Someone shake me or was episode four of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 18 not the best one of the season? Okay, sure, there’s only been a few episodes so far, but damn this episode had everything: girls ganging up on their sister, fainting spells (faked?), tears on the floor, mother-daughter drama, and so much more. The audience continues to be fed week after week.
Besties Face-Off
Mark this as the episode where I fell in love with Mia Starr. She’s been a good time so far but this was where she truly showed us who she is. Briar Blush gets rightfully schooled and Athena Dion is once again annoyed about something, but damn if she’s not excellent TV. Discord Addams’ walk is starting to become its own character at this point with how much screen time it gets.
Let’s break down the best parts of episode four.
The Drama
Folks, there was drama all up and through this episode. We learned about some tiff between Briar and Mia in last week’s “Untucked” episode, but it spills out into the main episode with Athena getting pulled in. Mia’s main frustration is the double standard she noticed: Briar frequently pushes other people’s boundaries and buttons (specifically Athena’s) but refuses to have a conversation when she is the one feeling slighted.
Athena revealed a lot of the bullshit that Briar spits at her, including saying Juicy Love Dion doesn’t stick up for her, which then pulls Juicy into the conflict. It was a crazy first few minutes of the episode. Briar and Mia make up a little bit later while they were getting ready for the runway, finding some common ground in their pasts.
Drama of a different kind struck when Briar was getting read to filth for her truly hideous mash-up outfit. She collapses on stage during critiques and had to get her vitals checked backstage. Vita VonTesse Starr, Mia and Athena both question whether this was a real thing or if she was faking it. Myki Meeks does not agree, she doesn’t think Briar would ever lie about that. It made for fantastic television, real or not.
The Looks
Category is: Red Carpet Mash-Ups and this was a very silly, but fun Project Runway-esque design challenge. Some mash-ups seemed like hideous concepts (Jennifer Lopez’s iconic Versace dress and Nicki Minaj’s leopard print Grammy outfit), but the girls, mostly, turned it out.
Juicy and Briar get Lil Nas X and Rihanna, a rough color combo that looks like a pink lemonade ad. Juicy’s outfit is much better than Briar’s ghastly fit, which the judges agreed with and chose her as the winner of the pair. Discord and Jane Don’t get Cher and Sarah Paulson. Jane’s is better because it incorporates more of both outfits and ultimately, Discord’s walk was too much to overcome. Jane wins the pair.
Myki and Nini Coco get the aforementioned J. Lo and Nicki Minaj mash-up, which Nini wins because hers was a lot prettier and simpler. Ciara Myst and Kenya Pleaser get a really fun mash-up with Lady Gaga’s iconic meat dress and Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake’s legendary denim looks. Ciara won the pair; her look was a little more clever and incorporated both outfits. Kenya still ate though.
Mia and Vita, who should be paired up a lot more, got Katy Perry and Lil’ Kim. Vita’s outfit was fucking stunning and blew everyone else out of the water. Mia’s wasn’t bad by any measure, however, Vita’s was just so much better, so she won the pair. Darlene Mitchell and Athena got stuck with an awful mash-up of Kim Kardashian and Zendaya. Both looked decent, but Athena’s looked more glamorous, like a futuristic spring muse, and she won the pair.
The Guest
Annaleigh Ashford is the guest judge and Law Roach is back! Ashford’s best moment was yelling about Mia’s bare titty-homage to Lil’ Kim during the judging. Overall, she was not the most memorable judge.
Roach always brings biting, thoughtful feedback, so it was only right he entered the season via this design challenge with one of his own clients as part of the mash-ups. He and Michelle Visage also had a back-and-forth about Briar’s shoes that made me cackle.
The Talent
The sheer talent that Vita has when creating her pieces, this latest one and the umbrella dress from the premiere episode, is so impressive. She is a wizard with construction, fit, and shape, knowing exactly where to put what rhinestone or bit of glitter. Jane has been in top every single damn episode so far, so the game, right now, is hers to lose.
One thing I will note, Juicy leans on the other queens a lot for help, asking Jane for design help in this episode, Myki helping her with ‘RDR Live’, and Jane wrote her lyrics in the girl group challenge, PLUS a bunch of queens stepping in to help her in the first design challenge. Juicy has yet to do a challenge without help from her fellow queens. That’s part of her talent right? Being so charming and cute your competitors can’t help but help you!
The Winner and Loser
From the six tops, Ru selects Jane, Vita, and Ciara as her top three and Vita wins the entire episode, with no lip sync shenanigans to keep her from what’s rightfully hers. (She definitely won the first design challenge, but lost the song.) Vita is a force when it comes to design, hopefully she can improve her acting and improv and we’ll likely see her in the top four.
Briar, Kenya, and Discord end up in the bottom, with Briar and Kenya lip syncing against each other. Kenya does great with stunts, splits and tricks, BUT NEITHER OF THEM KNOW THE LYRICS. This is now the third lip sync this season where at least one performer doesn’t know all the lyrics. What is going on? Are the girls having too much fun during “Untucked” to practice the words? Considering that is 75% of the season so far, I’m not optimistic about season 18 lip syncs anymore.
Anyway, Briar definitely got outshone in this lip sync and was eliminated. Farewell, prickly, poison princess, your drama will be missed. I really wanted her to go far! She was one of the most interesting queens of the season.
Final Thoughts
This was a wild ass episode, between blow-ups and medical emergencies. It’s been a really strong season so far, I think I say this every episode, but there really hasn’t been a dud yet. Aside from the lack of actual lip syncing happening, there’s not much to complain about. We’ll find out soon enough whether Briar was faking it or not.
Season 18 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” airs weekly on Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.
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