‘RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under’ S2E5 Recap: Projector? I Hardly Even Know Her!

You’d be forgiven for thinking the drama would end with Minnie’s exit last week, but with a couple of bruised egos in the room with something to prove, this episode was filled with feuds, eye-rolls and back-and-forths. The only thing missing was a read.

This many seasons in, it’s near impossible to have an original one-liner during the reading challenge, which means jokes tend to be overthought and under-delivered. Take Bev’s Eiffel Tower joke about a threesome with Kween and Yuri: it’s not bad, but the lip licking and posturing feels like what a Drag Race queen thinks they should do.

There’s nothing wrong with playing into a classic or riffing off an old bit (that’s kind of a huge part of nightclub hosting), but there was no confidence — and Bev wasn’t alone. Only Hannah and Kween nailed the reads, with the rest squirming their way through pre-written jokes (save for Spankie, who decided she CBF and went the one word per queen approach).

It felt like a classic example of the Down Under queens being pushed into a US segment and trying to replicate a completely different sensibility to meh result, because both NZ and Aussie queens are excellent at reading. Taking the piss is basically our countries’ shared language. If anything, being funny-mean comes a little too naturally to us (here’s a chance to remind you that Real Housewives of Sydney wasn’t picked up internationally because it was deemed “too mean”). Even Kween’s best lines were off the cuff: saying ‘no thanks I’m good’ to Bev’s joke was funnier than any of the queens’ actual reads. Maybe if there was less emphasis on making Ru, specifically, laugh, the queens would lean more into their natural humour.

And maybe by S3, Down Under might centre that more. This season’s been much better at letting our scene’s particular style and humour shine — nowhere was that clearer than the judges later appreciating Spankie’s ill-fitting runway, saying if it was too polished it wouldn’t be Spankie. Those moments where the show celebrates everything that’s good and gross about our antipodean drag queens is when it’s at it’s best.

Reading aside, this week’s drama — mostly between Bev and Kween — was a nice variation on a somewhat tired trope of a talented younger queen being a little too boisterous out of insecurity, with quite a bit more at play here. Oh and there was also a girl group challenge, where the queens each got a verse to say “I’m good/you all suck!”.

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Before Minnie wheelies out of the werkroom, she throws one last grenade: a mirror message thanking Spankie, Kong and Yuri for being kind. The girls laugh it off, but it’s a little surprising she doesn’t thank Hannah given they work on the same strip back in Sydney, but maybe it felt a little too mean to just call Bev and Molly cunts. But there does seem to be a slight divide in the room this week, as Kong, Spankie and Hannah pair up wordlessly for the girl group challenge, leaving Yuri, Bev and Molly struggling to shake off feeling a little rejected.

Of the three, it’s Bev who is most in her head — she’s been in the bottom two weeks in a row and the pressure’s clearly getting to her. Totally understandable, but there’s a touch of Jasmine Kennedie energy here. I’m guessing Bev has been talking a lot in the need to boost her confidence (last week, she said she tried to tell herself her Val Garland was amazing), and it’s clearly frustrating the queens: Yuri shuts her down before the mini challenge, and she later makes Spankie question her whole decision to do the show.

Kween’s tired of it, especially when Bev starts to direct some shit-talking to her. It’s an interesting moment, in that Kween and her group are openly mocking Bev’s werkroom choreography in front of her, as she’s doing it: it’s intimidating as fuck and feels a little too mean, but it’s also Bev and her group’s fault for trying to stunt in front of the other group. Bev gets annoyed and challenges the Kween and co. to do their choreography in the room, and Kween shuts it down quickly with some pretty searing and QUICK one-liners.

Because the Down Under werkroom is particularly small, everyone can hear Bev’s continued shit-talking and the show keeps in her worst moments, including a line inferring that Kween isn’t a lipsync assassin because anyone could’ve beat Aubrey Haive (who was seemingly her bestie when she was still there). She’s swinging punches wherever in hopes they land, but it’s very clear where it’s coming from. No wonder Kween is over it.

It’s a bit of a shame that this happens the episode that Kween is coming into her own in the show and as a presence. It feels like we’re only just beginning to meet her, and I’d see why audiences might see this episode and think, “oh, so she’s a bully”. But – and I’m jumping ahead here, sorry — the next day conversation between the two in the werkroom really establishes that Kween’s just sticking up for herself.

There’s a lot of talk about who is and isn’t projecting onto the other, but Bev keeps repeating that she was surprised to see Kween shy away from this “maternal” figure she’s been so far in the competition. I get it: someone seems ‘gentle’, then you poke them a little too much and learn that that kindness doesn’t mean they’re a pushover. Jarring, especially when you thought ‘surely this queen wouldn’t come for me’! But boxing Kween into a placid, ‘maternal’ role reminds me a lot of The Vixen’s conversations with Aquaria during S10 over how her white tears turn The Vixen into an aggressor.

There’s a lack of thought over why Kween, a large Pasifika man, might present as ‘gentle’ and kind to the wider world. The point isn’t laboured by the show (and I’m not calling on you to demonise Bev for it, either), but it’s there. It also throws Kween while she’s doing her makeup, and all of a sudden she has to deal with the emotional weight of someone else’s projection onto her. Last week I wrote about Kween being a little stiff on the show, and she loosens up heaps this week, but we see the risk that comes with that.

While she’s not the only queen of colour this season, it’s clear Kween went onto the show with a weight of responsibility to outshine the racism of S1, and has handled these discussions (ie. with Hannah, or in her roast) with a lot of nuance and consideration. Bev isn’t turned into a ‘villain’ by the show either, which I think is on Kween rather than the edit, as show makes it very evident that Bev’s actions have very little to do with her. Ironically, tough love is also true maternal care, and in calling her out, Kween helped Bev move forward: hopefully, after getting good feedback this week, Bev can enter the next challenge with a bit more confidence.

Oh Yeah, The Challenge

It’s clear from the get-go that the winning group is the Broke Ass Bitchez, AKA Kween, Hannah and Spankie. There’s a lot of chat around the importance of “chemistry”, and while we see the BABz laugh and have fun, the ‘Hung Divas’ are mostly stressed, frustrated and stink-faced.

Both groups get the same track, ‘Bosom Buddies’, and when it comes to the performance, both groups do a solid job. It’s clear BABZ are winning, but the Divas keep up. In Untucked, Bev is convinced no-one’s landing in the bottom, but Molly and the dance-challenged Yuri know they didn’t shine as brightly. I have nothing else to say about the performances: they were good, but they were also the least interesting part of the episode.

This week’s runway is about belts, buckles and chains. Spankie’s outfit doesn’t fit because she’s lost weight in the competition, the same issue behind Minnie’s nip-slip dress a few weeks back. What are they feeding (or not feeding) these girls?

It’s a triple-win this episode, with Hannah, Kween and Spankie all taking home $2,000 and a year’s worth of tights. That means Bev is the only one in the competition without a win, and Hannah on two and Spankie surging ahead with three wins. I would LOVE Spankie to take home the whole thing, but Kween really nails the natural product integration with Samsung this episode and gets to be the main queen to video chat with Sophie Monk, so who’s to say? Molly and Yuri are our bottom two, and lip-sync to a remix of Tina Arena’s iconic ‘Chains’ — it seems like Yuri’s safe, but Molly gets to stay. Yuri is a highlight of the cast and it sucks to say bye to her, but I have a feeling she’ll really capitalise on this moment: we need more.

Next week, our top five (!!!) take on a branding challenge and film their own ads for …something… that the preview didn’t detail. Time shall reveal all.

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RuPaul’s Drag Race: Down Under streams on Stan in Australia, with new episodes each Saturday at 4pm AEST.

Jared Richards is Junkee‘s Drag Race recapper, and a freelancer who writes for NME, The Big Issue, The Guardian and more. He’s across the internet as @jrdjms