By large, drag prefers clubbier, dancier, poppier tracks, certainly. But this show has given great stead to there being a deep catalogue of unexpected pulls from country, jazz, rock, folk, soul, and beyond.

I just realized that Aquaria’s St Sebastian-cum-wounded bird look (which I really enjoyed actually) makes her self-imposed martyrdom in Untucked even more poetic.

I’m actually not that shocked. CK’s always been good for some controversial campaign. Don’t forget the Brooke Shields bordering on teen porn campaign from the early 80's.

I love how disturbing those ads were – and that Ru clearly had those as the inspiration.

The mini-challenge was actually referencing this series of ads:

Sorry I missed y’alls last week. But here, have a serving of Random ‘pinions:

I really appreciated that the untucked had Vixen calling a spade a spade re: the way she & Aqua will be viewed from a optics standpoint and that she flat out refused to back down to be more palatable. It reminds me of a recent-ish article Slate did on the topic of race & the drag race community.

It’s like the early seasons, where they had to turn shit out! I’m living for it!

Were you also waiting for Aquaria to scream “I feel very attacked right now??” Because I was.

Damn, this was a great runway, wasn’t it? Even the weakest look, Yuhua’s, was still really beautiful.

She definitely should have been in the top two based on talent alone, but unfortunately that’s not how the show works.

A couple of the queens have spilled T in interviews and podcasts that “Best Drag” isn’t actually the brief they were given for this week’s runway — they were apparently told the theme was “Signature Look”, not “Best Drag”. I can entirely believe that, for several reasons: apparently more than one queen has said the…

That is my favorite kind of celebrity guest judge. the ones who are having fun but take their critiques seriously. Vanessa Williams was good with that too in AS3.

It was great to see Alyssa in her element. I never had had a problem with Todrick, but I’d be happy to have Alyssa back for every dance challenge. She had the Alyssa-isms and useful feedback.

Alyssa isn’t a good actor in more conventional terms but she does have a good understanding of the completely over-the-top acting style needed for these Drag Race sketches

Yeah, Padma was great - as you say, critical but valid comments.

I was LIVING for when the judges were laughing at Ross’s joke all the while during Eureka’s misery on stage.

Another stray observation, VH1 Untucked edits out when the queens inhale from the cigarettes. They show them holding it, they show them bringing it up to their mouth, then they cut away just as they inhale, and…

Coco made it as far as she did because she’s a monster at the LSFYL. Alexis Michelle... yeah I’m with you on that one.

As far as the Vixen vs Aquaria I’m team both of them can shut up now. But Aquaria more so

After needing the extra 20 minutes in the premiere to introduce the queens, this episode was where I really started to feel the extra time in a good way. We got a bunch of workroom drama, a full runway, even the mediocre lip-sync got some breathing room.