‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ S14E13 Recap: The Light And Super Short Searing Of Ross Mathews
Bosco makes 'Drag Race' herstory by making the first actually funny bottoming jokes.
We never thought this day would arrive, but thanks to this week’s double elimination, we’re at the top five. Maybe Bosco really got to Ru: it was edited out, but Bosco said that when unwrapping the golden bar last week, she screamed “this season will never end!”.
The double-elimination was a little harsh, but it’s hard to really feel like either Jorgeous or DeJa were robbed given it was obvious they were the next outs.
DeJa flatlined during this week’s roast of Ross Mathews, and I’m not sure if we’ve ever seen a queen quite so defeated as Jorjor wel, who all episode seemed one step away from writing her name on her lipstick and running home. Can you blame her? Week after week, Jorgeous has been told she’s born to do drag but continually winds up in the bottom: what the judges and Ru see in her is apparent, but she’s just not quite ready to wield that star power the way Drag Race requires.
DeJa, meanwhile, cemented her spot in the bottom long before her roast. No queen could survive giving Ru a nose ‘contour’ like the one she painted for this week’s mural mini-challenge.
Instant elimination.
I will say this in DeJa’s defence, as she’s the queen I’ve been harshest on across the recaps: she entered every episode with enthusiasm and positive energy, ready to lift up the other queens whenever they felt down. True to her word, she laughed at every roast joke this challenge no matter how cringe — I may not personally completely ‘get’ her drag or who she is as an artist, but she’s clearly a lovely person and meant a lot to her fellow queens. May we all be thought of so fondly.
“Ross Isn’t A Top, He’s A Blouse” – Bosco Makes Drag Race Herstory With The First Funny ‘Bottom’ Joke
Off the bat, Jorgeous is done. She’s tired, frustrated and off it, viewing each challenge as a terrifying obstacle to stumble through before lip-syncing. She’s fading, and while she tries her hardest to tap into her natural shine (and almost does), the exhaustion seeps through all episode: in Untucked, she says she was ready to cry as she was walking on stage for the roast. There are only so many times you can survive a lipsync without letting it get to you.
Jorgeous tries to sell the whole “ugh with Bosco staying it means there’s still one more queen to beat” narrative in her confessionals, but you can tell her heart’s not in it.
Before the roast gets a-cookin’, we start with an ad for a makeup palette and an acting challenge, as the queens act betrivelled and ecstatic to see Norvina walk into the room. The queens colour in giant canvases of Dolly and Ru, in tribute to a Texas mural — after DeJa destroys Ru’s nose and her team decides to give Ru wooden teeth, the win goes to #TeamDolly, meaning Bosco, Willow, Daya and Lady get to decide the running order for the roast.
Eager to avoid another spat, Bosco and Lady nominate themselves in the first and last slots, respectively. Lady decides to embrace the risk rather than play it safe in the middle, which I really admire. Lady’s really had a quiet growth across the season, and deserves her spot in the top five.
Pictured: Camden’s growth.
The queens test out their material with Michelle and guest judge Dulcé Sloan, a comedian from The Daily Show. Advice is pretty measured — they steer Jorgeous away from an accidental infanticide joke, help everyone deliver tighter punchlines and tell DeJa to drop a painful ‘bigfoot’ read abotu Daya. DeJa decides to say it anyway, which is truly bizarre; like she said in Untucked, Michelle and Dulcé almost seemed a little insulted that she ignored all their advice. Fair enough.
When it comes to the roast, we see around a minute of each queen — it feels super short, and by the time the queens do the rounds to get to Ross, we see just one or two jokes before they get off-stage. The pacing is super off, so even queens who seemingly do well (Bosco, Willow, Lady) never really get to settle on the stage thanks to the edit we see. The cynic in me thinks it was a way to hide that no-one did that well, but from what we saw, that doesn’t seem right. It’s a shame that the actual maxi challenge takes up just a little more time than the mini: I get that it’s hard to fit it all in, but I wish Drag Race released extended clips of the challenges on YouTube.
Okay I LOVE DeJa’s power clashing here.
Bosco is the clear stand-out, as her jokes continually go against the grain of what we expect from a roast challenge. She plays with obvious tropes — Ru’s old, Michelle’s a whore, Ross is a bottom — but makes them feel fresh. Calling Ru so old that he’s not vers, he’s a hunter and gatherer… Mwa.
In the middle of the pack are Angeria, who isn’t particularly witty but has enough presence and a few good jokes (“how you feeling Dulcé? Okay as hell?”) to be safe, and Daya, who makes the rookie mistake of starting her set talking about how nervous she is.
Very Violet Beauregarde.
She winds up in a bottom three lip-sync against DeJa and Jorgeous, which doesn’t quite make sense until Ru warns them that only one queen will stay. But before that, we get a tutu-themed runway AKA a Lady Camden runway — possibly the most obvious theme designed for one queen since S8’s roller skates runway let Robbie Turner destroy Cynthia.
TuTu, Beep Beep
Lady Camden has never looked so beautiful, dressed in a tutu paying homage to a hybrid of Natalie Portman films, Black Swan and Annihilation.
Eager eyes have wondered what on earth Bosco had planned for those blades in her werkstation, and I’m guessing none of us imagined a bloody ballerina. Have seen some people online criticise how ‘cheap’ this looks, but I really like it — it’s a shame Bosco hasn’t showcased more of her horror looks (then again, if Charity Kase’s feedback on UK3 is anything to go off, it’s maybe for the best).
Bosc-ouchies!
Angeria’s take on a tutu isn’t my favourite, but the neon green looks wonderful on her; Jorgeous put a leather jacket over a dress and called it a day; ‘pastel princess’ DeJa actually wears pastel colours for once, but it’s clear she didn’t have enough time pre-Drag Race to tailor her outfits (maybe she lost some weight prior to the show/during filming, which would make sense); Daya continues to provide interesting, punk-adjacent looks.
This didn’t quite speak to me but I love the colour.
Describing this as butch was very funny
Colour combo very reminiscent of S13 promo Ru, but that fit is too distracting.
Do I get it? No. Do I care? No.
But it’s Willow who wins out on the runway, in this ridiculous Cruella LaPore at the Opera look with oversized lips and a confusing, completely unique dress. She’s operating on another level, and while Bosco’s win this episode puts her as the ‘track record’ front-runner with three wins (though she also has three bottom placements, too), Willow remains the one to beat with only one win.
It’s hard to see anyone else taking it, especially given that Willow became not only the narrator this episode but the abirter of what was good and bad in confessionals: the show knows she knows drag, and Barrymore aside, hasn’t made a single misstep yet.
I would make a joke about her eyes being on the prize, but I don’t think she needs binoculars since the crown’s hovering above her head at this point.
But for now, it’s Bosco’s win, and Daya is stuffed in the bottom for a three-way lipsync alongside Jorgeous and DeJa. Ru warns the queens only one of them will be saved, and as soon as Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Good 4 U’ starts playing, it’s clear Daya is there just to make sure there’s a reason to send the other two home.
The song’s perfect for her pop-punk style; Jorgeous breaks out the same moves we’ve seen before which don’t suit the track before (arguably she knows this, and just wants to leave), and DeJa does fine but there’s a certain indignenty to making a 31-year-old queen lipsync to this song.
Unbelievably, we’re at the top five, where next week the girls tackle a music video (and verses?) for Ru’s track ‘Catwalk’. Then, I think, there’s just the reunion and the live finale?!
Fyi, my prediction for top four is Willow, Bosco, Lady and then either Daya or Angeria — where Angie once felt like a sure thing/Willow’s top competition, she’s been coasting for a while and a bad week could take her out. Let’s see.
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