Ladies, gentlemen, fellow humans, we are gathered here to honor the memory of the Dion dynasty that has completely been dismantled by RuPaul after their historic talent show sweep. Episode nine of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” was a roller coaster of emotions; it was deeply sad, enlightening, hilarious, awe-inspiring, and frustrating.
It’s a Hard Knock Life
It’s the Rusical, y’all! Another iconic, entertaining classic “Drag Race” main challenge that helps the queens showcase the best they can do in singing, dancing, and bringing the character to life. We also had some heart-wrenching moments with Athena Dion and Juicy Love Dion that might give this season an Emmy.
Let’s break down the best parts of episode nine.
The Drama
Everyone is gutted that Mia left and RuPaul’s critique of Juicy (WHO ARE YOU?) has got her in her head. We learn more about Juicy’s backstory and her drug addiction that Athena helped pull her out of. The more loving and sweet scenes we got between these two throughout the episode, the more a sense of foreboding crept over me. It was almost written on the wall that they’d be lip syncing against each other at the end of the episode.
On a smaller, less dramatic vibe, Nini Coco apparently is the queen of quick barbs, with her jabs to the girls every so often. She also is indecisive as fuck. I’m getting a sense that Nini hasn’t connected with her fellow sisters as much as others have. This obviously became a factor in Rate-A-Queen earlier on, but it really feels more apparent now.
The Looks
Category is: Beige Against the Machine (literally laughed out loud at this pun) and this might be the best runway of the season. Everyone turned it, for the most part. Myki Meeks looks real good in this pleather beige piece, but I wish the hair was different; this one looks like hair glued to a bald cap. Darlene Mitchell brought her best look of the season, the tweed houndstooth in beige is to die for, like a couture Scarecrow. Kenya Pleaser’s look is simpler but pretty like shaved white chocolate on top of dessert.
Juicy’s beige jellyfish-looking outfit is to die for. Athena’s wheat burlap look is so decadent and gorgeous. Unfortunately, I do not like Discord Addam’s dress, it looks like someone squirted bodily fluids on a hot dog bun. My apologies for the visual. Nini created her own look by dying denim so I liked it more than I did when she first walked out. And finally, Jane Don’t looked spectacular and opulent as fuck in a Mae West-inspired gown.
The Talent
Myki is THE TALENT. Her singing voice is astounding as we all came to discover in the recording session with Leland. Juicy got to show off her chops in front of guest choreographer, Carlos Basquiat. But the real meaty stuff was in the Rusical itself. The judges had to split hairs here because everyone really did good.
Myki led the show as Fannie and Darlene as her dog and set the bar almost too high. Everyone managed to level up though. Kenya and Juicy’s ballroom champions characters honestly were my favorite part. They knew what they were doing and looked like they were having fun the entire time. Jane was another standout in this group, she played a drunk old hag wonderfully.
The Guest
The guest judge this week is Benny Blanco, acclaimed producer and Selena Gomez’s husband with dirty feet. He gave the performers surprisingly sweet critiques. He told Myki she should really pursue singing as a career and complimented her ass, which is a 10/10 compliment.
The Winner and Loser
Ru commended the queens and said both the Rusical and the runway were fantastic this week, which means she must be really pleased if she called that out specifically. Once again, I disagree with the winner of the week. It goes to Jane, but it should’ve been Myki’s win. I blame her wig.
More foreshadowing occurred during the critiques when Juicy and Athena got the worst critiques from the judges. Lo and behold, guess who ends up lip syncing against each other? Yep, it’s the grandmother/mother-daughter lip sync that was foreseen from the minute the cast dropped months ago. I have to assume that the Dions also knew this would be happening when they both got casted on the same season. It was inevitable if they both didn’t crush the competition.
This was one of the saddest lip syncs I have seen in awhile and not because it was bad, but because it was emotional. Juicy clearly doesn’t want to beat her mother in a lip sync and by the end, they come together and sob, bringing almost the entire room to tears. With Athena not knowing the lyrics as well, Juicy sneaks another win; taking out her mom in the process.
Final Thoughts
This was a truly heartbreaking, but beautiful and hilarious episode of “Drag Race.” Episodes like this remind me why I love this show so much. A well-casted season with good storylines and charismatic queens that you grow to love is always going to end up with an episode like this one: an emotional fanfare with talent bubbling all over..
Season 18 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” airs weekly on Fridays at 5/8 p.m. PT/ET on MTV.
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Writer and editor