RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Recap: Bunny Boilers
Well, after last week’s shocking early elimination of one of the most beloved queens in Ru Paul’s Drag Race herstory, you’d think we’d get a bit of a reprieve from all the drama – but no. Ru and the girls were back at it, scattering cats amongst the pigeons left, right, and centre. This week, we made All Stars herstory when four queens were up for elimination. Oh, honey, four bottoms and only two tops? Honey, these days that’s great odds. Oooohhh honey.
Started from the bottom, now we’re here
That four-way bottoming wasn’t even the main gag of the episode, though. After Manila and Monet both won the lip sync, Ru announced that All Star rules were suspended until further notice and that no-one was going home that night. Then, back in the workroom, the queens were confronted by the four eliminated queens (Latrice is back! Oh and so is Jasmine, Farrah, and Gia). There was also a lipstick message on the mirror telling them to get to ready to lip sync for their lives.
“You know, there really aren’t three Dreamgirls. There are 4, and we’re all here.”
Nothing can top the way the eliminated queens from All Stars 2 returned to the workroom. That two-way mirror reveal catching PhiPhi talk smack about Alyssa Edwards is one for the ages. However unlike previous All Stars, this season hasn’t alluded to the possibility of the queens returning, so while you may have assumed it was coming, we had no idea when (just kidding, it’s always when the cast is reaching the halfway mark).
Going through the palaver of a tense four-way elimination (including announcing two winners for the lip sync) did feel pretty contrived when you consider what they had planned for the end of the episode, but it was still a great way to pick at some tension and get the girls feeling vulnerable. For what it’s worth, my money was on Naomi to go home.
The Challenge
This week, the dolls were challenged to perform a roast-as-obituary for the one and only Lady Bunny. This was a rather historic occasion, and not just because Bunny is 112 years old. It’s the first time this iconic queen and dear, old friend of RuPaul, has made it onto the mainstage of RPDR. No-one could be sadder about Bunny’s death than RuPaul – not because they are old friends, but because Lady Bunny is one of RuPaul’s Horcruxes. Michelle “Nagini” Visage and auto-tune better watch their backs, because I hear Mathu Anderson ain’t doing so well.
See, writing average roast jokes isn’t that hard, Trinity the Tuck.
The original RuPaul roast from Season Five is still one of the greatest challenges of all time. The main trick to a RPDR roast working is making sure you have equal numbers of hilarious queens, and total car crashes. Season Five’s roast had Jinkx, Alaska and Coco totally killing it, and Alyssa and Roxxxy bombing (with Detox and Ivy Winters scarping through). In the Season Nine roast of Michelle Visage, it was Farrah “let’s get this roast a cookin’” Moan and Alexis Michelle who gave us the schadenfreude-haha while Sasha, Peppermint, and Shea performed well.
This week’s roast was sadly a bit too on the undercooked side. Trinity is a comedy queen in that she has a natural ability to clown and make fun of herself – but as she proved in her season, she is no stand-up comedian. Valentina’s 2019 Delusional Tour kept on keeping on, with another awkward set that was made even more bizarre by her not finishing her makeup in time for the mainstage. Girl, what did you spend time doing? Sure as hell wasn’t writing jokes. Then there was Naomi Smalls’ set, which committed the sin of being as unfunny as it was boring. At least when a roast truly bombs, you can laugh at the horror of it all. Naomi gave us neither.
The final queen in the four-way bottom this week was Monique Heart, who gave us a character instead of a stand-up set. Ever since Coco won her roast with her ghetto “Ru’s cousin from the Brewster Projects” character, queens have used a character as a way of competing in stand-up challenges. Like doing other RPDR queens on Snatch Game, I feel like this is a bit of a cheat. Stand-up is one of the most terrifying things you can do to yourself, and it always felt like choosing to do a character cheats us from seeing how the queens handle themselves under that extraordinary pressure.
Conversely, Monet opened the show with what felt like a tight five – solid joke after joke that felt rehearsed enough to come off as fresh and off the cuff. She also knows the rhythm of a roast, and clearly knows how to work a crowd. But the real star of the week was Manila, and Monique did us all a favour by saving her for last.
The reading of the will is what? Fundamental.
This is how you do a roast. From the physical umbrella gag at the top of the act through to roasting the other queens (and Ru) via a reading of the will gag, Manila exhibited all the qualities of a winning queen. Her success here also shows growth – her performance in the Season Three stand-up challenge was an awkward recycling of old Sesame Street jokes built around her outfit.
You got me, gallery – this week’s runway
This week’s theme was “Angelic White”, and I must confess I haven’t seen that much whiteness triumph on the RPDR runway since the show’s middle seasons. Devotional looks mean brocade embellishments, feather, and headpieces which means expensive, so we were in for a good runway. You can really feel the queens credit cards maxing out with every look.
Monet’s look just offered to send you $10,000 via papal.
Valentina, after you bite the pillow you’re not supposed to turn it into a dress.
RuPaul rain, RuPaul rain.
Athena? I hardly know her.
Alexis Michelle is triggered by the stoning work and all those blinds.
Some people say this was a poor version of Trinity’s look, but that’s all Greek to me.
The lip sync and the lipstick
This week resulted in a non-elimination to make way for the returning queen challenge. Be it in the editing, or something else in the air, but Manila and Monet really earned their double win by performing as what seemed like a duo rather than against one another. It might have been down to the Aretha Franklin song which required more personality than showy stunt moves, but this lip sync was definitely a sister act.
C'mon precision! Jump to it, Queens! @manilaluzon @monetxchange #AllStars4 pic.twitter.com/j26IiD5FUQ
— RuPaul's Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace) January 12, 2019
Next week, we know that the eliminated queens get to fight for their chance to return to the competition and send home one of the remaining queens in a “lip sync smackdown”. With Ru promising that “everything is going to change forever”, can we expect a total 180 on the lip sync for your legacy format, or will this just be a one-off thing for the “revenge” ep?
Mixing up the format wouldn’t be the worst thing to do – it’s already somewhat farcical to think that the top queens choose different lipsticks win their lip syncs on merit alone. Ru and the producers know whose name is on those lipsticks, and they’ve been choosing the winner (or more importantly, the loser) accordingly. But when it comes down to, whether it’s contrived or genuine, we’re all still watching and fully invested.
Also, obviously if Farrah comes back instead of Latrice, we storm the offices of World of Wonder at dawn. See you next week, crossdressers!