What’s the number one rule? Family matters most. That’s been a running background theme of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 18, but episode six really put the emphasis on it. That House of Dion reign just won’t let up!
Nothing’s Stronger Than Family
The strategizing was been upped to the nth degree. Jane Don’t is even more irritated, Ciara Myst is plotting to save her own ass, and the Dions? (Mia Starr included.) Laughing all the way to the bank.
Let’s break down the best parts of episode six.
The Drama
On a surface level, I can absolutely understand Ciara’s sheer, utter panic at needing to figure out who she is lip syncing against in the bottom. She desperately wants to stay in the competition, which is causing her to be so strategic and political about the voting that it’s turning a lot of her sisters off. Essentially leading a campaign against Discord Addams, ruffling Jane’s feathers, and pissing Athena off. (What doesn’t make Mama Dion mad though?)
The funniest part about all of it, is how honest Juicy Love Dion and Mia are about how they’re going to vote. Their focus is on family over everything. It’s also very hilarious that the week one girls were openly strategizing and hadn’t seen a single performance yet; so diabolical, so camp. A lot of the episode is dedicated to the back-and-forth between the performers, trying to figure out who is voting how. Discord and Vita VonTesse Starr formed an emo/punk bond during the girl group challenge and have each other’s backs no matter what. Ciara and Nini Coco have conversations to protect one another. Juicy is honest with Discord about Ciara’s plan. It’s all so dramatic.
A different bit of drama also occurred this episode. Michelle Visage visited the girls to talk about the talent show and called out Kenya Pleaser specifically on making sure she knows the words to the lip sync. There’s nothing more important as a drag queen, Visage implored. Spoiler alert: Kenya did NOT heed the warning, infuriating me to no end.
The Looks
Category is: Shake Shake Shake; “a look that moves when you do.” A much better runway presentation than last week’s, but still a bit underwhelming. Some standouts include Myki Meeks’ rave girl look made out of zip ties (just a treat to look at), Athena’s alien-like, evil eye outfit, Discord’s CEO look with stacked money and blood on her hands (a commentary on billionaires), and Nini’s avant garde outfit, which reminded me of Comme des Garçons.
Everyone else was just okay or too simple or like what the fuck was going on with Darlene Mitchell’s makeup? The runway category was vague enough that they could’ve done anything, but it seems like half the cast was playing it safe.
The Talent
The second part of the talent show almost lived up to week one’s performances but not quite. Myki did my favorite number of the week: a Bride of Frankenstein striptease, which was the right amount of gore and glam. Athena was really hammering the Greek heritage home this episode, with an OPA!-filled number, and thank God, because it was a blast to watch.
Kenya barreled through with high energy that I was excited for, but that came crashing down when it became clear she didn’t know the lyrics of her own fucking song. Even RuPaul and Visage commented to each other about it on the panel. Her doing this AFTER Michelle already warned her is crazy. What is going on, Kenya? Feeling very “We were all rooting for you!” vibes with this queen right now.
Jane Don’t’s “Big Ass and a Bigger Mouth” performance was the right amount of raunchy and well-put-together. And lastly, Discord’s punk drag song making fun of drag songs was a great idea, but she came off kinda stiff and not very charismatic.
The Guest
Amy Taylor of Amyl and the Sniffers is another wasted-opportunity guest judge. She is incredibly silly and clever with her critiques. Her accent won me over immediately and I, once again, wish she was able to give her critiques directly instead of just to the other judges. I’m sure Discord would’ve LIVED for that.
The Winner and Loser
Rate-A-Queen rears its ugly head again when the queens of week one get to vote this time around. Mia and Kenya had a deal to put each other at number one and Mia honors that, which is likely what keeps Kenya out of the bottom where she should’ve been.
The top two are Jane and, shockingly, Athena Dion! Shoutout to Athena for finessing her family ties to her advantage. The House of Dion sweeps the lip sync for the win category, with Athena winning over Jane. Her reaction to being called the winner genuinely warmed my heart. I love grandma. The Seattle redhead is plucked that she lost against her elder.
The biggest shocker of the episode, however, is Myki and not Discord, ending up in the bottom having to lip sync against Ciara. My jaw actually dropped, because, as I already said, Myki’s performance and look were the best of the episode. Anyway, Ciara and Myki go head-to-head to “Toxic” by Britney Spears and Myki’s slinky, sensual performance won over Ciara’s white girl dancing. Her awkward little moment about “leaving with all her teeth” killed me. And for all that strategizing and plotting Ciara did, it came to absolutely nothing in the end.
Final Thoughts
This was a better episode than last week’s, but I still haven’t changed my mind about Rate-A-Queen, it’s a tiresome plot device and I would like it retired. It, however, provided some much-needed werk room levity and a deeper look into the queens’ personalities, so points for that.
Season 18 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” airs weekly on Fridays at 5/8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.
Rating:
Writer and editor