing kinetic fashion down the Drag Race runway.

If Luxx delivers the best ‘straight’ recreation, Mistress Isabelle Brooks serves camp excellence as an alternative approach to the prompt. This is fun and stupid, also glam. The puppet dresses turning into sleeves detracts a bit from the pop starlet vibe of the original look but don’t take it too far into matronly territory for me to be too bothered.

NICK: It’s so nice of the producers to let Sugar and Spice come back for this runway. I love Mistress’ sense of humor, and between this and the beach ball titties, it’s great to see her comedy fuse so effortlessly into her sense of style. As always, the mug is stamped, and the girls are out in a very new way.

Salina brought the girls out too! The RuPaul chia pets made me laugh almost as much as Mistress’ puppets. I don’t think I like how heavy the fabric seems to be, but it does also make her look like she’s wearing molten gold. Perfectly safe.

CLÁUDIO: It’s fine, probably Salina’s most polished runway despite some questionable fabric choices. I appreciate the big hair and purple eyeshadow as dragifiers of the look, maybe even more than the Ru heads.

And we now arrive at a moment of heresy, for I must confess I didn’t like Sasha’s flimsy dancewear lewk. The costume’s a near-perfect recreation but it lacks the historical specificity of Luxx’s Mackie knockoff. It lacks grandeur too. Moreover, that wig is bad, both because of that harsh hardfront and the way it looked a breath away from slipping off of her head.

NICK: I’m looking at her dress, and I’m reading your comments, and I’m also hearing Naomi Smalls on the Pit Stop going “bitch, you could never.” in response to critiques of queens who rely too much on body-ody-ody. She wears it well, for all the deficiencies you point out.  The wig line’s distracting as fuck.

Next is Marcia Marcia Marcia, smothered in emerald velour and sporting a red fur, and I don’t see Beyoncé anywhere in this runway. The half-up half-down ponytail is right, the makeup is good, but the outfit itself looks like she’s posing for a Christmas album. Also, I don’t demand breast plates or padding from drag queens, but I do think the lack of cleavage limits this for me, let alone the fact that it doesn’t have the same boob holsters as the original dress. 

CLÁUDIO: Let’s be honest, Marcia had this dress in her closet, threw some faux fur on top and called it a day. It’s maybe her worst runway so far, terrible as an overall outfit and even worse as Beyoncé cosplay. The biggest sin are those shoes. Why add such monstrosities if they only dilute whatever hope it might have of suggesting the erstwhile Sasha Fierce? I’ll say this for Marcia, she knew it sucked and admited it on Untucked - in this season of delusion, one has to appreciate the self-awareness.

Anetra struts the catwalk next, continuing the bad shoe trend. Thankfully, the rest of her outfit is excellent as far as copy-pasting Beyoncé’s outfit goes. The lack of a breastplate is also justified by the presence of that butterfly tattoo, so perfectly complimenting of the dress’s symmetrical motifs. Still, I’m fairly bored by this point in the runway presentation.

NICK: She knows how to wear a cape, I’ll say that. It’s a great recreation, though this feels like an outfit that could easily accommodate some draggy embellishments.

After her comes Malaysia Babydoll Fox, wearing some tremendous hair to drag up the whole look. The feathered sleeves and the different patterns on the bodysuit make this a fun outfit for the runway, and the black and white is appropriately chic. I think she, more than Anetra, can say that the hips are hipping and the breasts are breasting. 

CLÁUDIO: It’s a perfectly safe outfit. Love the hair, the mug is right, the feathers are popping. Damn, I’m so bored.

Finally, Loosey LaDuca takes the stage wearing what might be Beyoncé’s least characteristic stagewear. To make matters more difficult for herself, the queen has strayed from the original design and ditched the baby bump. Both are confounding choices that make her look like some sort of femme take on Ellen DeGenere’s go-to red carpet uniform rather than a Bey reference. I’m all for re-interpretation, but there are better ways to do it. 

NICK: She looks like a lesbian (derogatory). Dusting the whole thing in glitter is a nice touch, but the modifications you describe fuck it all over. I also don’t like the black base of the wig, which just makes Loosey look older. This cost her the win, right?

NATHANIEL: In the judging panel, Marcia Marcia Marcia and Anetra are both safe which is surprising as a pairing if you ask me since Anetra was far more successful with both the challenge and the runway.

The critiques for the rest of them are insightful, fun “This look is your destiny, child!” and mercifully blunt  “do better gurl” and I can’t say I disagree with the tops & bottoms outcome or who gets sent packing… but I’m jumping ahead as my time in this RuCap is up (deadlines!). Thanks for putting up with my intrusion and now I sashay away before anyone asks me to leave.

NICK: Farewell, dear leader! Where you’re in agreement with how the judging is delegated, I would’ve gone about things very differently. For my money, this could’ve easily been half tops and half bottoms, with Anetra placing high and Marcia’s sins earning her bottom two placement alongside Malaysia. Luxx would be my pick for the win, with Sasha a clear runner-up.

But this is not the world we live in. Sasha Colby wins, and Loosey LaDuca’s heels are heard clacking down to the back of the stage in carefully contained rage. Salina and Malaysia are placed in the bottom two. Mistress, who fully expected to lip sync this week, is saved, likely due to the excellence of her runway. Her Destiny’s child puppets are now the heir apparent to Asia O’Hara’s fish head realness in the mermaid runway saving her from lip syncing for THAT AWFUL BEYONCÉ ON SNATCH GAME. IT ALL COMES BACK TO BEYONCÉ!!

Anyways. The bottom two lip sync to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies”, and it’s not the moment I wanted it to be. It’s very frantic, choreography and wild movement being thrown out with such desperation that it feels almost indiscriminate, especially on Salina’s part. I would call Malaysia the winner for finding moments to stand still and really perform the song, but this wasn’t a high point for either of them. I’m honestly surprised Salina’s wig imploding didn’t do her in.

CLÁUDIO: Luxx should have won, Loosey is bubbling with fury, and there was no winner to that lipsync. Then again, I don’t think Salina belonged in the bottom two at all, not when Marcia and Mistress were there. In any case, goodbye sweet Malaysia, I’ll miss you.

Next week, we got another comedy challenge, some apparently wild runways (what is Loosey wearing in that preview?!?!) and the return of 90-minute episodes, at long last. I can’t wait!

Previous RuCaps:

• Episodes 1 & 2: "One Night Only"
• Episode 3: "All Queens Go to Heaven"
• Episode 4: "Snatch Game"
• Episode 5: "House of Fashion"
• Episode 6: "Old Friends Gold"
• Episode 7: "The Daytona Wind 2"
• Episode 8: "LipSync LaLaPaRUza Smackdown"
• Episode 9: "The Crystal Ball"

Comments

[Sad Man]

I'm gonna say it: I like Sasha well enough but she hasn't done anything so far this season for me to gag over her.I think she might be more impressive outside of the show in this case.Still, if she ends up being the winner, which it seems like she will, it wouldn't be a bad choice.

MY winner, however, is Mistress Isabelle Brooks, or MIB, or Men in Black as Bob the Drag Queen calls her. She's hilarious, bitchy in a fun way and very entertaining.

I'm also in the Marcia is good camp.

As for this episode, Connie and Charo are always fun, but can't stand the other one. Most of the queens flopped.

As for the runway....yaaawn. I'm so bored by Beyonce and her fandom.

Malaysia was the right choice to chop. She's way too serious.

[whunk (he/him)]

Sasha's runways have been gagworthy week after week. Until this week. A very safe reproduction, she looks great, but just way too safe. Still hope she wins and I hope Anetra can really kill an acting challenge, she did better than expected this week.

[Philip H.]

Marcia should’ve been bottom three at least. She held her composure better, whereas Salina was more frantic, but you could totally see the tumbleweeds rolling around in her brain. That screenshot is hilarious.

Malaysia had one of the only looks that made me go “that’s Beyoncé” but overall the runway was beyond boring.

I get why Loosey would choose that look considering so many actually iconic looks are off limits, but why not have the baby bump? Makes no sense. It didn’t work. And I agree that in the challenge she was obviously the best host, technically, but she was boring — and the term is kinda silly, but I honestly agree with Mistress. She comes across as fake.

Sasha’s hairlines this episode… yikes.

While watching the episode, I agreed with Sasha’s win but idk. Luxx was actually the low key mvp and Loosey did the best as host. I love watching Loosey go mad, plus Luxx did the best on the runway so I’d vote for Miss Noir London.

Overall, another highly questionable episode. This is one of the roughest seasons, I can’t lie. I want to hope the longer runtime will help but I’m not too optimistic.