I liked The Vixen. She may have been a messy tangle of rough edges and hurt, but she is also intelligent and principled. And on a more shallow, lewk-based note—it sucks that this is the episode she went out on, because her runway was beautiful AND the perfect example of what a DIY, crafty-queen can do with hot glue,…

I think it’s more a drug thing. Remember in Bitch Perfect when they were discouraged from miming shooting up? I think there’s probably some unwritten TV rule that you can joke about drugs (hey, Sharon Needles), but you can’t do anything that suggests actually doing drugs. It doesn’t necessarily make a lot of sense,…

I disagree about lipsyncing not being a “talent.” It’s a performance and like any performance it can be crap, it can be transcendent, or it can fall somewhere in the vast middle ground. And the queens who are great lipsync performers have a real skill.

This has been the season of ill-advised air instruments.

I wonder if that wasn’t just some bullshit Eureka came up with to save face. It’s ridiculous.

That was my thought too. Kameron looks great, but seems either really shy or really dull, which is why we haven’t seen much of her.

Overall, it was a great runway. Asia’s Tweety Bird was adorable in an unexpected way and I really liked The Vixen’s peacock look. It maybe wasn’t as impactful standing still as some of the others (like Kameron’s stunner), but she worked it to great effect.

Mayhem’s lipsync was truly impressive. I imagine Courtney Love would be a challenge for most queens to make work, but Mayhem not only worked it, she made it make sense.

I thought it was too early at first too, but I’m looking forward to a look-heavy episode while we still have most of the queens. So often the runway gets shortchanged, but the queens are still expected to pull out an impressive look. I am excited to see some more of the process that goes into pulling off one of those…

Ahh, even grosser than I remember them...

I swear I heard they were making a pilot for a show like that. Or possibly just Alyssa talking about doing a show around her studio? I think it would be delightful, but I also suspect they’d hesitate to try a show starring Alyssa in which she wasn’t always in drag.

I didn’t mind the Pharmarusical (although now that you mention Valley of the Dolls I’m sad we didn’t get something more like that), but pulling out the “your best drag” runway at this point doesn’t make sense. I’m hoping for a “your best drag bodysuit” next season though.

I guess they were both going for a sad brow, but I never would have clocked them as obviously similar looks.

I loved the mini-challenge! I actually think both challenges were a great way to start a season. Right at the start we get a sense of everyone’s performance skills, creativity, and resourcefulness.

I couldn’t believe Monique Heart was only safe, but I wonder if in real life the bottom of her outfit just didn’t make as much of an impact as the brilliance of her look from the collar up. Still a great look.

For all the exciting new trajectories for drag these past several years, there’s still life left to be had, and lessons to be learned from the traditions and history of the artform; and nobody embodies that among these top four better than Kennedy.

Morgan is definitely the one who will benefit more from coming back. Aja was impressive af this season and everyone KNOWS she was impressive af. It was probably never in the cards for her to win the competition, but she’s already achieved the real prize of proving her talent and building a broader fanbase. As both an…

I feel like it has to be Shangela. Maybe Trixie—but Shangela’s persona as a drag queen has developed with Drag Race, whereas Trixie has been largely defined by how she excels outside of Drag Race.

I was so excited for an Andy Warhol Ball, but it really did fall flat. They could have kept the can and the disco look, but I feel like it would have made more sense overall if there was something in between those two. Maybe a Factory superstar look or something? The mini-challenge was definitely inspired by that…

Well, this is not encouraging. :-(