‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ S14E11 Recap: The LaLaPaRuza Experience

For the first time in Drag Race herstory, a queen paid tribute to MySpace crunkcore legends The Millionaires. Daya’s emo fringe with a raccoon-tail dye job was my personal winner of this week’s lip-sync LaLaPaRuza, closely followed by Willow Pill who served up possibly one of Drag Race‘s best lipsyncs… ever?

There’s little question in my mind about Willow winning S14 after this episode: Snatch Game aside, she continues to excel at every challenge she’s thrown and adds in a unique twist on top. Subtle but demanding all attention, her lip-sync to Luther Vandross’s ‘Never Too Much’ was sublime from the very first shake of her wig. I fucking love this queen so much!

While I think none of us were super thrilled about this episode’s existence (and Jasmine’s elimination proved they could have just sent her last week), this was a much more enjoyable smack-down than UKVTW‘s stretched-out finale, where the lip-syncs started 40min in. I’m beginning to feel on constant repeat (stream Crash!), but this is a talented cast (again, Snatch Game aside…): all of these lip-syncs were excellent, and almost all of them were 50/50 on who would win.

And fank fickle fate and fortune for the music budget, as I was worried we’d get all Ru songs like in AS4‘s equivalent, which tend to favour all-out dance numbers. The variation here was appreciated, as was letting queens chose their competitors and then having the competitor choose the songs: it felt less rigged, for one, and brought in a Survivor element without getting too UKVTW with things. Let’s get into it.

Please Welcome To The Stage, Noah Fence!

Before we dive in, we get 15 mins of set-up as the queens debrief after learning about this week’s lip-sync tournament, then get ready. Of course, Daya is pressed and essentially says “no offense, but Jasmine and Jorgeous should have been last week’s bottom two”: it’s a little rude, but we’re all thinking about it. (Actually I probably would have swapped Jorgeous for Willow, especially after seeing her lip-sync this week and knowing she would’ve stayed.)

No-one backs her up, though in Untucked Bosco admits she felt similarly but just didn’t voice it: it’s unnecessary for Daya to constantly trash talk, sure, but she’s just the kind of person who “speaks their mind” where other queens are being a bit more selective about sharing their feelings. It’s pretty clear Daya has a chip on her shoulder after being eliminated in her first episode, and it’s odd no one brings that up here when she complains about continual double-saves and non-eliminations — honestly, I think it’s possible they’ve all genuinely forgotten after filming for 100000 years.

Jasmine confronts her about saying “no offense” before saying mean comments, and it’s all perfect fodder for Jasmine to magically get first choice of lip-sync competitor on the main stage and pick Daya. Perfect TV — but despite Jasmine’s confidence, Daya connects to the track’s emotions more and really sells Aretha’s ‘Respect’ while Jasmine goes for a Kenya Michaels approach (though nowhere as laughably off).

It’s a repeating trend of the night, as Jasmine begins to get in her head and relies on stunts and big dance moves in songs that don’t call for it, which is why she goes home despite giving performances that would KILL in a club context.

Next up is Willow, who picks Bosco, the queen she thinks is most likely to pick Luther Vandross’ track: Willow is the Lisa Vanderpump of Drag Race, in that competing against her is like playing chess with Bobby Fischer (such an odd reference, Kyle…) AND her career is going to extend way beyond the show. The performance is masterful, I have nothing else to say. Bosco does a solid job, but just can’t compete, and her nerves continue to get the better of her for most of the night.

Then, a slightly unfair three-way lip-sync, where Jorgeous chooses (a very crunchy audio recording of) Beyoncé’s ‘Radio’ against Lady and Angeria. In any other context, there is no loser: here, Jorgeous wins, but it’s probably the tightest of the tournaments of the night. Then again, this episode we have the added commentary from the growing cabal of safe queens watching from the werkroom, who pretty much all agree Jorgeous killed it.

OOMFie Laurence Barber pointed out how nice it is to hear the queens react in-the-moment rather than in after-the-fact confessionals. I almost always defer to what drag queens think of drag performances because they have an innate understanding of the craft, and it’s clear that they all get how magnetic Jorgeous is on-stage. It’s beginning to feel like she might make it to the top four.

Round 2 + 3: The Betrivellment

For round two, Lady Camden gets to pick her competitor, and goes with Bosco, easily the most frazzled of the girls. Look at her face.

Despite being dressed as “Sonic’s pink bitch girlfriend”, Lady demolishes the slower En Vogue track, breaking out her dance moves in just the right way without overpowering the emotion of the track. Meanwhile, the cameraperson goes rogue and decides to earn that Emmy single-handedly.

Next up is Jasmine vs. Angeria, who are left with J-Lo’s ‘Love Don’t Cost A Thing’. It’s hard to say who wins, but Angeria arguably gives more emotion and is deemed safe – besides, it’d be absurd to send one of the show’s best competitors to the bottom instead of one of the most middling.

Down to Bosco and Jasmine, I got nervous, but Bosco puts all her energy and heart into ‘Swept Away’ by Diana Ross. I feel for these queens: not only is it a 5 and a half-minute track, but it’s their third lip-sync of a very long day of filming. Bosco is safe, and Jasmine sashsays without getting to say goodbye to the other queens as they’re all back-stage. It’s a bit sad even though it’s absolutely her time, but Jasmine continues to hold her head up high.

Every week, no matter the challenge or arguments with other contestants, Jasmine threw herself into everything with so much excitement and enthusiasm: she’s clearly just a very big fan of drag and Drag Race, and it was a joy to watch her even when she bombed challenges. She really endeared herself to me, and I can’t wait to see how she grows over time — on one level, she’s incredibly annoying as all 22-year-olds are (sorry!), but she’s also got a quiet emotional intelligence and maturity to her.

Next week, the top seven take on a Moulin Rusical with Lesley Jordan directing. Cute.

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RuPaul’s Drag Race S14 is available to stream in Australia on Stan, with episodes dropped each Saturday 3pm AEDT. 

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