‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ UKVTW E2 Recap: RuPaul Vs. The World Ball (Fracktastic Apocalypse Edition)

On the Kinsey scale, I guess I now fall somewhere between Mon of Finland’s leather daddy look & Jimbo’s Titane titties: I didn’t expect the ‘RuPaul ball’ to be a sexual awakening, but here we are.

This week, our queens of the world (but not the universe, that’s another show also starring Jujubee) had to create from scratch a look Ru herself would wear, as well as model two custom looks in tribute to RuPaul hits songs, “Kitty Girl” and “Butch Queen”. (The third category’s namesake “U Wear It Well” is a hit in my life.)

Last rucap, I said a sewing challenge was bad news for Baga, but it turns out she had a plan all along: simply refuse to do it and complain for long enough that another queen creates her look (thanks Pangina!). It won’t help with the (growing) view that she’s entitled and lazy, but it did help her skate through for the week — and it’s important queer representation, too, as making a fuss about a relatively easy task is an integral part of our culture and community. Plus, give her a break: she’s just learnt today that she won’t meet Lady Gaga at Academy Awards, as Gaga’s been snubbed of a chance to win a Baga trophy.

As of writing, the episode’s only been out a few hours, but already there’s quite a bit of hate for Baga online about her attitude — and while it does remind me of  of her nastier moments on UK1 (remember that makeover with her mum?), she’s also providing great TV & giving us a ‘villain’ for the series. (Thank God they showed a kinder side to Monique this episode alongside her catty comments: love the idea of Mo being a ‘villain’ on the show, but wasn’t looking forward to how the wider audience would react.) Have fun with it! Stop @’ing her! Go fuck someone! Maybe someone with motorcycle handlebars for tittie antlers?

Drop Me Out!

Blu remains one of the most surprisingly direct people I’ve ever seen on TV: every time I a thinking a question as a viewer, she goes and asks it, politeness be damned. Before they de-drag from last week, Blu asks Jimbo if she threw last week’s abysmal lip-sync, which she denies. (Later this episode, we get confirmation that Jimbo isn’t lying: her lip-sync this week doesn’t feature any falls, but it’s not much of an improvement.)

Then Monique sees it’s dragging time and goes in on Janey’s outfits from the talent show, calling it “not even drag brunch” but “first time in drag” — very funny, but completely oblivious to the obvious chasm of money between them. But would luck have it: a sewing challenge is the great equaliser.

Baga’s face drops when she learns about the ball, going on about how she’s too famous and rich to make her own looks. And then, with Cheryl cutting her hand on scissors 30 seconds in, it’s clear which two queens are the most… well, not nervous, as Baga is more bothered and annoyed than scared… but at-risk.

Both hope they can just coast through, as does Jujubee. While she’s not a seamstress, but Jujubee has always done fairly well in ball challenges, so it’s surprising to see her among the most nervous. I’m glad the judges later call her out on ‘not arriving’ in the competition yet, as she’s been a little muted so far.

I think she would have filmed this and Queens Of The Universe back-to-back, so maybe it’s just exhaustion. Or, from the outfits we’ve seen so far, maybe Juju jumped at the opportunity to do the show and then, once it was all locked in, realised she didn’t really have the energy to prepare. This is truly fan-fiction levels of speculation, though. It’s a bit pointless to guess why Juju isn’t quite present yet in the challenges, and we might get a tearful breakthrough later on, now it’s been signposted in the show itself.

We do see the Juju we love in the werkroom during some deeper conversations with a tearful Jimbo (elated he’s finally talked to RuPaul), and then with Blu & Cheryl, about managing their drag and gender identity with caring for their out-of-drag selves. Jujubee is such a sweet, funny person and performer: it’d be a bit of a dour note to end things if that didn’t pull through to the main stage (though that’s imagining that this is the end of Juju on Drag Race…) Meanwhile, Baga takes a nap while Ru does her werkroom table talks with the queens. May we all aspire to be so confident.

Baga aside, this episode is filled with sweet moments between queens. Monique helps Janey reconceptualise her disco outfit when she realises her fabric choice isn’t cutting it; Pangina helps Baga ‘finish off’ her dress; Jujubee provides emotional support to Blu & Cheryl; and Jimbo is very confident, and so spends most of the werkroom time asking the queens questions about their outfits as if he was Tim Gunn. Have I mentioned how much I love this cast?

Does The Word ‘Seamstress’ Exist Purely So We Don’t Call Them A ‘Sewer’?

Let’s go from best to worst of the night — according to me, not the judges, who completely snub Pangina for another win seemingly just to avoid a repeat of last week’s top two. But when it’s right, it’s right: yes, her final look is a little ‘unfinished’, but her kitten and butch Queen Elizabeth (!!) looks more than made up for the couple of inches that dress was missing. That kitten look is straight out of Björk’s Utopia: quite possibly one of my favourite Drag Race looks in years.

Jimbo absolutely kills it this episode, and is enjoying killing it too after he was pretty severely misunderstood by the judges on CDR. Maybe that’s why he teared up after bantering with Ru — it was validation that he does get ‘it’. And with that, she’s eating up every interaction on the main stage with the judges, from imitating Ru’s “silence!” to having a faux tantrum about losing the lip-sync. Sure, her ‘Ru’ look was mostly sold in the delivery, but it’s Jimbo’s world, and you can either suck at her teat or die.

While it’d be nice for a non-US queen to win, it’s hard to go past Monique. From the Luna/Sailor Moon cosplay (how did she pack that backing panel?) to having lipstick in her stuffed codpiece, it’s clear she’s called on every last favour for UKVTW. Like the judges say, the final look lacks fineness, but that drag king/Freddy Mercury-meets-Tom-of-Finland-meets-Grace-Jones runway was just astonishing.

It’s hard to be mad that Janey nabs a badge this week, as the rudemption is a joy to watch. I definitely like all three of her looks (#1 is maybe a little too CostumeBox.com-y), but this week was tough competition. Really glad she’s sticking around.

Blu is justifiably safe this week: shout out to the ‘Butch Queen’ travelling circus gender-bender look in the middle, but otherwise whatever.

Then comes Jujubee, Baga and Cheryl, who put through a solid argument for a bottom three this week instead of two, as each fail in their own way. Baga’s final look is only serviceable because of Pangina’s touch-ups; Cheryl simply can’t make a good look; and Jujubee barely tries in any of her three runways.

Jimbo and Janey are deemed the winners and have to choose between Juju & Cheryl, which is tough. Even at her most eh, it’s hard to send a legend like Juju home, but Baga is very, very lucky she wasn’t in the bottom this week as the queens easily could have sent her for being lazy. Unfortunately, the writing’s on the wall for Cheryl when the music starts, as a terrible Rumix of ‘Supermodel’ gives the queens nowhere to go but ‘basic bar number’, which isn’t Jimbo’s forté.

Janey nabs the badge and sends Chezza packing: I knew my prediction that Cheryl would win was mostly wishful thinking, but I thought she’d be around for a bit longer. But this is a tough competition! Next week, we get a Rusical, which could be Baga’s redemption — her rudemption on the show, at least.

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RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The Worlds is available to stream in Australia on Stan, with episodes dropping each Wednesday at 10am 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