It’s time to create. “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” season 11 episode 2 is the design challenge, but not only that the lines are drawn in the sand with the “Most Valuable Queen” point selections. One queen spends most of the episode complaining, while others are suspicious of people’s motives. Oh, it’s a very entertaining episode, folks.
Spoilers ahead!
The Strategizing Has Begun
Bracket 1’s queens (Lucky Starzzz, A’keria C. Davenport, Dawn, Morphine Love Dion, Mystique Summers, and Morgan McMichaels) are proving to be a dynamic mix. Morphine is plucked and whined the entire episode. Mystique is friendly and Morgan is suspicious of that. There’s a lot to unpack in this one and the beef between Lucky and Morphine continues.
Let’s talk about episode 2’s highlights.
The Drama
Lucky does not honor the alliance that she and Morphine established and gives her point to Mystique. Like 5 minutes before that, Mystique was praising her and Morgan clocked that Mystique was strategizing to get points and it looks like she was right. A’keria gives her point to Morphine and gives her credit for the choreography. Mystique gives her point to Lucky and Morphine gives her point to A’keria, so at this point no one is honoring their ep. 1 alliances.
Girl, Morphine is madder than a wet hen in this episode. She calls out Lucky for not giving her the point according to their “alliance.” She felt entitled to everyone’s point, actually, because she choreographed their group. Her and Lucky go at it a few times in the episode, though it always stayed at a lower heat level. Lucky seems amused by Morphine’s increasing annoyance with her.
Meanwhile, Morgan is weirdly stuck on Mystique and Lucky’s quickly formed bond. She smells bullshit apparently and thinks Mystique is strategizing for points. She may be right considering what happened with the points in the first round.
The Challenge
We get a mini challenge and it is delightfully stupid. The girls have to wiggle their way into a pair of granny panties without using their hands. Literally what is this goofy ass challenge? It’s apparently impossible to pull panties on without hands and none of them win. Ru still gives them all a participation prize of $500, which is mighty kind of her.
The main challenge is a design challenge based around iconic gay bar styles: leather bar, tropical bar, piano bar, country western bar, kitschy bar (like Hamburger Mary’s) and white party theme. Morgan picks leather, A’keria picks white party, Mystique picks country western to redeem her season 2 elimination (clever), Dawn picks piano (even though Morphine told her she wanted it), Morphine is pissed but chooses tropical, which leaves kitsch for Lucky (makes sense, but not to her).
Morphine continues her complaining streak because she didn’t want the tropical theme as it feels cliché since she’s from Miami and Latina and blah blah blah. I love Morphine, but, sis, the whining is a bit much. Plus, the items she got were actually really cute, so it was all so silly.
The Runway
Category is: Bar Queen Couture and it was a mostly impressive showing. The girls were designing their asses off and even the “worst” of the bunch wasn’t even that bad, just anticlimactic compared to the other outfits.
- Dawn’s piano bar-inspired look is crazy, but in a good way. It’s very vampire elf royalty and the cane is a nice touch. Apparently it’s an ode to the penis with its shape! I definitely should’ve noticed that the first time around.
- A’keria’s white party-themed look is so opulent and fluffy. For someone who was struggling with the design in the beginning, she turned this out. It’s drag excellence 101.
- Mystique’s country western look is miles ahead of what she did her original season, but it’s underwhelming compared to the first two looks. However, the oversized clutch with the mini cowboy hat clasp is fucking fierce.
- Morgan’s leather bar look is Matrix dominatrix and incredibly well-made.
- Morphine’s tropical look is very vibrant, but almost junior-looking. Not a fan of the immense amount of pearls. My girl needs an editor.
- Lucky’s kitsch bar “party monster” look is insane, a visual feast. I can’t decide if I hate it or love it.
“It reminds me of something Joella wore,” Ru says about Dawn’s outfit. “How dare you?” This is such a funny callback and it had me screaming.
The Guest
Kate Hudson is the guest judge! Looking fantastic in a nautical look, Hudson was so thoughtful and kind with her feedback. She compared Morgan to her mother in “Death Becomes Her,” which is a fucking stellar compliment. Morgan was understandably taken aback and honored by the comment. You can always tell when a guest judge is a fan of the art of drag and Hudson seems like she’s a mega-fan.
The Winner
Dawn and A’keria are the top two all stars of the week! With the way the judges were absolutely drooling over A’keria’s look this is not surprising at all. I thought it was a toss-up between Dawn and Lucky, but Dawn’s craftsmanship won out over Lucky’s details.
Dawn and A’keria faced off against each other in the lip sync. They both did an admirable job, but A’keria’s moves just matched the song more. So she takes the win and with that designed outfit it was more than deserved. Dawn continues her lip sync losing streak.
The Untucking
“Untucked” has so far been mildly entertaining, like watching a raunchy puppet show. Here are my thoughts and highlights from the episode:
- Morphine’s annoyance, because of Michelle Visage’s critique about the abundant pearls, was amusing. She felt that Visage’s own personal opinion shouldn’t affect her score, but that’s literally the whole point of being a judge, silly.
- Lucky’s being friendly and complimentary to every queen. Mystique calls out her for promising different people her point. Lucky combats that notion saying she’s just saying what the girls “deserve.” Something about Lucky is rubbing these queens the wrong way. First Morphine, now Mystique.
- Hudson joins the girls in her absolutely gorgeous outfit. She asks about the beef between Lucky and Morphine, which is hilarious. They try to break it down for her and she basically just says squash it, because it’s not worth the energy and not what they’re here for. Wise words.
Final Thoughts
Who else is kind of crushing on Morgan McMichaels this season? I don’t know what is going on, but I am here for whatever is happening. Anyway, this season is hitting all the right notes so far, there’s genuine talent, some enticing drama, and laugh-out-loud moments like Ru killing a fly in front of Dawn. With Dawn pulling ahead as the frontrunner and A’keria staking her claim, the game is on now.
Season 11 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” and “Untucked” streams weekly on Fridays on Paramount+.
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